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”

• Square Launches, Aimed at SMB Payments

  
  Internet2Go - An Opus Research Advisory Service - — Authority: 135
  Theres lots of coverage of the launch of Square . The company basically offers merchant-account free credit card acceptance or P2P payments (via mobile device; iPhone now more platforms later). It reads card via a small plug-in device (magnetic strip reader) on the handset. Theres also an interesting built-in ...
  2 hours ago

• Nokia promises to take "Symbian user interface to a new level" in 2010, Maemo 6 in

  
  Engadget — Authority: 855
  Its Nokia Capital Market Day again which means that the boys from Espoo are fawning over investors and giving them a reason to stick around in 2010. And you know what? It sure sounds promising for gadget nerds. Why the optimism? Easy: Nokia is hell-bent on redefining the user experience of its Symbian devices. To ...
  3 hours ago

• Nokia promises to take "Symbian user interface to a new level" in 2010, we hope they’re right

  
  F-Default — Authority: 468
    It’s Nokia Capital Market Day again which means that the boys from Espoo are fawning over investors and giving them a reason to stick around in 2010. And you know what? It sure sounds promising for gadget nerds. More here: Nokia promises to take "Symbian user interface to a new level" in 2010, we hope ...
  3 hours ago

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  eReleases Press Release Headlines — Authority: 535
  
  5 hours ago

• Sikbox - Live Search for you site

  
  6ix Passions — Authority: 136
  Sikbox - Live Search for you site : Well done.
  10 hours ago

• Square - Accept Payments. Everywhere.

  
  6ix Passions — Authority: 136
  Square - Accept Payments. Everywhere. : Read payment cards from any device with an audio input jack, including your mobile phone. Text and email receipts. Here’s an example of an electronic receipt: This could be the best idea I’ve seen in a while if this thing can fly.
  10 hours ago

• Calender entry generated from Workflow / Approval process

  
  Salesforce IdeaExchange — Authority: 134
  We NEED a way of creating a calender entry from an approval process. Considering you can create tasks, update fields etc it doesnt make sense not to be able create meetings as well.
  20 hours ago

• HTC’s user-centric approach to the HD2’S AD campaign

  
  I2fly — Authority: 113
  I am impressed with the way they’ve approached this ad. Well i feel it does an excellent job supporting the gestalt of their You campaign. Showing the phone’s view of you is a really simple way of showing how a mobile device fits intimately into all the different aspects of your life. “A mobile is a very ...
  21 hours ago

• Design GalleRIA- Showcase of the best Rich Internet Applications

  
  Theresa Neil — Authority: 104
  Check out Design GalleRIA - A design gallery and showcase of the best Rich Internet Applications. I add a couple of new ones each week. Please comment with your favorite RIAs (Ajax, Flex, Silverlight, Laszlo…). My goal is 100+ by the end of 2009!
  21 hours ago

• BillShrink

  
  One Day, One Job — Authority: 130
  We’re officially in the Christmas season, and that means lots of good things. One thing that isn’t so good is all of the spending that comes with buying people gifts (whether you enjoy the consumerist aspects of the holidays or not). It feels great to be generous, but only until you look at your credit card ...
  23 hours ago

• Y!s Top Mobile Queries: Megan, Movies, Mail

  
  Internet2Go - An Opus Research Advisory Service - — Authority: 135
  The top search terms lists are coming out. Among them, Yahoo! released its top mobile search queries of 2009: read more
  23 hours ago

• Our misguided focus on brand and user experience

  
  Putting people first — Authority: 135
  If there is a future for designers and marketers in big business, it lies not in brand, nor in “UX”, nor in any colorful way of framing total control over a consumer, such as “brand equity”, “brand loyalty”, the “end to end customer journey”, or “experience ownership”. It lies instead in ...
  1 day ago

• Four key principles of mobile user experience design

  
  Putting people first — Authority: 135
  In a long article on Boxes and Arrows, Dakota Reese Brown suggests an alternative view of the mobile space based on principles rather than isolated tactics. “Prior to becoming a senior UX designer at Popular Front Interactive, I spent two years as a mobile UX researcher within the Georgia Institute of ...
  1 day ago

• IDEA 2009: Social and experience design

  
  Putting people first — Authority: 135
  The IDEA Conference took place in Toronto on September 15-16, with a focus on social experience design. Boxes and Arrows, in collaboration with the IA Institute, brings recordings of most conference talks. Day one - The impact of social models – Luke Wroblewski - Social spaces online: lessons from radical ...
  1 day ago

• Designing the online shopping experience

  
  Putting people first — Authority: 135
  Two articles in UX Magazine look at ways of improving the retail user experience online: Mind the gap Which types of brands have the greatest opportunity to improve UX? A video-based look at online–offline experience gaps. by Dave Maren Designing superior shopping experiences Online shopping should be a ...
  1 day ago

• Why a Mental Map is Important for Architects to Understand

  
  Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman — Authority: 123
  Image: Miss_Colleen | Flickr As an architect, you probably spend much of your time designing and preparing for programmatic functions and the aesthetic beauty to be experienced by future building occupants . But, did you know that your design ultimately is “interpreted” into what is frequently called the ...
  1 day ago

• Survey: Developers Unhappy with Android Apps Performance

  
  Internet2Go - An Opus Research Advisory Service - — Authority: 135
  Skyhook Wireless, which supplies location positioning to chipmakers, mobile hardware OEMs and apps publishers, published (.pdf) the results of an October survey of 30 mobile app developers. This is a follow-up of sorts to an early 2009 developer survey by Skyhook that sought to assess developer interest levels in ...
  1 day ago

• Add a new standard Status field to Accounts & Contacts object

  
  Salesforce IdeaExchange — Authority: 134
  As a Consultant were often asked by clients "What is the best way to manage Contacts that move from one company to another?". We dont recommend deleting records nor do we recommend moving the Contact to the new Account because of the historical information. What we recommend is a Status (Active/Inactive)field. ...
  1 day ago

• Wireframing Freebie: 960 grid template for OmniGraffle

  
  Brian Cray's Blog — Authority: 394
  I’m a big fan of increasing efficiency and consistency from conceptual design to implementation. This OmniGraffle template has helped me quite a bit in that regard, and I decided to share it with others. Installation Download Website (960 grid).gtemplate OmniGraffle template (Apple OS X only) Move from ...
  1 day ago

• Do More with Less: Popsicle Arm Splint

  
  Zappos Blogs: Inside Zappos — Authority: 133
  Have you ever been hanging out around the house and accidentally bump your head, arm or wrist? I most certainly have, and it usually happens when you have a busy week ahead of you. It was the week before christmas of 2007, and I was walking from my bathroom to my room in the dark, and hit my nose on a closet door that ...
  2 days ago

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