UX newsletter — December 2018Email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser. Message from the EditorHi {!email} It feels like it occupied most of 2018, but Philip Hodgson and I have finally completed our book, Think Like a UX Researcher. We had an army of UX researchers cheering us on from the sidelines and helping us make decisions on everything from the cover image to the content. As a thank you, we've put together some free bonus content for people who pre-order the book including a 35-minute video and a ready-to-run UX workshop. Please take a look if you have a sec! Achieving impact as a UX researcher often depends not on the tools you use but on the way you think. This month, I've written about a very specific thinking tool: the 2x2 diagram. I've found that this is a wonderful way to cut through complexity and help development teams focus on the most important dimensions of a problem. I hope you find it useful too. Since I won't be bothering your inbox again until 2019, I'd like to wish you all the best for Christmas and the new year. — David Travis Spend your end-of-year budget surplus with us!If you're in the happy but slightly awkward position of having money you need to spend before the end of the year, then we can help! We can invoice you now for user experience consulting or training that you take in 2019. Spend your budget surplus on half-a-day's consultancy through to a customised training program for your team. Contact me at david.travis@userfocus.co.uk for more information. 10 diagrams to help you think straight about UX ResearchSome of the problems we work on as UX researchers are simple and are easily solved by getting users in front of our product. But other problems can be complex and it's hard to know how to start solving them. In situations like that, a simple 2x2 diagram can cut through the "what ifs", the "how abouts" and the edge cases and provide a simple way of looking at the problem. Here are 10 examples of 2x2 diagrams to simplify UX research discussions. Read the article in full: 10 diagrams to help you think straight about UX Research. From our archives: 247 Web Usability GuidelinesAlthough designing usable systems requires far more than simply applying guidelines, guidelines can still make a significant contribution to usability by promoting consistency and good practice. This article contains a list of 247 guidelines we use for expert reviews in our consultancy work. You can also download the guidelines as an Excel workbook. Read the article in full: 247 Web Usability Guidelines. Review of the yearHere's a list of the articles we published in 2018 that you may have missed.
I hope you stay with us for another 12 months of wittering! What we’re readingSome interesting UX-related articles that got our attention over the last month:
Like these? Want more? View our posts on Twitter or Facebook. Upcoming UX training coursesFoundation Certificate in User Experience, Jan 15-17 2019, London.In this fun and hands-on training course, you'll practice all the key areas of UX — from interviewing your users through to prototyping and usability testing your designs — while you prepare for and take the BCS Foundation Certificate exam. View the full syllabus: Foundation Certificate in User Experience. User Research Fundamentals, Feb 18-22 2019, London.A 5-day immersion seminar that shows you how Government Digital Services (GDS) plan and carry out user research within Government. You'll practice interviewing and contextual research, carry out usability testing, explore the bigger picture of assisted digital and discover how to plan user research on agile projects. View the full syllabus: User Research Fundamentals. UX quotation of the month"The beginning is the most important part of the work." — Plato. Did I mention I'm writing a book?It's titled Think Like a UX Researcher and you can get free bonus content if you pre-order. Hungry for more?Want to receive your own copy of this newsletter?Join our community of people interested in user experience. Sent monthly. No spam. |