Kent State UXD Program:Reflective Journaling Week 2

   Based on the last few readings and the posts by a lot of people here in class I am getting a better appreciation of how important it is to know your audience.  What made me think about this was Sarah's example of the National Ballet of Canada Web Site, https://national.ballet.ca/Homepage .  

While the ballet web site did use certain pieces of technology for responsive design the focus was the large picture of two dancers and the tickets for Romeo and Juliet.   An argument could be made that it takes too long to find information on the web site and perhaps the web site's design team is working on this.   But the web site invites exploration and the use of the tiles with pictures is designed so well.  The site also offers at the top right side a way to easily browse important categories and to do a quick search.  

It may be true that new visitors to the site find it challenging to find certain things.  But the web site like any other site has to prioritize who are their main audiences, and what are the most important things they want people to find.  I believe this is where the business strategy component of Jaime Levy's book UX Strategy shows its value (Levy, 2005).  The decisions of a web site ultimately have to be driven by a business strategy and not strictly by a cool design.  The four components of a  Business Strategy, Killer UX, Validated User Research, and Value Innovation together make a UX Strategy. (Levy, 2015)


Levy, J. (2015). UX Strategy: How to Devise Innovative Digital Products that People Want. " O'Reilly Media, Inc.".

Kent State UXD Program:Reflective Journaling Week 1

One of the things that stuck with me from this week was the simple power of noticing or observation.  This was well presented in Tony Fadell's TED talk.  As a former IT professional I understand we can often start to think about solutions before we really focus and listen.  It is much easier and fun to immediately start thinking about a new design or a new solution.  The romantic notion of creating something and being innovative in your career is very seductive.  But I believe the profession of User Experience unlike many is a great example of a career that provides a service vs a specific product.  If you believe that you are providing a service to your customer or client then observation is probably one the most important skills you can build upon.