“All designers have an influence on the future of the earth through their work, and they can all work towards more sustainable solutions and to optimize the products, services or environments they work with within the limitations of the task at hand… Fundamentally speaking, sustainable design solutions are about making informed choices where concerns for the planet carry equal weight to concerns for the user and the bottom line of the client for whom the design is developed.” – Danish Designers Manifesto

This quote is from the fantastic design manifesto from danishdesigners.com. Read the full report here (PDF).

Thanks to @behoff for tweeting about the report.

1. Designers have to be open to the changes that technology is making in our discipline
2. Designers exist to come in, assess what has been failing, and offer up solutions for the future
3. Focus on the nuances and details of the design craft itself

1. Designers have to be open to the changes that technology is making in our discipline
2. Designers exist to come in, assess what has been failing, and offer up solutions for the future
3. Focus on the nuances and details of the design craft itself

“Old-school usability espouses the idea that user activities are onerous tasks that they want to get out of the way as soon as possible. While this is true in some cases, usability is now widely understood to be more of a hygiene factor–something that can cause dissatisfaction if missing, but its presence cannot take you beyond lack of dissatisfaction.” – Harry Brignull

Read more in Harry’s article “‘Just add an egg’ – Usability, User Experience and Dramaturgy”

This quote was submitted by an inspireUX reader. Use the form on the right sidebar to submit a quote that may appear in a future post!

1. Findability precedes usability. You can’t use what you can’t find.
2. As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions
3. Usability testing is a means of understanding the goodness of a design’s fit to the intended users’ problems

1. Findability precedes usability. You can’t use what you can’t find.
2. As UX designers, we orchestrate a complex series of interactions
3. Usability testing is a means of understanding the goodness of a design’s fit to the intended users’ problems

“For a solution to be truly sustainable and good it must have a positive return to the environment and society. At the heart of any design problem is a question: Are we trying to make something less bad or are we trying to make things better?… It’s not just about solving for the negative; It’s about creating a positive.” – Eric Wicks

This quote is from Eric’s article “Solving Better Problems.”

1. We should treat design as a verb, a process, a way of creating positive change in the world
2. As designers we are helping to define the culture of our society
3. Design, in the end, is about creating better things for people

1. We should treat design as a verb, a process, a way of creating positive change in the world
2. As designers we are helping to define the culture of our society
3. Design, in the end, is about creating better things for people

I’m happy to  launch some exciting new updates to the site:

* Completely new design including rotating featured quotes and a two-column presentation of most recent quotes.  This redesign focused on making the site cleaner in order to better showcase the quotes.

* Quote archive - browse all quotes or view by topic or author. This is to complement the gallery, and to make it easier to browse all quotes at once.

* The submit a quote feature has been moved to the sidebar on all blog pages to (hopefully) make it faster and easier to submit quotes.

There are a few quirks in IE that I’m still working through–primarily on the quote archive page.  I’ll also be making other small tweaks to the site over the next week or so.

Thanks to everyone who gave me feedback on my site preview last week.  I tried to incorporate as much of your feedback as possible.

Let me know if you have any comments about the new design and features!

No related quotes found.

“The problems that products are designed to solve require the use of many design disciplines. Some of these design efforts work directly at the user’s interaction while others are employed to address the business’ bottom line. But all of these design considerations affect, and sometimes create, an intended experience for the product… I encourage us change our discourse to include the idea of a product experience, instead of the experience that only deals with the user.” – Andrew Crow

This quote is from Andrew’s article “A product’s experience goes beyond User Experience.”

1. Startups that “get” UX and design are likely create a more successful product than those that do not
2. To create great user experiences we need to focus on the now
3. Focus most on what we want to happen after the UX

1. Startups that “get” UX and design are likely create a more successful product than those that do not
2. To create great user experiences we need to focus on the now
3. Focus most on what we want to happen after the UX

“It is not enough to create and understand powerful systems; you must understand how other people understand your system and confine their interaction—or educate them—to appropriate complexity.” – Tyler Hilker

Thanks to Tyler for tweeting his original quote! (part 1, part 2)

1. Design combines art, scientific complexity, and usefulness
2. In UX design, mindset is more important than process
3. Designers must consider unseen elements such as social relationships, power dynamics, and cultural rules

1. Design combines art, scientific complexity, and usefulness
2. In UX design, mindset is more important than process
3. Designers must consider unseen elements such as social relationships, power dynamics, and cultural rules

“The web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effect – to help people work together – and not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world.” – Weaving The Web by Tim Berners-Lee

Read more in Tim’s book Weaving The Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web.

Thanks to interaction-design.org for pointing to this quote!

1. Simply using Web 2.0 technologies does not guarantee an optimal experience
2. Good design produces something the world didn’t know it was missing
3. In designing tools we are designing ways of being

1. Simply using Web 2.0 technologies does not guarantee an optimal experience
2. Good design produces something the world didn’t know it was missing
3. In designing tools we are designing ways of being

“It’s the designer’s job to think about your site the way a user does, and tell them what they need to hear, and when they need to hear it… Design is about communication, and it takes more than pixels to communicate.” – Derek Powazek

This quote is from Derek’s A List Apart article “Calling All Designers: Learn to Write!”

1. Creating a shared reference with customers will drive business

1. Creating a shared reference with customers will drive business

As you may have noticed, inspireUX’s design has remained the same since it launched almost 2 years ago.  As a result of the site’s growing readership and continuous evolution, I’ve been spending the past few months working on redesigning this site.  I have posted a few static screenshots of my proposed redesign.  I’d love any feedback that you have!

View the inspireUX redesign preview!

No related quotes found.

“All new technologies develop within the background of a tacit understanding of human nature and human work. The use of technology in turn leads to fundamental changes in what we do, and ultimately in turn what it is to be human. We encounter the deep questions of design when we recognize that in designing tools we are designing ways of being.” – Understanding Computers and Cognition. A New Foundation for Design by Terry Winograd and  Fernando Flores

Read more by purchasing Terry and Fernando’s book Understanding Computers and Cognition. A New Foundation for Design.  Thanks to interaction-design.org for sharing this quote.

1. Understanding the specific activity we’re supporting is critical to good design
2. Design strategy is about understanding and meeting needs and aspirations
3. We need to observe behavior in order to support it in design

1. Understanding the specific activity we’re supporting is critical to good design
2. Design strategy is about understanding and meeting needs and aspirations
3. We need to observe behavior in order to support it in design