By focusing almost exclusively on the user insights that each test is designed to yield, prototype testing can be an impressively efficient method for product teams to run experiments. Regardless of which prototype tools you use or whether you test wireframes, clickable mockups or coded prototypes, what’s most important to focus on is what you want to test and what you want to learn from it. In this article, Michelle Chu gives six tips for designers to consider when creating prototypes specifically to generate user testing insight.
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The state of passwords today causes more headache than happiness. Nearly half of Americans have had their account hacked in the last year alone. Are web designers and developers taking enough measures to prevent these problems? Or do we need to rethink passwords? Passphrases are a better alternative because they are more secure and usable. A few websites out there enforce passphrases. No user should feel like they’ve lost their keys or had their house broken into. But switching to passphrases doesn’t require a technical overhaul. It’s as simple as introducing the concept to users and requiring a higher character length.
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Today, join Cory Shaw while he reflects on some of the mistakes he and his team made, the tools they used, the workflows and guidelines they followed, and even some of the custom tools they built while working on the new Hawaiian Airlines website. All while growing a UI development team from one to over ten people to get the job done. It was a rollercoaster ride like no other, but they have prevailed and built what he believes to be one of the best airline-booking experiences on the web. This article and the information herein has been shared with the explicit permission and generosity of Hawaiian Airlines.
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Yes, deliverables can slow us down and result in documentation that no one reads. But the right deliverables anchor teams in a united product vision, provide early validation for product ideas and speed up (the right) making activities. Those are worth the drawbacks for me. “Get out of the deliverables business” has become quite a mantra in the lean startup and UX movements. What follows is an account of Rian van der Merwe’s journey in navigating stormy design seas together with the community. Remember, deliverables aren’t bad. Bad deliverables are bad.
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User-testing mobile apps and websites is an essential component of the UX toolkit. Running regular mobile usability tests is the only way to gauge how well this channel is working for your customers. A bit of hacking is required. And, after years of experimentation, Colman Walsh thinks he’s figured out the best hack available yet. If you want to test iPhone or Android experiences, this solution is simple, cost-effective and high quality. After your first time getting things together, setup takes about five minutes the second time, and you can have this solution in place for less than $200 if you’re using a MacBook. (By comparison, Morae, the high-end usability testing software, sells for $2,000.)
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As a designer, you have the power to help millions of people live longer, healthier and happier lives. But a truly delightful and meaningful app doesn’t happen by magic. In this article, Jen Maroney presents useful examples and explains how you can achieve best results when design consumer-facing healthcare apps. She’ll explore how to plan and conduct research, design moments of delight, integrate data from third-party devices and develop a messaging matrix.
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Jay Kaufmann has written job listings for many organizations over the years and for all manner of user experience roles. When he wrote his first job description, he took other listings from his company as a base, looked around for some examples from other companies and ended up with what he sees in hindsight as being the usual run-of-the-mill hodgepodge of bullet points. Presented with this today, Jay would throw out more than half the content in order to focus on what’s relevant and unique. In this article, he’d like to share some tried and true techniques for advertising your UX opening.
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Any experienced traveler will tell you that some companies do it better than others. To find out, let’s take a closer look at a few airline websites from around the world. With this article, we start exploring various industries and study the current state of front-end, UX and performance of relatively complex websites. First up are airline websites. Some sections of the article were written by the editorial team. We’d love to hear your flights booking experience in the comments to this article! Along the way, Joshua Johnson will discover the critical steps of booking air travel and how they’re presented by different companies.
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When we talk about the user’s perception of time, we mean psychological time, or brain time. This time is of interest to psychologists, neuroscientists and odd individuals like me. Objective time is dealt with by technical means, and those means have limits that become insurmountable at some point. As web developers, we should aim to deliver fast and reliable web services to make users feel comfortable. We can use technological means to control the objective performance of a website. However, technology and resources eventually hit a limit, at which point it becomes difficult to change objective performance. Then, we have to aim to exploit what psychology and neuroscience tell us.
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In record time, our smartphones have become indispensable, and as mobile technology has become integrated into nearly every aspect of our lives, our smartphones are shifting from device to dependency. But while it’s now clear that we are locked in an intense relationship with our smartphones, one has to wonder why this courtship hasn’t turned into a love triangle with tablets. What is it about our smartphones that makes them so attractive? And why is the addiction we feel toward them so much stronger than to our tablets?
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