PEBKAC: Considering the user's experience, by: Ben Bakelaar

By now you've probably heard the buzz about UX. In fact, depending on how many hats you wear, your boss may have even asked you to work on improving the user experience of some of the systems you've built or maintain. For IT professionals used to thinking in terms of code and functions, this can seem like a foreign concept, a much lower priority than security, recovery, compliance, etc. Yet it has become an important perspective to add to the mix, and it's here to stay. We'll talk about the various ways you can understand and incorporate user experience into your practice while still maintaining your cred as a techie.

Bio:

Ben Bakelaar has worked in the field of information technology since 2001, primarily in the arena of higher education. He has done just about every role there is over the past 15 years, including but not limited to: support, analyst, developer, Sysadmin & finally, IT manager. Since 2008 he has been developing a shadow career in UX and design, and now runs his own LLC.