User Experience Strategy
August 12, 2008 at 4:05 am | In Business, Design, Process, Product development, Project management, Risk management, Strategy, Usability | 1 CommentI recently posted the following question to a group of Ux professionals: What is the single most important activity that a user experience group can do to increase its effectiveness and influence? I asked everyone to draw from their real-world experience, NOT theory or ideals.
There were a number of thoughtful, practical responses…
Onshore | Offshore: Don’t Break The Product
June 14, 2008 at 4:42 pm | In Process, Product development, Project management, Risk management, Usability | Leave a CommentTags: Process, Product development, Project management, Risk management, Usability
This article was originally published in Interactions magazine Nov + Dec 2007
Introduction
Offshore outsourcing (offshoring) for software development is a trend that is on the rise. The primary drivers of this trend are mostly economic. When the tech bubble burst in 2001, software companies saw their revenues drop while having to compete aggressively to win new business. In this economic climate, companies sought ways to cut costs while still delivering high quality products.
The technical workforce represents a significant portion of the operating expenses for a software company. On average, the fully loaded costs for a software engineer in Asia or Eastern Europe range between 30 – 50% less than their U.S. or European counterparts. And it’s not simply a matter of expenses. Engineers in these lower costs regions have proven their technical capabilities on numerous projects.
Continue reading Onshore | Offshore: Don’t Break The Product…
User Experience & Risk Management
June 14, 2008 at 4:13 pm | In Business, Product development, Project management, Risk management | 2 CommentsTags: Business, Product development, Project management, Risk management
Risk mitigation is one of the many benefits that a well run User Experience practice brings to technology development companies. There are several dimensions to be considered:
Effectiveness: Understand Users
Does your company talk with and observe the end users of your products as part of its design research program? If not, it could be introducing serious risk into the business. Neglecting end users in design introduces a number of potential problems:
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