CategoryUX Design

January 10, 2018 — In experience design, friction is usually the opposite of being intuitive or effortless. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s always bad for the users. In this article, you’ll learn when and how friction can be an efficient tool to actually design better experiences. Read more…

January 5, 2018 — Personal reflection enables us to process and make meaning of all of the great (and not so great) learning and working experiences we’ve had. Everyone stands to gain from engaging in some type of reflection. We can also encourage others to grow through personal reflection. I’ll cover some of the benefits of personal reflection, as well as methods of reflecting that you can incorporate into your routine. Read more…

November 21, 2017 — In this article, I’ll focus on the main principles, heuristics and approaches that will help you to create a great user experience for your website. I’ll start with global things like the user journey (how to define the “skeleton” of the website) and work down to the individual page (what should be considered during web page design). We’ll also cover other essential aspects of design, such as mobile considerations and testing. Read more…

November 9, 2017 — (This is a sponsored post). Testing is a fundamental part of the UX designer’s job and a core part of the overall UX design process. Testing provides the inspiration, guidance and validation that product teams need in order to design great products. That’s why the most effective teams make testing a habit. Usability testing involves observing users as they use a product. It helps you find where users struggle and what they like. There are two ways to run a usability test: Read more…

November 3, 2017 — Using customer journey mapping to map your campaigns can not only turn out to be a huge timesaver, but a well of insights, too. In this article, Yuri Vedenin shares his experience with CJM and how UXPressia was able to achieve a 40% open rate in their email campaign. Read more…

October 25, 2017 — To come up with a proper design, UX designers use a lot of different research techniques, such as contextual inquires, interviews and workshops. They summarize research findings into user stories and user flows and communicate their thinking and solutions to the teams with artifacts such as personas and wireframes. But somewhere in all of this, there are real people for whom the products are being designed for. In order to create better products, designers must understand what’s going on in the user’s world and understand how their products can make the user’s life better. And that’s where storyboards come in. Read more…

October 23, 2017 — The visual interface is an obvious place to begin digging into accessibility. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most common visual impairments, focusing on color-blindness to explain how you can make small changes to your workflow and products to ensure you’re not alienating users. Read more…

October 19, 2017 — With​ ​the​ ​appearance​ ​of​ ​voice​ ​user​ ​interfaces,​ ​AI​ ​and​ ​chatbots,​ ​what is​ ​the​ ​future​ ​of​ ​graphical​ ​user​ ​interfaces (GUIs)?​ ​Don’t​ ​worry: Despite​ ​some dark​ ​predictions​,​ ​GUIs​ ​will​ ​stay​ ​around​ ​for​ ​many​ ​years​ ​to​ ​come. Let​ ​me​ ​share​ ​my​ ​personal, humble predictions​ ​and​ ​introduce​ ​multi-modal​ ​interfaces as​ ​a​ ​more​ ​human​ ​way​ ​of​ ​communication​ ​between​ ​user​ ​and​ machine. The​ ​old​ ​wisdom​ ​that​ ​a​ ​picture​ ​is​ ​worth​ ​a​ ​thousand​ ​words​ ​​is​ ​still​ ​true​ ​today.​ ​Our​ ​brain​ ​is​ ​an incredible​ ​image​-​processing​ ​machine.​ ​We​ ​can​ ​understand​ ​complex​ ​information​ ​faster​ ​when we​ ​see​ ​it​ ​visually.​ ​According​ ​to​ ​studies,​ ​even​ ​when​ ​we​ ​talk​ ​with​ ​someone​ ​else,​ n​​onverbal communication​​ ​represents​ ​two third​s ​of​ ​the​ ​conversation.​ ​According​ ​to​ ​​other​ ​studies​​, ​we​ absorb most​ ​information​ ​from​ ​our​ ​sight​ ​(83%​ ​sight,​ ​11%​ ​hearing,​ ​3%​ ​smell,​ ​2%​ ​touch​ ​and​ ​1% taste).​ ​In​ ​short,​ ​our​ ​eyes​ ​are​ our ​primary​ ​sensors​. Read more…

October 12, 2017 — You know that user feedback is crucial — after all, your users will decide whether your app succeeds or not — but how do you know whether users are being fair and objective in their feedback? We can tell you: They won’t be. All of your users will be giving you biased feedback. They can’t help it. Read more…

October 9, 2017 — Editor’s Note: We’ve been closely working with Maya on this article, and we’re happy to see the final result now being published on 18F. We highly encourage more teams to share the lessons they learned when building design systems or pattern libraries, and we’re always happy to support them in writing, editing and shaping that article. This post is a re-post of Maya’s final article. Today, there are nearly 30,000 U.S. federal websites with almost no consistency between them. Between the hundreds of thousands of government employees working in technology, there’s nothing in common with how these websites are built or maintained. Read more…