While developing Center Centre’s Presenting course, something popped into my head (that happens a lot when I’m immersed in curriculum design). I realized that I can analyze the color of sticky notes to ensure that I’m providing our students with diverse learning resources.

During each course, Center Centre students choose from an array of learning experiences and projects. We don’t require students to use one, pre-determined resource when they learn a topic. We provide a range of suggested learning resources like books, articles, podcasts, and videos. With the guidance of their facilitators, students choose what resources work best for their learning.

As we build each course at Center Centre, we collect many learning resources for the students. I find that using sticky notes works best for my collection process. I jot down what I learn from each resource on sticky notes. Each sticky note contains information that supports the learning goals for the course.

For example, while developing our User Research Practices course, I wrote, “The goal of user interviews is to uncover users’ pain points” on one of the stickies. I wrote, “Up front research provides a basis for decision-making that makes the rest of the work go faster” on another sticky note. Both pieces of information are part of the foundational knowledge of the course. A few years after students complete the course, when they are working as junior UX designers, we want them to remember this information.

I put all of the resource sticky notes on the wall to make an affinity diagram. I arrange similar notes into categories called clusters, and I label the clusters. When I look at the clusters on the wall, I can see the main course concepts. And I can easily see if we are providing students diverse learning resources.

I make an affinity diagram on the wall with all of the resource sticky notes.

I use different color sticky notes for each type of learning resource. I can tell if I’m using a variety of learning resources based on the colors of sticky notes. I typically use pink stickies for books, orange for articles, and blue for audio and video. If a cluster of stickies contains multiple colors, I know that cluster contains diverse resources. If the cluster contains only one or two colors, I need to find different types of learning resources.

I recently worked on our Presenting course. In this course, students learn how to present their ideas. They also learn how to sell their ideas to stakeholders. While refining this course, I realized that some clusters about presenting work to stakeholders were missing blue sticky notes. Because of my sticky note process, I knew I needed to gather more audio and video resources.

After adding content from Mike Monteiro’s presentation to the wall, I saw more blue sticky notes. This meant I had a variety of learning resources on the topic.

I learned how to make an affinity diagram years ago when I was a junior UX designer. Throughout my career, I’ve used affinity diagrams to develop site maps, analyze user research findings, and brainstorm ideas with a group. Now, I use affinity diagrams to develop our curriculum—a curriculum intentionally designed to support personalized learning. Albeit a bit meta, it’s rewarding to use UX practices to design our UX curriculum.

Apply to be a student Would you like to attend Center Centre as a student? You’ll learn user research skills, presentation skills, and much more. View our full program or apply today.

As we build and refine our curriculum, we look for a variety of learning resources like books, articles, presentations, tutorials, and podcasts. We love resources that explain concepts with real-world examples. Real-world examples will help our students understand how we apply the tools and techniques we learn.

Margot Bloomstein writes many articles on content strategy. She also wrote a book, Content Strategy at Work. In her writing, Margot often includes real-world examples that illustrate her approach to content strategy.

In her article, “Incorporating Content Strategy into Your Information Architecture,” Margot explains how REALTOR.org uses content strategy to guide redesigns and ongoing updates to their site. REALTOR.org, the online home of the National Association of Realtors©, publishes an array of content for realtors like real estate investment, housing statistics, and continuing education.

Content requires maintenance. Over time, it may need to be replaced with up-to-date content. Every time REALTOR.org updates a site section, they start with a content audit to see whether their existing content is still relevant.

Margot illustrates quantitative and qualitative content audits by describing REALTOR.org’s process:

While the headcount of a quantitative audit can determine what’s there, only a qualitative assessment can help you determine how good it is, whether you need to update it, and in what ways.

To learn more about how REALTOR.org uses content strategy in their process, read the entire article. The article is an excerpt of Margot’s book, Content Strategy at Work.

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Do you want to learn more about content strategy and UX design? You’ll learn how to plan, create, and maintain content as a Center Centre student. View our full program or apply today.

