TandemSeven

As the final post in this 4-part series, we will discuss Modification 4: Tactical user participation. Our previous posts (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) describe how a 'modified scrum' process can be an effective way to incorporate user-centered design techni

This post discusses Modification 3: Just Enough Documentation. Documentation is created in the form of annotated wireframes and screen specs to provide just enough guidance to developers to build what is needed, highlighting basic business rules and messa

The half-phase offset encourages rapid collaboration and input between designers and developers than a full phase or several phase offset. The half-phase offset allows designers time to think things through before the developers begin work, but still allo

By discovering "what matters" and validating "what works", I want to share how TandemSeven practices user-centered design to deliver a great user experience and great usability when creating products and services for our clients.

For me, user experience is about answering the question "Does it matter?" and usability is about answering the question "Does it work?" Great products and services come about when the answer to both questions is yes. However, a product can be succ

Content is planned for a project based on business goals and user needs. Planning includes tasks such as defining needed content, content tone, content team, media formats, user-generated content and branding.

Much has been said on the differences between a user-centered design methodology and the practice of an agile development team. In fact, many practitioners believe the two cannot coexist.

Have you heard the phrase "Form follows function" by Louis Henry Sullivan? Well, interaction design is the "function" and visual design is the "form." Interaction design is the key to making an application easy to use, but it is hard to do well.

Until we look closely around us, we often don�t see there is a significant population of people who were born with, or who have acquired deficits which affect their ability to interact with technology.

How are financial services companies reacting, and more importantly, strategically acting, in these tumultuous times? Having worked with many firms on Wall Street for over fifteen years, I've seen many different business drivers come and go.

Many large buy and sell side firms are in the midst of re-platforming core investment management, trading and risk management systems, both internal and client facing. The innovators are taking advantage of collaborative technologies.

How do you show on paper something that is dynamic? This is the challenge faced when designing rich internet applications (RIA) or very complex applications with many business rules.

Need to convince management that your usability design and evaluation work has a great return on investment? Consider sharing some helpful statistics.

Should we design user interfaces that are accessible to users with disabilities? First, let�s define some important terms. What is a disability? A disability is a functional limitation in vision, hearing, movement, manipulation (for example, fine moveme

Everything that has ever been designed is usable. At the very least, it was usable to the person who designed it. If you intend to have more than just the designer use it, you will need to take usability a little more seriously.