Feedback is a blessing and a curse. When feedback is delivered that make us feel good, we skip from the meeting with a song in our hearts. When it make us feel bad, we slink away with our tails between our legs and a snarl on our lips. Unfortunately, in most organizations this is what feedback boils
I have a confession to make. I bought a $700 smartphone and have now permanently disconnected it from being online during the day. Why? The notifications are driving me berserk. Ding! You have a Facebook message. Ding! It’s 1 degree colder outside than it was yesterday. Ding! Your phone company has
There are many rules for navigation UX; some of them complex and only used in very specific circumstances. Yet, there are some rules which will apply to nearly every situation. We’ve come up with six simple rules that may help you get your navigation UX closer to perfection: Rule 1: Be ClearAuthor/
This might sound like teaching your grandmother to suck eggs but in our experience a lot of incredibly talented designers don’t spend very much time building their personal brand. Instead they focus all their efforts on proactive marketing when they need new clients. The biggest advantage of buildin
If you’re going to graduate this year or if you’re in your first 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?Become a Problem SolverUX designers should know this
Products must have value. It’s a key rule of design. If they don’t have value, people won’t buy them. It’s that simple. Designers have to eat and thus they must create products people will buy. There are many ways to create value; value can be both quantitative (e.g. a product provides $100 of benef
Notice how an earlier lesson item was video-based whereas this lesson item is a mix of text and illustrations? Some people find it easier to learn from video-based content, others prefer text-based learning. If you switch between the two, you’re asking your brain to operate and absorb knowledge in d
I’m busy. You’re busy. Everyone’s busy. It’s not necessarily how things were supposed to be when all the fantastic breakthroughs of the last century were being made; but it is how things are for most of us. We don’t have enough hours in the day and when people waste our time; it makes us mad. One th
Investing in user experience is a good start. Understanding how to make the most from that investment takes time. The good news is that UX, in the majority of cases, is an iterative process. There’s almost always room for improvement in a product, website or service.The approach that your business t
Economists once assumed that every actor in an economic system would be rational. That people would calculate the value of what they had and what they could have in the future accurately and that they would make their decisions based on that calculation. Unfortunately, in practice this was rarely th
We know, almost instinctively, that networks hold value. Human beings are by nature social creatures and our own social networks (not just those online) provide a framework for our behaviors and structure to our lives. Yet, the value of networks in business is often overlooked. Designers looking to
If people were rational then the feelings invoked by losing something or gaining something (of equal value) ought to be the same. We should feel as pleased that our friend has just given us $100 for our birthdays as we feel bad that we have lost $100 when we forgot to take it from an ATM machine.In
Not everything in life is within our control. Believing that it is can be a serious handicap to getting things done in design work and most of life. Learning how to handle the illusion of control will make it much easier to accept things that aren’t within your control and focus your efforts on area
People don’t often make their decisions by themselves with no input from others. We turn to family, friends, media, opinion makers, colleagues, etc. to get their input. This is particularly true of decisions which may impact on our happiness to a great extent.Why does this matter in a design context
Usability is a vital part of the user experience as a whole. It’s vital for UX design teams to be able to assess whether a system they’ve developed is “usable”. When we say “usable” what we normally mean is the “extent to which a system is simple and enjoyable to use”. Yet, as with all simple concep
First impressions count. So how do you make a good impression on the first time user of a mobile application? Through a mobile splash screen. Unfortunately, there are often conflicts between a client’s wants for the splash screen and best practices. If you can learn to manage these conflicts – you c
Helping your users find their way around your website is a vital part of delivering a strong user experience. It can be somewhat challenging to get this right. Well formulated labels, the textual element of navigation, can make navigation very easy and badly formulated labels can send your users els
Groupthink is dangerous to our objectivity. It prevents us from thinking for ourselves and making the best decisions. Designers need to be cautious about falling into the bandwagon bias trap but also be aware of how it can be exploited in their designs to improve user experiences and get users to ma
Mandatory lessonsMandatory lessons are lessons that contain questions, and will thus help you earn course points. We highly recommend answering all questions since that will reinforce your learning as well as count towards getting your Course Certificate. This very lesson item, for instance, is a ma
There are a lot of ways to structure freelance pricing and it’s important to get it right. Charge too little and you won’t make ends meet and you’ll be an employee again before you know it. Charge too much and you won’t get any business but how much is enough?Know Your Minimum RateBefore you go free
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.