Iconshock interview: UX designer Mike Lane

Mike is a true guru in UX design and is the most experienced net celebrity we have featured so far on the blog. Just go ahead and type his name in Google and you will find him referenced in thousands of websites and articles. (when I mean thousands, I mean THOUSANDS) He has been around for more than a decade implementing and developing web solutions for huge clients as FedEX, Ford and McDonnell Douglas. Whatever you need, this guy provides, be it website usability or flash based solutions. Hell, he even offers animation!.

He was featured earlier this year on Tutorialfeed.com as one of the 45 designers and developers you must follow on twitter. His twitter has over 11000 followers and of course, Iconshock is one of them. His tweets are incredibly informative and some are even hilarious. So come on and meet this incredible guy full of surprises. A must read for developers and designers alike.

1. Could you introduce yourself to this new audience? Iconshock readers will love to know your background.

Hi, My name is Mike Lane and I'm a Senior User Experience Designer primarily focused on digital media and web applications. I originally got my start in Web Design and Interactive Development approximately fifteen years ago. I completed my first commercial website in 1994 and have since expanded into the area of User Experience Design, which I currently do full-time. I've had the pleasure of working on web projects for several organizations, such as General Mills, ABC, FedEx, Reliant Energy, McDonnell Douglas, United Nations and Ford to name a few.

I also contribute to Woorkup.com and run a variety of other projects and services on the side. In addition to UX, I do Web and Graphic Design, 3D Visualization and Animation Production, as well as Wordpress, iPhone and Web Application Development.

2. Can you explain what is UX design to non techie readers?

UXD is somewhat misconceived these days. Everyone you talk to might tell you something different. It's not simply another term for web design or development though, as some people think, though it certainly encompasses those skills as well.

My definition is this: User Experience Design is essentially a multi-disciplinary field that integrates aspects of user interface, content and navigation design, web development, information architecture, business, psychology, anthropology and usability analysis into an ongoing model to create the best possible experience for the end-user of any given interactive system. This can be a service, such as a web application or even a product like a remote control or mobile phone. I've personally been fortunate enough to work on both software and hardware-based systems.

UX Designers try to work within the technical and business constraints of the development of a user-facing product or service with a focus on best meeting the user's goals, how they learn and interact with it, and ultimately their satisfaction while also meeting the design, business and marketing goals of the publisher. In a corporate environment, it becomes a true collaboration between nearly every aspect of product development from engineering to sales and marketing.

Mike is also a moleskin addict. Read his impressions at Grace Smith’s site.

3. Your name is all around the internet in tons of lists and reviews. How does that attention work for your career?

Thanks.  It's been incredible and has certainly opened up a lot of opportunities, but the best aspect of exposure for me is connecting with and sharing information with other creative professionals worldwide. I've learned a lot from my colleagues and business associates.

4. Stumble upon, RSS, tweeter, dig... Do we really need them? Aren't we saturating readers with all those possibilities?

The market really is saturated with a plethora of social technologies these days and certainly we don't necessarily need them all. But what works for some isn't always a good fit for others. The beautiful thing is that everyone seems to find their "home" and there really is a place for all. And of course, some sites have a very different function than others. But the networks with a strong and supportive user base will likely survive. Those that don't have a solid community or a business model will simply fade away as natural selection takes its toll.

5. How does Twitter work for you? How do you harness it?

Twitter certainly is my social technology of choice. I consider it to be the pulse of the Internet at any given time and a collective hive-mind of the world. I'm a big fan of real-time networks such as these.

The ability to share information on Twitter is unparalleled, in my opinion. I primarily use Twitter for design and development related information, not only for sharing what I find relevant but also for absorbing what other folks find inspirational. The ability to send out a tweet and reach thousands of people with it in real-time, within the field of creative professionals, is a great thing for the community globally. When information, news and techniques become available, it's great to share these with the network as we can all benefit from it.  This arguably empowers the entire group, making design stronger through information. As a side benefit, I've made some great friends within the user base because of it.

6. Which is the most common UX design flaw these day's? is there any anti trend going on?

I don't know that I want to single out anything particular as an all-encompassing design flaw or anti-trend necessarily. Every system and every audience is different and each has different needs and styles. But one web practice I'm concerned about overall is the lifecycle of a user interface and how that relates to the end-user's ability to learn a system. Some high profile sites out there are constantly redesigning their experience in an effort to appear relevant, innovative or fresh to users. I believe this needs to be done on a more incremental, evolutionary basis instead of introducing sweeping changes overnight to the end-user. Despite the fact that many of these sites do adhere to best design practices, users still learn a new UX with each website they visit and when that experience changes dramatically, for better or worse, there is almost always a backlash in some form or another.

7. In terms of usability… Which OS do you think is closer to nirvana?

Personally, I'd have to go with Mac OS X. The elegance of the interface coupled with it's extreme reliability and ease-of-use makes it stand alone in the operating system market. From a UX perspective, I don't think there is anything else out there with such a user-friendly and aesthetically satisfying experience.

8. If you didn't work on UX design, what else would you do?

Before my interest in design, I was attending film school with the hopes of becoming a director.  It's pretty unimaginable to me now, but if I was somehow banned from doing design and UXD work, I would likely be directing films. I would definitely still be in a creative field doing something for expression. I couldn't live without that.

9. What are you doing to your site?

Ah, yes. The dreaded 'coming soon' page. I apologize for that. My site was in desperate need of redesign. It had been several years since my last one and I frankly just personally got tired of looking at it so I tore the whole thing down. This is absolutely not a best practice nor anything I would ever recommend to others, but it's mine, so I can do it if I want to. :P

It was really getting dated and I have been working on a new, enhanced version from the ground-up with a lot more community features, some blogging, an updated portfolio, etc. I hope to have the new one up shortly, so please bear with me. It won't be much longer!

10. Can you give us any quick advice on how to improve Iconshock’s main website?

Of course there are always numerous improvements that can be made to accommodate your audience. But one simple suggestion I would make for now would be to get some search functionality on the main pages of your site. Over 80,000 icons is a tremendous amount of content and I think a clearly visible and comprehensive search tool implementation would make the user experience dramatically better for everyone.

I love your icons, by the way. Iconshock has a massive collection of very high-quality stuff! Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak with you and your readers. I truly appreciate the time very much!

Follow Mike on twitter.
Mike Lane website at www.mlane.net