Started a New Blog Called Designerly!

Very excited to announce my new blog, Designerly. The content will focus on design methods, process, inspiration, ideas, and industry problems.

The first article focuses on why UX Matters, high-level methods, and who is directly affected by UX deliverables.

If you have questions, comments, or content ideas -- please share in the comments!

Think Accessibility: Personalize Your Site to Send the Right Message to Visitors with 5 Easy Tips

57 Million Americans have a disability (Internet Accessibility, 2017), and 54% of American adults with a disability use the web 
(Pew Internet Project).

1. Great Design NEEDS Great Code

A great design can make users ooh and ahh, if they can access it. Check out Google Web Standards or W3schools.org for tips on how to write good clean code.

Website: Ultimate Hearing Center

Website: StyleForDignity.com

Style for Dignity is a website built for dig·ni·ty events and fundraisers. The goal of the group is to raise funds and/or awareness for social justice issues. A list of the charitable entities and goals are listed on the website.

New Website: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Workiva Discussion

I’ve added the details of this document to BlackBoard so that we can continue the discussion and collaborate as a class if anyone is interested.

https://bb.its.iastate.edu/webapps/discussionboard/do/message?action=list_messages&forum_id=_202297_1&nav=discussion_board_entry&conf_id=_135610_1&course_id=_48122_1&message_id=_1886622_1#msg__1886622_1Id

Questions for discussion

These are my questions from the Week 4 Google Docs, in case they are not included in class maybe we can discuss them here?

• How big is your UX/UI team?
• Who do you consider your stakeholders and what kind of evaluation/testing do you do to ensure ongoing feedback?
• Is the iteractive container (computer buttons that expand) part of an open source frame work- is that polymer (https://www.workiva.com/content/wdesk-platform-b)?
• What considerations have your team made for 508 compliance and Accessibility testing? (not including performance, I did see it's SSAE 16 Type II compliant and looked at a couple of the case studies - https://www.workiva.com/customers/case-studies)

Reviewing Workiva's Website

• I noticed that their primary site is missing key components of accessibility compliance and web standards. I scheduled a demo, but doubt I will be able to do it before Friday's class. This may or may not reflect on the Workiva product line, but would be a consideration for me as a corporate client.
• The site is responsive
• The site is written on HTML5
• Uses http://ogp.me/ Open Graph Protocol
• I'm curious why they choose to use IE=Edge
• The site appears to use a framework
• They use Google Analytics on their main site, I wonder what kind of analytics they use for their products and how they integrate results.
• Built on Drupal
• Google Tag Manager Integration
• Using Clicktale

Other Topics for Discussion

Since we are on the topic of empathy in relation to UX, I found this article the other day  (Seung Chan Lim, 2014). It's a well written piece that starts off with a story that leads into scientific research and evaluation of empathy.

References

• Workiva (2016). Case Studies. https://www.workiva.com/customers/case-studies
• Seung Chan Lim (2014, Article No :1338 ). What is Empathy? UX Magazine. Accessed 2016. https://uxmag.com/articles/what-is-empathy
• Tutorials Point (2016). Software Development Lifecycle. http://www.tutorialspoint.com/sdlc/sdlc_overview.htm
• Wikipedia (2016). Software Development Lifecycle.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systems_development_life_cycle

Do you have any experience trying the same methods? If yes, describe a situation when you used a similar method and what were the results/outcome?

Do you have any experience trying the same methods? If yes, describe a situation when you used a similar method and what were the results/outcome?

Yes, I have experience using many of the methods mentioned in the week 3 presentation. In my work, I’m often required to create pattern libraries, flows, defensible criteria, and have many stakeholders to answer to. While I may use some of the methods differently from the presenters, I think they have a great start to integrating UX into ISU’s IT department.

What factors researchers must consider when planning a UX study?

What factors researchers must consider when planning a UX study?

When researchers are planning a UX study they must consider factors like budget, stakeholders, design/development/project management methodology, the timeline, stakeholder feedback, business need, business requirements, user needs, user feedback, availability of users for testing, legislation, restrictions, organizational policies, team members, training skill sets, existing knowledge base (analytics, past studies, known standards, an existing site), and criteria.

How UX can be measured/evaluated?

How UX can be measured/evaluated?

There are many ways the UX can be measured and evaluated. The presenters only mentioned a few tools and did not dive too deeply into their actual implementation, outside of the presented case studies. A few tools shown where card sorting, interviews, surveys, and analytics. The implementation of these tools is the key missing component of this presentation.

How do you see academia benefiting from UX? Do you perceive any changes in near future? Why?

How do you see academia benefiting from UX? Do you perceive any changes in near future? Why?

Many academic websites are extremely cumbersome, with lean budgets for design, and a high ratio of users. It is important that users are able to efficiently find and use applications for educational purposes, registration, activities (sports, clubs, band, career fairs), and to further promote the institution as a leader in their field.

Any company or organization with an online presence may have that online presence be their first impression to potential backers, future students, other institutions, grant foundations and leading organizations.

If a user has issues signing up for classes or registering because of poor UX, other resources may be wasted trying to help that student locate registration or the student may not believe in the quality of a program. For example, if a web design company promotes their services on a 2-3 page table website that is not responsive and has broken code that only works well on the IE7 browser, how confident would you be in giving them your business? This is an extreme example, but the same can be said for a site that is not user friendly or accessibility friendly. Think of how much more Harvard Review or Carnegie Mellon’s published articles and podcasts are promoted and easy to find than colleges like DMACC or the University of Phoenix. Is this because they are IVY League schools or because the school is also better at promoting important materials, simplifying usability, and optimizing content?

UX, with the right implementation, will give academia a better foot forward for education, branding, partnerships, accessibility, and search engine optimization.