Community: Interviews

The field of user experience is growing. More companies than ever now understand the importance of UX design. However, UX designers still sometimes struggle because they’re working in a vacuum and building products that have features users neither want nor need. Solid user research is vital for UX designers to understand what users really want and need, as well as to ensure companies build products that satisfy the needs of users and shareholders alike.

I recently had a conversation with Sarah Doody about why user research is so important, how to approach it, and how to integrate research results into product designs. Sarah, who appears in Figure 1, is a UX designer and entrepreneur who is enthusiastic about helping other people learn to think like designers. She is the publisher of the popular weekly newsletter The UX Notebook—which has nearly 10,000 subscribers—and has created free UX resources, videos, and online courses on user research and building a UX portfolio, which are available from her Web site. Read More

As a result of the rapid evolution of technological products and services, a growing population of older adults is now facing the challenges of learning new, advanced technologies. How should product organizations tackle this challenge? How can designers and developers reduce or eliminate age-related design issues?

To get answers to these questions and more, I turned to Jeff Johnson and Kate Finn, coauthors of the book Designing User Interfaces for an Aging Population: Towards Universal Design. We discussed inclusivity and guidelines for designing for older adults. In this interview, Jeff and Kate offer their knowledge and expertise on how we can successfully design digital products and services that provide congenial user interactions for everyone, including the aging population. Read More

There are a few online resources that I use to keep up to speed with what’s happening in the world—or to help me get new ideas for design. One of these is the Coding Horror blog, where Jeff Atwood talks about programming and human factors. Another is my go-to site for asking and answering questions about user experience: the UX Stack Exchange, one of the many Stack Exchange Q&A sites. I was delighted when Jeff Atwood, the man behind both of these sites, agreed to do an interview for UXmatters.

Peter: Jeff, thanks for your time today. Could we start with a brief history, up to your Stack Exchange days? Read More