Here's a full list of OOUX resources with the most recently published first.
Suggest a resourceIn this article, Sarah Barrett talks about how mapping can improve digital experiences. She also tackled the 4 steps to make our digital experiences mappable.
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In this article, Sophia V Prater explains how you can use her object-oriented UX methodology to create intuitive digital products devoid of clutter. According to Sophia, broken objects are one of the biggest user experience fails.
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"Advice Giver" Sophia Prater and "Advice Seeker" Joseph Duteil discuss OOUX and how the idea is rooted in practice starting with a project for CNN in 2012, and how it has evolved into a repeatable approach, helping UXers tackle any type of app, site or software.
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In this article, Alicia and Andrea talk about Duo’s Object-Oriented UX (OOUX) Design Process. It also tackles the 3 steps on how OOUX works.
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Gabriela identifies strategic ways to implement OOUX in organisations in a way that’s transforming rather than exhausting.
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By following the OOUX process, NHS Moorfields has been able to truly focus on what is important to users. Led by Imogen, It is now investing in a large digital transformation project. This case study explains how OOUX has been a key catalyst for getting buy-in into this.
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All too often, we end up brushing complex business rules and information architecture aside in the name of “low fidelity.” In this talk, Sophia goes over four main sources of complexity and how Object-Oriented UX can help wrangle them. You’ll learn about the tough questions you should be asking early on—to make the rest of the project easier and more successful.
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"The course gave me so much more confidence in my skills as a UX designer." In this article, Lindsay shares her experience with the OOUX certification program, how it helped her improve as a UX designer, and how it improved her confidence in her own professional abilities.
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Emmet Connolly (who brought OOUX training to Intercom back in 2016) write about how design systems need to be object-oriented, and how they are working toward that goal at Intercom.
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A Brooklyn Cat Cafe needed a mobile app to help cat adopters find great matches and increase the number of adoptions, plus consolidate the many tools they use into one app. Follow along with this fun and comprehensive case study as Lisa wields OOUX to unite hopeful kitties with their forever homes.
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Caroline Sober-James has journeyed from database architect to UX designer to a fellow object-oriented UX evangelist. We look at how OOUX can help with client meetings as well as debate how OOUX applies to fantasy games, board games, and classic Nintendo.
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In this episode, Sophia and Carrie discuss what exactly a content model is, why navigation is the most volatile layer of the content stack, and IA in UX education.
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Start here! Sophia talks through the top frustrations that she hears from UX designers and explains how OOUX can help. If you are enduring pixel-pushing sans strategy, an overwhelm of complexity, stakeholder buy-in, communicating with developers...OOUX is the answer!
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In this episode, Sophia takes us on an audio walk-through of the "calls-to-action" methodology of her ORCA process. She will guide you through how to get started designing complex systems, how to make a CTA Matrix that's based on real-world objects, and why doing so will pay dividends.
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Dan Mall is one of the leading experts in design systems. In this episode, learn how to start a design system project the right way, the pros and cons of “flexible cards” which can lead to what I call masked objects, and how OOUXers can create a ton of value on a design system team.
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Lindsay gives a step-by-step walk-through of the ORCA OOUX design process, breaking down each round from discovery and requirements, to prioritization and prototyping, all while simultaneously designing an online coffee shop experience.
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This is a great article about how OOUX can be used from a software development perspective. Eduard also has some interesting techniques for documenting Attribute Requirements.
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This episode is an audio WORKSHOP that’s going to teach you the basics of OOUX and the ORCA process. If you listened to the first episode, you should have a zoomed-out, big picture Idea of what OOUX is all about. But in this episode, you’ll actually get to practice OOUX!
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October 20, 2015 was when Sophia's article on OOUX debuted on A List Apart. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia shows you how her philosophy and process have changed since then and how OOUX was forged in the crucible of CNN Election Night 2012.
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This six-week course will take your portfolio from incomplete, hot mess, or cookie cutter, to confident, clear, and uniquely you! Learn to set yourself up for success so that you can continuously update your portfolio without having crisis moments down the road. Say buh-bye to overhauling your website every 3-6 months and hello to sustainable design! ENROLLMENT IS NOW OPEN!
