Karl A L Smith

human knowledge belongs to the world

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Shakespeare for breakfast venue C Edinburgh Fringe

30 minutes later I’m still laughing at just the thought of what I experienced. At £8.50 well worth the money, with free hot drink and croissant as a bonus on top of the fabulous interactive experience. Congratulations to the cast,…

#User #Experience #UX #Process

The first step in user experience needs to be the recognition that every problem is different and will require a separate solution, in effect there is no quick fix or standard method.

#Getting #User #Experience #UX to work with #Clients

Setting the scene for user experience to work I have over the last few months had several rants about people claiming to be involved in user experience who are not regardless of their job titles. I came across a great…

#Minimum #Viable #Experience #MVE because the viability in an #MVP is not #Customer #Centered

MVP is all people talk about in development these days, like it’s the fix for every problem, unfortunately it creates a whole new set of problems and a certain amount of complacency that is often damaging the brands that deliver…

Supporting #Users with #HCD principals

Human Centered design (HCD) Human centered design (HCD) is a project approach that puts the intended users (audience) of a product or piece of technology at the centre of its research, design and development. It does this by talking directly to…

#Retail #banks need their #customers

The 90/00’s marketing gimmicks of creating a relationship with your bank are long gone in people’s minds. The problem for the banks is they now for the first time mean it, but have lost a lot of credibility and the confidence of the public.

Interflora User Experience (UX)

Interflora SMS STOP 60070 update

I prefer to do something about situations rather than just complain. So apart from phoning Interflora’s contact centre and getting nowhere, I also used the professional social network Linkedin to contact senior marketing staff about my experience.

Agile Human Centred Design (HCD) Information Architecture IA Usability User Experience (UX)

Karl Smith Fellow of the British Computer Society

I have just been confirmed as a Fellow of the British Computer Society. Thanks to all my supporters.

Ask #customers not #stakeholders

Clients will often reduce or not pay for UX research, but this is like leaving out a building foundation because no one sees it. A visitors experience is not only defined by the online environment but they bring past experiences, desires and doubts about their current experience.

#UX #cognitive #interactions patterns for #IoT by #Gestalt

The psychology of visual location, shape and colour are critical to enable user to understand and interpret their location and expectations of use in any given area. Karl Smith’s research from 2002 defined additional aspects as ‘biographical templates’ that establish key perceptions and personal drivers which are linked to persona’s.

Interflora User Experience (UX)

Interflora discount voucher 100% no brains

Interflora keep sending me SPAM even though I never signed up to receive anything and keep asking them to stop. Digital communications are a two way process a failure to listen points to incompetence in management and delivery.

Interflora User Experience (UX)

Interflora, don’t listen or care about user experience

Interflora marketing texts, I never opted in, I can’t opt out. Interflora what do you think you are doing? Your not building your brand your destroying it, why don’t you listen are you so big now that you don’t have to care about the experience people have of your company?

Less #UX wireframe #fluff and more #Proof of the #pudding

In recent years the flaws in user experience design (UX) based in wireframe exercises have become more evident to professional IT people as the business has become flooded with unqualified people.

Website #help and #support systems should #avoid #FAQ

Websites conversely support users from every experience of life, who while focused on a product or service are not professionals in that product or service.

O2 Usability

O2 support has awful usability

On the O2 site you can tell it’s all user experience and no information architecture though, everything links so there are no dead ends, unfortunately the information being sought is missing it’s an annoying merry go round.

#UX #requirements #gathering methods #determine #value

There are lots ways to elicit UCD requirements so I don’t intend on listing them all here, what I will note are some of the effective ways that I utilise. They can be described as structured, unstructured or a mixture of the two, but importantly the methods produce differing depth of requirements dependant not only on the method but on the skill of the facilitator and the characteristics of physical location used. In effect the method used is limited by the capability of the facilitator.

#UX #Requirements #gathering #preparation

People focused Requirements Capturing requirements is subject to other peoples availability, this remains one of the most painful parts of the process as few participants seem to understand just how important their experience is to the project. Often a participant…

Usability and Accessibility Standards

United States of America The American National Standard Institute (NSSN, http://www.nssn.org ) provides a national resource for national and international standards. ANSI/HFES-200 is focused on design requirements and recommendations to increase effective usability of software interfaces. Human Factors and Ergonomics…

User Experience (UX)

Usability and Accessibility Legislation

International projects should be constructed in consideration of the most stringent standards this is expected to be those pertaining to the USA, but also to include ISO9241 guidelines; Australia Australian Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission – http://www.hreoc.gov.au/ The Act…

#Digital #banking #structure

I have worked with a number of banks and financial services companies mainly in user experience and team management, I have also been involved in the development of new business models. I keep being asked to provide structure information for…

#UX #Requirements gathering #structure #determines #success

It is an understood factor in travel that if the journey starts even half a degree wrong then the final destination will be considerably different from where the person intended to be, this is for many why there is a make do culture when working with technology requirements. Unfortunately bad requirements gathering can seriously derail a project before it really begins.

User Experience (UX)

iPad Blotter App

I’m currently working on an iPad blotter app as a white label product is there any interest from financial services or investment banking companies in this product?

Human Centred Design (HCD)

User centered design to ISO 13407

User centered design (UCD) is a project approach that puts the intended users (audience) of a product or piece of technology at the centre of its research, design and development. It does this by talking directly to the user at…

Web Governance ISO/IEC 38500

The following is the first page of a Web Governance document I created and have used with a number of institutions, it’s here to layout one way to tackle this really complex type of project. 1.0    Introduction   1.1 …Background…