Introducing Boston UX
Welcome to Boston UX's brand-new blog!
If you're a user experience (UX) or user interface (UI) designer looking for tips to help you crush your job, you've come to the right place.
If you're a product manager or business owner looking to build a device that features great UX — something people will not only want to buy, but use — you've also come to the right place.
Boston UX is the place for inspired, intuitive interface design for touch- and voice-powered smart devices.
Our team delivers value to companies in Boston (and far beyond), their customers and their users by shaping the user experience for critical connected and embedded products. Products like defibrillators, commercial restaurant equipment, security systems and self-driving autos.
We're all about designing interfaces for critical products across high-performance industries, from medical to manufacturing.
Though Boston UX itself is the new kid on the block — we launched in the fall of 2018 — our team is actually quite experienced. How? Boston UX is part of the Integrated Computer Solutions, Inc. (ICS) family. A software development company founded in Boston in 1987, ICS specializes in complex development projects for touch- and voice-powered devices that include a UX component. (Though you may not know ICS' name, I guarantee you know our work.) At Boston UX, design is our primary focus.
Enough about the company. Here's what you can expect from our new blog!
In this space you'll find articles on design leadership, trends in UX design, tips and tricks, how-to's, lessons learned, and other highly relevant content. Our large UX design team is diverse in age, experience and perspective so you'll get the full benefit of different voices.
Among the people you'll hear from are:
Jeff LeBlanc is Director of User Experience for both Boston UX and ICS. He heads the creative team. With an engineering degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (where he's also an adjunct professor), he's an expert at bridging the gap between design and development. What makes his day? Applying human factors principles to UX design. Oh, and 3D-printing a wearable Iron Man suit.
Dorothy Shamonsky, Ph.D. is Director of UI/UX R&D for both Boston UX and ICS. She has deep experience in quantitative and qualitative user research, and is focused on using natural user interfaces to achieve simple-but-compelling user experiences for IoT devices. She's managed creative teams at MTV, Merrill Lynch and elsewhere; taught design at NYU, Pratt Institute and Brandeis; and earned a doctorate at MIT and a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design.
You'll also hear from some of our in-the-trenches UX and visual designers, like Brandon Desormeaux. These are the creatives who tackle the intricacies of design daily to bring our customers' visions to life. They have the perfect vantage point for understanding how UX design works in the real world. They'll share best practices and lessons learned, and review some of their favorite design tech.
And from time to time you'll hear from me, Stephanie Van Ness. I'm not a designer — a copywriter with a journalism background, actually -- but as marketing communications manager I live and breathe content. If you have suggestions for topics you'd like Boston UX to cover, drop me a note here. I'd love to hear from you. And I'm planning to feature some guest bloggers in this space so if you have a topic in mind, the expertise to cover it and an engaging writing style, pitch me!
To get this blog up to speed I've hand-picked a few of our most popular, recent ICS UX posts for your enjoyment. Going forward, expect a mix of brand-new content, well-liked ICS posts, and a sprinkling of guest blogs — a delicious stew of information and entertainment.
Enjoy!