Kenneth Pembleton
Portfolio
Portfolio
User Experience(UX) as defined by the United States Government:
"having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations."
In addition, they claim that "UX best practices promote improving the quality of the user's interaction with and perceptions of your product and any related services."
What User Experience(UX) means to me:
While these are the guidelines included with the United States' definition, my personal definition includes some guidelines I believe should be common practice for any UX designer. A few of those guidelines are:
- Natural - No matter what is being designed, it should be designed so that the user can naturally figure out how to navigate or use it. For example, if a user has to spend too much time trying to navigate a website, that website's design has failed. In some cases, it may be necessary that the user has to learn something but this should be the case when there was not another way to more naturally design it.
- Top-Down Prioritization - The most important and relevant information for the user to see should be upfront and on the very first page. Information that does not directly connect and is less like likely to be used should be provide on subpages. These subpages should follow the same guidelines.
- Click Minimization - The user should be able to find and obtain the information they are looking for in as few clicks as possible. If the user is forced to click through unnecessary links and pages loads then the design has failed.
By keeping just these few guidelines in mind when designing, websites (or other products) should represent a design that enables a user to arrive at the website and quickly see what they may be looking for, complete the task or get the information they need without having to navigate through unrelated content, and they are able to completely this task without wasted unnecessary time clicking through links and waiting for pages to load.
The root of my passion and education started with my personal interest in computing and technology since I was a kid. From there, I always knew I wanted to be involved with technology. I took courses throughout the second half of high school and moved on to Higher Education to further pursue my undying interest.
- A.A.S. - Computer Information Systems specializing in Web Technology, from Onondaga Community College
- B.A. - Information Science with minors in Computer Science and Cognitive Science, from SUNY Oswego
- M.A. - Human Computer Interaction, from SUNY Oswego (Expected Aug 2018)