What is user experience design?

Those amazing people at Smashing Magazine have done it again; they've written another article I wish I'd written, but better than I ever could.

This time it's a brilliant summary of what user experience design is all about, why it's important and what it involves, what the benefits and criticsms are, and the techniques and tools involved. There's also a fantastic list of other web sites and resources in the UX space.

I thoroughly recommend the article to anyone working in the web design and software industries.