We recently explained how we use Erin Kissane’s book, The Elements of Content Strategy, to refine our Copywriting and Content Strategy course curriculum. We use books to build our curriculum, but we also use other sources like podcasts, articles, tutorials, and webinars. We track the sources we use to build the curriculum so students can use the same resources for their learning. We’re building a diverse collection of learning resources to support the different ways students learn.

I’m a regular listener of CTRL+CLICK CAST podcast. In the episode “Content-First Design,” the hosts have a lively discussion with Steph Hay, a content strategist at Capital One.

I enjoyed this podcast so much that I listened to it three times. Steph explains how she applies content strategy to everything she does.

Steph listens to customer stories during user research at Capital One. She listens not only for the customers’ pain points and needs but for the words that they use when they talk about their finances. If the customer says “money,” the team infuses terms like “money” in their content instead of industry terms like “funds."

Lea and Emily, the podcast’s hosts, asked Steph, “What do you think makes a great content strategist?” Steph says great content strategists exhibit these behaviors:

• They’re incredibly focused on finding the language that connects people.
• They’re not attached at all to writing a certain way.
• They’re not territorial of the language because they know that the customer owns the language.

To learn more about how Steph infuses content strategy into her work, listen to the entire interview.

Apply to be a student

Do you want to learn more about content strategy and UX design? You’ll learn about content-first design and much more as a Center Centre student. View our full program or apply today.

As I refine Center Centre’s Copywriting and Content Strategy course curriculum, I get the opportunity to review a lot of books, articles, videos, and podcasts about content strategy.

While reviewing books, I read Erin Kissane’s The Elements of Content Strategy. I look forward to using it with our students because it provides a thorough, accessible introduction to content strategy. At 79 pages, it’s also a quick read.

Erin explains how content strategy helps organizations meet the needs of their business and the needs of their audience. Content strategy helps organizations plan, create, and maintain useful content. It allows organizations to develop content publishing plans. It cuts costs by reducing redundant or extraneous publishing efforts.

Erin’s book talks about content strategy in the context of real-world UX projects. For example, Erin recommends finishing user research before you evaluate the quality of your site’s content. When you understand your users’ needs, you can assess how well your content meets those needs.

Erin’s holistic approach ties in nicely with our curriculum. As students learn about content strategy, they’ll connect the dots between content strategy and what they learned in user research. They’ll learn how one discipline integrates with and supports the other.

Erin Kissane’s article, “A Checklist for Content Work,” explores some of the topics in her book. If you enjoy this article, you’ll love the book.

Apply to be a student

Do you want to learn more about content strategy and UX design? You’ll learn how to plan, create, and maintain your organization’s content as a Center Centre student. View our full program or apply today.

Have you ever tried to explain information architecture, interaction design, or user research to someone who doesn’t work in the UX field? If you have, you know that defining the things we do is a huge challenge.

Defining what we do isn’t just a challenge when talking to folks outside of the UX field. Experienced UX designers often struggle to define UX terms. How do we explain information architecture, interaction design, or content strategy in a way that’s concise but comprehensive? Where does one discipline end and another begin? How do we explain each unique discipline to someone who is learning UX design?

While developing coursework for User Research Practices, a course that introduces usability testing, user interviews, surveys, and field observations, I worked on Center Centre’s definition of user research.

This definition had to be clear, concise, and easy for anyone to understand. The more I tried to arrive at a definition, the more I felt stuck. So I asked our co-founder, Jared Spool, for help. I shared my working definition of user research with him:

User research reveals the needs and behaviors of our users. Understanding these needs and behaviors allows us to make informed design decisions that serve both our users and our business goals.

Jared built upon my definition and responded with this definition:

User Research is a set of tools and practices to help design teams understand who their users are, what they need, the contexts the team’s designs will live in, and unrealized opportunities for the organization.

At Center Centre, this is our definition of user research.

When students attend Center Centre, they’ll have a shared vocabulary for each UX topic they learn. When we work on projects and participate in classroom activities with a shared understanding, everyone—students, faculty members, industry experts, and partner company mentors—will be able to communicate effectively and efficiently. When a student or faculty member uses a term like “information architecture,” “interaction design,” or “user research,” everyone in the room will know what that term means.

