My keynote from UX Cambridge 2014. My personal review of some of the problems we face communicating the value of user experience community today, a couple of practical, actionable tools, and suggestions as to how we can strengthen our community.
1. Describing the elephant
Moving beyond professional silos
Eric Reiss
@elreiss
UX Cambridge
September 10, 2014
Churchill College, Cambridge, UK
2. Caveat
I am not out to convince you to agree with me.
I want you to reevaluate what you do.
If you believe something,
know why you believe it.
3. My goals, your take-aways
I hope to dispell some myths:
UX is only something that happens on a screen
UX was invented in the ‘80s
UX can be accomplished by a team of one
I also want to:
Give you an actionable definition of UX
Provide tips that can help promote our
talents to the business community
33. us·er
noun
1: a person who makes use of a thing;
someone who uses or employs something
2: a person who uses something or
someone selfishly or unethically
3: a person who takes drugs
34. When would you use (simultaneously):
An ergonomic seat designed for one person
Optical lenses invented by Benjamin Franklin
Alcoholic mixture invented by Dr. Iain Marshall
Incandescent device invented by Thomas Edison
Fabric made on a loom invented by JM Jacquard
Rouge Royale (marble)
Baskerville Light (typography)
Domesticated mammal
(This is often how our clients look at their content)
35. When would you use (in simpler terms):
Armchair
Bifocal eyeglasses
Manhattan Cocktail
Lightbulb
Wool jumper
Tabletop
Book
Cat
(This is an easier way to look at content)
41. What do your users need?
What are the scenarios?
How many touchpoints are touched?
42. How can anyone truly be a “UX Designer”
without controlling all the touchpoints?
UX design certainly exists...
...but are there truly UX designers?
44. ex·per·i·ence
noun
1: having been affected by or learned
through observation or participation
2: the length of such participation
45. Eric’s 2nd Law of UX:
User experience is the sum of
a series of interactions between
people, devices, and events.
46. Eric’s 3rd Law of UX:
UX design represents the conscious
act of :
• coordinating interactions
we can control
• acknowledging interactions
we cannot control
• reducing negative interactions
47. Three types of interaction:
Active (things we control)
Passive (things we don’t control)
Secondary (things that have indirect influence)
55. UX involves all three interaction types
Coordinating interactions that we can control
Acknowledging interactions beyond our control
Reducing negative interactions