Last week, I presented a talk on User Experience Deliverables for the STC India UX SIG in Bangalore. UX Deliverables View more presentations from Xavier Roy.
Author Archives: Xavier
Understanding Biases
Bias is a common human trait and cognitive bias affects all of us. Wikipedia defines ‘cognitive bias’ as “the human tendency to draw incorrect conclusions in certain circumstances based on cognitive factors rather than evidence”. Bias is an outcome of human thought and often based on rules of thumb. Cognitive biases are instances of evolved […]
In defence of Ferrari
These past few days, a video of a Ferrari engineer explaining the complexity of the Ferrari F10 Formula 1 racing car has been making the rounds. Every blog post or discussion forum I have come across so far seem to say one and one thing only: “It is a usability nightmare.” Bullshit. Every one seems […]
Book Review: Rocket Surgery Made Easy
Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think has been the book I recommend for anyone interested in understanding usability. His second effort, Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing Usability Problems, expands the idea of one of the chapters in Don’t Make Me Think. Staying true to the book’s subtitle of The […]
Is technical communication a part of user experience?
Is technical communication a part of user experience? Absolutely. Without Doubt. One major interaction that a user has with a system is the documentation accompanying the product, either as printed manuals or their electronic cousins. In fact, any text that a user sees on the screen in the form of labels and copy is a […]
Defenestrating Tables & Indices
Is it time to stop creating those page-wasting Table of Contents and Indices in a world where manuals are no longer being printed? We deliver all of our documentation as PDFs to our customers (except for that rare marketing collaterals that get printed and distributed). These PDFs are uploaded to a repository and made available […]
about the name
As a kid, I tore pages out of my notebooks and make paper rockets out of them. The graveyard adjoining my house served up good thermals for my planes to stay up in the air for longer times and also try out interesting variations of planes. When I wanted a name for the site that […]
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Wireframes for the Wicked
In this SXSWi 2009 panel, Nick Finck, Donna Spencer, and Michael Angeles talk about wireframes, particularly the various types of wireframes. The best part of the panel is the Q&A session that follows the presentation.
to err is human
One recent afternoon, I got drafted into reviewing and editing a bunch of error messages for a product. It was supposed to be a quick one hour work. But these assignments never really turn out be an hour’s job. All I had was an Excel file with around 20 messages that had the current error […]