The UX Akron team is always seeking fresh perspectives on User Experience, Product Design, Interface Design, and Content Strategy. Here’s what we’re enjoying right now:
💻 Blog Posts:
5 Things I Learned About Leadership from the Death & Rebirth of Microsoft by Dare Obasanjo
How much influence does a leader really have? A TON, especially over the culture of a workplace, which impacts everything that comes out of it. In this post, Obasanjo talks about what Microsoft’s Lost Decade was like from the inside, and what it was like after. An illuminating read.
Don’t make “data-driven product decisions”—build a data-driven semantic environment by Pavel Samsonov
A fantastic look at why it can feel like you’re speaking past coworkers when presenting data insights. Samsonov talks about how companies develop collective mental models, and how no amount of data-points can hope to dislodge these assumptions. To change people’s minds, you’ll need to change the semantic environment of your organization.
“When you over-rule designers’ judgment about users’ needs, you are telling them to spend less energy solving problems and more energy selling you on solutions.” –Jonathan Korman
🎧 Podcast:
Rosenfeld Review Podcast
https://rosenfeldmedia.com/podcasts
Influential industry publisher Lou Rosenfeld hosts a variety of guests on topics of import to UX and Product Design. Recent episodes have offered interesting perspectives on both working with AI and working on AI. This show is a treasure trove of names and concepts of import in our field.
📚 Book:
The Art of Explanation: How to Communicate with Clarity and Confidence by Ros Atkins
Clear communication is essential to rallying your team, persuading your boss, and having impact in your role. BBC journalist Ros Atkins shares what’s he’s learned about effective messaging.
📱In Pop Culture:
Controversy around Crush! Apple’s iPad Pro Commercial
It turns out human being have a deep emotional connection to the physical world and don’t enjoy seeing objects that signify their culture being obliterated by a hydraulic press. Why is that sentiment perpetually surprising to tech people?
This ad was great in a lot of ways, and while its easy to see the elegance of the visual message (“You can do all these things with our tidy, clean, ultra-thin device!”,) and there is value to controversy in advertising (when was the last time anyone cared about an Apple ad?,) the general reaction to its release highlights how the insider nature of the industry leads to big, faulty assumptions. Early Aughts Apple was able to capitalize on the promise of “culture in your pocket”; but now? The optimism is gone, and a reckoning with how absolutely under attack non-tech people feel about the role technology plays in their lives is in order.
Have you read, watched, or listened to something really great and UX-y lately? We’d love to share it!
