User Experience (UX)

There’s a common misconception out there that user centered design means being led by the user. The clearest example is the oft-repeated fallacy that Apple isn’t a user centered organization because they never ask users what they want. In some instances, being user centered means ignoring or even going against explicit user wishes in order Read more »

It’s easy to joke about the retro-futurism of the 1950’s with its kitsch views and inaccurate predictions, but we all still love it. We’re all excited about technology and digital product design, but what does it hold for our future? What are the opportunities and challenges ahead of us? Read more »

Addiction or devotion? The complexity of our relationships between connected experiences, devices and people is increasing. In her talk at Mind the Product 2013, design ethnographer Kelly Goto presents underlying emotional indicators that reveal surprising attachments to brands, products, services and devices. She argues that we must move past addiction and into meaning — using Read more »

There are some products you love. Some you even have a slightly unhealthy relationship with. Things you’re completely in love with, whether they’re apps, services or products. At Mind the Product 2013 Aziz Musa posited that these products are pure products, and that pure products is what we should all aim to build. Read more »

November’s ProductTank London hooked us up to the growing Internet of Things.  With the number of connected devices already outstripping the number of humans, Alison Austin (@alicenwondrlnd) brought us three great speakers, who have respectively immersed themselves in this brave new world of ‘mundane computing’, to help guide us through the challenges of design and Read more »

Tom Loosemore, Deputy Director at the UK’s Government Digital Service, spoke at ProductTank recently about how to do product development properly, at scale, in government. It’s an eye-opening case study of how even the most entrenched and sluggish organisations can revitalise their digital presence with the thoughtful application of simple principles of user-centered design and Read more »

As product managers and entrepreneurs, we know the importance of validating an idea before committing to getting it built. However, validation is easier said than done. In fact, it’s possibly one of the hardest things you will ever do in your product life cycle, otherwise products and startups wouldn’t have the abysmal 90%+ failure rate Read more »

We’ve all been there – swearing at our phones when our pithy Instagram pics won’t upload, cursing the data roaming charge as Dropbox decides to sync when we’re on holiday, cussing when the ‘next’ button is off the edge of the screen and we can’t get to it. Read more »

Dave Martin, the co-founder of Pocket Recruit, took the stage at ProductTank with practical, useful advice on building mobile products. He shared his experience optimising complex conversion funnels for mobile, and maximising familiar mobile user experience to increase revenue lines from a mobile audience. He touched on difficult challenges on mobile such as testing, wide Read more »

Have you ever found instructions on the shower faucet in a hotel room?  I’ll bet you have. Here is the shower in a Sunnyvale hotel at which I recently stayed. The faucet was so complicated to use that they had set aside a tile with instructions on how to use it. I probably could have Read more »