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You name the language, human babies learn nouns easier and faster than verbs. In this article, Sophia explores research conducted by Dedre Gentner and lays out how her finding are relevant and important in the world of UX.
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Need to convince a boss or a business stakeholder on the value of OOUX? This talk speaks directly to leadership about how OOUX can help save time and money.
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The BBC has been basing their website design on domain models for over a decade. In OOUX, the design process focuses on objects, relationships, calls-to-action, and attributes. In this article, Sophia discusses how BBC Food is using OOUX to create a superb user experience on their website.
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"OOUX and Design Systems, a match made in design heaven." Object-Oriented UX should be an organizing principle for your Design System. In this article, Sophia talks about how OOUX improves the process of creating a Design System.
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Allison is a content designer, content strategist, editor of the IBM Design Medium Publication. After COVID-19 hit, Allison started thinking about how to apply what she learned in a recent OOUX workshop to COVID-19 safety messaging.
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In this quick interview before the Design Content Conference in 2019, Sophia Prater talks through the biggest danger of designing "actions-first", using an example from her Edtech days.
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OOUX has become a design power tool and it’s something you should know about if you’re interested in offering a better digital user experience for your customers. Learn how OOUX helps you build things your users can understand, simplifies and declutters your design, and fosters better projects and happier teams.
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Sophia outlines the four principles of intuitive design and goes deep on the subject of messy objects. Stay tuned 'til the end, when Sophia does a live demo introducing her iterative ORCA process (Objects, Relationships, Capabilities, and Attributes)!
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Examine how EdX accomplishes a refreshingly natural browsing experience — curious users can navigate from subject, to course, to instructor, to school, and back again without ever needing to pick through the hierarchical main navigation. This is one of the primary principles of object-oriented user experience (OOUX): contextual navigation through object relationships.
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In this talk at the Design & Content Conference in Vancouver, Sophia explains how OOUX can help you avoid the UX fails that confuse and frustrate users. Stay tuned because in the last third of the talk, Sophia gives a sneak-peek into her OOUX process and how to use Webflow to build CMS prototypes.
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This book is spot-on, teaching readers about the importance of understanding the domain and how objects connect in the context of that domain. If you want to create products that are more future-proof and intuitive, this book is a must-read. It's (almost) 100% in-line with the principles of OOUX!
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In the digital world, anything is possible. But if the digital-space interfaces stray too far from our expectations of the physical world, users will become unsure, confused, and unhappy. This article spells out why we should design with lizard brains in mind to create intuitive interfaces. NOTE: in the OOUX world, we now have a new definition for a Broken Object: an object that is not directly manipulable, whose CTA is not directly embedded in it's visual representation. In this article, think of the Broken object example as just an especially egregious shapeshifter.
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Emmet Connolly is an advocate of the "full-stack design system", basically a design system that is rooted in a clear, shared conceptual model. "You shortcut a lot of extra thinking once you start with, “What does this object need to be?”' AGREED. In a hurry? Skip to min 9 to cut to the chase.
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This is a full-length, 90-minute Object-Oriented UX talk delivered in Warsaw, Poland during the MCE conference. Strap in and enjoy!
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Look into how users understand and process their world, how thought, communication, understanding, and perception are all object-oriented, and how when digital design aligns with real-world objects, better UX is the result.
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In this talk for the QCon Developer Conference, Sophia discusses all the factors that cause complexity, the three key ways to wrangle it, and how to fix it with Object-Oriented UX. She talks about how to "cheat" on our IA, reduce moving parts, and stop arguing so much about features and functionality.
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Interaction design helps users get things done in digital spaces. For UX designers, it's where we choreograph all the users' doing; the verbs. But what are the things being "done to"? Learn how defining your nouns (objects) first will set you up for more intuitive interaction design.
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A real world example of how object oriented UX was put in practice for the ITHAKA S+R redesign for project scoping and information design.
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The original OOUX manifesto. You'll learn why designing "objects first" is pivotal and how it helps you define the core structure of your system. The process has evolved over the years into Sophia's ORCA process, but this 2015 article is still a great place to start.
