Blog, usability and panda

So there, finally, after almost a year of thinking, tinkering with Textpattern and writing drafts I’ve decided to fix the website and add a blog.

Why blog?

Well, for two reasons. First of all, I wanted to start writing. I used to write a lot in the past (book reviews, short stories, articles) but then I stopped and moved towards editing and translations. I would like to start writing again, it was fun.

The second reason is a bit more serious and that’s why I’ve been postponing the publication of the site for so long. I would like to share my ideas, views and opinions, and understand everything better. And also to give something back to the community, even though I’m still just a newbie finding her way in the UX world.

Why usability?

At first there was that fascination with web standards which led to learning a bit about accessibility and usability. It all was nice and interesting, but there were more important things and seriously, if people didn’t know how to use a website that was surely their problem, wasn’t it?

And then my degree project happened. The research on user-centred design ended up with me running my very first usability testing session. I had to test the website I’d been coding for months and it turned out to be a disaster and a slap to my ego. I knew the theory and I was really proud of my work, and yet the user was sitting there, staring at the site completely baffled and failing all tasks one by one.

That was my “click moment”. I started to read more about UCD and usability, discovering information architecture, user experience, interaction design and a bunch of other keywords along the way. It then led to more books, articles, events and to me signing up for a MSc course in Human-Computer Interaction two years later.

But for me usability is still there at the core of everything.

Why panda?

Because pandas are cute. That’s it.

~Falka, 12 December 10