Would you like to become a Center Centre student? Apply to Center Centre today. Do you know someone who would make a great student? Please tell them about us. We look forward to hearing from them.

While developing the curriculum for User Research Practices, a course that introduces usability testing, user interviews, surveys, and field observations, I read Steve Krug’s Rocket Surgery Made Easy. Steve’s book explains how to bring usability testing into your organization’s process.

Below are three principles from the book that resonated with me. We’ve built all three principles into the User Research Practices course.

All sites have usability problems

While some sites have more usability problems than others, every site has usability problems. Usability problems occur when users struggle to understand a site’s content or struggle to complete a task on the site. Students will finish the User Research Practices course knowing that usability testing is the best way to identify those problems and fix them.

Focus on fixing the most serious usability problems first

As Steve says in his book, “it’s easy to get distracted by less serious problems that are easier to solve, which means the worst ones often persist.” It may seem like a good use of time to fix five small problems before addressing one severe usability problem. But focusing on easy fixes first often means you run out of time to fix severe problems.

Students will work on team projects while they’re at Center Centre. When conducting usability studies throughout these real-world projects, students will learn how to prioritize usability problems and focus on the most severe problems first.

You’ll always have more usability problems than you have resources to fix those problems

Even with plenty of budget and plenty of time, it’s challenging to address every usability problem revealed through usability testing. We’ll prepare our students for this reality. They’ll learn to triage usability testing problems so they can spend their resources fixing the things that will contribute most to the user experience.

Apply to be a student

Would you like to become a well-rounded UX designer who can conduct user research studies? Apply to Center Centre today to be a student. Do you have friends or family members who would make great students? Please tell them about us. We look forward to hearing from them.

Have you ever tried to hold a conversation with someone in person while you’re replying to a text message on your phone? Have you ever sat in a work meeting, held your phone under the table, and pretended to listen while someone else is talking? Have you ever brought your laptop to a work meeting thinking that you’ll check email while you participate in the meeting?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you’re not alone. (I answered yes to all of these questions myself.) What we often forget (or ignore) is that multitasking is ineffective. Human beings aren’t wired to do multiple things at once. We may think we’re being effective when we attempt to do many tasks at one time, but we’re not. When we do multiple things at a time, we do them slowly and poorly.

At Center Centre, we designed a learning environment and a culture that supports being present and being productive. We focus on one thing at a time. We focus on that one thing—and get it done right. We plan our schedules so that we don’t rush around at the last minute. We block off time on our calendars each day to get specific tasks done. And lastly, and perhaps most surprisingly, we have tech-free meetings. That’s right—tech-free meetings. No laptops, no phones, no tablets. Nothing that beeps or buzzes comes into our meetings.

We focus on one thing at a time

I’ve always been a planner. I’m a high C on the DISC model, which means that I’m detail-oriented and task-driven. Even though I was planning my work and keeping on top of my tasks, it wasn’t until I worked at Center Centre that I realized my old work habits weren’t very effective.

At previous jobs, I attended meetings with my laptop. I checked email and Basecamp during most meetings, stopping now and then to pay attention to the meeting. I thought I was being productive, but I now realize that I wasn’t productive at anything. I was halfheartedly doing three things—checking email, checking Basecamp, and participating in the meeting—instead of being fully present and engaged in one of those things.

Now, I work very differently. I don’t try to do multiple things at once. For example, while writing this article, I set aside writing time on my calendar. I turned off notifications on my laptop. I left my phone in the other room. I minimized all other tabs in my browser. I focused on writing while I was writing.

Focusing helps me write content effectively and quickly. In one hour, I listed my goals for this article, wrote a rough draft, created a reverse outline, edited my rough draft, found links to external articles to support the points in my draft, and sent my draft to our co-founder, Dr. Leslie Jensen-Inman, for review.

Tech-free meetings

When I first started working at Center Centre, I couldn’t believe our meetings were tech-free. I had never heard of such a thing. I was incredulous. I thought to myself, “No laptops? How am I supposed to take notes?”

Now, I understand why we have our tech-free meetings rule. I embrace this rule. I can’t imagine going back meetings with phones and laptops that constantly distract us.

