Back in April, I put out a piece that described my initial feelings about The Importance of Being a Better Writer. Coincidentally, around the same time, Liz Danzico was being interviewed on the popular podcast, The Pipeline, where she also talked more about writing (it really was a coincidence! I had no idea that this podcast came out until a couple of weeks later when I finally found the time to listen). Be sure to check out the podcast here. As you may or may not know, Liz is a woman with an array of different talents. One of which is her ability to write not only interesting and enjoyable pieces, but also pieces that are very clear and concise. At one point during the podcast, I couldn’t help but notice that what Liz was saying about writing not only helped to support my previous post, but has also allowed me to expand my thinking around the topic.

So what is it that she touched on that I wanted to share with you? Dan Benjamin (the podcast host) asked Liz how important being a good writer was in the space of blogging. She went on to talk about several points. One of which was the idea of being very clear and having a clear narrative throughout your blog. Essentially she was promoting and explaining clarity in writing. She touched on this in relation to being able to make points (by using very clear language).

Now I realize that this question was in the context of blogging. But it was apparent to me that this also had a huge tie to being a user experience designer. Being able to clearly make a point, to clearly get your point of view across is essential to our work. Of course, this is essential to our user interfaces. We need to design experiences and frameworks and content that clearly explains to our user what is happening. A great experience will bring users through a narrative, almost like a story, that has a setup, middle and ending, which in turn helps to provide an intuitive and enjoyable experience.

However, the ability to clearly express your point of view is also helpful with our business partners, technology partners and other design colleagues. It goes without saying that clearly being able to state your point of view is one of the most important things when talking process, design, scope, etc. Working to become a better writer is one way to help you find clarity in writing, speaking and designing, which then helps you to become better at influencing decisions and process from a UX perspective.

The last thing that stood out to me, was when Liz talked about the ability to have one clear message that your blog or blog post wants to get across to the audience. She mentioned that being able to do so, would help you to make your point in a clear and concise way, and practicing creating these points in short twitter like stints will help to improve your writings skills. So, I created a message (in 140 characters) that I wanted to get across in the post. It is simply: Being a clear communicator is vital to being a better UXD. Writing is 1 form of communication. Thus, being a clear writer leads to great UXD.

Would love to hear your thoughts/comments on this one guys!

A few months ago I got an im from my old colleague and good friend, Joe Dyer. He asked me if I was going to go see him speak at the 2nd Annual Big Design conference in Dallas. My response? “I love ya Joe, but why would I go all the way to Dallas to attend a conference I’ve never heard of?” “Because”, he said, “it’s $100 for the full two days.” That made it a horse of a different color.

So I preceded to consider my friend’s idea, and eventually realized there was no reason for me skip Big D, especially considering the cost. I booked my trip, but remained skeptical. I mean even though there were some big names, I just couldn’t see how a conference with such low cost could be interesting and informative. Boy was I wrong!

When I arrived at SMU the first day of the conference I was seriously impressed with the setup. It was just right. Plenty of free coffee, food and swag to boot. The best part? The conference attend list was small and intimate. People were networking but it wasn’t as forced. The speakers were found amongst the crowd and it was not unusual to see them around just being a part of things. Everyone was the same, and it felt awesome.

Then came the events themselves. The first day started with a keynote by Susan Weinschenk on Psychology of Online Behavior. Then, the talks were split by Social Media, Code Development and Workshops. You could go to any track at any time. Oh and who could forget the free t-shirt you got when you answered a question?! Nathan Shedroff rounded out the day with another awesome keynote. Day 2 kicked off with a talk by Chris Bernard who spoke about John Hughes and the inspiration he provides us. Then they day split into Design, Strategy and more Workshops. Jared Spool closed out the conference with his talk on the anatomy of design decisions. And that was it: two jam packed days, no more no less. They scheduled it perfectly, I was burnt out but not completely dead. Basically there was content for all and it was very well put together. The speakers were great, and were talking about things that I don’t think I would’ve heard at other events. I’ll definitely be writing more about these in the coming weeks, but this post is dedicated to my love for Big D 10.

So I’ll end with this. Big D, I didn’t have faith, however seeing is believing. Please forgive me for my wrongs. I’ll be sure to visit you each and every year, if you’ll have me, so that I can be endowed with even more knowledge to enhance my career. You too, dear reader, should considering attending this event in the future. It was totally worth every penny, yes, all 10,000 of them.

See you next year Dallas. Can’t wait to see what 2011 holds for Big D!

Last week, I put together a new post for New York Entrepreneur Week regarding Startups and Entrepreneurs and their relationships with UX Designers. In it, I talk about the slow change that is occurring the UX field as a small number of people have begun to migrate to smaller teams in order to find roles where they can be more innovative as well as use the knowledge they’ve acquired over the years. I then talk to the owners of these small businesses and startups and explain what this migration of talent means to them. Go ahead and take a read, I’d love to hear your opinion on the matter!