user experience

From a design and development standpoint, user experience is the applied practice of making technology accessible. From an end-user's standpoint, user experience determines how well elements such as layout, graphics, feature hierarchy and navigation combine to make a technology usable and painless.

As with any design practice applied to technology, user experience is a blend of both science and art. While drawing on scientific principles from the fields of cognitive psychology and human computer interaction, the creation of a positive user experiences requires both empathy and aesthetic sensibilities.

As technology becomes increasingly complex, so does the application of good user experience practices become more vital. Apple's continued success in the marketplace serves as an example that success need not hinge on superior hardware, but on the ability to imbue complex technologies with positive, personally rewarding user experiences.

User experience is also a major factor in the blogging and social media spheres: as the quantity, variety and interconnectedness of information increases, so does the importance of good user experience design in making said information more easily accessible. As information sharing becomes increasingly commoditized, the user experience of an online service can become its key differentiator.

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Latest blogosphere posts tagged “user experience ”

• Finnish EHRs Clumsy, Mission Hostile, Consume Doctors Precious Time

  
  Health Care Renewal — Authority: 516
  It seems common wisdom in the U.S. that the "Europeans are way ahead of us" in computerized medicine. Perhaps the common wisdom is not so wise. This from Finland: HELSINGIN SANOMAT INTERNATIONAL EDITION - HOME Clumsy computer systems consume doctors’ time When Arto Virtanen, a doctor at a public health ...
  14 hours ago

• The Demise of SEO Wont Be Caused by Personalization

  
  The NMS Blog — Authority: 146
  Search engine optimization is evolving, not dead. Let’s forget about rankings and focus on traffic and its quality, and improve the user experience. …Source:The Demise of SEO Wont Be Caused by Personalization More about More about The NMS Blog s content. The NMS Blog s content. Click here ! Click here ! ...
  2 days ago

• Designing for social innovation: an interview with Ezio Manzini

  
  Putting people first — Authority: 430
  User experience strategist Steve Baty interviewed Ezio Manzini, Professor of Design at the Politecnico di Milano and one of the keynote speakers at Interaction 10 , about designing for social innovation and his work with the DESIS network. “Social innovation is a process of change where new ideas emerge from a ...
  3 days ago

• The fable of the user-centred designer

  
  Putting people first — Authority: 430
  David Travis has written a fable that “follows a young man’s journey as he discovers the three secrets of user-centred design”. “Many years ago, I read a book by Kenneth Blanchard & Spencer Johnson called The One Minute Manager . The book is an allegory about good versus bad management. It describes the ...
  3 days ago

• The future of magazines? an interactive experience on handheld digital devices.

  
  I2fly — Authority: 106
  This conceptual video is a corporate collaborative research project initiated by Bonnier R&D into the experience of reading magazines on handheld digital devices. It illustrates one possible vision for digital magazines in the near future. Quite interesting!! Read more vivek
  3 days ago

• Xbox 360 laptop

  
  Gadget News and Reviews — Authority: 464
  Just when you thought that they ran out of creative ideas for console modifications, along comes the Xbox 360 laptop that is adorned in red and black (sounds like Santas color scheme), featuring a giant X on the lids top while remaining true to the original console in most of all the other departments. Unfortunately, ...
  4 days ago

• Easy and Effective ClickMap Wordpress Plugin: WP-Clickmap

  
  ChurchCrunch — Authority: 553
  This is one of the neatest and most-easy to use Clickmap’s that I’ve come across! WP-Clickmap is a simple and extremely useful tool and Wordpress Plugin to help you understand the click-patterns of your users so that you can better enhance the user experience. I tried it out on my personal blog and it ...
  4 days ago

• Using great visuals = Failing your customers

  
  ComMetrics: social media monitoring => best practice — Authority: 114
  A week ago we brought you three reasons why A/B testing fails in web design , including but not limited to: 1. The 30 percent rule . 2. Designers do not automatically know what clients crave . 3. The US is not the world – LOL (laughing out loud). Below we share how this was applied to one of our own websites ...
  5 days ago

• Best Buy: User Experience Fail.

