The days of the job for life are long passed. That means most of us are going to look for new employers (or clients) a few times during our lives. In fact there’s a sense that 18-36 months is about the ideal time in a job today; so some folks are going to be looking for new design jobs a lot during
The designer used to be a famous self-centered personality behind a product, like Philippe Starck. But now, the designer is just one of the many faces behind a brand. Against a long established design star system, this dimming of the spotlight is a sign of the ever-increasing product complexities.If
The case for user experience is clear in all our minds. Better products should lead to happier customers and more of them and thus more revenue. But how much money should be invested in user experience design as part of a software or web development project? And how do we convince those holding the
User experience (UX) is very much about communicating, advocating and spreading. As UX practitioners, we spend a great amount of our time engaged in these types of activities. To help you learn and understand new buzzwords, I have written this article to introduce some of the words related to the Us
So you’ve decide to go it alone? Good for you. Freelance life is challenging but rewarding and there are several things you can do to increase your chances of succeeding. We’ve got five ideas that should help you start moving in the right direction:Create the Right WorkspaceYou may need to barricade
Regardless of which generation you are from, and which computers you have used, you have probably played video games at some point (Approximately 72% of U.S. households play video games, Entertainment Software Association ). And if you have spent hours on end playing them, your mum and/or dad have p
There are many ways to provide an excellent user experience but there are some tried and tested methods to do the opposite as well. It’s important not to fall into the trap of doing things because; “that’s the way they’ve always been done around here”. It’s a seductive position because it involves m
There has been a subtle change in the freelance world in the last few years. Traditionally, you had to find your clients via hard marketing. Then all of a sudden sites like Elance, Odesk, Freelancer, Guru, etc. sprang into life and you could find hundreds of leads for almost nothing. These sites are
User research and indeed, user tests, are a vital part of developing a great user experience. The problem is that for many UX professionals – there’s often not a lot of budget to conduct this research. This is particularly true in small start-ups. So how do you go about developing the perfect User E
Today, we’re going to look at a quick process for testing ideas before you start working on solutions.More Research!The first step in your process to test your ideas is the simplest of them all. Get on Google and see if there’s already a solution to the problem. You’d be amazed at the amount of wast
The world has changed for the better and project teams are often widely geographically dispersed. Here at the Interaction Design Foundation we work on a global basis; our writer is in Cambodia, our administrator is in Serbia, our management team is based in Denmark and so on… but remote working also
I’ve often heard it said that UX design and marketing are at loggerheads. That the two functions are aiming for different things and it’s hard to realign the two so that they function together. I’d like to take a look at this idea and explore if UX design really does clash with marketing objectives.
The age of the internet brokerage for freelance work is upon us; whilst Elance, Odesk, etc. currently only have a tiny share of the overall freelance marketplace – it is possible to earn a decent living online using these sites now. So let’s take a quick look at the advantages of using an internet b
If you’re in UX design or even simply looking to make some tweaks to the design of a website or application; it can be really useful to “mock up” some of the changes or your new design before putting them into practice. There are plenty of tools to make this wireframing exercise easier on the desi
Visual design is often neglected in discussions of user experience. While visual design is perhaps, not the be all and end all of design, it is a vital component of delivering products that people like to use. Unlike other aspects of user experience design, visual design does require some artistic t
We’re often asked for tips that will help people develop their UX practice into something more effective. Given that; this week we’re going to run a series of best practice tips for your UX work – 5 each and every day. So let’s get started at the beginning of the project:Look Before You Leap
Even on the walk to the room; you’re a little bit nervous and when you go inside – you find yourself on autopilot. It’s not that your pitch sucks but it’s just not as good as you felt it could be. You look at the client and they’re neither elated nor deflated? Surely, there’s a better way to go abou
What brand comes to your mind when looking at the image above?Lego has succeeded in utilizing the power of a holistic user experience design.Designing aholistic user experience means embracing all company components a part of a whole thing. In these cases, no matter the world – digital, physical, hy
User-Interface Design is often seen as a field which hasn’t evolved very far; in fact if you look at what works in UI Design that might be taken as a compliment. The best UI is the UI that is so familiar and so easy to work with that it becomes nearly invisible. That wonderful save icon (the Compute
Designing robots has to be among the coolest jobs on the planet. Yet, despite the huge investments in robot design; there’s still a long, long way to go before we reach the panacea of a world in which robots do everything for us. In Kerstin Dautenhahn’s book, Human Robot Interaction, she argues that
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.