Jim Henson started working as a puppeteer in 1954, a fair 40-50 years before many of us even considered User Experience as a career. He did, however, take it upon himself to apply many of the core principles that UX Designers are falling love with today (or are at least using as part of our everyday lives). Hang out for a quick dive into the life of Jim Henson, with a view into his work from the perspective of how it pertains to what it is we’re doing today, that promises to even leave Waldorf and Statler happy. And yes, there will be muppets.

1. From Muppets to Mastery:
Core UX Principles from Mr. Jim Henson
Russ Unger | @russu | GE Capital Americas

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4. “
#UXMuppets | @russu
You wouldn’t decide to become
a puppeteer, I don’t think.

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The 1950s

6. The 1960s
A
#UXMuppets | @russu

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The 1970s

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The 1980s

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The 1990s & Beyond

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The 1990s & Beyond

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MuppetLean

12. MVK
#UXMuppets | @russu
Minimum
Viable
+ =
Kermit

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Iterate, Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
1955
1965
1968
1978

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Iterate, Iterate, Iterate, Iterate, Iterate
2005

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Project Ecosystems

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Client?
Product Manager
Project Manager
Designer
Marketing
QA
Dev

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Good Experiences Are Invisible

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A Good Experience is Invisible
Give the audience enough to work with
and they’ll do the rest for you.

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A Good Experience is Invisible
Give the audience enough to work with
and they’ll do the rest for you.

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Visual Thinking

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#UXMuppets | @russu
I’ve always been most
intrigued by what can
be done with the visual
image. I feel that is
what is strongest about
the work I do...the
visual image.

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Sketching / Storyboarding / Prototyping

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Sketching
Henson started sketching characters and comic strips as a kid.
He never stopped.

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Storyboarding
A storyboard is a graphic organizer that visually tells a story.
Creating a storyboard helps you plan your story shot by shot.

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Lend4Health.com
Home Page
(0.0.0.0)
Search Loans to Fund
(1.0.0.0)
Loan Details
(1.1.0.0)

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Patterns

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Patterns
Original Muppets were designed so that ~6 Muppets could be
easily made from a single design.

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CSS for Muppets?
.muppet-body-blue {
background: blue;
border: 0;
height: 80%;
}
.muppet-eye-blue {
background: blue;
border-top: 3px solid black;
height: 65%;
}

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Hacking

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Bernard Tyers
Belén Barros Pena
http://www.diymobileusabilitytesting.net/
~$3,000.00

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Travis Isaacs
keynotekungfu.com

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Hacking
Jim needed to see what the viewer would see, so he started using a
“monitor” to view scenes from where he was located.

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Hacking
Jim needed to see what the viewer would see, so he started using a
“monitor” to view scenes from where he was located.

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(So What?)
Jim Henson made sketching and prototyping a constant part of his thinking process.
He continually evolved everything he worked on.
He hacked things together.
He made it up as he went along.
As a relatively new industry, so do we.

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WWJHD?
What Would Jim Henson Do?

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WWJHD?
What Would Jim Henson Do?
WWACAD?
What Would A CHANGE AGENT Do?

51. “
#UXMuppets | @russu
You wouldn’t decide to become
a puppeteer, I don’t think.

52. Thank You!
Russ Unger | @russu | GE Capital Americas