There’s an excellent post on SVA’s MFA in Interaction Design blog that asks some prominent interaction designers to end the sentence, “So you’re thinking about becoming a designer? If I could tell you only one thing about going into the field, my advice would be ____________.” Everyone asked gave excellent responses (although Jim Coudal, Ryan Sims, and Jared Spool really spoke to me most), and it all started me thinking–how would I answer the same question?

And I surprised myself when the first thing that came to mind wasn’t a technical answer. The one thing I would advise? Don’t be afraid to push back. Meaning, if you feel at the core that a design suggestion or decision is not the right one for the project and its end users there’s probably a good reason and you should let whomever is championing it know. It could be a client or even a supervisor, it doesn’t matter. Standing up for users and for your own gut instincts is your job as a design professional, don’t shirk away from that responsibility. Always be open to the possibility that you could be wrong, of course, but at least be willing to put yourself out there and be persuaded otherwise by a good, healthy design argument.

User personas have become more prevalent in the design community over the last year or so, no longer just relegated to highly funded, data-driven projects, which is partially a reaction to shrinking budgets and shorter timelines. Anyone can develop effective personas that help place the user at the center of website experiences that lie in the sweet spot between customer needs and business objectives, even when money and time are tight. All that is needed is the right approach, including talking to the right people and asking the right questions early. In this post I’ll be discussing what personas are, the value they bring to design projects, and how to best develop them for maximum effectiveness when resources and timelines are constricted.

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Effective interface design is about the small details. A website or application can look aesthetically pleasing as a whole, but it’s always the detail work that separates the best interfaces from those that fall down in communicating a rich and rewarding user experience. Detail work, though, can be more about leaving elements out than adding visual distinction. For example, take the 2-pixel wide line that appears in WordPress dashboard interface when a user hovers over a navigation option. Visually it’s appealing and gives a sense of depth and separation between the navigation label and arrow, right?

However, what the separation implies is wholly incorrect. Would one not expect a dropdown to appear when clicking on the arrow, or some other dynamic, on-page behavior such as an accordion effect? Instead, nothing happens when a user clicks the arrow. It is treated as a separate part of the button, yet there is no corresponding interaction — so why is it there?

True, this isn’t a game-changing or absurdly terrible issue (there are far more egregious problems in the WordPress dashboard, all of which deserve their own posts), but it does help illustrate how small details can communicate meaning based upon context, a user’s mindset and convention. Pixels, just like pictures, can be worth a thousand words. Best to make sure those words are the right ones in order to create more cohesive and enjoyable products for our end users.

After numerous design revisions, layout tweaks, and copy wrangling sessions, JustinDelabar.com version 3 is now officially live to the public-at-large. Please feel free to peruse the site and let me know what you think. By no means should this be considered a final product, as there will always be small enhancements and changes added over time. But, this is a good start for a site that I believe more accurately portrays my skill sets and interests than the two previous versions.

Depending upon what browser you’re using, you may have noticed some slight CSS3-based enhancements. For instance, certain areas of the site have slightly-rounded corners that only appear in Mozilla and Webkit-based browsers (I know, gettin’ crazy over here!) I plan to utilize this site as a testing ground for some more CSS3 experimentation in the near future, including @font-face now that Firefox 3.5 supports the rule alongside Safari.

Also, this site is to become an archive of all my thoughts (well, the worthwhile ones) pertaining to user experience design. The first two versions of JustinDelabar.com were nothing more than one-page portfolios, whereas this version obviously has a heavy focus on the blog content. Time to get writing! I have several posts in the pipeline, so please stay tuned for those.

I look forward to hearing your feedback. Also, don’t forget to follow me on Twitter or get in touch about any projects you’d like to discuss.