Whether you’re designing a complex digital product or operating a simple manual tool, some things never change. Take these essential user traits into account to avoid roadblocks and surprises. — User Lessons from the Humble Can Opener You probably keep a few canned items in your pantry: beans, tomatoes, soup, maybe some pumpkin pie filling this time of year. Non-perishable, ready-to-eat food is convenient; it helps us get dinner on the table (and pies in the oven) exponentially faster. However, cans are metal. Unless you’re Edward Scissorhands…

Your digital products should help you meet key business goals — but not at the expense of your users’ experience. — The Wrong Way to Keep Customers Forward-thinking organizations are laser-focused on reaching their business goals. They have endless conversations and strategies devoted to acquiring and retaining customers. Their digital products must support their goals, but often sites and apps prioritize acquisition and retention over users.

Some digital product improvement ideas are tried-and-true and stand the test of time. But others, while they seem like UX winners at first glance, harbor hidden pitfalls. — Not-So-Bright Digital Product Ideas Electrified water–which you’ve probably never heard of — was a real invention from the early 1900s that involved running an electrical current through a bowl of water, supposedly giving that water new, magical properties. …

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…