Everything You Always Wanted to Know About UX*
* but were too afraid to ask.
A while back I presented an overview of User Experience to the business analysts in the Risk business of Thomson Reuters. This is how I pitched it:
Have you ever asked, "what’s the difference between UX and UI, aren’t they the same thing?" or "is UX the same as Accessibility?" The answer in both cases is no, but UX does support and take both topics under its supportive wing. Don’t worry though, you are not alone in being unsure of what UX means, many recruiters have no idea, and unfortunately it appears that many product development teams are also in the dark. It’s never too late to find out ...
I was happy to hear that by the end of the session some participants had already begun questioning their assumptions, in particular highlighted by the comment, "I had never considered that business goals are not the same as user goals". No they generally are not and one of the challenges for a UXer is to meet the user needs whilst considering, questioning and as far as possible without impacting on the user experience, meeting the business needs.
The UX presentation is in pdf format.
