Commentary

Architecture and User Experience (Part 1: The Politics of Architecture)
Architecture is fundamentally about politics. Whether the architect is fighting for the rights of neighbors to maintain their neighborhood’s character, or acting on behalf of those in power, the architect’s work has significant impact on the lives of thousands of people.

Architecture and User Experience (Part 2: Architecture As Strategy)
Architects generally have a “seat at the table” simply because seating them anywhere else has proven unacceptably costly to owners. Economics make the Architect a strategic player.

Architecture and User Experience (Part 3: A Sustainable Process of Design)
If we are complicit with those in authority who pay lip service to user experience, but fail to invest in it, we fail in our responsibilities to the people who matter most to the business, the customers. We not only fail to do our job, we fail to engage in an essential political process: shifting the business to pay attention to its users.

Architecture and User Experience (Part 4: Architecture and Activism)
How do we shed light on the value of user experience as a strategic part of the business?  How do we get management to open up before the business is in crisis and it’s too late?

Architecture and User Experience (Part 5: An Agile Process)
Until business incorporates user experience as a component of strategy (as it will eventually) we must work hard to craft good luck. Guerrilla techniques, often agile in nature, can go a long way to institutionalize change.

Architecture and User Experience (Part 6: An Ecology of Use)
User Experience Architecture is a process of identifying, describing and ultimately designing the ecology of use for a product or service.

Architecture and User Experience (Part 7a: Getting to Know the Problem)
Designing solutions to real problems means getting to know the problems. Understanding our users’ problems isn’t a luxury, a distraction or an unnecessary expense - it’s half the solution.

Architecture and User Experience (Part 7b: Getting to Know the Problem)
Recognizing the fundamental need for research is crucial to building world-class products. Choosing the right research approach for the problem is equally important.

Architecture and User Experience (Part 8: A Form of Software Architecture?)
How do we communicate our findings in ways our stakeholders will understand? If we’re working in a software engineering environment, might the diagrams and deliverables used by software engineers give us some clues?

Architecture and User Experience (Part 9: The Puzzle Piece Meta-model)
If software architectural models are insufficient to represent User Experience Architecture, what other disciplines might guide us in communicating with our stakeholders?

Architecture and User Experience (Part 10: Pieces of the Puzzle)
Our tools craft our models; our models craft our perceptions; our designs are affected by our modeling frameworks. The Puzzle Piece model describes the four interlocking constraints/pillars supporting and circumscribing the design of the user experience.