As UX designers, we're always looking for the good in the world. We're constant observers of people and observers of the world so we can make it better! In this talk I will give you my tools that I use to find elegance in user experiences that others have built. And I'll share my techniques for desiging elegance into your sites, apps, and products. I promise that the discussion won't get stuck in the world of platonic theory — I'll help you find better customer problems, solve them with more elegant structres and, in your way, to create a world that's just a little bit better too! Presented at #amUX (a local ATL UX community) on 5/4/2016

1. 1
PURSUE
ELEGANCE
ZACH POUSMAN, HELPFULLY
ZACH@HELPFULLY.COM
@THINKY

3. 3
FIRST,
A STORY…

6. HI, I’M ZACH POUSMAN
Zach Pousman @thinky

7. DIGITAL PRODUCT STRATEGY
UNSCRAMBL
Zach Pousman @thinky

8. Zach Pousman @thinky

9. Zach Pousman @thinky

10. Zach Pousman @thinky

11. A DEFINITION OF
ELEGANCE

12. Simple
Powerful
Coherent
comfortable
Hat tip to Michael Zuschlag, 2011
& Matthew May ‘In Pursuit of Elegance’, 2012 Zach Pousman @thinky

13. HOW TO
PURSUE
ELEGANCE

14. Noticing elegance
Dealing with constraints
Dealing with the product ecology
Dealing with cadence
Zach Pousman @thinky

15. Constraints can be:
intrinsic
Dictated
imposed
self-imposed
Hat tip to Elster, 2000 Zach Pousman @thinky

16. label your constraints
Visual
Design
Machine
Learning
People’s
Vanity
Monetization
Support
multiple
devices

17. label your constraints
Visual
Design
Machine
Learning
People’s
Vanity
Monetization
Support
multiple
devices

18. label your constraints
Visual
Design
Machine
Learning
People’s
Vanity
Monetization
Support
multiple
devices

19. label your constraints
People’s
Vanity
Monetization
Support
multiple
devices
Zach Pousman @thinky

20. label your constraints
get to ‘know’ them
revisit them often
Zach Pousman @thinky

21. label your constraints
get to ‘know’ them
revisit them often
Zach Pousman @thinky
you can’t beat the constraints into
submission … You can, but it’s inelegant.

22. KNOW YOUR PRODUCT ECOLOGY
P
P
P
P
P
P
YOUR
PRODUCT
Functional
Emotional
Aesthetic
Symbolic
P
P
Others who see you
use the product
Social clusters
Forlizzi, J. (2008). The Product Ecology: Understanding Social Product Use and Supporting
Design Culture. International Journal of Design vol. 2, no. 1.
Product use
Zach Pousman @thinky

23. Elegance means
taking cadence
seriously.
APART OF LIFE
BEGINNER-TO-EXPERT
ROUTINE(S)
USAGE
ASESSION
AN INTERACTION
MENUANIMATION
Hat tip to Berryman & Pousman, 2013

24. SMS
Mapping cadence can help you achieve elegance
Hat tip to Berryman & Pousman, 2013

25. Elegance across
CLi, gui, nui, gestural &
conversational
paradigms
25 Zach Pousman @thinky

26. Potentially concerning
Zach Pousman @thinky

27. Zach Pousman @thinky
Potentially concerning

28. THANKS!
ZACH@HELPFULLY.COM
@THINKY