Digital product gateway processes (sign-up, log-in, and password recovery) are often confusing and exasperating. Product teams must take steps to improve the access experience, reducing this commonly felt pain. The access experience is broken. Most people struggle with basic digital product access. Activities that product teams take for granted (e.g., sign-up, log-in, password recovery) confound…

Most people struggle mightily accessing digital products. Basic tasks like sign-up, login, and password recovery confound, frustrate, and enrage users. Before we can tackle this massive problem, we must understand it. The Vexing User Access Problem I am the default technology support guy for my family. This honor falls to me because I am “in…

You can’t make easy-to-use digital products by taking shortcuts. You must fully commit to serving users excellently and getting to the root of your problems. No Fast Passes to Quality Sites and Apps Many organizations know their digital products are underperforming based on the endless stream of user complaints. …

The best intranets understand employees—how they think about their time and what they need to do their jobs. Successful Intranets Listen to Users Your internal tools, especially your intranet, power your organization. Or, at least, they’re supposed to. But each organization must consider extremely complex, interwoven needs that involve lots of moving parts—federal regulations, multiple…

When organizations expect developers to do and be everything (content strategists, information architects, user researchers, and designers), it shows. Developers Can’t Do It All Yes, developers are singularly amazing and critical to your digital product. They perform highly specialized tasks and provide essential expert input. But they can also be forced to wear many hats—and…

Poor content strategy is often the crux of usability issues. It’s why we see users struggle to understand sites and apps. And it’s difficult to have excellent content strategy when you don’t know what it is. Content Strategy What Now? If you asked ten different digital product teams what content strategy is, they would…

You need to prove your UX decisions are worthwhile and justify future digital product improvements on a larger scale. Do this easily by measuring the right things at the right times (and keep measuring). Metrics Help Quantify Your UX Investment The intangible benefits of a user-centered approach will be obvious to anyone who engages with your…

Over the past two decades, I’ve learned a ton about making user-centered apps, sites, and software. You can shortcut the slings and arrows of hard-won knowledge by taking these reflections to heart. 20 There are a zillion opinions about UX but one simple definition. That depends on whether you are talking to an agency, development shop, in-house team, off-shore group, HR, a…

When envisioning a digital product, each strategic decision must point back to your company’s high-level goals. How Strategy Shaped the Rise of a World Wonder Walls are built to protect. So, when a Chinese ruler of old first united the many disparate, regionally-purposed walls to form the Great Wall we think of today, they did so for one main…