The iterative design process is a simple concept. Once, through user research, you have identified a user need and have generated ideas to meet that need, you develop a prototype. Then you test the prototype to see whether it meets the need in the best possible way. Then you take what you learned fr
After more than 40 years in the field, Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is already a well-established design discipline. Now, the pervasiveness of big data, new data collection and interaction techniques is giving rise to a new but related discipline: Human Data Interaction (HDI). This is likely to
User Experience (UX) is critical to the success or failure of a product in the market but what do we mean by UX? All too often UX is confused with usability which describes to some extent how easy a product is to use and it is true that UX as a discipline began with usability – however, UX has grown
It was Albert Einstein who said; “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.” Though it is often mis-reported as being; “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough.” What Einstein was driving at was a particular application of “keep it simple, s
Apple’s Product Development Process may be one of the most successful design processes ever implemented. With a valuation that exceeds $2 trillion, there’s a lot that designers can learn from Apple and introduce into their own design environments.Apple is a notoriously secretive business. In Steve J
Human Computer Interaction is the academic discipline that most of us think of as UI design. It focuses on the way that human beings and computers interact to ever increasing levels of both complexity and simplicity.It’s a Very New DisciplineIt’s perhaps easy to see that until the mid to late 1970s
Let’s look at three subjects that, at first glance, may strike you as being incredibly basic and self-explanatory. However, although they may seem like they should need no introduction, we should study them. By understanding these concepts, you’ll be able to apply them more effectively to captivate
Follow Ben Shneiderman’s 'Eight Golden Rules of Interface Design' if you want to design great, productive and frustration-free user interfaces. Apple, Google and Microsoft are among some of the highly successful companies whose well-designed products reflect Shneiderman’s rules. The characteristics
Mental models are important in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and interaction design because they provide information about how users perceive the world and interact with products or services. Let’s explore this concept more closely.Mental models indicate what a user expects to happen based on exp
Stand-out case studies for your portfolio are simpler to write than you might think. The not-so-secret “secret sauce” is storytelling—something humans have been doing for a long time. As a result, there is a multitude of frameworks, guidelines, and structures that UX/UI designers can take advantage
Many businesses start with the end-point in mind; “We need a mobile app or a mobile website!” They do not consider why their users would want it. Having a mobile website or app isn’t the key to success—you must provide value to your users. When you take a user- and task-centered approach to mobile (
Heuristic evaluation is the activity of using a set of guidelines (heuristics) to evaluate if an interface is user-friendly. Let’s look at what heuristics are and how you can conduct a heuristic evaluation to improve the usability of your designs.What are Heuristics?“Heuristics” simply means guideli
The term “case study” sounds a little boring, doesn’t it? What if, instead, it were called a “design story”? Well, that’s exactly how you should think of it! Approach your UX/UI design case studies like stories, not just a list of tasks you completed. You will not only make your portfolio easier and
Have you ever read and re-read something over and over and still didn’t understand it? Unless it was a book on advanced nanoengineering, it probably wasn’t your fault. Much of the writing you will read in your life will be unnecessarily complex or vague. Surprisingly, however, it’s easy to write eff
One of the biggest challenges facing designers is how to begin and how to further their design education. Do you go for the university degree or book-learning or e-learning or pay for classroom learning? While we all have some natural preference for one (or more) of these learning methods, one thing
Storytelling breathes life into design. It turns design documentation into design adventures. If you can absorb recruiters in the narrative of your portfolio, they won’t want to put it down. A compelling story will lead to more interest, more job offers, and better positions. That’s why you should t
If you already have an online UX/UI design portfolio, do you need a PDF version? The answer is – yes; it is better to be safe than sorry! Some hiring managers like to see a more detailed PDF portfolio after reviewing your online portfolio, while some job applications may request an upload instead of
You’re new to UX design and on the hunt for your first job. You face a familiar paradox—to get a job, you need a portfolio, but to build a portfolio, you need a job. So, how do you solve the problem? It’s simple—even without UX experience, you can easily create job-landing case studies for your port
When it comes to any school of thought surrounding a new concept – there comes a point when there is a body of “accepted knowledge”. That body of knowledge then becomes sacrosanct and instead of being treated as a guide to inform our work – it becomes practical dogma. It is worth challenging such my
As designers, we can use color to guide our users in the right direction to accomplish a task effectively and efficiently. But some designers who focus more on their company’s needs than their users’ can twist things so that colors turn into a bewildering nightmare, hiding buttons and information us
AI is replacing jobs everywhere, yet design jobs are booming with a projected 45% job growth. With design skills, you can create products and services people love. More love means more impact and greater salary potential.
At IxDF, we help you from your first course to your next job, all in one place.