Comments on: It’s in the 16th century building…

By: Marijn de Jong

Marijn de Jong — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:58:12 +0000

Hey David,

Nice use of metaphor for a common problem in our business. The problem I sometimes experience is convincing customers that they really should focus on the ‘outside in’ perspective instead of ‘inside out’ when providing information. Perhaps I will use your metaphor as an example

With regards,

Marijn de Jong

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:55:02 +0000

Thanks Ivo, don’t worry about my mum. It’s just her dry humour, she’s fine with what I wrote. Thanks for the tip on the comments form. It’s a pretty standard WordPress form so I can’t really change it. I have however added a little hint on the label now.

By: Ivo Bosma

Ivo Bosma — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:10:22 +0000

Hi David,

compliments on your very well written article. I fully agree with the point you make: too often companies think inside out.

PS good luck with your mom
PPS are you aware that the ‘website’ field of the comment form specifically requires ‘http://’ to start the link with?

By: David Hamill

David Hamill — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:11:51 +0000

Oops, hi Mum. I should also point out that my mum is often a very clear communicator. Especially when you’re in the bad books.

By: Chantal Hamill

Chantal Hamill — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:44:24 +0000

I am not amused.
Your mother.

By: Speaking to Your Audience | UX Booth

Speaking to Your Audience | UX Booth — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:01:51 +0000

[...] to Your Audience Community ResourceSpeaking to Your Audience http://www.goodusability.co.uk/2009/10/its-in-the-16th-century-building/#skipLots of organisations [...]

By: Rebecca Shipp

Rebecca Shipp — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:34:05 +0000

Lovin’ your mum – at least she is willing to find another way of explaining so you can understand. I can think of many examples where people have kept their content to what they understand because this is what they do with little regard for the poor person at the end trying to use the thing…

By: Taylor Regan

Taylor Regan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 21:08:10 +0000

Great post. I think this is a healthy reminder not just for organizations, but anyone involved in user experience related work … relax the jargon and focus on what’s truly ‘user-centric’.

By: Dorian Taylor

Dorian Taylor — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:12:33 +0000

This pattern is echoed in marketing and business management as well as user experience. Navel-gazing is endemic. Organizations often forget that they exist to be useful.

What to do, then? Understand the problem. Draw a picture of the ecosystem: The organization, its customers, users, stakeholders, employees, allies, competitors, providers and non-customers. From that, derive personae (like Brendan), scenarios and smoke out specific interactions and nuggets of salient information.

As a photographer friend of mine once said (about photography, but I think it applies): “It’s easy as long as your eyes are attached to your brain.”

By: Rob Lambert

Rob Lambert — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:06:28 +0000

Awesome post and something I can relate to well. I spent many years at university studying this very subject; i.e How to communicate more effectively with your target audience. And that was 10 years ago and still we see too many websites still confusing users.

It’s amazing how few organisations/companies understand that the customer experience is the most important aspect of the site.

Great to see someone else championing the end user.

Cool post.

Rob..