Jesse James Garrett: Author of The Elements of User Experience – Episode 123

Content Strategy Insights

Jesse James Garrett In the late 1990s, as digital practices like web design and development emerged, experiences were being created and users were getting attention, but the practices that guided that work had not yet been articulated. That's when Jesse James Garrett wrote his book, The Elements of User Experience. After sharing his ideas in numerous client pitches and sketching them on whiteboards for his co-workers, Jesse collected his discoveries into a manuscript that would become the first textbook for the new field of UX design. We talked about: his content origins as a journalist and web writer and how that led to the narrative focus of his design work the origins of Adaptive Path, the UX consultancy he co-founded in 2001 and sold to Capital One in 2014 how his book, The Elements of User Experience, began as a whiteboard drawing that he used in team meetings the origins of his five-planes model as a way "to disentangle all of the different kinds of problems that you have to solve and questions you have to answer along the way as you're creating an experience" how he saw his role as an information architect as a connector between strategy and implementation his delight at the emergence and formalization of new content design and UX writing roles the unique practice lens that content people bring to the UX field how the explosive growth of software contributed to the growth of UX thoughts about how product people see the value of content in the way they deliver value how his model has provided a scaffolding that facilitates the new kinds of collaboration that digital work entails how he originally wrote his book as a primer for executive-level clients and how that approach serendipitously ended up making it a good textbook for people new to the UX field his current work as an independent leadership coach and his focus on helping foster relationships and connection the difference skill sets that become apparent when skilled designers end up in design leadership roles Jesse's bio Jesse James Garrett has been one of the most prominent voices in digital product design for more than 20 years. His career highlights include co-founding the groundbreaking UX consultancy, Adaptive Path; writing the foundational book The Elements of User Experience, whose iconic five-plane model has become a staple of the field; and defining Ajax, the dynamic interaction model that transformed web technology and design in the Web 2.0 era. His work has been published in more than a dozen languages and he is a frequent keynote speaker on making designers and organizations more human-centered in their work. Connect with Jesse online JesseJamesGarrett.com Twitter LinkedIn Finding Our Way - Jesse's design leadership podcast with Peter Merholz, his Adaptive Path co-founder Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/GKW6_PmnHRY Podcast intro transcript This is the Content Strategy Insights podcast, episode number 123. Twenty years ago, the field of user experience design didn't exist. People were building websites and making software, but new design practices were needed to take those digital experiences to the next level. Few could envision or articulate those new practices. Jesse James Garrett could. So he wrote a book: The Elements of User Experience. In this conversation, Jesse reflects on the book and talks about his delight at the recent emergence of new content roles in the UX field. Interview transcript Larry: Hey, everyone. Welcome to episode number 123 of the Content Strategy Insights Podcast. I'm really happy today to have with us Jesse James Garrett. Jesse is currently an independent design leadership coach. He's best known, to me anyway, as the author of this book, The Elements of User Experience, which came out about 20 years ago now. So anyhow, welcome to the show, Jesse. Tell the folks a little bit more about your coaching work.