Today we’re looking at great UX techniques with a look at what developers can do to improve the UX of the projects that they’re working on.1. Make It Clear to Users When You Change ThingsIf you make a change to your product or website; you need to let your users know about it. It’s often very frustr
Many web designers can imagine visual interfaces in their heads before putting them down on paper. It is a unique skill that few can master. Think of your clients, they usually try to interfere with your designs once they get their hands on them after running through countless hours of code and desi
In a world where Apple has become synonymous with great design; is it true that users are always looking for the simplest possible user experiences? That’s Apple’s forte after all – taking complexity and making it strikingly simple to manage.Cultures of ComplexityUser experience designers have right
It can be easy to forget that users don’t come in a standard format when designing products. We’re getting better at catering for different personas or demographics but the industry still lags a long way behind design that is accessible to as many disabled people as possible.The principle of “Design
If you’re involved in the user experience of selling or persuading and let’s be fair, most UX designers are, then you want to be able to use as many tools as possible to drive decisions in your direction. Of course, you could head for the dark side and cheat, extort and mislead your users but the pr
Occasionally we hear from a new freelance designer who is confused about why they should invest in brand building. They feel that one of the reasons that they went freelance was to get away from the corporate and surely branding is just another corporate exercise? So we’ve got 5 good reasons to buil
User-centered design is not a new concept (at least in technology terms where new means “last week”) but despite the clear importance of UCD; it can still be a hard sell to clients. Here are some good reasons for taking a UCD approach that may help change your client’s mind about UCD:1. It Leads to
Development budgets often have limited funding for UX practices, especially with the rising cost and limited availability on the development front. This has led to the use of lightweight usability testing methods and the rapid movement toward agile usability engineering. In 2003, Jakob Nielson recom
Today we’d like to take a quick look at 5 useful tools for interaction designers.Page LayersAuthor/Copyright holder: Page Layers. Copyright terms and licence: All rights reserved Img sourceIf you’re working on a Mac then Page Layers is a very handy tool. It lets you open your site in your web browse
If you’re stuck trying to move a project forward because it seems like there are too many things to concentrate on then the MoSCoW method may help you get unstuck. It’s a prioritization technique which is easy to learn and simple to apply. It can also help you decide what’s really valuable for your
If you’re ever tempted to answer the question; “How long will it take before this is ready?” with “How long is a piece of string?” then it’s likely that your projects are suffering from feature or scope creep. UX designers, project managers and freelancers alike need to be able to either resist or a
There can be quite a bit of confusion when you think about what the word “expertise” means. We all like to believe we have areas of expertise. However, sometimes, this leads to an over-estimation of our capacities. We fail to see our limits and how they might affect our results. A similar fairly pai
This year, for the first time, Google stated that user experience would be a core part of gaining rankings for mobile websites. A poorer user experience would send your site hurtling down the rankings. This appeared to come as a shock to many in the SEO community and despite assurances that content
Copyright law is there to protect the intellectual property of the creator. You don’t, in most countries, need to register copyright. It comes into existence at the moment you create something. In some places, like the United States, there are benefits to rights holders for registering copyright. Bu
The public perception of marketing is so bad that I can almost hear the sharp intake of breath when I ask the question; “Is UX Just a Form of Marketing?” Yet, despite the disdain in which marketing is often held – nearly every business on earth indulges in marketing of some form or another. So let’s
An SSQS (A semi-structured qualitative study) refers to research methods with qualitative rather than quantitative outputs. There are many types of SSQS research such as ethnography, interviews, observations, etc. For them, it can be useful to have a checklist to ensure that you’re making the most o
If you’re in charge of developing your UX design team; it’s probably a good idea to include coaching as part of that remit. Of course there are other great development tools like reading materials, online courses (like our own), classroom courses, etc. but nothing beats the personal attention and fi
Nobody said that starting a business would be easy. Founders of startups are under intense pressure to get good at a whole range of things: coding, recruitment, raising capital, and, or course, selling (or pre-selling) the product itself. So do they really need to add UX design to that demanding lis
When we think of improving performance in any area of our lives, we tend to focus on activities directly related to that particular area. If a chef wants to get better at chopping vegetables into neat Juliennes, they will just keep chopping until they perfect the skill. If an author wants to improve
When you think about user experience design (UX design) and what the ingredients for users to enjoy great experiences are—and so, what you need to think about presenting to them in innovative and delightful ways they can hit the ground running with—does it seem a little overwhelming sometimes? Does
