Yes, User Experience is a vital part of delivering what people want and that means better products and more profits. So user evangelism, the role of pushing a focus on users, can be very beneficial in an organization but what happens when things go wrong? When a Verbal Commitment Has No Backupisn’t
Language is often something that we take for granted. We make assumptions about the way people communicate and fall back on our own preferred communication styles naturally. Yet, the use of language is important when it comes to user experience and our own styles may not make the grade for our users
The very first book that went into our design library was a Brief Introduction to Interaction Design by Jonas Lowgren. In that book he defines interaction design as “shaping digital things for people’s use” and then he goes on to show the 5 main characteristics of interaction design. We’ll revis
User testing requires a number of different skills. Before the testing even begins you need to identify and recruit an appropriate sample of test users that accurately represent your eventual audience or market. You will need to establish a set of tasks that get to the heart of the issues you want t
If you’ve just started freelancing then you may not be prepared for all the things you need to handle now compared to just doing your job in your last paid employment. To make your freelance life easier – you can take some very concrete actions early in the day to get better results:You Need an Acco
Gamification is among the latest tech industry buzzwords, but the core concept of using games and gaming strategy to engage users is not new at all.It is fast becoming increasingly useful and valuable in social learning as it aids information retention and aids learning, it is the addition of
Mobile computing is the cutting edge frontier of technology in society today. It’s perhaps worth considering the path we took to get where we are and to examine where we are going with mobile computing so that we can better design solutions for mobile computing. There have been 7 distinct phases or
The most critical interaction with a product is the first one. First impressions last. My first experience with an Apple Computer was dreadful and I haven’t touched one since. I have become a lifelong Windows/Unix user instead. I know instinctively that Apple offers a great user experience; people k
There is often a temptation to provide users with a number of options all at once, but research suggests that the number of possible selections can slow users down. This problem was identified by British Psychologists William Hick and Ray Hyman in 1951, after carrying out a series of experiments to
None of the apps in this round up are design specific. All of them could be used in any walk of life but just because they’re not design specific – it doesn’t mean that they can’t make a designer’s life easier. In fact, we think they make it much easier. We wish that some of these had been around wh
Conducting usability tests can be made much easier when the users are properly prepared. This can be a daunting exercise when you first start conducting usability tests but fortunately; it’s not as challenging as it might seem. There are four simple tips that can help you get users in the right fram
We’ll be looking at a lot of UX issues here on the UX Daily over the coming months and more importantly we’ll be looking at how to fix them too. We start today with 5 bugbears that really ought to be incredibly easy to eliminate.I Don’t Like SpidersSeriously, I hate spiders. I am an arachnophobe ext
There’s no denying that as a species, we are incredibly social beings. We are at our best when in groups that we feel comfortable with and at our worst when we see those around us as “different” in some way.We talk, we smile, we touch, and we are remarkably aware of how the people around us feel tha
In everything we do, we are bound by our previous experiences. We make judgements on the basis of our interactions and experiences with the world. Someone catching ball positions themselves according to the environmental information and their understanding of how objects behave under certain conditi
Today, let's take a look at a method that allows you to reach the people who simply won’t read anything and to capture the attention of people in a very interesting way.Video CommunicationThe good news about using video in projects is that it no longer requires a huge investment in equipment. You ca
If there’s a management buzzword of the moment; it’s strategy. I actually had an interview once where a clueless director asked; “yes, but what strategy is that?” over and over again. I’d mapped out the strategy but it had become very clear through the course of the conversation that the director ha
There are a plethora of awesome tools that you can use in UX design projects but by far the most popular and one of the most useful is the user persona. In her work, Personas, Lene Nielsen describes four perspectives that your user personas can take to ensure that they add the most value to your UX
It’s often all too easy to forget that computing is a relatively new discipline. Computers are such an incredibly powerful part of our lives now that they are taken nearly for granted. Technology is with us from the moment we wake up (our alarm clock), when we go out the door (keycard systems etc.),
Did you know that some of the most dramatic design shifts are brought about by users of products? In fact, in many instances, such as open source software, users are often able to bring about huge levels of change and are willing and freely able to share this with the larger community.It was almost
The user experience for your customers often doesn’t start when they arrive at your web page or when they first open your shiny application on their smartphone or tablet; it starts the very first time they encounter your brand. The “awareness” phase as marketers call it. This is the moment when a po
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.