• Think Vitamin » ‘UX Professional’ isn’t a Real Job – Ryan Carson’s highly controversial post stating that UX professional isn’t a real job, and web designers should be able to do UX. I don’t agree with him, but I see where he’s coming from. Lots of interesting comments as well.
  ux userexperience

• Andy Budd::Blogography: Why I think Ryan Carson doesn’t believe in UX Professionals, and why I do – Andy Budd’s excellent response to Ryan Carson’s article. I agree with pretty much everything he says here.
  ux userexperience

• On defining UX | Mark Boulton – “What we’re see­ing is a matur­ing of a term that rep­res­ents dif­fer­ent things. It rep­res­ents some­thing dif­fer­ent for our cli­ents, to the web industry as a whole and to the sub­set of pro­fes­sion­als who have been prac­ti­cing user exper­i­ence design for the past 20 years.”
  ux userexperience

• The pollution of UX : Cennydd Bowles on user experience – Another response to Ryan Carson’s article.
  ux userexperience

• UX professional is a real role, and an important one | Bradley Wright – Yet another response to the Ryan Carson article.
  ux userexperience

• » UX Australia ‘10 Report: Day One Johnny Holland – It's all about interaction » Blog Archive – I do rather love conference wrap up posts, they're a great way to keep up with what's happening and give me inspiration for conferences to add to my 'wishlist'. And this one delivers as always – I now have a new favourite quote: Saying a website is ‘usable’ is like saying dinner was ‘edible’ – Jared Spool
  ux conference uxaustralia
• 5 negative perceptions about Information Architects and how to defeat them – How to Design for the End-User – "nformation Architects often struggle to stay relevant to business clients and internal project teams due to their academic approach to achieving business objectives. Way too often, Information Architecture presentations fail to resonate with internal and external stakeholders due to how methods, findings, and solutions are presented. "
  ux ia informationarchitects attitudes
• Interactive Sketching Notation – linowski.ca – The interactive sketching notation is an emerging visual language which affords the representation of interface states and event-based user actions.
  interactiondesign interaction ux wireframe sketching ia notation
• Free Wireframing Kits, UI Design Kits, PDFs and Resources – Smashing Magazine – Yet another collection of stencils for iPads, iPhones, smart phones, social media and more.
  wireframes templates iphone mobile resources android ux
• In Defense Of A/B Testing – Smashing Magazine – Looks at different criticisms of A/B testing that have surfaced on the Web recently and explains why they are unfounded.
  testing a/b ux

• Complete Beginner’s Guide to Content Strategy | UX Booth – If Information Architecture helps us say “where” content lives, Content Strategy tells us decide “when” it lives.
  content strategy ux contentstrategy
• 5 Rules of Thumb for A/B Split Testing – How to improve your A/B testing results.
  ux process testing

• Want Magazine – New quarterly online magazine. Release 1 has interviews with Jakob Nielsen, Don Norman, Luke Wroblewski and so many more.
  ux design magazine interaction usability userexperience
• UX Exchange – Q&A site for user experience professionals – This looks like a great way to get answers to UX questions.
  ux community design userexperience
• Lynda Elliott: Personae as a business intelligence tool – Personae are more than just demographic segments and marketing data.
  personas ux userexperience

• Three Questions You Shouldn't Ask During User Research – "Learning to focus on the right questions can help you get the most out of each session."
  usability testing ux research userexperience questions

• The $300 Million Button – An old article, but one worth keeping in mind. How Changing a Button Increased a Site's Annual Revenues by $300 Million.
  usability ux webdesign forms

• Brand&Digital – Brand&Digital – The problem with UX and Design in the digital world –
  ux design ia process
• Capturing Customer Data on the Web | SpyreStudios – Four things to keep in mind when capturing customer data online.
  data ux datacapture
• User Experience Books for Beginners | UX Booth – A list of 10 books for UX beginners. Some of these I already own and/or have read but some are new to me and will be getting added to the Amazon wishlist quicksmart!
  ux books usability design userexperience
• Overcoming the Obstacles of Usability Testing | UX Booth – How to overcome the most common obstacles to usability testing.
  usability testing ux

• Dark Patterns: Black Hat, Anti-Usability Design Patterns – "This pattern library is dedicated to Dark Patterns: user interfaces that have been designed to trick users into doing things they wouldn’t otherwise have done…. Dark Patterns are different – they are not mistakes, they are carefully crafted with a solid understanding of human psychology, and they do not have the user’s interests in mind. "
  ux usability patterns blackhat
• Designing for Faceted Search – Do's and don'ts when designing for faceted search.

  "Faceted search can just add more complexity and frustrate your users if not considered from the user perspective and carefully thought through with sound usability principles in mind. Faceted search is raising the bar in terms of findability and how well you execute will determine whether your site meets the new standard. "
  ux ia facets navigation search

• The Online Wireframe App – HotGloo – Yet another online wireframing tool. Unfortunately not free, but a 30 day free trial is available.
  wireframe ux online tools ia

• What's in a Name? | UX Magazine – How confusion about terminology can disrupt projects, and 10 recommendations on how to avoid it.
  ux personas templates terminology

I think that courtesy, politeness and niceness is a vanishing art and it saddens me. Taking 5 or 10 seconds to turn and apologise to the person you’ve just stepped on is not going to impair your ability to get where you need to go. Similarly, taking 5 seconds to acknowledge said apology with a smile and nod is not going to make you late.

Instead doing these things will improve your day. I always feel more positive and upbeat if I smile a lot. Not to the point of freakishness, but even a single smile in the morning on the way to work improves the journey.

And it’s the same at work. If you take the seconds to smile you’re contributing to a pleasant working environment, whilst also making yourself feel better. If you’re interrupted, make the effort to not be visibly annoyed and instead be pleasant to the person interrupting you. It is possible to be pleasant whilst also pointing out that you’re terribly busy.

We’re all terribly busy these days. But taking a few extra seconds here and there for pleasantries and courtesy makes everything that little bit more worthwhile.