Working as a User Experience professional, you may find yourself in a positon where you need to convince colleagues why they should care about the User Experience of your products. This article identifies three reasons why, now more than ever, User Experience should be an integral part of your project lifecycle.

Expectation

Users expect a far more intuitive/engaging experience than in the past. Look back at technology from even 5 years ago and see how far we have come. In the past you may not be happy about it, but you would accept the fact that you will have to read reams of documentation before you can start using your shiny new toy.

In social psychology, fundamental attribution error (FAE) states that when an individual makes a mistake such as being late they will attribute the blame externally, i.e. “I am late because the traffic was terrible”. When an individual encounters a similar situation in relation to another person they are more likely to attribute the blame on the individual, i.e. “They are late because they are lazy/disorganised”.

There are various explanations as to why this tendency exists, but I have noticed in user testing situations it is often reversed.

What is WAI-ARIA

WAI-ARIA is a technical specification published by W3C that specifies how to increase the accessibility of web pages, particularly those of a dynamic nature. It stands for Web Accessibility Initiative - Accessibility Rich Internet Applications

Who should use WAI-ARIA?

People who will potentially find understanding and using WAI-ARIA useful include: content creators, web editors and front end developers. When referring to the different users who implement WAI-ARIA we will use the term developers from now on.

December seemed to go past in a bit of a blur. Most of it was spent trying to get projects to a point where I could leave them over the Christmas break. During December I was lucky enough to guest post for a couple of leading UX blogs:

• Usabilla: From User Testing to an Integrated UX Approach
• Paul Olyslager: The Persuasive Web and the Effect on UX

First impressions

I had a brief look at the new BBC home page while it was in BETA and I have finally gotten round to writing up my first impressions. The opinions expressed are based on my personal experience after sitting down and reviewing the homepage.

I like the new look. As often is the case with such a major re-design I now find it a little unfamiliar and have to find my feet again. It now looks much more like a magazine or an ipad app. I really like the use of white space, but worry that it may have lost a bit of its structure. I have broken down the areas of the page below.