Content was at the heart of my Web design work long before I knew to call what I was doing “content strategy” and “information architecture.” Now as areas of expertise mature, content is that much more valuable in my day-to-day practice. In fact for some UX projects, you just have to let content take the lead.
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With The Littlest Crank out of school, my summer is packed with family events and responsibilities. One thing it's NOT full of is speaking opportunities and conferences, which is great because I need to recharge my presentation batteries. I'm hoping to keep up with a responsible publishing cycle for this Cranky Tips blog moving forward, but I've said that before. We'll see ...
“When we think we're reasoning, we may instead be rationalizing. Or to use an analogy offered by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt: We may think we're being scientists, but we're actually being lawyers.”
“The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science,” by Chris Mooney, Mother Jones
I’ve never worked in an environment that I would call user experience friendly. That doesn’t mean I’ve had bad employers or clients. In fact, I’ve been lucky over the years to work at some pretty great places. But if you mapped my resume based on how highly each organization valued user experience expertise, the spectrum would be narrow and range from “somewhat tolerant” to “nearly hostile.”
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Quick: Explain why the long E sound in the word treat is spelled “ea”, but for the same sound in the word wheel it’s “ee”. Now explain how one-third is the same as two-sixths. Now explain why a ten-cent coin in the U.S. is smaller than a five-cent coin. But wait, you have to do all this without referencing the evolution of the English language, numerators, denominators or the price of silver in the late 19th century.
Welcome to helping my six-year-old daughter with her homework. Or, (in the universe’s constant reminder to me that everything is really one thing) helping a recently graduated designer tackle her first information architecture work. In both cases, the challenge is to build a foundation strong enough to support all the learning that comes after it.
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For more about UX Crank, see www.dswillis.com and to contact him, send e-mail to uxcrank [ at ] dswillis [ dot ] com.