Often we talk about value and we mean “financial value” a concept that can be measured in dollars and cents or pounds and pennies or whatever currency is near to hand. However, financial value is not the only motivating factor for users and consumers to invest in a product. In fact, it is the percep
Let’s pay a virtual visit to a famous industrial designer’s workshop. By examining the principles of his winning approach, we can incorporate vital elements into our designs in the “less is more” age.As user experience practitioners, most of us have worked with Nielsen and Molich’s 10 heuristics or
You are doing so great; you’re top of the class! Don’t you just love to hear a compliment like this? We’re all human, and this is the way we are wired. We thrive on accomplishment. Whether you want to be better than everyone else or simply be better than your former self, knowing your achievements i
Honestly, how much do you enjoy reading research reports? And how engaging do you find them? Unsurprisingly, receiving a report with your insights into the target group may not get your clients to empathize with the potential users of their product or service optimally. Alternatively, you might cons
This article examines two closely related ideas that are both about looks. Our design world revolves around nice images/form, but did you wonder why we’re allured to beauty? Let’s quickly ponder another question: why is a pretty post office different from a gorgeous art gallery?We’ll look at these t
In an age of tight resources and constrained finances companies are more reluctant than ever to commit to big design projects without a thorough understanding of their chances of success. Google has developed a methodology to make the design process fast and still offer valuable insight. Forget mini
The middle is the longest part of your UX case study, where you bring a recruiter through your design process. After you’ve gotten the recruiter hooked with your introduction, you then have to tell your story in a satisfying way. Let’s go through what you should show in the middle part of your case
Recruiting the right participants is crucial if your user research is to get your design anywhere. Your research participants must be able to represent your target group or end users; otherwise, your results will not translate into something you can use. The level of difficulty you will face when re
Designers often need to convey information to the users of their designs. Specialists in information visualization design in particular find themselves presenting data over and over again to their users. However, it’s important when developing your designs that you don’t create “information overload
If you work in an area related to UX, you’ll probably agree that good UX has a huge business value. Good UX helps you create the most relevant products and services for your customers and ensure that they are a joy to use. But if you have any practical experience of working with UX in organizations
You have been in the field talking to users and you now find yourself with a massive amount of audio, notes, video, pictures, and interesting impressions. All that information can be overwhelming, and it’s difficult to know where to start to make sense of all the data. Here, we will teach you how to
Writers deal with writer’s block and designer’s often find that they get stuck for ideas too. There’s no shame in it but learning to smash through the block is a necessary professional skill. Time waits for no-one and when there’s a deadline looming… you’ve got to pull something out of the bag. The
If you’re going to graduate from your university or design school this year, or if you’re in your first UX design job, you’ll be wondering what you can do to improve your chances of progressing on to or up the career ladder. So, what skills do you need? And is the job all about your design skills? R
Designing information visualizations offers you endless possibilities when it comes to end products, and it would be impossible to provide step-by-step instructions for all these possibilities. However, it is fair to say that while the end products may vary dramatically – the process by which we rea
This week, we’re going to take a step back and define some of the terminology that relates to User Experience design and its related fields. Each day we’ll look at one term and what it means and then at the end of the series – we’ll tie in how it all relates to User Experience design.What is Informa
For any gamification project, you’ll need to do research on players in order to determine what they will require from the gamified system. The culmination of this research is the development of a player persona; this is similar to a user persona (which most UX researchers will be intimately familiar
The use of a product may be considered as a cycle. Before a user is aware of a product they exist outside of that cycle. Once they are aware of it, they may be considered as being in a state of “pre-use”. If awareness sparks interest they may begin to use the product. This may be a single event or i
There are generally two types of UX design portfolios: online portfolios and static PDF portfolios. So, which of these should you create if you want to get a job in UX design? Well, the answer is both! However, there are pros and cons to each type of portfolio, and if you have to choose, we’d recomm
Some design patterns improve your life on a daily basis. But do you even notice these patterns? Two-panel selectors are used in nearly every email application and should therefore be very familiar to you. And their usefulness goes far beyond using email. It’s time to step back and revisit these with
Persuasion is a powerful force that changes the attitudes and behaviors of others. It’s all about influence and manifests itself in many aspects of everyday life. People can persuade themselves, too. Persuasion’s most direct portrayals may show up in such places as courtrooms, political debates, and
