UX is at the heart of any company
“While this [UX] is often associated with the Web, consumers who experience good UX online don’t switch off their expectations when they switch off the computer. The principles and theories of UX have created a new normal in terms of brand delivery and interaction. They state that how people actually use your product is much more important than how it was intended to be used. So engaging your consumer in ongoing, iterative product development is more valuable than holding out for a “perfect” product launch.”
Via FastCompany
In defense of the 'not-so-lean startup'
“Many great products have failed because there were no buyers or users ready. Remember Pets.com or Webvan? Of course you do—but for entirely the wrong reasons. It’s vital to remember that building a viable sales channel is just as important as building the viable product itself. The Lean Startup method would have you rush a product to market. Then, you would maybe flounder on initial launch but iterate nonstop—and put what few, loyal customers adopt early through countless revisions, updates, and interface changes. Finally, you might eke out a product worth the mass market’s purchasing dollars. But what happens if your product development issues are so vast that it leads to poor word-of-mouth?”
Silicon Valley’s New Secret Weapon: Designers Who Found Startups
“For the last few years, I was teaching start-ups to think like designers. But I eventually realized that you can’t simply teach this stuff. If you don’t have a designer in your founding group, you can’t have a culture of design. You see the reasons why all the time: A consultant comes in to improve a design and when they leave, the transformation eventually dies.”
by Enrique Allen for FastCoDesign
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Additionally, for those of you are aren’t designers or are designers but thinking about how something like an MBA (something I’m considering) could be a valuable addition to someone with a design background I recommend reading Glimmer by Warren Berger. It explores design-thinking in areas that are not commonly thought of as designable. This book alone helped me articulate and idea that I previously regarded as “non-visual design” on a whole new level.
5 Lessons From The Best Interaction Designs Of 2011
Don’t get distracted by the hype surrounding Google and Apple, Facebook and Twitter, or Android and iPhone. It is time to get out of that game, with technologies like HTML 5 pointing the way. Getting your data onto a single platform is not going to win you any awards. Smart companies are turning their products into services that are broadly distributed, where the value is in the relationship, not a single device. As that continues, we will see the balance of power in innovation shift back to corporations and startups that own these services and away from design agencies that merely extend their reach to the next novel device or platform.”Number 3 struck me the most.
“3. Don’t buy into the hype.
How Expectations Can Turn Anything From Worthless To Priceless
Whether its wine or music, the pleasure we take from an experience has everything to do with expectations, writes psychologist Paul Bloom.
