Learning to See
A designer who is able to find the functional essence of a product will also likely find it in the visual aspects — they are usually interconnected, sometimes almost inevitably so. Don’t count on an inevitable visual beauty when it comes to products with a heavy engineering aspect, like computers, web sites, or industrial complexes. (more…)
Developing a UI Design PatternLibrary
Designing good user interfaces is difficult, and thus software development organizations need effective and usable design tools to support design work. In this thesis a tool, a user interface design pattern library which captures knowledge of good UI design and shares it effectively in reusable format to the development organization, was developed for a Finnish middle-sized IT organization called eCraft. (more…)
Postcard Patterns: An Agile UI Pattern Creation Process
Traditionally, creating and maintaining a pattern library has been a daunting task requiring extensive resources and, sometimes, dedicated full-time employees. At Salesforce.com our first attempt at producing a comprehensive library was bogged down by a waterfall-based creation and review process that yielded only two patterns in a six-month period. (more…)
What UI really is (and how UX confuses matters)
People mix the terms UI and UX together. UX is tricky because it doesn’t refer to any one thing. Interface design, visual styling, code performance, uptime, and feature set all contribute to the user’s “experience.” Books on UX further complicate matters by including research methods and development methodologies. All of this makes the field confusing for people who want to understand the fundamentals. (more…)
Complete Beginner’s Guide to Interaction Design
This article serves as a good jumping off point for people interested in learning more about Interaction Design. To that point, we’ll briefly cover the history, guiding principles, noteworthy contributors, tools, etc. related to this fascinating discipline. Even if you’re an interaction designer yourself, give the article a read and share your thoughts in the comments below. (more…)
The Five Worst UX Mistakes Websites Make
The user experience of websites has improved by leaps and bounds over the years, but I still run into sites that make me ask, “What were they thinking?!”. From a design perspective, it’s easy to get caught up in internal squabbles (“No, no, THIS is the content that has to be front and center”) or distracted by tools or methods (“I say we use lean UX on this project”). (more…)
Nathan Curtis – Prototyping with HTML and CSS
Prototyping is an effective way to communicate design ideas. Static PDFs, PSDs, and wireframes can help get your point across but aren’t dynamic. Usually, any necessary changes are logged away as to-dos. They’re then taken back, fixed, and presented again. (more…)
Why Sketchnoting Makes You A Better UX Designer
I haven’t written about sketchnoting much since my article Sketch noting 101: How To Create Awesome Visual Notes, which is kind of silly of me given it’s one of the most popular articles on our site. Part of my hesitation to do so (read excuses, excuses!) is because this is a site about user experience design, and I’ve never been quite sure where sketchnoting fits under the UX umbrella. (more…)
Onboarding: Designing Welcoming First Experiences
A prime example of great onboarding One of the best and most often-cited examples of an onboarding process is on Tumblr.com. Tumblr proudly calls itself the easiest way to blog and goes to great lengths to prove its point. The sign-up process itself is dead simple—just a single form to provide an email address, password, and desired URL. (more…)
5 Things to Know When Designing for iOS
This seems obvious, but designing apps instead of websites actually represents a huge shift in mindsets. Apps aren’t websites and shouldn’t be designed like them, either. Let’s talk about specifics. Apps have a completely different user interaction model from websites: taps vs. clicks, views vs. pages, buttons vs. links, etc. (more…)
Don’t let user experience design methods die
This is where I disagree. I started my career in the product world. I worked at big companies, startups, and now an agency. I’ve used (and have observed others using) these “terrible” UX methods very successfully. Ryan is extremely lucky to work at a company like 37signals where personas, user journeys, and wireframes are not needed. (more…)
Visceral Apps and You
For the past few years, I’ve been watching the buzz around various products and trying to figure out just what it was that made them so tantalizing. Obviously, great UI and beautiful graphics are important. The use of white space, typography and functionality are all critical. Great apps also have great attention to detail. It’s important to really nail each of these things (more…)
Designing for Mobile, Part 2: Interaction Design
Welcome to Designing for Mobile, Part 2: Interaction Design. Here’s some background in case you’re just joining us mid-series: Designing for Mobile, Part 1: Information Architecture demonstrated the key challenges designers face when designing for mobile, primarily the mobile context: from viewing conditions, to behavior and emotion. (more…)
Designing for Mobile, Part 1: Information Architecture
How is mobile different? The first thing we need to understand about mobile design is that it’s different – and not just with regards to size. The physicality and specifications of mobile devices impart different design affordances and requirements. Because mobile devices are lighter and more portable, we often find it more convenient to use them. (more…)