Time really does fly when you’re having fun. Rewind to November of last year (2020) and we’d just launched the first issue of our UX magazine, CRUX. If you haven’t read that inaugural edition, you can still find it right here. It’s digital, so there’s little chance of it disappearing. Anyway, I digress.
I’m here (and very eager) to tell you that, as of today, we’ve just launched the second edition of CRUX! It’s an exciting day for all of us here at Optimal Workshop, as well as the fabulous bunch of intelligent, creative and amazing people from the research and design communities who helped us to put this issue together.
Before we delve into what you can expect to see in this next issue, let’s recap on CRUX #1.
Creating a UX magazine: A brief retrospective
As you can probably guess, publishing a magazine is a bit of a labor of love. This is especially the case at Optimal Workshop where creating a magazine isn’t the only project we’ve got going on (we’re pretty busy down here in Wellington, New Zealand).
But, we managed to get the first issue of CRUX out the door and by all accounts, it was a tremendous success. In the 30 days following the launch we had just over 1500 readers, with an average page per reader count of 27 (out of 34), and an average time spent reading of over 9mins. It has been viewed in over 62 countries worldwide. So, a success!
Four people also spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day tucking into CRUX, with one reader based in Ireland managing to flick through 109 pages.
With these results, your feedback (we appreciate it) and an appetite to create an even better second issue, we stuck our heads down and got to work. Now, CRUX #2 is here!
What you’ll find in CRUX #2
It’s important to keep pushing yourself. While the first issue of CRUX got a great reception, we knew that we could do even more if given the opportunity to publish a second issue. While we talked about the idea of each future issue focusing a different theme, we instead decided to keep the brief broad – we wanted diverse opinions from a range of contributors. We think that the end selection reflects this goal.
Here are just a few of the topics that you can expect to find in this issue:
- How user research helps product teams to move faster and work more effectively
- Tips for making your participant recruitment process more efficient
- The case for a new role in the world of UX
- Building great content design teams
- How to start your own UX practice
- What the future holds for conversational user experiences
There’s all of the above and so much more to discover in CRUX #2, so go ahead and read. We’ll be waiting and we can’t wait to hear what you think.
Put the word out: We want you!
Finally, let’s talk about the future of CRUX. We want to keep creating the best UX magazine as long as people like you want to keep reading it. But we need your help. We’ve had a great bunch of people contribute to CRUX #1 and #2, but we know there are more people out there who don’t have a platform. If you, or someone you know, wants to share their ideas with the world, drop us a line directly here.
But for now, go and have a read of CRUX #2. We worked hard on it – and it’s all for you.
