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…
They Say that Tech is Hard to Use
June 14, 2008 at 3:57 pm | In Complexity, Design, Strategy, Technology, Usability | Leave a CommentTags: Design, Legacy, Process, Technology
The Economist has an excellent series of articles on how difficult technology is to use. The topics covered include: complexity, ubiquitous computing, simplicity, enterprise data integration, outsourcing, web services, featuritis, anthropological research as the basis for product design, and a whole lot more.
I say, that it’s relatively easy to design a small-scale system like the iPod/iTunes when you can start with a clean slate, and your executive management understands the value of a simple and elegant design language and–more importantly–demands it.
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