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This is a book that I wish I had written! My weathered copy of this book is packed with highlights, scribbles in the margins, and dogeared pages. It's not an easy read (some passages I had to read 3 times) but it's fascinating for anyone serious about information architecture and how laws of perception and understanding should drive our IA designs.
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Friends, a zombie apocalypse is upon us: an onslaught of new mobile devices, platforms, and screen sizes. Hordes of them descend on our cities every day. We're outmatched. There aren't enough designers and developers to battle every platform or editors and writers to populate every screen size. Defeating the zombies will require flexibility and stamina—in our content.
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Mike did an excellent case study on how the BBC used Domain-Driven Design (a grandparent of OOUX) to revolutionize how the BBC creates, manages, publishes, and displays their massive trove of media. He reminds us that users "are not interested in a video, [they] are interested in what the video is about. [They] are interested in real things—real world things."
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Have you heard the term "Object-Oriented?" Thought maybe it only applies to developers and techies? Think again. Paul makes the case that it's just about time we all started getting on board the Object-Oriented thought train as a way of viewing and deconstructing systems.
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Software engineer, UXer, and researcher Dr. Jensen explains Gestalt psychology and why it's relevant to the design of intuitive software. She gives great arguments that remind us to avoid shapeshifters and masked objects!
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These are MIke Atherton's slides for his 2013 "half-day introduction to content modeling and the creation and management of structured, adaptive content" workshop. Delivered at IA Summit 2013.
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Care about content? As devices and channels multiply and users expect to share information quickly, we need content that can go more places, more seamlessly. "Content Everywhere" will help you start making content more future-ready, flexible, reusable, manageable, and meaningful wherever it needs to go.
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OOUX stands on the shoulders of giants! Lovinger was writing about content modeling back in 2012, pioneering the ideas of structured content.
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Here are the top resources to help you get started on your OOUX Journey.
Start here! Sophia talks through the top frustrations that she hears from UX designers and explains how OOUX can help. If you are enduring pixel-pushing sans strategy, an overwhelm of complexity, stakeholder buy-in, communicating with developers...OOUX is the answer!
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
October 20, 2015 was when Sophia's article on OOUX debuted on A List Apart. In this episode of the podcast, Sophia shows you how her philosophy and process have changed since then and how OOUX was forged in the crucible of CNN Election Night 2012.
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
This episode is an audio WORKSHOP that’s going to teach you the basics of OOUX and the ORCA process. If you listened to the first episode, you should have a zoomed-out, big picture Idea of what OOUX is all about. But in this episode, you’ll actually get to practice OOUX!
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
In this episode, Sophia takes us on an audio walk-through of the "calls-to-action" methodology of her ORCA process. She will guide you through how to get started designing complex systems, how to make a CTA Matrix that's based on real-world objects, and why doing so will pay dividends.
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
Look into how users understand and process their world, how thought, communication, understanding, and perception are all object-oriented, and how when digital design aligns with real-world objects, better UX is the result.
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
In the digital world, anything is possible. But if the digital-space interfaces stray too far from our expectations of the physical world, users will become unsure, confused, and unhappy. This article spells out why we should design with lizard brains in mind to create intuitive interfaces. NOTE: in the OOUX world, we now have a new definition for a Broken Object: an object that is not directly manipulable, whose CTA is not directly embedded in it's visual representation. In this article, think of the Broken object example as just an especially egregious shapeshifter.
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
Sophia outlines the four principles of intuitive design and goes deep on the subject of messy objects. Stay tuned 'til the end, when Sophia does a live demo introducing her iterative ORCA process (Objects, Relationships, Capabilities, and Attributes)!
FYI: This is an affiliate link (we earn a small kickback if you buy).
A dive into the weeds on UX systems, information architecture, human psychology, data wrangling, structured content, UX process, and above all simplifying the complex.
ListenMusing on OOUX developments, deals on OOUX events, and alerts about new resources.
Sign upA rigorous, face-paced course for UX designers, developers, and digital product people who are tackling complexity, wrangling stakeholders, and trying to make systems-level change.
Learn moreOOUX meetups start with a few brief rounds of networking and then we have a speaker and a discussion. Our speakers are Certified OOUX Strategists or industry thought leaders.
Join the group