When I’m in a meeting, I’m focused on the meeting. I’m listening, I’m contributing, and I’m learning. I’m respecting other people’s time by being fully present. I’m following the printed agenda. (All of our meetings have detailed agendas.) I’m taking notes by hand, which is much more effective than taking them on a laptop. After the meeting, I photograph my notes and add them to Evernote so that I have a digital reference for later.

We do make some exceptions to our tech-free meetings rule. For instance, if someone joins the meeting remotely via Skype, we need to use a laptop. If a staff member is waiting on an important call from her physician, that staff member can bring her phone to the meeting.

Center Centre’s meetings are productive and enjoyable. Everyone leaves knowing what we discussed, what we accomplished, and what our next steps are.

Shaping students into productive professionals

We’re excited to teach our students how to be productive professionals. Students will learn how to schedule time on their calendars to get their projects and activities done. That way they’re set up to focus on one thing at a time, rather than trying to juggle three or more things at once. Students will participate in tech-free meetings, and they’ll experience how productive and useful a meeting can be without constant distractions.

Students will graduate from Center Centre as well-rounded, junior UX designers, and they’ll know how to maximize their time and energy on the job. They’ll be an indispensable asset to the UX team they join.

Apply to be a student

Do you see yourself as a student with Center Centre? Apply today to become a lifelong learner. Do you have friends or family members who would make great students? Please tell them about us. We look forward to hearing from them.

Do you remember reading Choose Your Own Adventure books when you were a kid? These books allowed you, the reader, to make choices that determine the main character’s actions and the plot’s outcome. My favorite was Circus of Fear, a fantasy book about an orphaned brother and sister who join a bizarre circus in exchange for food and shelter.

I loved Choose Your Own Adventure books. (It’s true—I’ve always been a nerd.) But as a kid, I struggled to finish many books because they didn’t hold my attention. I felt forced into a long, pre-determined narrative that didn’t captivate me the way that Choose Your Own Adventure books did.

Choose your own learning adventure

At Center Centre, our students get to choose their own learning adventures. For each course, students create a personalized learning plan (PLP)—by choosing from an array of learning activities and projects. Students are the main characters in their learning story and their choices determine their learning outcomes.

We design our learning experiences to fit the needs of our students—not the other way around. Instead of creating one instructional approach for all students, we create many opportunities for students to learn and master concepts. Every student learns differently. What works well for one student’s learning process may not work so well for another student.

In week one of each course, students participate in a two-day, industry-expert-led workshop, followed by three days of individualized learning. During these three days, students create and work on their personalized learning plan (PLP).

Students choose the learning process(es) that allows them to demonstrate understanding of the material. Then, they spend the next two weeks of the course applying what they learn from the industry-expert-led workshop and their PLP to their team projects.

The PLP projects and activities vary with each course. Even though projects and activities vary, students always have an assortment of ways to learn. For example, if a student learns best by reading, she may choose to read a book to learn a course topic. If she prefers to learn through small group work, she may join a small group of students to complete an activity.

The PLP options don’t just shape students’ learning experiences. These options build critical skills for students. For example, learning through group work builds collaboration skills, communication skills, and meeting facilitation skills.

We also encourage students to build skills they don’t yet have. A student may not enjoy reading because she thinks she’s slow at reading. But maybe, as part of her PLP, she chooses to read a book. This choice allows her the opportunity to improve her reading skills. By reading more often, she learns to read more quickly and more effectively.

Below are some examples of PLP projects and activities for one of our courses, Information Architecture UX02.

Socks game

Students bring in the funkiest pairs of socks that they own (clean socks, of course). It’s best if some of the socks don’t match.

Working in groups, students organize the socks. We ask the students, how would you organize these? By shape? By color? By size?

We use this exercise to talk about taxonomies (the arrangement of categories in a user interface), especially top-down, hierarchical taxonomies like site maps. We also talk about metadata (descriptive terms for socks like red, large, and winter) and facets (sock categories that contain metadata like color, size, and season).

Our co-founder, Jared Spool, originally learned how to play the socks game through the Boston UXPA chapter.