  
  Walk a mile in my underpants — Authority: 103
  Today, while searching on the Internet, I found a magic iPhone transmitter thingy that claims that it will play my iPhone music on the car stereo, using tiny invisible radio waves.This is a device that I need.I searched some more and discovered the lowest price for the magic transmitter on BestBuy.com. Best Buy was ...
  5 days ago

• ChaCha Raises $7 Million More

  
  Internet2Go - An Opus Research Advisory Service - — Authority: 135
  TechCrunch points to an SEC filing that shows ChaCha as having raised another $7 million. The "mobile answers" service recently sought to diversify its model, which is SMS advertising, with coupons . Apparently the coupon effort, right now limited to ChaChas home market of Indiana has been popular. read more
  5 days ago

• WTF Is Google Doing with Nexus One?

  
  Internet2Go - An Opus Research Advisory Service - — Authority: 135
  Bar none the Nexus One (made by HTC but branded Google) is the best Android handset on the market. It ends Droids claims about speed and power. I had a chance to play with it last week for about five minutes. Here were my quick takeaways: read more
  5 days ago

• Apple Not Nokias Only EU Challenger: RIM Ascending

  
  Internet2Go - An Opus Research Advisory Service - — Authority: 135
  Im always surprised a bit by RIMs success; the company sold 10 million devices in Q3 (37% growth outside the US). Im not a BlackBerry user and so Ive never fallen under the spell of the device. Others around me however love them. But lets be frank, most RIM devices are not optimal for the Internet -- not yet at ...
  5 days ago

• User Experience Consultant / Designer

  
  Headshift blog — Authority: 124
  We are seeking an experienced UX consultant/designer. You should becomfortable adapting initial business requirements into researchand workshops aimed at stakeholders and end-users. The results fromthis work will guide a user-centred design solution. You should becomfortable facilitating research and workshops. You ...
  5 days ago

• OOo has the holiday spirit all year round

  
  GullFOSS — Authority: 419
  Everyone loves receiving presents, especially presents which are useful. Likewise, giving presents to others feels wonderful. An important part of the holidays is the spirit of giving. This is where OOo fits in: Not only is the OpenOffice.org office suite a great present to the world, but giving and receiving is also ...
  5 days ago

• eBay China introduces new user landing page

  
  User-Centered Design - Kelikuru.com — Authority: 109
  B2C site operator eBay China  may be crippled but definitely fighting very hard to widen its market shares in mainland China by taking users experience into account.The company’s latest campaign to power up its promotion to new users is encouraging from user point of view. The effort to differentiate old users ...
  6 days ago

• 6 Ways to Stop Your Customer Experience Going All Wrong.

  
  Man with no Blog — Authority: 106
  Interestingly recently I had a very bad experience booking some accommodation. Out of anything that bad, can come some good.  It seems that sometimes we are just loosing sight of the fact that customer (experience) service  is in many cases more important than the products we are selling.   So I have put together ...
  6 days ago

• 2009 Recap: My Faves, Posts & Presos

  
  Jonathan Mendez's Blog — Authority: 106
  "A friend is one before whom I may think aloud." - Emerson 2009 was an amazing year of discovery for me and I tried to share as much of that here as I could. This year also presented a sea change in my writing because I started using a new communications platform, Twitter (you can follow me here ). Many ideas that ...
  6 days ago

• Tuesday’s Tip: 10 Cloud and SaaS Apps Strategies For 2010

  
  A Software Insider's Point of View — Authority: 514
  Keep In Mind Basic Rules Still Apply Regardless Of Deployment Option The proliferation of SaaS solutions provides organizations with a myriad of sorely needed point and disruptive solutions.  Good news - business users can rapidly procure and deploy, while innovating with minimal budget and IT team ...
  6 days ago

• Portigal Consulting year in review, 2009

  
  All This ChittahChattah — Authority: 498
  It’s been a busy year and as we head into the home stretch, looking forward to 2010 (supposedly the year we make contact), we wanted to take a look back at the past 12 months and call out some of the highlights. Our blog, All This ChittahChattah, turned 8 We conducted our own study ( Reading Ahead ) about the ...
  6 days ago

• Digital magazines, Bonnier Mag+ and Time Inc

  
  Sharpenr — Authority: 106
  Lately my professional mind has been occupied with the concept of “digital magazines”. My thoughts have mainly centered on expectation, perception and user experience as they relate to the content we’ll all soon consume through miscellaneous single or multipurpose screens like tablets and pads. To a lesser ...
  6 days ago

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