I define Usability as the lack of suffering on the part of a user.

User Advocacy is all about solving problems arising out of the tension between an underlying need for personal, painless user experience and the inherently generalized, and hence non-personal, nature of software technology.

With over 25 years of industry experience in technology design and development, I approach User Advocacy from the perspective of an artist, my original vocation. I believe that artists can solve problems in a wide variety of domains, far beyond the media that they are typically associated with or trained in. Building a painting is a great example of abstract problem solving. Applying that to technology problems is largely a matter of translation into new 'languages'.

In treating problem solving is an art form, I also consider the artist’s primary tool to be observation. Observations is like a grindstone for analytical skills - each occurrence, however small, making one's mind a little sharper. To share this idea and to further develop my own practice of observation, I’ve begun a section on the site called ‘UX-Observer’ with weekly updates. I think you'll find it a fun section to visit.

This site is a continual experiment. If you've been here before over the last 5 years, you may have noticed that it has undergone many forms, starting as a Wordpress blog and then moving through several iterations of Drupal based projects. I intend to keep making these changes in order to better share ideas about user advocacy.

As of spring 2011, I've decided to rebrand this site from a consultancy known as The User Advocate Group to a more personal channel of communication. Hence the site name change: tuag = 'That User Advocate Guy'.

Part of the reason for this is that I have a full dance card since I have begun working with the marvelous team at Myplanet Digital. Another reason is that I intend to bring more art (and less corporate pitching) back into the work I do here. I'm looking forward to sharing this with you.