Someone I know was moaning recently about a lot of tedious electronic form filling they had to do for work. It was something that happened once a year, but it was much more lengthy and tedious this year than before. It struck me that this was a sharply focused example of when user experience (UX) … Continue reading User experience (UX) and data quality
Category: User Experience
Customers, suppliers and fences
In my previous post, I contrasted two different terms for thinking about how people interact with your organisation – Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX). Rebecca Brown (a CX expert I mentioned in the post) kindly explained her view of CX to me, which got me thinking of some quality and process things that … Continue reading Customers, suppliers and fences
Customer Experience or User Experience?
I’ve heard both Customer Experience (CX) and User Experience (UX) used to describe how someone’s life is changed, for the better or for the worse, because of the goods or services that an organisation provides. This article goes into my understanding of those terms – how they’re similar and different. I don’t think that either … Continue reading Customer Experience or User Experience?
Does your website reassure and welcome?
If you have a website, it's probably to fulfil some purpose - to let people buy something, or look something up etc. This purpose can be articulated as a series of requirements (functional or cross-functional), which can be ticked off during testing. In this article I will use some buildings to illustrate a point about … Continue reading Does your website reassure and welcome?
Just detail can lead to poor documentation
I've been around computers long enough to have encountered one problem many times. It's a problem that seems to be almost built-in to computers: poor documentation. In this article I'll focus on documentation of code that you use via its source code, e.g. an API, toolkit etc. There are mental tools you possibly already use … Continue reading Just detail can lead to poor documentation
Language, discrimination and software development
I recently noticed myself using gendered language to talk about computer things where gender was irrelevant. This got me thinking about language, and prejudice and discrimination, more broadly. Beyond the obvious, decency-related reasons, being more open to how people are different from you could help you do your job in IT. Gendered magic The trigger … Continue reading Language, discrimination and software development
Organising technical documents for a good user experience
I was doing some technical writing at work recently, and I realised that I had automatically and unconsciously used a particular structure for the document. It’s not something that geeks like me are always taught – I know it only because my Dad used to help people improve their technical writing. So, in case it’s … Continue reading Organising technical documents for a good user experience
Describing films and code using pictures
This article is the combination of a few different things. For a long time, I’ve wanted to visualise in some way the details of the plot to the film Ocean’s 11. Also, occasionally I get grumpy about decrees about how people should document their code. Finally, I recently attended a talk given by my friend … Continue reading Describing films and code using pictures
Using User Experience Techniques to Introduce Mutation Testing
Someone posted a question in a Ministry of Testing Slack channel about introducing mutation testing at work. My answer is below, as someone suggested I turn it into a blog post. I've edited it slightly to make it stand on its own rather than as a response to a particular person's question. It's basically a … Continue reading Using User Experience Techniques to Introduce Mutation Testing
Usability for programmers
I recently started learning Xamarin. I should say I’ve started learning it again, because the first time I just couldn’t get into it. This time it’s going better, although I’ve still been struck by something that’s surprisingly labour-intensive and so surprisingly annoying. This made me think about the relatively cushy world I normally experience when … Continue reading Usability for programmers
Random Tech Thoughts 