Local Projects designed interactive table surfaces to work in tandem with The Pen. Photo Credit: Ed Blake

My Favorite Method (Which Perhaps is Arguably Not Even a Method): An Interview with Christina Latina, Art Director, Local Projects

Local Projects, one of the earliest self-described experience design studios, is responsible for the successful facilitation of the abstract experiences of emotion, memory, and social connection. How then, does Local Projects continue to make successful design decisions while relying almost entirely on qualitative feedback? The answer, it seems, is a familiar one: it depends. I […]

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It’s Written All Over Your Face! Or Is it? – Facial Response Analysis

Facial Response Analysis has provided companies and researchers with a unique look into how exactly their users are feeling, allowing them to gather a large amount of data and provide a better user experience. However, this method may not always pick up on specific or unique emotional expressions, causing inaccuracy amongst evaluation.      

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How Emoticons Are Changing the Face of UX

Current consumer culture is being inundated with feedback requests in the form of user surveys and questionnaires. This may benefit the businesses requesting, but the technique is far from a user-centered approach. The Finnish company HappyOrNot is succeeding in a new form of customer feedback through the innovative use of emoticons to measure customer satisfaction.

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Issues Evident in Contemporary Internet & Social Media Research

This blog is part of the series Usability in the Real World: Ethics in Usability Research Abstract: While there are many cases for a ‘unified code’, the information science and technology industry hardly has centralized ethics codes. There are two, significant explanations that intend to offer the possibilities for the absence of the so-called ‘unified code’.

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Honesty in Ethical User Testing

Learning how to conduct respectable, ethical research is crucial skill for any aspiring usability expert. Ethics, defined by D. Resnik at the National Institute of Environmental Health Science, is “norms for conduct that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. The foundation for clean ethical research are the principles of honesty and integrity”[1]. The UXPA Code

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Accessibility For The Visually Impaired: What Happens When Screen Readers Aren’t Enough? Get a Fresh Pair of Eyes

Technologies malfunction, they break, they face errors and sometimes act unpredictability. Be My Eyes is an application that can help visually impaired users by connecting them to sighted users in real-time to assist them when technologies like screen-readers cannot.

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Can Universal Accessibility Improve Usability for All?

  Image from accesibilidadweb.com Usability and Accessibility had similarities and differences. However, when focusing on improving websites for those with specific needs it ultimately helps everyone. Unfortunately, most Usability Evaluations focus on the “average user” as the target use but when a user with a disability becomes the target user Usability will be improved for all.

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