UX research goes beyond usability testing. To assess usefulness, researchers use interviews, contextual inquiry, diary studies, & prototyping. These methods help understand user wants, needs, and desires, and inform product development & strategic planning.

In my UX career, I learned: 1) avoid large projects; 2) assign an internal expert; 3) involve devs in ideation; 4) plan for post-engagement; 5) request detailed specs; 6) budget for agency during implementation; 7) focus on the Statement of Work; 8) use cloud tools for reviews. Planning and involvement are key.

Design Justice focuses on centralizing marginalized people in design processes, using collaborative practices to address community challenges. It aims to engage "edge cases" and co-create with communities, challenging assumptions and ensuring a more inclusive design approach.

Recently, I experienced a toxic environment from a misapplied Agile process -- it hurt strategy, creativity, and the overall design process. By treating such culture challenges like a design problem, we can hit pause to assess the situation, create space for improvement, solicit feedback from stakeholders, define clear expectations, and seek an outside perspective if needed.

It's National Dog Day! 🐾🎉 Our designer Jie Tang created adorable dog avatars: Frenchie the French Bulldog, Bueller the Black Lab, Penny the Pug, & Corn the Corgi. Cartoonified & full of personality, these canine cuties are perfect to share with dog lovers! 🐶💖✨

Designing for enterprise requires focus on impact, certainty, and user expertise. Consider whether the app is sovereign or transient, as it affects design. Enterprise users are experts needing high data density and customizable UIs. Minimize extra steps to make the app more efficient and user-centric. Design for confidence in these complex systems.

“Siri, what is machine learning?” “Here’s what I found on the web for ‘_What is mushroom landing_.’”

As a movie critic's rating reflects their experience, so does a user's experience with a product. To get a fuller understanding, researchers should consider factors like self-efficacy, personal beliefs, and past experiences. Shifting focus from product to user reveals richer insights.

In Part II of my series on creating product evangelists, I emphasize the importance of understanding users' needs through UX research. Combining qualitative and quantitative methods reveals users' behavior and thought processes, helping optimize use cases and providing delightful experiences.

A few months ago, I attended World IA Day and was inspired by [JD Vogt](https://twitter.com/jdvogt)'s talk on Designing for Intelligence. I began examining my own thinking process as a designer and developed strategies for internalizing and externalizing information. By improving my ability to capture and communicate information, I can tackle complexity and create more effective designs.

Do you ever find yourself talking nonstop about a product or experience to friends, family, and strangers? Telling them they “have to try” this new thing that you’re obsessed with? Reflect on how powerful it is that you would be so blown away by what a product brings to your life as a user that you cannot wait to share it with everybody.

At NASA's Big Think conference, we used graphic facilitation to capture presentations on human-computer interaction and user perspective in space-related fields. This method promotes active listening, visualizes information, helps revisiting information, and summarizes findings, making complex data more digestible and memorable.