I recently attended a conference for webmasters in Dallas. I greatly enjoyed the keynote, which was presented by Jared Spool (www.uie.com). I would like to highlight some of the things I took away from his address.
Experience design is multi-disciplanary and includes many players, including those experienced in:
- Copy writing
- Information architecture
- Fast interation management
- Usability practices
- Interaction design
- Information design
- Visual design
- Editing
- Ethnography
- Domain knowledge
- Business knowledge
- Marketing
- Analytics
- Technology
- ROI
- Social Networks
- Use Cases
- Agile Methods
His point in listing all of these was that the number of things that web designers need to take into account these days is a list that is continually growing. Therefore, web designers and developers need to wear more hats and be experienced in more things to make them more valuable to their clients.
Spool listed the essential experience design components as good communications, clear focus on the vision, employing the right people, and a successful feedback loop. He advised that fast iterations eliminate the need for major redesigns and that design challenges should be broken down into smaller "chunks". There should be a heavy emphasis on the feedback mechanism and as much data as possible should be collected. Spool also believes that the more people that are involved in a project, the more successful it will be.
Things I took away from this are that we need to make sure we can envision the project 5-10 years down the road and ensure that the things we are completing now are supporting that vision. We need to make sure that we have sufficient knowledge all of these disciplines among the people that work for us. Lastly, that we need to stress the importance of the iterative process to the client, so that they become our partner in creating the best possible website.
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