Column: Innovating UX Practice

As UX professionals, we have a great many analytical and descriptive tools available to us. In fact, there are so many that it can sometimes be difficult to decide which tool is most appropriate for a given task! Hierarchical task analysis (HTA) is an underused approach in user experience, but one you can easily apply when either modifying an existing design or creating a new design.

This technique has applications across a range of different problem domains, including time-and-motion studies, personnel selection, or training, and provides a broad and deep understanding of task performance. While there are core principles that guide a hierarchical task analysis, it’s possible to adapt the basic approach in a huge number of ways to support the needs of any domain under consideration. In this column, I’ll examine one approach to hierarchical task analysis that enables UX designers to quickly understand both what a system does and how its capabilities translate into the system’s user experience. You can also use this approach to support the UX development process. Read More

I recently attended the Eurogamer Expo, which gave me a chance to look at what was new in the world of gaming and play with some of the Cool New Stuff coming out over the next year. In addition to playing with the Xbox One—which was disappointing—and the PlayStation 4—which, though interesting, was underwhelming—I also had an opportunity to use the Oculus Rift virtual-reality headset. I like new, cool hardware. Occasionally, I’m disappointed—Leap Motion, I’m looking at you—but every so often I find a gem, and the Rift is one such.

A few gaming stands at the show featured the Oculus Rift headset. Most of these were high-definition headsets. But the queues were around an hour long, and while I am keen and dedicated, there were better things to do with my time. So I tried a standard-definition headset that a university was demoing. Read More

About six months ago, I left Facebook cold turkey. I had tried leaving it before, but always ended up going back. It wasn’t the not‑so‑subtle hints or wanting to see the pictures of all my friends—or at least people with whom I’d connected on Facebook—that drove me back, but fear of missing out (FOMO). What if something happened to someone, and I wasn’t aware of it? What if I thought of a witty one-liner and couldn’t share it immediately with a group of people, then bask in the adulation they would inevitably provide in response to my genius? What about that important political opinion about Trump or Brexit that I’d need to share among my fellow right‑thinking people?

You know what happened? Nothing. Nothing bad, at any rate.

Breaking Free of Addictive User Experiences

I had decided that the price I was paying for being on Facebook was too high. I’d get drawn into arguments and find myself getting annoyed and frustrated. Something is wrong on the Internet! I’d find myself checking my account far too frequently. There’s nothing inherently wrong with either of those things—except that they took time away from other, more important things that I felt I should be doing. I’d read an excellent piece about why one person left World of Warcraft. Read More