Find a book at the local library

We ask students to find a specific book at the library. We also ask them to find books about a specific topic. For example, we may ask them to find a copy of On Writing Well, a book about improving your writing. We may also ask them to find books about a related topic, such as writing content for the web.

We use this exercise to talk about information-seeking behaviors like known-item seeking and exploratory seeking. Finding something specific, such as a copy of the book On Writing Well, is known-item seeking. Looking for content about a subject, like writing for the web, is exploratory seeking. We also discuss mental models—how people imagine a process to be before they embark on a process.

Students keep a journal of the book-finding experience. What do they expect the process to be like before they begin? How do they look for books? Where do they struggle in the process if at all?

Read Abby Covert’s How to Make Sense of Any Mess

Abby Covert’s book, How to Make Sense of Any Mess, is about information architecture. It’s an enjoyable read. It makes complicated principles within information architecture understandable and accessible. It’s also a quick read.

After students read the book, they reflect on what they read. Students meet in groups to discuss the most significant things they learned. They discuss what unanswered questions they have from the reading. They clarify unanswered questions for each other, and they bring unresolved questions to the larger group for discussion and clarification.

Students also apply what they learn to PLP projects. When reading How to Make Sense of Any Mess, students learn about taxonomies, facets, and metadata. They apply what they learn in activities like the socks game and in student team projects.

Become a lifelong learner

When we let our students choose their own learning adventures, they choose a path that’s right for them, and they choose a path that they’re motivated to take. They also choose a path that allows them to learn how to learn. They’ll graduate knowing how to teach themselves new skills and tools in user experience design.

Our goal is to prepare each student to be an industry-ready, junior UX designer. Each student takes a unique learning path to reach that goal. However, the end goal is the same for each student—to be an asset on day one to the company that hires them.

More about choose your own adventure learning

We’ve infused choose your own adventure learning into our curriculum from the very start. It turns out we’re not the only educators who believe in this type of learning. Last week, an article by Dr. Bonni Stachowiak, from Teaching in Higher Ed, appeared in our inbox. Great minds think alike!

Apply to be a student

Do you see yourself as a student with Center Centre? Apply today to become a lifelong learner. Do you have friends or family members who would make great students? Please tell them about us. We look forward to hearing from them.

We’re thrilled to announce that MailChimp is joining us as a Center Centre Partner Company!

MailChimp is a fantastic company with one of the world’s most talented user experience (UX) teams. Our students will improve their skills under the MailChimp team’s mentorship. It’s a perfect match.

We love that MailChimp’s Atlanta offices are only a two-hour drive away from Center Centre in Chattanooga. We expect we’ll see the MailChimp team frequently at the school. They’ll enhance their own skills as they participate in the students’ classes. They’ll share their expertise with frequent reviews of the students’ ongoing project work.

It will be easy for our students to make the journey to MailChimp’s HQ. Our students will see how MailChimp’s work environment supports a productive and creative culture. Students will observe the UX team at work, seeing the wide variety of activities that go into shipping a top-quality product. All this direct exposure with working professionals will show our students what lies ahead in their careers.

MailChimp has supported Center Centre from the very beginning. Aarron Walter, who is MailChimp’s Director of User Experience, built their UX team. Aarron told us:

Center Centre is addressing a significant challenge in the web industry: Today’s students are graduating without the training or skills needed to succeed in design and technology. Center Centre’s curriculum takes a fresh approach. It’s grounded in real-world concepts, and it gives students the opportunity to work with industry professionals before their career begins.

We’re excited to contribute to the learning experience at Center Centre because it’s a program we believe in. We’re looking forward to working with students in the Center Centre classroom and in our offices in Atlanta. There’s no better way to learn than by doing!

MailChimp’s culture embraces UX design

More than 7 million people use MailChimp to create, send, and track email newsletters. You’ve likely received emails sent with MailChimp. Or maybe you’ve sent emails through MailChimp yourself.

MailChimp’s UX team makes their product easy to learn and simple to use. They’ve produced an industry-leading online service with a delightful user experience.

