Sean Walsh

Accessibility and inclusive design friends - what are your favorite videos to refer people to or use as resources? A lot of the things I use as references are articles or websites, and that means people who learn better from videos aren’t getting information in a way that works for them. If you have videos you recommend then I'd love to hear about them! Anything in the inclusive design or accessibility field is fine - they can be on any topic, for any audience, and they can be short or long. #Accessibility #A11y #AccessibilityMatters #InclusiveDesign

23

8 Comments

Hey UX Designers, If you had the ability to design a UX/Design conference, that wasn't focused on one product. What would you want it to be? What types of speakers would you want? What would you want them to discuss? Would you want a panel discussion? Would you want recruiters to be there from companies? How many days would you want this to be? What would you want from a dream UX/Design conference? Now, while I know you would also want it to be free. Realistically. What would you feel is a reasonable ticket price? There's a reason for my asking, something is a brewing. I can't say yet. Let me know your thoughts please. #ux #uxdesign #ui #userexperience

86

80 Comments

How has The User Experience Team of One impacted your #UX career? What takeaways have stayed with you? Both seasoned and beginner user experience practitioners alike have found benefit in this invaluable resource. Wherever you are in your UX journey, this book gives you tools and insight for doing more with less. https://lnkd.in/eCjiB6ra #ux #userexperience #userexperiencedesign #uxdesign #uxresearch

1

#UXers, are you on the hunt for the perfect guide for working with your #product peers? Look no further than Product Management for UX People. In this book, Christian Crumlish plumbs the intersections and gaps between design and product management for both designers who want to work with product managers and designers who want to become product managers. Order your copy today! https://lnkd.in/eBPvVhMx

1

Make your team more strategic, influential, and innovative. There’s a technical term for the absence of UX research: guessing. When stakeholders and teams lack the knowledge they need to make critical decisions, they guess. They might call it a hunch, bet, experiment, or even an educated guess. It’s still guessing. Guessing is expensive and time-consuming for your product team. It forces near-endless debates about the “correct” approach. You have to validate your designs, or worse, just build something and put it into the world only to learn that it’s not what users and customers want or need. When you guess wrong (which is too often the case), all that work is a waste, and you learn very little about what would’ve worked. 👉 Strategic UX Research changes all that. Your team stops guessing because they’ve built expertise in who your users and customers are, what they need, what their current experiences are, and what their future experiences could be. When your team has all that knowledge about users and customers at their fingertips, you no longer have to guess. Your deep understanding answers any questions just as you realize you have them. Most importantly, you get the right products and services into the market quickly because having confidence in what you need to deliver is a production accelerator. Plus, you have solid outcome-driven UX metrics demonstrating how every new release improves your customers’ and users’ lives. 💡🌟Improving people’s lives increases their love and loyalty to your brand and products.🌟💡 👉 Build your Strategic UX Research practice today. Turn your organization into the world’s foremost experts on what your customers and users need and want. Accelerate your strategic decision-making capabilities with increased confidence from a shared understanding of your users' experiences. No more guessing. Learn everything you need to learn about building a strategic UX research practice at our Strategic Approaches to UX Research intensive this June 3-7. In only 7½ hours, you’ll uncover how to turn UX research into one of your organization’s most essential strategic tools. Read all about the upcoming Intensive and how you’ll start transforming your organization: https://cstu.io/224929

3

Uncomfortable truth: WCAG compliance does not mean actual accessibility. [WCAG is the acronym for Web Accessibility Compliance Guidelines] – WCAG do not consider *all* accessibility issues. – WCAG do not consider all best practices.  – WCAG do not consider overall inclusion. – WCAG do not consider usability. Examples of bad practices that cause accessibility issues and that are ignored by the WCAG: – Use of non-descriptive link text – Use of low-contrast typefaces – Use of complicated layouts – Use of unfamiliar patterns – Use of more than one H1 – Use of too many emojis – Use of autoplay video* *(no, it’s not enough to provide a stop button, or to make it stop after 5 seconds. I only need 2-3 seconds to get sick) There is a big difference between providing a technically and legally compliant service, and providing a service that is truly accessible and inclusive. STOP asking the question “does it comply with WCAG?”  START asking the question “can everybody use this?” Adopting inclusion will expand your business (and, why not, your karma too). In a nutshell: Be compliant and legal. Of course. But also: don’t be a dick. Want to get a basic intro on how to not be a dick, and expand your karma instead? Sign up to my free Accessibility Primer. https://lnkd.in/dJmjqM3P Image description: a concrete step with a round, blue sticker in the middle saying “Good Karma”. Adapted from a photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash. #a11y #DontBeADick #GoodKarma #Accessibility #WCAGCompliance #HatchConference

