Boston MiniUPA Conference Redux – May, 2011

Well, first off, there is no way they can call this the “Mini Conference” anymore with 600 people in attendance this year. What fantastic numbers! Chris Hass, in his opening, even joked about a contest for new names—and I think he was only half joking. Even the new...

I’m in the user’s shoes, now what?

How finding an empathetically user-centered perspective on design builds innovation Many of us talk about being user-centered, and most of us want to be user-centered designers. But what does that really mean? And how do you take the understanding you gain from user...

Being cool isn’t always about being Apple

Everyone talks about the iPhone, Facebook, and Twitter all the time. We all know they are great and cool, and they deserve their accolades. What about the multitudes of others out there, though? Those less frequently praised products and services working hard and...

Making Customer-Centered Design Work for Teams

Introduction Building today’s systems requires a more intimate understanding of users’ work than ever before. Computers are smaller and more common and interfaces are more powerful. Today, many users of computers neither know nor wish to learn how the...

Representing Work for the Purpose of Design

Abstract Designing products well requires a clear and detailed understanding of how people work. However design teams are not usually expert at understanding work, and there are no generally-accepted techniques for representing how people work appropriate to design....