What is the difference between Customer Experience Design and User Experience Design? That’s what I discuss in today’s vlog. Links Transcript So I found myself reading and executive order from the president of the United States of America. It was an executive order on federal customer experience. Which made me think, like what the heck […]
How to Create Simple User Personas (Ep. 1)
How you design better websites, reports, presentations, toolkits, and all sorts of other things, really does start with the audience. But what does actually mean? In this vlog I’ll talk you through creating super simple user personas that can help you design better information products. Transcript All right. So in the research and evaluation world, […]
Good Intentions, Bad Websites
Dear research and evaluation community, we have a website problem. The problem? Many of our websites suck. I’m talking about resource sites, toolkits, organization homepages, project websites, communities of practice, association sites, learning communities, online reports, etc… As an evaluator who has been developing websites personally and professionally for 15 years now, I wanted to […]
Designing an Executive Summary with Canva
Design is a process. So is creativity. In today’s post I’ll walk you through the process I would use to design an executive summary style report using Canva. Step 1. Simple Mini Personas Take a notecard and draw a little picture of a person. Don’t worry about the art, stick figures are fine. Then give […]
Your report is not broken.
Is nobody reading your report? Have you put tons of work into something then shared it out to the world, only to hear nothing in return? It might be easy to think that you’re to blame. If only you knew how to design a better report or create better charts, everything would be different… But […]
Information design is not data visualization.
Referring to data visualization as information design is like referring to survey design as evaluation. Yes, evaluators tend to design surveys. But there is way more to being an evaluator than designing a survey. Learning how to be an information designer requires more than learning how to create nice looking charts, infographics, presentations, and reports. […]
What’s so special about UX research with Joanna Prout
Over the coming year I hope to spend a little time on this blog showcasing some of the members of my Information Design Academy. In today’s post we’ll hear from Joanna Prout. Joanna is currently exploring a career transition from research and evaluation into the field of user experience research. I asked her to share some […]
Where we Fail
In today’s post I want to address one those elephants in the room. It’s about the biggest reason why data people have trouble producing creative work. We are all creative, but some of us have way more practice. You want to know what I’ve learned in my decade long transition from data analyst to information […]
Flirting with Burnout
This is one of those oversharing kinds of blog posts filled with me being vulnerable. If you don’t like reading about people’s feelings, please feel free to skip this post. I love my work. But I also struggle. When burnout approaches. It’s now been over six and a half years since I first left the […]
How to use AI to make your reports readable [ChatGPT & the Hemingway App]
Are you a little hesitant about all this AI stuff? Me too. But these new AI tools can actually be pretty dang useful and easy to use. For the most part I’m a new tech skeptic. Before I add another tool to my personal toolkit, I want it to be beyond that early adoption phase. […]
Creating Shadow Logic Models with Celestyna Galicki
Over the coming year I hope to spend a little time on this blog showcasing some of the interesting work created by members of my Information Design Academy. In today’s post we’ll look at something created by Celestyna Galicki that we started calling a Shadow Logic Model. Most of the words (and the Shadow Logic […]
Thinking like a UX Designer: UX Problems
Do you know how to identify a UX Problem with your reports or communication designs? It’s not all that hard. But first, a story. The door without the handle I took this picture last week on my way back into the office after taking my dog for a walk. What you might not see at […]