Aren’t Requirements and Specifications the SAME THING? (Tuesdays with Joe, Episode 06)
Here’s a question for you: Would you build a house without first knowing how many rooms it should have? Of course not. Here’s another: What would you do when, 3 months after construction starts, your spouse insists you need another bedroom? You’d be stuck, of course....
What do I ask users when my time with them is really short? (Tuesdays with Joe, Episode 05)
In a perfect world, you’d be able to spend a week or two with a large number of users, digging deep into their obstacles and challenges. In a perfect world, you’d have the time to examine every facet of use and the contexts they operate in, leaving no...
Aren’t Site Maps and IA Models really the same thing? (Tuesdays with Joe, Episode 04)
I’ve encountered an untold number of situations where, upon asking a project team to show me their planned Information Architecture (IA), they show me a Site Map instead. I politely point out that this isn’t an IA model. The team looks back at me,...
How do I convince managers that upfront UX is necessary? (Tuesdays with Joe, Episode 03)
This week’s question is one I hear from many of you, almost daily: How can I introduce the idea of upfront UX work and planning, in a way that my managers will actually consider it? We humans are naturally resistant to anything new. Whether it’s because we’re...
The Fast (and Easy) Way to Uncover User Needs
UX improvement for big sites and systems begs equally big questions. And in B2B or Enterprise environments, the level of complexity inherent in the tool and its use makes it hard to know where to start. What’s more, when it comes to figuring out user needs,...
