The Design Portfolio: A Managers Perspective
A design portfolio is a rare opportunity to show potential employers the depths of thinking, crispness of approach and versatility of skills. Moreover, a well-crafted portfolio isn't just showing what you've done; it's showing the potential of what you can be.
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Upcoming Talks from The Makery
At The Makery one of our core values is Design Matters. We believe that designers and our work can truly inspire and bring positive and lasting change - for ourselves, our customers and our organizations. To amplify this change, we take time to share our ideas through talks at conferences, meetups and at organizations.
For 2019, we're thrilled to be speaking in the following cities. If you are able to attend, please let us know and we can catch up! |
Designing a Company Culture
In this podcast, Makery Founding Partner McLean Donnelly joins the HR Design Podcast to go in depth on the opportunity HR has related to the gig economy, diversity and inclusion, and specific user experience tools and techniques that HR can use today to create value for your organization.
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Design Gets Down to Business
We've seen it over an over - a designer goes into a meeting with business executives, shows them a great user experience. The designer talks about the slickness of UI, the freshness of the brand creative and the quickness of the UX interactions.
The response? Blank stares. |
Service Design - The Next Frontier of Experience
From the beginning, companies such as Netflix and Warby Parker understood the needs of the people who would be using their service, and they designed their services and business models accordingly. Established companies can also benefit from service design, however, they have the added challenge of complex systems already being in place.
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Explaining Human Centered Design to Your Boss
In the design industry, we hear "human centered design" everyday - and yes, we get it. However, whether we like it or not, we've signed up for change management. We need to teach this new approach to management. When faced with that tasked, here's how we describe human centered design:
The ground that we are working under is moving, and it is moving fast... |
Dismantling Inequalities in the Creative Workplace
As The Makery is a User Experience Design firm, this topic is one pressing importance. Though the User Experience discipline has made powerful progress in gender diversity, African Americans in User Experience Design, particularly in the midwest, has much room for improvement.
Simply, our users come from all backgrounds, so should our designers. |
Lessons for a UX Design Manager
Designers are natural optimists. Where others see disorganization, designers see the prospect of beauty. Where others wish to cut corners, designers take pride in completeness and quality.
Moreover, designers are problem solvers, collaborators and, yes, a bit eccentric, too... |
Human Centered Design
If great design can imbue customers with trust, why are designers so removed from product management and the larger business strategy? McLean Donnelly, a design leader with an MBA, discusses how to to bring both worlds together to create a new model in which user experience and design align with overall business strategy and company vision to drive increased revenue and customer engagement.
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UX Case Study: Warby ParkerTo get a customer from an existing product to your product is a lot harder than it used to be. Just putting out great brand work, and a solid UI isn't enough. Every company, to really win, needs to have a signature experience -- something that is exclusively known to their product and their service....
User Experience Inspirational QuotesCreativity doesn’t need to be a singular event. It is a culture and worldview that needs constant nurturing. For yourself, your team and your organization, you must continue to share a creative worldview. Here are a collection of The Makery's favorite user experience quotations...
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UX Case Study: VenmoVenmo is a terrific example of a platform that embraces human-centered design thinking. The peer-to-peer payment experience six years ago was awful. It was like changing a 401k. Clunky. Impersonal. Awkward. Rather than building a platform that served their needs,
User Experience GlossaryWhat is UX? What is UI? It came be challenging to keep up up with all the evolving terms and best practices within user experience design and digital innovation. The Makery keeps an active glossary of important terms and
definitions within the design industry... |
User Experience Jobs in Minnesota
A core value at The Makery is to "love what you do." Sometimes, that could be working at The Makery, or, the right fit for you could be at a different company! We keep a list of user experience jobs in Minnesota to help makers love what they do. If you have an user experience job in Minnesota that you'd like us to share, just ask.
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User Experience Design Definitions
Balsamiq Mockups
A wireframing and interactive prototyping tool, available for both Windows and Mac.
