Metric - The User Experience Design Podcast

Join Rebecca Blakiston -- author of books on on usability testing and writing with clarity; Library Journal mover and shaker -- as she talks shop and makes the case for content strategy, using active and authentic voice, removing unnecessary words, writing meaningful titles/headings, using parallelism, and more. Our volunteer expert Rebecca Blakiston (@blakistonr) is the team lead for Web Design & User Experience at the University of Arizona Libraries. She is the author of two books: Usability Testing: a Practical Guide for Librarians, and Writing Effectively in Print and on the Web: a Practical Guide for Librarians. She's also the Chair of the University Libraries Section, Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL ULS). In 2016, she was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker. She's super. We've had beers. Register: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/writing-for-the-user-experience-with-rebecca-blakiston-a-libux-webinar-tickets-35945982401  Get

One more over coffee edition of Metric before a string of interviews to round-out the month of April. In this episode:  What role does photoshop play in UX? Should "design" be part of a user story? What are the necessary technical abilities for doing UX? What are your thoughts on UX Departments Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

This episode of Metric is a little special: no guests, no post, just loaded questions and loaded answers. In the actual recording I was thinking about calling it "coffee break," but I over-thought this and now feel like that suggests it's a super short episode. It's not. It's regular length. So, we're going with "over coffee" -- which it was!  This episode, I tackle three questions about UX Certification, a UX Ph.D who sucks at visual design, and Guerrilla Usability Testing.  Enjoy.  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

Andy Priestner is a global trainer and consultant on user experience, leadership, social media, and LEGO Serious Play. He's the originator and chair of UXLibs, among many things a best-in-show UX conference, as well as the title of the book he edited with Matt Borg.   In this episode, we were able to wrangle our timezones and chat about the upcoming conference, as well as Futurelib -- an open innovation program exploring the future role of academic libraries within the University of Cambridge through ethnographic studies -- and, really, what prompted Andy to resign. 4:00 - About the "team challenge" at UXLibs, plus shout-outs to Ned Potter, Matt Borg, and Donna Lanclos. 9:04 - The state of user experience design in these institutions 11:55 - What happened with Futurelib 18:02 - Andy on leaving his job and going freelance 20:48 - The Tracker Project: eye-tracking people in libraries with glasses  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

Recently, LITA embarked on a big persona-making project in order to better align their services to the needs of their members, the results of which they just revealed. This provides a solid talking point to introduce conceptual problems with personas and introduce a potentially better-suited approach: jobs to be done.  00:43 - LITA created a bunch of personas 2:14 - What does LITA actually want? 3:39 - Personas are more noise than signal 5:37 - Personas are best as a demographic snapshot 6:05 - The User Story 7:35 - The Job Story 8:04 - Jobs to be Done 11:36 - So what jobs do LITA personas need done? 14:04 - What should LITA do, then? 15:44 - Support Metric: https://patreon.com/libux 16:42 - How to enter for our giveaway: a copy of Practical Design Discovery by Dan Brown. Twitter: @metricpodcast Facebook: LibUX Join us on Slack: https://libux.herokuapp.com  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

If you thought your grip on web accessibility couldn't get any looser, let's talk about the Accessibility Tree. This is a hostful episode Amanda and Michael.  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

This week on Metric we are joined by Trey Gordner and Stephen Batemen from Koios, who are designing services that amplify the discoverability and searchability of libraries with real emphasis on the end-user experience. We chat about startup opportunities in this space, the opportunity and danger of "interface aggregation," the design of their new service Libre (www.readlibre.com), and more.  These two were super fun to interview.  Koios: https://koios.co Libre: https://readlibre.com Trey Gordner is @darthgordner Stephen Batemen is @IAmBateman Amanda L. Goodman is @godaisies Michael Schofield is @schoeyfield Metric is @metricpodcast  Support Metric on Patreon for early access, new pilot podcasts, "swraffle" entries, and more. https://patreon.com/libux  February's Swag-raffle ("swraffle") for Tesla Amazing Magnetic Notes is still on! Patreon supporters at the $2+ level are automatically entered, but you can also earn an entry by honestly reviewing Metric in your p

Metric alum Emily King swings by again to chat about conversational UIs and "interface aggregation" -- front ends other than yours using metadata and API to connect with your site, so that users don't actually have to visit your site directly.  Please rate and share! These little gestures go a long way.  You can reach out to Emily at @emilykingatcsn on Twitter, I am @schoeyfield, and Metric is @metricpodcast.  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

This week Amanda L. Goodman (@godaisies) gives you a peek into the work  of the LITA Persona Task Force, who are charged with defining and developing personas that are to be used in growing membership in the Library and Information Technology Association. We — LibUX — are producing our first ever free webinar this Thursday, February 16th, at 1 pm with Metric alum Tim Broadwater, a UI designer and certified UX developer that has worked for Fortune 500 companies, grant-based education initiatives, and higher-ed. It’s called UX Quackery, which will focus on the prevailing dishonest practices that exist in the field of UX, and what we can do to weed-out the quacls. Toootally free and I think it will be really special. Check it out at libux.co/events. Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

