The 8th edition of the Crea Digital Day took place yesterday at Unimail Geneva. From 8:30 to 17pm, 13 conferences focused on digital trends, with, this year, a special focus on media and how new technologies change the shape of information. This topic is of particular interest to me, as 10 years ago I completed studies in both journalism and multimedia, convinced that the new technologies would change the shape of information. Geoffrey Moret, CEO of Kapaw, had a very interesting view on this matter, and Alastair Cotterill, from Pinterest, explained how information should be presened on mobile. My preference goes to Lukas Ryf’s intervention on how the website adobe.com was improved along the years.

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With Internet users surfing more and more from their smartphone, the question of screen resolutions has become a major challenge for webdesign. Thinking a website interface for 1024 or 1280 pixels-width is not what matters any longer. No, the challenge has grown and become bigger… which in this case actualy means smaller. A website is now expected to adapt to the screen each visitor sees it within. There are several techniques and methodologies around this new challenge for UX mobile, including adaptive design, responsive design and mobile-first strategy. Each of them presents new opportunities, challenges and risks for the conception of user experience.

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I have recently worked as a UX specialist on a project in a very difficult and fascinating context. The project itself was an internal financial application, and looked quite simple at a first glance. What made it so particular was its history. The new project was launched after one full year of development and without any consultation of users of the existing system. As a result, users from offices all around the world rejected the new tool, sometimes without even trying to use it. Challenging experience. In this case, as often, UX was far from just wireframing pretty widgets. It was a profound redesign of the system, and a deep rework on the relationship around the project. Creating a positive communication with users, making focused changes to the interface and testing them became the strongest vector of change management and acceptance of the new system.

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BA or UX? BA vs. UX (if we believe some project management and job-title oriented blogs)? Where does business analysis stop, and where does user experience start? As a UX specialist in Geneva, Switzerland, I have worked both on projects involving business analysts, and on projects for which they were not part of the team. Whether we need BAs and/or UXs is not a question anymore, and having BA insights is a great advantage for starting the UX part of a project. Instead, I wish to focus this article on the similarities that exist between the two roles, and on this business analysis part of UX that we, as usability consultants, often, and more and more, integrate as a part of our mission.

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A recent study conducted by Google and Ipsos in June 2016 focuses on the usage of Internet for luxury shoppers in France, Japan, Italy and in the UK. This study highlights the importance of Internet in the shopping process for luxury products, during the research phase as well as later. Here is a summary of the main actionable conclusions in a user experience point of view, and how we can use them to improve the UX on luxury e-commerce and brands websites, including work on pictures, videos, real-time conversation online, etc.

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Among the billions tools Google develop and open to the public, they have recently launched Google Digital Active. Dedicated to small business owners, this training gives an overview of main new technologies challenges, like Search Engine Marketing, social networks, organic search and search engine optimization, as well as analytics and conversion. I am afraid there is no topic about user experience or usability, but they do talk about content, writing for the Web and optimization for conversion. As for me, I was really interested by some other domains (I’m a UX specialist) that I know less about.

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