Kyle Wiebers

Let’s face it, improving user experience is a never ending job that usually leaves me grabbing at straws. I am always looking for new sources of inspiration. Recently I tried a new holistic approach for finding user experience inspiration that led to some success for a project I am currently working on.  I hope that these new sources of user experience inspiration can benefit you as much as they have for me.

Get Lost

One of the first things I did when I hit my UX barrier was to try something new to observe how I experienced.  During this process, I got lost which was much more beneficial to me.  I learned what type of information I looked for when struggling to realize where I am.  This experience was so unique, I discussed it with a few friends and fellow developers to see how unique my thoughts were.

Go to a Museum

I’m unsure what the web has done to my mind and way of thinking, but whenever in a new environment I consciously recognize my user experience within the environment. I realized how helpful this was when I went to the New York City Museum of Natural History. Never have I been to a physical place on Earth that serves so many people and has such poor navigation aids.  I recommend every Web UX Team go to a large museum or complex building and look at it through your eyes and then watch other people experience it, it’s like usability testing on human behavior.

People Watch (or talk to them)

This is the equivalent of usability testing the environment.  Decisions shaped by behaviors is interesting to witness firsthand.  This should be your goal when you people watch.  Find out why people make the decisions they do in their environments.  I found the best places to conduct educational people watching are places where decision making occurs.  Watching people struggle to make a decision is not only entertaining, but educational.  Observing how different people reason through their decision process can give you priceless knowledge of the human psyche.   Leverage this knowledge when trying new conversion strategies.

Use New Web Applications

Innovation is happening everywhere on the web.  I applied to all the betas I could and used new up and coming web applications thoroughly to see how the app flows for new users.  After 30 minutes of use for multiple applications I took away many different “pieces” of user experience that I could weave in with my current project.  Note: I’m not advocating for directly copying web applications experience methods verbatim, but you should be aware of them and how you can incorporate pieces of the experience onto your application or site.

The Good Stuff

Take the ideas presented in this post and use them as a base when looking for new sources of User Experience.  I’ve seen designers limit their sources of UI/UX inspiration to just other web based applications.  I’d advocate that you use these as a base and take inspiration from real life experiences to make your application feel more natural to users.  Incorporating elements that capture real experiences that users can have make your application more convergent and you may start the next big UX trend in the process.