UIE Roadshow Recap

I spent February 19 at the Bloomington, Minn. UIE Roadshow, absorbing all that Jared Spool offered on user experience. I was there as a guest of UIE on a press pass, tweeting when I was able, and taking notes as fast as I was able to write.

Jared started off the session with a hard-hitting fact. Apple's iPod has 75% market share, yet has poor sound quality, the menu is sluggish, and the wheel can be cumbersome to work with. Sandisk put out the Sansa mp3 player, a technically superior product but yet few people know anyone who owns the device.

What sets Apple apart is the overall experience. Apple has stores, a fantastic website with support. You don't see a Microsoft or Sandisk store anywhere. Device vs. experience.

After hearing stories of companies that invested millions in design but failed because they didn't research their users, my motivation for solving my company's biggest UX problems increased significantly.

The morning rolled into a session on team skills. The obvious skills a UX team should have competency in include interaction design, usability testing, user research, and visual design, but Jared pointed out the importance of understanding marketing, business, copy writing, design process, education, ROI... and the list goes on. Take the time to learn these other roles to become a better UX professional. Understanding will help you communicate better and come to more holistic solutions.

I'm not going to dive too deep into the content of the Roadshow to preserve ownership of the material with UIE but I highly recommend taking to Jared about how companies/ux teams evolve in four stages from the point of being first to market to becoming a commodity. Understanding where your team is within this cycle will help you make the best research and design choices. Know that your customers determine which phase you are in, not you.

My favorite part of the day was the vision workshop. I'm not going to say much here but I'll post on this over the weekend in more detail. The time we spent reviewing concepts for developing a UX vision was some of the most enlightening and inspiring I've been involved in for some time.

Jared wrapped up the day with a discussion on the importance of magic and illusion in user experience design. Remember that complexity should fade into the background but if there are holes, the illusion will break. Users don't need to know the backend of a website. Show them what they want to see and hide anything that doesn't improve the overall experience.

For those of you unfamiliar with UIE, check out one of their virtual seminars to get a taste of what you can learn to improve your team and your expertise. If you'll be in Atlanta on March 2, register for the UIE Roadshow at the Westin Peachtree Plaza.

More to come!