UX vs XA

(Credits: casch52 In and Out for a while)

I recently read an article that proposes several valid points comparing the composition of user experience design to experience design. (Read: From UX to XA: what is this Experience Design dem speak of today?)

As a practitioner of UI / UX design and a student of human computer interaction, I am often shocked about the lack of understanding of the UX role within the design process. Often, the practice is to build a technical framework and then ‘throw’ UX into the flow after some concrete development has occurred, if at all (Read: 10 Most Common Misconceptions About User Experience Design). But I think that is where the problem begins.....(User) experience design is an abstract concept that is being mistaken as a concrete discipline. Yes, UX designers end up creating visualizations of concepts in the form of mockups, wireframes, mental models, or storyboards. But that does not mean that UX, which uses Photoshop or OmniGraffle or Powerpoint (yuck) consists of the aforementioned tools alone. These are the tools available to us today. When the universe advances and Adobe Photoshop CS 900 (Extended) and Microsoft Office 2090 becomes available as an internet download to our brain, then we may use completely different tools as user experience designers (yes...I said ‘we’, as in I expect to still be here in 2090). User experience design, information architecture, usability, etc. are persistent and will outlive any and all technologies that are used to promote them.

Real: User Experience is not a transitive discipline and consists of several overlapping disciplines

Imagined: Adobe CS 900 (Extended), Microsoft Office 2090

Birth of R or I

After going through what seems like purgatory to get this blog up and running, I finally have published the site. Welcome to Real or Imagined, a place where you and I can vent some thoughts and you can choose whether something can or cannot exist.

I look forward to posting many things here (i.e. concepts, ideas, thoughts, etc.), conduct book and content reviews for the sake of objective opinions, and several topics that are important in my life (i.e. Information architecture, HCI, information design, interaction design, user experience, philanthropy, etc.).

Let's get started...