Great video on UX and Architecture
Simon Guest has a great one hour video on how you can put User Experience back into Software Design, from the Canadian Strategic Architect Forum. It uses the new Silverlight video player which has a wonderful "chapter" feature that lets you navigate through the presentation. I prefer the Silverlight version of this presentation compared to just grabbing a PowerPoint. With the video you get the full context of the discussion and the demos.
After watching the video ask yourself how you can make UX a part of your product (If you don't have a UX or design component to your software). Does your company view UX and design as something that is to be bolted on after "we take care of the hard stuff"? Beware, you most likely will fall in the Design Debt pitfall. "Quick and dirty" or "bolted on at the end' gives you and the people that use your software exactly that experience of "quick and dirty".
Companies like Apple have design and user experience (UX) as part of their DNA, and as a software architect, you to should care about it. Here's an article about UX and design at Apple titled "The Secret of Apple Design" that gives you a look at how Apple. In the section called "Why Design" there is a quote that "Attractive things work better,". This doesn't mean that your application should be as beautiful as a super model, but instead speaks to how you are moved by the software or object. If you pick up a smooth river stone to skip across the lake, most people will hold it to get the feel and sensation of it first, lingering over the object before skipping it as many times as possible across the water. Simon covers this in the presentation when talking about "Proven" portion of the video and how it's about the complete experience.
Sean