14

4 Comments

I want to use the next two posts to discuss applying to UX/UI design positions. Over the last few years, I have talked to many designers, new and experienced, about the challenges of the job application process around UX/UI. I have had similar experiences in the past, and I want to talk about some pointers that could help you stand out when you are one of the many designers responding to a job. Around one-and-a-half decade ago, something happened that made life harder when looking for a design job; companies would rely on standardized resumes. I had worked for ten years at a NYC marketing firm as a VP, and now I found myself looking for a job after the company went belly-up. Until then, I have always been able to land a job by showing my work and making my resumes much more interesting by including design elements. That would always make my resume stand out when it arrived at someone's desk because I would showcase my skills that would help attract the user's attention. Which is my job, isn't it? But the world had changed. How will you even get some hiring manager's attention when your resume would be delivered together with hundreds of practically identical ones? And when you finally would get an interview, it was, and often is, with a staffing manager first before talking to the person who actually manages the position. That means that you have to go through a round of anonymous data resumes and an interview with someone who might understand the position but not the field of work before you talk to the person you need to impress. So here are a few tips to get noticed. First and foremost, in all your conversations, be yourself. Know your stuff, and be yourself. As I have pointed out, all those resumes look the same when you look at the data. Even on your application form, answer in your voice in the form fields that allow it. Ensure it is grammatically correct (Grammarly will help; use it!) Have an online portfolio somewhere that showcases you and your work. Show the work you are proud of. Do not only show the UX/UI work but also other creative work you've created that you love. It may be risky (depending on your work), but often, it will put you ahead of the crowd. It will show your creativity, who you are, and what you are passionate about. Make sure the work is relatively current. Many design aesthetics have changed over the years, and you want to show that your design skills are current. When you do get a first interview, be calm and be yourself. The great thing we as designers have is knowing how to connect with others. Use that same skill to have a conversation. Do not be afraid to be nervous, but mention it right at the beginning of the interview if you are. If you have the skills, the personality, and the way you communicate, will leave an impression here. To be continued in my next post. #UXDesign #UIDesign #JobSearchTips #JobApplication #CreativeResume #DesignJobs #UXUI #JobinterviewTips #LinkedInTips #DesignCommunity

8

I recently wrote about design system metrics, including adoption. Adoption can be pushed as a mandate. Having seen hundreds of design systems up close Dan Mall points out that there is no definitive evidence that high adoption doesn’t hurt. But, it certainly doesn’t differentiate between useful design systems and that frankenstack monster that has documentation in Excel with hundreds of links to a private Git repo along with multiple swim lanes with infinite scroll. The only reason why adoption persists as a common metric is because even really bad design systems have the ability to generate significant value. Full article in the comments.

13

5 Comments

Shining a light on dark patterns: Robin Fransz uncovers the hidden tactics employed by creators and companies. Explore the ethical implications and the path to user-centered design in this UX Magazine article - https://buff.ly/44E3cGU #UserCenteredDesign #EthicalImplications #DarkPatterns

2

Join Jared Spool for tomorrow’s Talk UX Strategy live discussion: Justifying UX Research: The Costs of Guessing Wrong Tuesday, May 28 at 2pm ET (18.00 GMT) How do you get executives to value UX research? That question is as old as the UX field itself. Your executives have seemingly infinite reasons why they don’t want UX research. They say it takes too long, or the results will come too late. They tell you it’s expensive or that talking to customers will cause political problems. Whatever their reason, it’s clear they don’t see the value that comes from UX research. Finding a rebuttal is hard. Many UX folks have tried presenting case studies, business magazine articles, or other organizations’ success stories — all without success. When they explain that understanding users is essential or that “we should be customer-centric,” their arguments are dismissed. However, one approach has a much higher success record: identifying and reporting the costs of not conducting research. When we don’t know what our users and customers need, we must guess what will make them happy. All too often, those guesses turn out to be costly mistakes. In this lively session, Jared Spool will explore several ways that UX leaders have successfully justified the value of UX research to overcome executive resistance. You’ll discover techniques that show how your organization is already spending too much and incurring delivery delays because of wrong guesses and how to show research as a beneficial alternative. Uncover how you’ll… 👉 Uncover long-term hidden costs when poor assumptions and guesses hurt sales or increase support, and nobody even realizes it. 👉 Boost the team’s confidence in what customers need, which will speed up design, development, and delivery and stop those never-ending debates. 👉 Perform your best work every day because you now have detailed information about who your users are and what they need. RSVP & Connection instructions: https://lnkd.in/eZTxb3B

