CategoryUX

July 24, 2013 — For those of us who design and build apps, websites and software, a great product means one that delights its users. But digital product development is complex. What can designers do to increase the overall quality and success rate of the products we craft and to elevate our team’s batting average? An answer lies in the way artists and composers have worked for centuries to create paintings and music — by focusing on a singular element: a motif. Read more…

July 16, 2013 — The flat interface style is the manifestation of a desire for greater authenticity in design. The Modern design movement curbed the ornamental excess of the 19th century, making design fit the age of mass production. Today, we’re seeing the same desire for authenticity manifest itself in the “flat” trend, which rejects skeuomorphism and excessive visuals for simpler, cleaner, content-focused design. Read more…

June 24, 2013 — One way to gauge mobile experience is to look at the tools at our disposal. Prototyping tools enable us to build wireframes and click-dummies. We seem to be in a better position than ever to design great experiences in virtually no time. However, these tools come with a hidden cost: they tempt us to skip the key step necessary to creating a well-designed product — which is to take the time to understand the problem we are given. Read more…

June 21, 2013 — Following is a list of 13 beliefs on the value of user experience strategy, design, and designers, one for every year that Robert has been in the web industry at the time he wrote it in 2012. Read more…

June 17, 2013 — Microcopy is the little text that can make or break your user experience. If your microcopy isn’t getting the job done, you’ll lose users — and all the marketing in the world might not get you a second chance. With that in mind, here are five ways to make sure your website’s microcopy doesn’t end up sinking your UX. Read more…

June 14, 2013 — In this article, we’ll travel into the future and explore a world where Google Glass and a few other technologies are as much a part of our daily lives as our smartphones and desktops are now. We’ll be discussing a new paradigm of human-computer interface. The goal of this piece is to start a discussion with forward-thinking user experience designers, and to explore what’s possible when the mainstream starts to interact with computers in 3-D space. Read more…

May 27, 2013 — Understanding people better often requires us to get outside and get our hands dirty but, in doing so, allows us to better analyze and solve. In the first of three articles, Pete Smart will share what travelling from the bustling metropolis of London to the cobbled backstreets of Turin taught me about the design process and about the power of empathy to foster innovation. Read more…

May 24, 2013 — If you are a mobile UI or UX designer, you probably remember the launch of Apple’s first iPhone. It introduced a completely touchscreen-centered interaction to a individual’s most private and personal device. It was a game-changer. Today, kids grow up with touchscreens, and touch and gesture interactions have a lot of potential to make mobile experiences easier and more fun to use. Read more…

May 21, 2013 — We decided to conduct a large-scale usability study focusing specifically on m-commerce, and our subjects encountered 1,000+ usability-related issues during the testing sessions. These usability issues have been analyzed and distilled into a report titled “M-Commerce Usability.” In this article, we’ll share 10 recommendations from that report with you. Read more…

May 14, 2013 — Large organizations may still want to adopt server-side device detection in some form to deliver a great UX to everyone who accesses their websites. While RWD and PE strategies can be adopted by companies, a hybrid client- and server-side approach is the most likely to deliver a great service to desktop, tablet and mobile users alike. Read more…