Drumming up business can take some planning. Luckily, that same planning is what can help you set up a first-rate website and work out exactly how not only to establish your online presence but to cast it to the right audience as well. Well done on following your dream to the next level! Are you st
We all know that the screen real estate on mobile devices is limited when compared to that offered by a desktop or a laptop; but what effect does that have on the comprehension of content by the user? What other pain points are there for mobile users? How could we go about avoiding them? Developing
Dreaming about freedom is fine; dreaming about attaining that freedom is a thousand times better; and when you go from dreaming to living the dream, it shows on your face and will—very, very probably—show up shortly afterward in your bank account and in no small amount. In between those powerful sta
Having such an inviting work environment as this can do wonders for the working mind. One popular misconception about a coffee shop is that someone might blur the line between business and pleasure. However, that notion overlooks the whole point of freelancing—which is all about freedom, self-pride
The history of information visualization is both rich and longer than you might expect. While the discipline of information visualization was only formally recognized by Xerox Parc in the 1980s – the act of information visualization is nearly as old as the written word. The history of information vi
It’s the perfect time to join the way of the future for many industries. The 21st century has seen a style shift from office working to location-independent provision of value-adding services—freelancing and entrepreneurism, in other words. This simple, ongoing trend means that reshaping your life f
Static representations of data have been with us for millennia; a single image of a data set can be incredibly useful but with the increasing complexity of data sets a static representation can also be inadequate to the task of delivering value to the user of the information visualization.Ed Dunbill
The one thing that makes working for a company easier than working for yourself is getting paid. When you have a job, you turn up every day and at the end of the month – the money’s in the bank.Unfortunately, for freelancers, you have to do the work and then rely on the money getting to the bank at
The team behind the Interaction Design Foundation (IDF) is looking for a highly qualified and passionate 2D Animator to help us create an outstanding explainer video.We are offering you the opportunity to:Develop yourself professionally, accelerating your learning curve. Unlike other run-of-the-mill
Smartphone users interact with their phones up to 150 times a day. Some of their interactions are long interactions but many are short and hurried. Because of this smartphone users may lack the patience of desktop users and without the appropriate feedback and notifications they may abandon an app o
Every project in every business has its stakeholders. These are people who are not necessarily working on the project but have an objective to meet from the outcome of the project. Stakeholders can be internal to the company such as the CEO or the Marketing Manager and they can be external to the co
Playing it safe is a good strategy for much of the time. Yet, the biggest rewards often come with an element of risk. If we want our designs and our careers to take off – we need to overcome our aversion to taking an extreme option at times. That doesn’t mean becoming an inveterate gambler but rathe
It has been established that users are more likely to choose products that meet their needs than ones that meet their wants. Abraham Maslow developed a deep understanding of human needs and how they could be met. You can use Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in a design context to deliver more powerful us
Information visualization has a long history and there were great strides made in the field between the 17th and 19th centuries, in particular. However, the 20th century has seen the greatest progress in the development of information visualization thanks to the development of computing power. Visua
Products do not exist in isolated universes by themselves. Just as creatures in a biological system are affected by the environment; products form part of a greater eco-system in which they are affected by their environments.Market ecology is the understanding that cultural, economic, political, soc
Design is for solving problems. It’s become generally understood that this is the main concern of design and that other considerations are secondary to solving problems. However, holistic design is a school of thought that disagrees with this approach. It still focuses on solving problems but takes
Reverse engineering (or sometimes back-engineering) is a process that is designed to extract enough data from a product and then to be able to reproduce that product. It may involve moving to creating a product from scratch or from pre-developed components. It can be applied to any product (such as
The winner is the one who has failed the most. Success is all about realizing when you are wrong, evaluating, understanding what went wrong, learning, correcting course, and trying again...and again...and again. Even Steve Jobs failed every now and again – he got fired from Apple! He handled th
Confirmation bias is a pernicious form of bias that can cause real problems in both UX research and our own lives. Learning to recognize and eliminate confirmation bias leads to better decision making, better research and ultimately better products and user experiences.One of the most famous, and fl
There’s a good reason that financial advisers tell us “past performance is no guarantee of future returns”. The focusing effect is a cognitive bias that causes us to attribute too much weight to events of the past and translate them into future expectations. Knowing how to handle the focusing effect
