Userfocus Usability Newsletter, December 2012

Welcome to the December edition of the Userfocus usability newsletter.

Message from the Editor

I spent many hours in November at 20,000 feet above ground — working in Singapore, India and the US. I’m not sure if the old cliché about travel broadening the mind is accurate, but looking out of airplane windows certainly made me consider the different perspective you get when you take a bird’s eye view. This month’s article by Philip Hodgson achieves the same goal, and if you work with marketing teams, or work in marketing, you’ll see how taking a big picture view will make you, and your organization, more effective.

Finally, I'd like to wish you the complements of the season and I hope you have a peaceful and prosperous new year.

David Travis

Feature article: Building a bridge between marketing and usability

To be an effective representative of both the user and the designer, and to help steer decision-making, usability practitioners must find a way to influence retailers of consumer products. That means building a new partnership with marketing. Read the article in full: Building a bridge between marketing and usability.

What we’re reading

Some interesting usability-related articles that got our attention over the last month:

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Usability Training: Now Booking

Make a New Year's resolution to improve your skills in user experience and attend one of these great courses…

How to carry out a usability expert review, Jan 16, London.

This seminar reveals the practitioner secrets behind expert reviews and will teach you how to think like a usability expert. More information about this training course: How to carry out a usability expert review.

Axure Essentials, Jan 28, London.

Learn how to use Axure to build wireframes and generate HTML prototypes. More information about this training course: Axure Essentials.

Advanced Prototyping with Axure, Jan 29, London.

Learn how to prototype rich internet applications (RIAs) and use the advanced features of Axure RP Pro. More information about this training course: Advanced Prototyping with Axure.

Prototyping mobile interfaces with Axure, Jan 30, London.

Learn how to prototype mobile applications with Axure RP Pro. More information about this training course: Prototyping mobile interfaces with Axure.

Web Usability: An Introduction to User Experience, Feb 11-12, London.

This web usability training course will give you hands-on practice in all the key areas of usability, from identifying your customers through to usability testing your web site with them. More information about this training course: Web Usability: An Introduction to User Experience.

User Experience quotation of the month

“What people say, what people do, and what people say they do are entirely different things.” — Margaret Meade.

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