Beta launch
The limited launch of a software product with the goal of finding bugs before final launch.
Branding
The process of creating and marketing a consistent idea or image of a product, so that it is recognisable by the public.
Card sorting
A technique using either actual cards or software, whereby users generate an information hierarchy that can then form the basis of an information architecture or navigation menu.
Content Management System (CMS)
Software that allows publishing, editing and maintaining content from a central interface.
Collaborative design
Inviting input from users, stakeholders and other project members.
Competitor analysis
Performing an audit or conducting user testing of competing websites and apps; writing a report that summarises the competitive landscape.
Comparative analysis
Performing an item by item comparison of two or more websites or apps to determine trends or patterns.
Content management
The suite of processes and technologies that support the collection, management, and publication of information in any medium.
Contextual enquiry
Interviewing users in the location that they use the website or app, in order to understand their tasks and challenges.
Content audit
Reviewing and cataloguing a client’s existing repository of content.
Customer Journey Map
Holistic, visual representation of your users’ interactions with your organisation when zoomed right out (usually captured on a large canvas).
Design stage
The stage in a user-centred design process where ideas for potential solutions are captured and refined visually, based on the analysis and research performed in earlier stages.
Diary Study
Asking users to record their experiences and thoughts about a product or task in a journal over a set period of time.
Experience Map
An experience map is an holistic, visual representation of your users’ interactions with your organisation when zoomed right out (usually captured on a large canvas.
Heuristic review
Evaluating a website or app and documenting usability flaws and other areas for improvement.
Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
HCI involves the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people (users) and computers.
High-fidelity prototype
A prototype which is quite close to the final product, with lots of detail and a good indication of the final proposed aesthetics and functionality.
Human factor
Also called ergonomics. The scientific discipline of studying interactions between humans and external systems, including human-computer interaction. When applied to design, the study of human factors seeks to optimise both human well-being and system performance.
A wireframing and interactive prototyping tool, available for both Windows and Mac.
Beta launch
The limited launch of a software product with the goal of finding bugs before final launch.
Branding
The process of creating and marketing a consistent idea or image of a product, so that it is recognisable by the public.
Card sorting
A technique using either actual cards or software, whereby users generate an information hierarchy that can then form the basis of an information architecture or navigation menu.
Content Management System (CMS)
Software that allows publishing, editing and maintaining content from a central interface.
Collaborative design
Inviting input from users, stakeholders and other project members.
Competitor analysis
Performing an audit or conducting user testing of competing websites and apps; writing a report that summarises the competitive landscape.
Comparative analysis
Performing an item by item comparison of two or more websites or apps to determine trends or patterns.
Content management
The suite of processes and technologies that support the collection, management, and publication of information in any medium.
Contextual enquiry
Interviewing users in the location that they use the website or app, in order to understand their tasks and challenges.
Content audit
Reviewing and cataloguing a client’s existing repository of content.
Customer Journey Map
Holistic, visual representation of your users’ interactions with your organisation when zoomed right out (usually captured on a large canvas).
Design stage
The stage in a user-centred design process where ideas for potential solutions are captured and refined visually, based on the analysis and research performed in earlier stages.
Diary Study
Asking users to record their experiences and thoughts about a product or task in a journal over a set period of time.
Experience Map
An experience map is an holistic, visual representation of your users’ interactions with your organisation when zoomed right out (usually captured on a large canvas.
Heuristic review
Evaluating a website or app and documenting usability flaws and other areas for improvement.
Human Computer Interaction (HCI)
HCI involves the study, planning, and design of the interaction between people (users) and computers.
High-fidelity prototype
A prototype which is quite close to the final product, with lots of detail and a good indication of the final proposed aesthetics and functionality.
Human factor
Also called ergonomics. The scientific discipline of studying interactions between humans and external systems, including human-computer interaction. When applied to design, the study of human factors seeks to optimise both human well-being and system performance.