Mike Kuniavsky and me (Marcin Treder, UXPin CEO) at UXLX.
User Experience is a lucky field and community. Our heroes are truly inspiring people. I had this impression for the first time when I’ve met Don Norman. I was impressed by his general wisdom that transcends knowledge and passion for great design. Every minute spent with Don was a great lesson.
I suppose being great designer requires to be deeply rooted in the world. It demands constant trying to understand human beings. This is source of wisdom and inspiration.
Mike Kuniavsky and his wife Liz Goodman are among most inspiring people you can meet. Luckily for UXPin crew we had chance to spend some time with them.
Mike was one of first people I wanted to meet while visiting California. We’ve all read his books, right? He’s well known from designs that transcend one medium and emphasizing role of emotions in design. I thought meeting with Mike will give us good energy and I was not mistaken.
„Emotional design is good design. That’s what I learned at the Milan Furniture Fair. It had plenty of bad design, but there are some beautiful, beautiful things there. The reason they are well designed is not because there’s a lot of splash. It’s because they’ve been thought through and they connect with us on an emotional level in addition to a functional level.” / Mike Kuniavsky
I’ve contacted Mike via e-mail. There was no introduction by our friends, just a simple e-mail about UXPin. He replied immediately with warm interest in stuff that we’ve created and possibility of meeting. He also introduced me to Liz who works on her PhD dissertation about UX Design practice. What a luck!
Couple of weeks later we’ve met in traditional American breakfast bar. They insisted that me, my partner Kamil and our investor Piotr need to try real American breakfast. Eggs and potatoes! Awesome hospitality and strange experience for our European stomachs.
We talked for almost two hours, spinning around topic of perfect UX tools. Both Liz and Make started to draw UI ideas and maps of processes on serviettes, trying to explain visually what they think. Amazing learning experience! We were hungry of their wisdom and we won’t hesitate of using it in the near future.
We’ve learnt a lot about Mike’s cross channel work and Liz’s ideas about needed visualization of design ideas. Oh we also learnt a lot about San Francisco they both explained us some of topography and soul of this great city.
We all agreed that there’s need for better UX tools and we are going to provide them.
Mike, Liz – thank you. You refreshed our minds and gave us lasting inspiration. Hopefully soon you’ll be proud of us.
ps. Picture above was taken in Lisbon two weeks ago. We’ve met again at UXLX.
