Not to be a downer, but unfortunately, the numbers for successful experiences aren’t in our favor. Let’s talk about startups for a moment; 9 out of 10 startups fail. Why? Time and time again, research tells us the biggest problems with startups can be categorized into what many refer to as “product-market fit.”

Inclusive design can mean various things—people who have challenges with: visuals, dexterity, hearing, cognitive abilities, and speech all can be improved using modern accessibility standards and inclusive toolkits…

Time and time again, I've heard the same story... Teams get together, decide what will be best for their customers, run it through usability tests, build it, launch, and then... Nothing. No one uses it. I've been in these meetings. "We worked with the UX team, and ran it through usability, customers loved it!". Then why aren't they adopting it?

It’s no wonder I’m fascinated with Tesla — they align well with my “car buying” persona: early adopter, environmentally friendly — and amazing technology, which is my #1 driver for any car. And it’s not just me… a growing number of car buyers will choose a car based on a vehicle's technology over brand or style.

How do you gain customer insights when you need to stay six feet away? How do you get the context of employees, customers, or buyers when you can't meet them in-person for a contextual inquiry, follow-me-home, interview, or other means of user research?

With any new product or service, one of the most important things is to make sure you have a customer base that sees value in what you’re offering and will change their behavior to start using and adopting your product or service over what they’re doing today. What is that right ratio of discovery-to-investment before launching something new?

Arguably nothing since the rise of social and mobile has changed shopping like our current challenges around COVID-19.

No one can predict when things go wrong, really wrong. You can plan for error states, empty data sets and poor connectivity — but large scale culture changing events are hard to predict, and even harder to design for. Economic crashes, terrorists, viruses… Each have their own challenges, unknown until it happens.

First off, I’m a bit of a watch nerd. That phrase “you can tell a man by his shoes”, I’m like that but with watches. I’m also passionate about technology… See the dilemma?

I know Design adds value. As a process, as a method, as a practice — design can add value across organizations in a number of different ways. I was recently digging into a great research paper on Design ROI and some lightbulbs went off on how we should be talking about design. It’s a great download, and has a ton of in-depth data on a topic that’s just as hot today as it was back when it was written in 2011.

An experience is more than the customer understanding, more than the visual design, it’s also how it reads. The copy of an experience many times falls into the same trap UX would historically fall into, the thing that is slapped on at the end of a project.

If companies want to outplay their opponents, they need to genuinely understand their customers and deliver an outstanding user experience every time.

Visual design and User Experience can be used as a powerful force to give people quick indications of the quality of what they’re reading and sharing.

Digital Transformation is 🔥.

Headlines, articles, ad campaigns — it’s what companies are aspiring to. But what is it? Quick definition: it’s using digital technologies to drive effective business, and in some cases stave off becoming obsolete. Think about most “modern” businesses over 10–20 years old, there are still processes that need paper, even fax machines to complete. They still have systems that don’t talk to each other, outdated databases. There are still digital solutions that are sub-par, hard to use, slow, not meeting customer needs, etc…

While we’ll always be chasing the future, here today, we’re close.

I have multiple personal assistants, all in the cloud. I ask one, just by saying its name, to turn my lights on and off, play the news, and set alarms (Amazon Echo). I have another that sets reminders, tells me when I need to leave, and answers many of my questions (Apple Siri). I have “bots” always searching for new restaurants, and letting me know new places to try out, what I may like, and where I should go after dinner (Marsbot). I have another I talk to that’s looking over my finances, looking for ways to reduce monthly bills, and alerts me of my charges (trim).