Why I Love User Stories
User stories are an outgrowth of agile methodologies, and are used to state requirements without writing endless pages of documentation. Groups of user stories are called “epics”, and if a user story is too big, it can be broken up into smaller stories for the developers to work with. (more…)
Tools for Mobile UX Design
Whether you write about or draw mobile UX design concepts, you should communicate details about services, data, sensors, networks, and users. Maybe provide flow charts. Hardly ever screens. Storyboards and other ways of organically showing key principles relating to users’ tasks are great. (more…)
The Future Of UCD: Conducting Remote User Research Successfully
In times of constant technological advancements, high competition, and fast development cycles, time is getting short for extensive user research. Most companies today lack both time and resources for comprehensive in-person user testing. Which used to be the state of the art, is now getting out of style. (more…)
Wireframes: A Good Communication Tool, a Poor Design Tool
Wireframes are not a design tool Where does design happen? Before a wireframe can be created, a group of people needs to get together and talk things out. Later on, a wireframe might be created, usually by a single person working in isolation, sometimes long after the initial conversation has occurred. The sketches have been sketched, the ideas have been brainstormed. (more…)
Why Make a Customer Journey Map
Short answer: It is a holistic, end to end customer experience with context to each phase. But wait! There’s more…
- It helps guide and prioritize decisions/actions to be taken by viewing areas of opportunity and impact
- Is defined by data / measurable metrics, to help inform impact
- Allows for benchmark studies and identification of opportunity gaps
Collection of Mobile Design Patterns for App Ideas
The following is a collection of 11 Mobile design Patterns websites (scroll down) where you can gather inspiration or information on how other designers and developers like yourself have created their apps. Most of these sites contain several screenshots of the popular iOS and Android apps so you can view the onboarding process or if you'd simply like to walkthrough each mobile pattern manually. (more…)
Copying Others Is Not The Answer
Recently, we had the pleasure of sitting down to pick the brain of Nancy Dickenson, talented UX designer and the Executive in Residence for Bentley University’s HFID Graduate Program. With a bit of back and forth, we got some wonderful insight into the UX field from this long-time field participant and shaper, who looks back over her time in UX design. (more…)
Principles of User Interface Design
"To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse." - Paul Rand (more…)
Seven Tips For Writing Usability Task Scenarios
The core idea behind usability testing is having real people trying to accomplish real tasks on software, websites, cell phones or hardware. Identifying what users are trying to do is a key first step. Once you know what tasks you want to test, you'll want to create realistic task scenarios for participants to attempt. (more…)
How to Conduct a Usability Study: A Complete Recipe & Checklist
I’ve conducted several usability tests for different web applications but it’s still time consuming to plan and I always feel like I’m forgetting something. Many people know the importance of doing usability studies but not so many are able to do it well. (more…)
How To Design For A Cross-Cultural User Experience (part 1/2)
Our culture defines our values and our behaviour – not only in our everyday lives, but also on the Web. What catches our attention, what makes us trust a website, how we search for information, what we consider relevant, what triggers our actions, and how we perceive a website – at the end of the day, it all depends on our cultural background. (more…)
User Experience as a Multi Channel Customer Journey
A few years ago, in the “desktop-centric” world of digital design, User Experience Designers focused on the user “visit” to a single digital destination, NOT a multi channel customer journey in which they may encounter several digital touch-points. To be fair to the UX Designers of that era, it probably wasn’t an issue of shortsightedness that led them to limit their focus to the desktop. (more…)
Guidelines For The Development Of Accessible Mobile Interfaces (PDF)
In a project funded by the Swedish Internet Fund, Funka has developed guidelines for the development of accessible mobile interfaces. The guidelines are free to use for everyone and we appreciate your comments in the content! (more…)
The usability error you don’t know you’re making
Most weeks you'll find me carrying out usability reviews for clients. Sometimes these are usability inspections and sometimes these are usability tests, but there's a usability error I come across in virtually every system I examine. What makes this problem doubly unusual is that when I raise the problem with the design team they have a complete blind spot about the issue — sometimes even denying that the problem exists. (more…)