This episode of Metric is very much a companion to last week’s post on consciously infusing the ethics of the organization into design decisions. There is an opportunity for institutions that are positioned — either actively or by reputation — as intellectual and moral community cores (libraries) to exert greater if not just more obvious influence on the filters through which patrons access content.Critical Librarianship in the Design of Libraries It’s been an upward battle for accessibility wresting a seat at the design table even though it’s core to the user experience. It’s now time to pull-up a chair for ethical considerations. It’s been almost three years since I amended the UX Honeycomb with “ethical”. Notes The ethics of good design: a principle for the connected age by Aaron Weyenberg Good design is ethical. The product places the user’s interest at the center of its purpose. Any effort to influence the user’s agency or behavior is

Even if you’re not much of a gamer, the modular design of the Nintendo Switch is super compelling. What you see in its reveal is an experience that moves not just between your living room screen and your backpack, but one that adapts to different social contexts. Its controllers — joycons — peal off, can attach to a more conventional lean-back controller, or pop-on to the sides of the screen when you leave the house, or divvied-up between friends for — you know — some roof co-op (watch the video, really). What’s more, there’s a really good likelihood that joycons might be able to be switched out for alternate designs. Nintendo’s really selling the experience here. In this episode Chad Haefele, Tim Broadwater, and I totally conjecture about the user experience of the Switch and the nostalgia market. Notes Remediation is the process through which the characteristics and approaches of competing media are imitated, altered, and critiqued in a new medium… (or

Hey there. Michael Schofield here - thank you so much for tuning in to another Metric - a pretty good podcast about design and the user experience.  This episode is a redux! I just recently updated the most popular post I’ve ever written called “Links Should Open in the Same Window” - because they should, you savages. I’m going to read it to ya. I’m proud of it. And hey, would you mind rating us in iTunes? It’s a pretty good show. And if you think so, we could use your help to bring Metric to the attention of some new ears! That would be super kind of you.   Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

Can we talk about the voting process as a user experience problem? Our — the LibUX — approach to the user experience is that UX is a metric, a plottable, predictable, and improvable measurement of the end-user’s cumulative experience of your service. And we care because we have seen that actively investing in a good user experience has positive returns on the measurements your business or organization cares about. Is it foot traffic, is it database usage, is it income. So, if we can apply this to civic participation, where we want people to vote — that’s the number we care about, voter turnout — can we then approach the challenge of improving this number by improving the user experience of voting? https://stratechery.com/2016/the-voters-decide/ https://medium.com/launchpad-lab/the-ux-of-voting-is-miserable-b71f334960d6#.lsmqshdx8   This episode is brought to you by Audible.com Snag a free audiobook -- these things can be like 30 bucks! -- and a free, no-strings 30-d

On this episode of Metric, a podcast about design and user experience, guests Camille Thomas, Charles Villard, and Tim Broadwater join panel-up with Michael to kvetch and commiserate about burnout - oy. Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

Each Halloween I get a little nostalgic for the best Halloweens I had ever had back when I was a punk rocker. Join me -- your pal, Michael Schofield -- in this special Halloween episode where I reminisce a little bittersweetly and dig-up old recordings of my band - The Coffinettes. Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

The Kano Model is a tool for visualizing the relationship among features in a meaningful way. It's awesome. You'll need to use your imagination a bit, but stick with it: it's -- and I totally mean this -- the most useful UX method ever. Find show notes at http://libux.co.  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

In this episode I'm joined by not one but two (!) guests. Carli Spina (@carlispina) and Emily King (@emilykingatcsn) come on the show to talk about the 2016 Library Usage and Trends Report published earlier this month by the Pew Research Center.  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

What's up! Let's make some enemies and defend the use of carousels on behalf of actually good user experiences - maybe. Thank you for your kind reviews! Your brief reviews wherever you listen to LibUX make it easier to discover it. Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

The very cool Mark Dodsgon from Bluespark joins me for this week's episode! Bluespark is the team behind many a library website, including Indiana University Libraries, which I wrote about recently. I pretty much just let him talk about Bluespark's design process, which is super interesting.  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe

Hey, listeners! This week's episode is an oldie but a goodie. I used all my available storage on libsyn for August being so on point with this weekly show, that I can't upload anything new until the first full week of September. So, from the archives, I present to you one of my favorite topics: design triggers. A design trigger is a pattern meant to appeal to behavior and cognitive biases observed in users. Big data and the user experience boom has provided a lot of information about how people actually use the web, which designs work, and–although creepy–how it is possible to cobble together an effective site designed to social engineer users. Please rate, review, and share to help other designers find LibUX.  Get full access to Metric by Michael Schofield at metricpodcast.com/subscribe