2

One of the biggest hurdles with design, development, and the rest of business is language. "Attracting more eyes" for business leaders might translate to "understanding user needs" for developers. This doesn't mean either side is wrong, it simply means there's a language barrier. Leaders on both sides should have a better understanding of how to speak the other's language. That way they can "reduce friction" and "increase ROI". #roi #software #leadership https://lnkd.in/g-dzrGPR

2

UX advisors tell you use stories to highlight your value. This can be done well and can be done badly. Here are some thoughts on how to use stories. THE SITUATION MATTERS Imagine describing a project to a friend over coffee, to a hiring manager reviewing your portfolio, or during a design interview. The audiences differ in amount of time they are prepared to give you, and their willingness to listen. In response, you have to control the density of information, pacing, and emotion. For the friend over coffee, you might start with "Geez, I knew from the first project meeting that it was going to be a sh*tshow, and it was, from beginning to end!" And then tell the story. The hiring manager needs to learn about you quickly, but is prepared to look more deeply if they are interested. For them, a better start is "A challenging rethink of a help-desk that improved customer service satisfaction in three major ways."  It entices them to explore the project, the challenge, or the outcome. Their choice. A GOOD PATTERN This example abstracts to good pattern. "Entice quickly, then elaborate more slowly." You don't entice with stories, you entice with triggers that the reviewer will respond to. Keywords. Kittens. "I uncover and solve usability problems that have direct impact on business success." It is not a story itself, more like plot features extracted by considering the story and its value. Once you have enticed, you can elaborate with stories (or with project deliverables). At this stage, the reviewer has chosen to go into slow mode, and will invest more time to critique and explore. An elaboration can also contain its own enticements. So you should think about a pattern of enticement and elaboration where the reviewer can find out about you, combining fast and slow mode, scanning and reading. WHERE STORIES ARE NOT NEEDED Some people write their case study as a long continuous story. It starts with "First we had an early morning kickoff meeting at corporate headquarters where we were introduced to some of the stakeholders. Then we discussed the current system and some of the problems that the business wanted us to solve …" Later, there is a big section labelled Wireframes, full of wireframes. It starts with "Once we had discussed our user requirements, the next challenge on the journey for my team and I was to create a set of wireframes to provide an early visual concept for the solution." Both of these are problematic because they contain nothing valuable to the reviewer. They know what a kickoff meeting is. They know the purpose of wireframing. Tell them the valuable stuff that they don't know. Like your accomplishments and ambitions. *****      This is part of an ongoing series about improving UX portfolios, written for junior designers and UX bootcamp graduates. If you find this post useful, please SHARE, REPOST and/or LIKE it, and FOLLOW ME for more.      Good designing,      Martin #uxportfolio #uxbootcamp #uxstorytelling

1

"The state of things in UX in 2024 is way better, just generally, than it was in 2008," is a thing I say in the latest episode of FINDING OUR WAY. Jesse James Garrett and I grapple with the state of the discourse around design and design leadership, the reckonings and freak-outs, and some ways forward. I've placed some of the spicier, pithier quotes in the carousel below, but I'm sharing perhaps the best one here, from Jesse: "Design needs allies, period. Design needs allies to succeed. The design leader has to be in the role of cultivating those allies." If you want to hear more: Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/g7GP3j3X Any podcatcher: https://lnkd.in/gMCTKZU Website, with complete transcript: https://lnkd.in/gQfJCXTr #design #designleadership #leadership

142

27 Comments

I spend much of my time at work 'doing' diverse usability testing. Here's a recent blog post that I wrote to demystify the process: https://lnkd.in/eFqjDwBR #abilitynet #usertesting #accessability

20

You've probably seen these two common design patterns before—tabs and accordions—but when should you use one over the other? In this video, https://bit.ly/3Viy8sM UX Specialist Huei-Hsin Wang walks through the different characteristics of both patterns and when to use which. Tabs, for instance, suit a few long content sections, while accordions fit many short ones. Interested in reading more about accordions? Also check out her article on when and how to use accordions on desktop: https://bit.ly/4chw5vW #Accordions #Tabs #UX #UXDesign #UIUX #ProductDesign

1,964

35 Comments

Thanks Matej Latin, for this article. It's a valuable insight into today's highly competitive job market. You've done a great job summarizing common mistakes and issues to avoid and provided helpful tips for improving portfolios. #UXjobs, #portfolio #userexperience #jobhunt #portfoliomistakes #productdesign #uxdesign #presentation #interview #jobapplications

11

Lots of ex-this and ex-that UX folks (e.g., ex-Google).... are also NEVER grounded in UX fundamentals. I look forward to the restoration of the UX discipline. #ux #realuxtalk

37

5 Comments