I just returned home from User Experience 2003. Here are some things i learned.
First of all, i'm doing the job of like twelve people. It was amazing to hear how large the web support staff or some companies can be with the collections of information architects, corporate communications staff, web authors, designers, developers and usability engineers. Its definitely challenging to wear all these hats but someday maybe i'll just pick one.
Secondly, Don Norman is one cool dude. To me he seems like a wise sage; i enjoyed hearing his thoughts on why people like the things they do and where the Internet is headed. I need to pick up more of his books.
Next, telling you what to do without giving you a clue as how to do it is frustrating. I sat through a seminar on good intranet guidelines. They mentioned that you need to have a good, effective search engine on the site easily accessible from all pages. The problem is that all the off the self stuff search engines really suck and can't deliver meaningful, relevant results, thus frustrating the user. So is every company to build their own search engine from scratch? That can't be an easy thing to do and i'm not looking forward to it.
Finally, The Apple Store Chicago is a cool place. It's everything i dreamed it would be. It has plenty of machines out for you to play with. There's knowledgeable staff there to answer questions without getting in the way. The iPods on display have plenty of songs on them already to keep you playing with them for a while. Good Times.
Posted by Matthew at September 24, 2003 11:21 PM