Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum

The Ann Arbor Hands-On Museum is a children's museum that contains a wide array of interactive displays, aimed at children of all ages.

School of Industrial and Operations Engineering

The School of Industrial and Operations Engineering is a college within the University of Michigan School of Engineering. Its target audience is prospective and current graduate students.

Manage My Home/
Manage My Life

Manage My Life (formerly called Manage My Home) is a website sponsored by Sears. It offers tools and resources to consumers who need general and how-to information in a variety of areas.

Ypsilanti Convention and Visitor's Bureau

The Ypsilanti Convention and Visitor's Bureau (YCVB) is an agency that works with hoteliers and event hosts to attract tourists to the city of Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Sears PartsDirect

Sears PartsDirect is an online retailer that sells a wide variety of replacement parts and accessories from original manufacturers to consumers.

Sears Commercial Parts

Sears Commercial Parts is the commercial counterpart to SearsPartsDirect.com. It serves a variety of companies in the business of selling parts to consumers.

Services for Students with Disabilities

Services for Students with Disabilities is an organization within the University of Michigan offering a variety of resources for students with disabilities.

Student Activities and Leadership

Student Activities and Leadership is an agency within the University of Michigan aimed at supporting student organizations.

The School of Information

School of Information (SI) is a graduate level 'i-school' within the University of Michigan. Its stated mission is "connecting people, information, and technology in more valuable ways."

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    Experienced User Experience Designer

    As a User Experience Designer, I collaborate within cross-functional teams of business stakeholders, strategists, visual designers, and technical leads. I’m engaged in high level concepting, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing to understand and present the most intuitive user interactions.

    See UX portfolio »
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    Master’s in Human-Computer Interaction

    I earned an MS in HCI from University of Michigan’s School of Information. In this program I worked closely with various local clients, employing UX methods such as personas and scenarios, contextual inquiry, affinity diagramming, cardsorts, wireframing, and prototyping.

    View projects »
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    Six years creating websites for clients

    The roots of my interest in UX lie in my professional background as a Web Design Consultant and Senior Web Designer over the course of six years. In these roles I worked with clients to learn business requirements needed to architect, design, and build successful websites.

    Go to résumé »

Design for Users

Seems easy enough to do, right? After all, we are users ourselves – we already know what would be intuitive. Right??

Wrong!! I’ve had clients and colleagues that believe they understand the user’s needs perfectly because they are users themselves. This couldn’t be further than the truth. Being close to a product as it is being developed presents a huge bias. It’s necessary to keep actual users involved in the development process whenever possible. As much as we may feel we know our users, we can never make assumptions about how a given product will actually be used by end users. We need to first learn about the users we hope to attract, and then start with design concepts and exploration. Before development.

Another misconception is that if a user doesn’t understand how to use your website, she will "get the hang of it". Perhaps this was true in the very early days of the Internet, when users did not have an array of sites to choose from. But it’s well known now that a successful website is one that helps users get things done quickly – without making them try to figure things out. As Steve Krug would say, don’t make them think! Websites that are designed to match their users’ expectations are seamless, effortless, and fun to use. Why would (or should) a user sit in frustration trying to accomplish a task on a poorly designed site when a simple Google search will reveal an easier way to get it done?

As a User Experience Designer, I’m passionate about improving user experience. It’s my goal to think through each interaction I design, and do so from a potential user’s perspective. Because people change over time, and cultural norms change, user research is an endless learning process; it is never "done". If a digital presence is to stay relevant, its user experience must be revisited periodically and adapted to match real user needs.

Design for users. Not easy, but so worth the effort!

—Therese Kokot