Archives

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The History of User Research   Understanding Our Past, Preparing for Our Future For more than 100 years, researchers have worked not only to improve the experiences of the many things we use, but also to establish research as a valuable partner in the product life cycle. As a result […]

True Detective: Accessibility Edition Your CEO has decided that it’s time for your digital products to be accessible and has chosen you to get it done. Congratulations! Where do you start? This hands-on workshop will serve as a crash course on all things accessibility. We will start off with with some empathy building activities to […]

InstaBrain: Modern Research Methods for Gen Z Customers If your business wants to not just survive but thrive with the next generation of customers, this is a must-attend talk. If you don’t know this about Gen Y and Gen Z, you’ll be out of business before you can say “IG.” Move over Millennials, there’s a […]

Not Your Average Chatbot: Using Cognitive Intercept to Improve Information Discovery Cognitive intercept is a new method for IT support sites to improve discoverability of top solutions, resulting in more end users helping themselves and deflecting calls to support personnel. Cognitive intercept leverages many traditional chatbot technologies on the backend but does not use a […]

Voice User Interface Design for Customer Support:  Design guidance based on user research and lessons learned The popularity of voice user interfaces (VUIs) has grown substantially in recent years.  They can be found in phones for customer support, televisions, smart homes, personal assistants and many other products.  Designing great voice interactive user experiences presents many […]

UX Design for the IoT and the Rise of Natural Interaction The Internet of Things (IoT) is a vast frontier for user experience (UX) designers to undertake. Estimates of numbers of deployed devices vary greatly but suffice it to say that most predictions estimate billions of devices by 2020 with a market value in the […]

Everyday experiences with robots Robots are becoming more and more prevalent in our everyday lives. You may encounter a customer-service robot at a bank, or employ a robot to clean your floors. You may collaborate with a robot at work, or see a robot in your child’s classroom. However, while everyday experiences with robots are […]

Designing Technology for an Aging Population The population of the developed world is aging.  Most websites, apps, and digital devices are used by adults aged 50+ as well as by younger adults, so they should be designed accordingly.  This talk, based on the presenter’s recent book, presents age-related factors that affect older adults’ ability to […]

Cognitive Biases in UX: We’re all Human. As humans we are subject to cognitive biases. Our brain is inherently lazy – it’s looking to take shortcuts. Whilst these mental shortcuts occur frequently in our day to day lives and help us to effectively process the world around us, they can negatively impact our research. These […]

Talking with Robots: Creating User Interfaces   Its predicted that by 2020, people will have more conversations with robots than their spouses. While we’ve historically used text to chat with bots, Voice experiences are beginning to permeate our technology. Whether using smart speakers like Alexa or mobile assistants like Siri, Voice provides us with new […]