The UX team’s culture is about sharing, and it shows. Aarron Walter wrote Designing for Emotion, a book on how to bring delight into every design project. Kate Kiefer Lee, who is in charge of MailChimp’s content and communication efforts, co-wrote Nicely Said with Nicole Fenton—a book we love. I used Jason Beaird’s book, The Principles of Beautiful Web Design, when I was a university professor. We’re big fans of MailChimp’s The UX Newsletter and The UX Reader, two inspiring resources they share with the entire UX community.

As MailChimp’s Chief Culture Officer (yes! Culture is so important, they gave it a C-level position), Marti Wolf told us:

At MailChimp, we believe in empowering people through education and professional development opportunities, and we’re so excited to support an organization that gives students hands-on experience working in user experience design. We look forward to sharing our knowledge with students at Center Centre, and know we’ll learn a lot in the process, too.

We’re so excited to have MailChimp join our Partner Company Program. Working with a company who understands the value of UX is an excellent way to prepare our students to join the workforce as industry-ready, junior UX designers.

Become a Center Centre Partner Company

Our partnership with MailChimp brings us closer to starting the first cohort of Center Centre students. Would you like your organization to become a Center Centre Partner Company? Learn more about the Center Centre Partner Company program and get in touch with us.

Become a Center Centre student

We’re looking for students that are tenacious learners, passionate about helping others, and curious about technology. We don’t require prior design or development experience. Learn more about our program and apply now to be a student.

At Center Centre, we’re not just focused on teaching, we’re focused on learning. We’ve embedded learning techniques in our organization’s DNA. We’re always learning, and we’re always sharing what we learn.

As we’ve been creating Center Center, we’ve had to make millions of decisions, and we’ve learned a ton of new things. We surface what we learn through our daily routine. At Center Centre, we dedicate the greatest, non-replenishable resource we have—our time—on sharing what we’re learning.

Every day our team has a stand-up meeting. Like many organizations, we use this time-boxed meeting format as a way to communicate the challenges we’re facing and the progress we’re making. Everyone on the team answers these four stand-up questions:

1. What did I get done since the last stand-up?
2. What are my goals to accomplish before the next stand-up?
3. What’s preventing me from getting these things done, if anything?
4. What’s the highest risk/most unknown thing right now about what I’m trying to do?

But we don’t stop there. We use our stand-ups as opportunities to reinforce that learning every day. We’ve added a fifth question:

1. What is the most important thing I learned since the last time we met and how will what I learned change the way I approach things in the future?

(Okay, it’s really two questions, but we combine them for efficiency.)

It’s a challenge to come up with an answer for this question every day. It forces us to reflect on our actions.

The first half of the question focuses us on something new we’ve learned in the last 24 hours, whether big or small. The second half forces us to reflect on how we think this new knowledge will influence our behavior going forward. Many times, I’ve surprised myself on how much influence something small can have.

Along with everyone else, Jared and I share what we’ve learned every day. Sharing something new with the rest of the company every day shows our dedication to constant improvement. No longer are we seen as perfect know-it-alls. We’re just like everyone else, working to improve.

Here’s an example of how I answered the fifth question earlier this week:

I was totally stuck on writing a blog post. I just couldn’t get it started. I was really frustrated (which wasn’t helping my writing process). I remembered how successful Jess and I were last week when we combined our efforts and tackled a piece of content together. I asked her if we could do the same thing with the blog post. She said “yes” and that’s what we did.

It’s nice that we have a safe working environment and work with really excellent (and helpful) people. I can be vulnerable, admit I need help, and it’s okay. In the future, when I get stuck, I’m going to remember to ask for help.

Because learning is in our DNA, our students will understand that learning doesn’t end on graduation day. Our students will see how learning is a lifelong pursuit. Incorporating lifelong learning techniques helps our future graduates have the skills they need to be assets to hiring companies.

Become a Center Centre Partner Company

Would you like your organization to have access to graduates who understand the value of lifelong learning? Learn more about the Center Centre Partner Company program and get in touch with us.

Become a Center Centre student

Do you constantly push yourself to learn more? We’re looking for students that are tenacious learners, passionate about helping others, and curious about technology. No prior design or development experience required. Learn more about our program or apply now to be a student.