Linknote — — 125 words

Content design — Human-centred approaches — User experience — Web

Work:

Join our team as a Content Designer — Website and Communications Blog

View of Edinburgh Castle from our office

Come and work with our team!

We are looking for three experienced Content Designers to join the University of Edinburgh’s Website and Communications team as we embark on major projects to launch our new web publishing platform and services.

If you’re passionate about using evidence-based approaches to create great content that meets users’ needs, we want to hear from you.

There are three positions available. [Find out more in the blog post](https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/website-communications/join-our-team-as-a-content-designer/). If you have any questions, just get in touch with me.

For my personal view on what it’s like working with the University of Edinburgh, check out my previous blog post: [Why I value working in user experience in higher education](https://duncanstephen.net/why-i-value-working-in-user-experience-in-higher-education/).

Linknote — — 92 words

Human-centred approaches — Media — User experience

Journalism and design: Building solutions to our greatest challenges — Catherine Woodiwiss — Modernist Studio

A person looking at a sea creature in an aquarium

An exploration of the similarities and differences between journalism and design, and how the two disciplines can support each other.

Like journalists, designers research human behaviour, through interview and observation, in an attempt to understand complex problems…

But where journalists focus on content, designers focus on experience — what and who the content is for, how it’s delivered, and how behaviour may change as a result. And where journalists synthesise these insights to tell stories, designers push into making solutions.

See also: The journalism and user research relationship — Gregg Bernstein — Vox Product

Linknote — — 85 words

Human-centred approaches — User experience

Types of design focus — Ben Holliday

Useful definitions outlining the differences between user-centred design, person-centred design and human-centred design.

If user-centred design is more functional in terms of understanding and meeting needs. Person-centred design is more holistic. This means that it’s more focussed on emotional needs and goals. Human-centred design is then about thinking beyond individual needs and more towards the collective needs of a system, place, or community.

See also: When individual experience isn’t enough — what shared spaces teach us about the challenge and opportunity for user experience

Note — — 55 words

User experience — Web

Work:

People collaborating with sticky notes on a flipchart

[We’re looking for a University of Edinburgh PhD student intern to work with us next year](https://edin.ac/3301QFy). This is an exciting time to join the Website and Communications team, and an opportunity to help us improve high-profile web services like MyEd and the University website. [Take a look](https://edin.ac/3301QFy)!

Note — — 106 words

User experience — User research

Work:

IxDA Scotland logo

I’ll be speaking at the next IxDA Scotland community meetup about our user research with the [Learn Foundations project](https://duncanstephen.net/tag/learn-foundations/).

> Duncan’s talk will take us through how [the University of Edinburgh’s User Experience Service](https://www.ed.ac.uk/information-services/user-experience) has undertaken a comprehensive programme of user research supporting a project aimed at improving students’ experience accessing course materials digitally. Find out how they developed a programme of multiple user research methods to understand what students really need.

Time: Wednesday 4 December
Venue: Amazon Development Centre, 2–4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh

Full details about the IxDA community meetup event

Maybe see you there?

Linknote — — 103 words

User experience

Repeat after me: Preference testing is not A/B testing — David Travis — Userfocus

Person holding up two photographs

Reasons why you shouldn’t simply ask users to choose which design they prefer.

It turns out people aren’t good at answering this kind of question. People don’t know why, or they don’t care enough to answer, or they may not want to tell you. When asked for an opinion, most people will form one on the spot. Such opinions aren’t carefully considered or deeply held. It’s not that UX researchers don’t care what people like: it’s just risky making important design decisions based on fickle opinions.

User experience isn’t about discovering what people think they want. It’s about finding out what they need.