Summer Projects for UX Designers
Summer is a necessary break from the rigors of class. I work full time while I teach, but I welcome the time to reflect on my experiences from the academic year. The time away from class offers opportunities to grow…
Denny Kim on Struggles Getting the First UX Job
Denny Kim and I met at Austin Community College in my Intro to UX course at first and later in UX Portfolio. He and I discuss his path to his day-to-day of designing for business to business interactions and dig…
Helping Non-Designers Understand Your Portfolio
Who will look at your portfolio and judge your work? A lot of students and designers new to their careers will assume that other designers will critique their decisions, and their talents should communicate the intent of their work. I…
Finding Hidden Complexities with Designing Tags
Today I want to talk to you about something that we see a lot in UI. We tend to not really look more deeply into what they truly are. Tags are often overlooked and full of hidden complexities. The reason…
Defining Customer Experience for UX Designers
I first heard about a Customer Experience professional was when the agency I was working for hired a Customer Experience Director. At the time, the industry was still trying to define User Experience. Names of roles were diverse like UX…
5 Reasons to Improve Your UX Presentation Skills
Improving my UX presentation skills has benefits that go beyond the actual presentation. I have found that the anxiety built up around talking in front of peers, stakeholders, and supervisors are just a small part compared to the potential positive…
5 Steps to Better User Interviews
Whether you are in the discovery phase of your project or testing your designs, you will need to do user interviews. These sessions are more than a conversation and require some level of skill and organization to keep the participant…
5 Must Haves for Testing Prototypes
Testing prototypes require more than just getting screens in front of people. I have had horror stories when I put prototypes in front of users but they just couldn't understand the content to even test. Eventually, I learned that it…
Designer Deep Dive into Communication Skills
Designers going into a corporate environment need to understand that their designs will not speak for themselves. They have to learn the communication skills to collaborate with team members. There are levels of communication that go deeper than verbal or…
Embracing Complexity in System Design
Embracing complexity brings anxiety for a lot of designers. We tend to strive for simplifying the experience for people using our products. This often puts us at odds with our developers and product owners. When I moved to enterprise software,…