Mobile changes everything about how we conduct usability research. Not only has the way we design and build websites and apps had to adapt, how we study them has to as well. Traditional research methods won’t translate to a mobile environment. Cyd Harrell, formerly of Bolt | Peters, has been conducting mobile usability tests. (more…)
Planning user experience (UX) projects is a balancing act of getting the right amount of user input within the constraints of your project. The trick is to work out the best use of your time. How can you get the most UX goodness for your client’s budget? This article explains how to choose the right mix of tools for the task at hand. (more…)
People tend to use the word "design" very loosely when talking about product, but it's actually quite important to distinguish between the types of design (and their respective designers) when seeking to understand what someone means by the term in any given context, as well as how they apply to the overall product development process. (more…)
Try this test: Find three UX friends and ask them about the compatibility of UX design with agile development. Odds are that one of them believes UX design and agile can work well together, one swears that they can’t, and one has yet to decide. There are many reasons for the divided opinion on this issue. (more…)
UX research begins when either a stakeholder asks for it or a researcher suggests it. When a stakeholder asks you to conduct a study, it is a good sign—the stakeholder realizes that answers to his or her questions lie with the people who will use the product or service. (more…)
What does UX actually mean? The various UX roles that a person can fulfill are plentiful. Some are whole jobs, some whole careers; others are tactical roles we all move in and out of. What so many UX designers would like you to remember is that UX is not UI design. (more…)
"Our teammates design apps every day, and we’ve tried most of the prototyping solutions out there, but they all seemed too complicated for us," says Leo Lin, a designer at Woomoo Inc., the Japanese Taiwanese studio that created POP. "With paper you can iterate faster than any other tools. (more…)
If you provide usability testing as a service, it’s pretty standard for your clients to expect video footage to be digitally recorded and piped into a viewing room. So what do you when you’re usability testing on an iOS device? You can use a kit like Mr Tappy to mount a camera pointed at the screen, but it’s a little awkward and a software solution would be much tidier. (more…)
I’ve been in three board meetings in the last month where it was painfully apparent that there wasn’t a person in the company who owned the UX philosophy of the product. (more…)
As day 5 of the product design sprint dawns and the team files into the war room, there’s a certain something in the air. Is it the chemical scent of the whiteboard markers? Maybe. Is it coffee breath? Yeah, almost for sure — in fact, you might want to hand out some gum. (more…)
On day 2 you drew concept sketches. On day 3, you made a plan and a storyboard for your prototype. Now it’s day 4 and the clock is ticking. You’re going to create a real-looking version of yesterday’s storyboard and show it to users tomorrow. (more…)
At this point in a design sprint, you’ve got a lot of ideas down on paper. You’ve explored the problem, generated a ton of solutions, and looked around at how other companies are solving similar problems. (more…)
In the first two days of the sprint, we’ve learned about the problem, shared a lot of knowledge, and chosen the challenge we want to tackle in this sprint. It’s time to start cranking out solutions. Expect this step to take between two hours and all day. (more…)
Now that you know what design sprints are good for, you’ll need a few important ingredients to make yours successful. Start with a big, important problem; pitch it to your team; and schedule a user study before you even start. Get the right people and the right supplies in a room and you’re on your way to a successful design sprint. (more…)
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