Hello everyone! How’s the year been? I hope well!
So, just to post up, I’ve been on a “journey” if wanna say, in finding out on life outside college. It’s awesome to see so many hits on the blog since I’ve last posted! My goal will be to try to get something new up every month this year. So, look out for more UX posts, rants, and discussions from me!
Ah, and: User First Designer Second, Immerse yourself in the chaos that is Design, and Go Crazy with Usability.
What is your dream? What is the driving factor, the baiting carrot, the end goal for you? What is it you want to do in this dog eat dog world? Are you one that’s driven by success, to take one achievement and move to the next? Are you one that looks fear, hatred, animosity, adversity, doubt, sadness, and regret directly in the eyes and say “sure, you’re there, but you will not stop me.”
You don’t have to be perfect, to be rich or famous. It’s ok to be afraid, to cry, to be doubtful. There will be times you will slow down, that the world simply is too much. You are, we are, human. We’re not almighty beings that rule over the galaxy. Sometimes what we say or do will offend others, and may make us feel less than who we are.
I’m telling you it’s ok. It’s alright to know that, to feel that. That just goes to show that you are human.
It’s part of who you are. Don’t let that deter you. There will be times where you’ll feel like you’ve failed. There will be times when the world IS too much, that animosity from others will get to you.
Don’t give up. Don’t let these stop you eternally from your goal. Stand up and walk forward. It’s ok to know what your fear is, and to be afraid. It’s not ok, however, to become completely paralyzed by it. Your dream is not driven by what others think, or even by hurtful thoughts from you or from anyone else; its driven by your courage to look ahead, your faith that everything will be alright, your willingness to stand up after being knocked down again and again.
I’m saying I know it’s hard, but keep moving forward. Don’t stop.
Aim for the stars, then once you reach them, look to the far side of the universe.
Hello all! Hope the day’s been well for you! Today I’ll be speaking a bit on returning feedback from your interfaces.
Alright, so let’s say for example that you were speaking to an individual about something. You both spoke on a rather interesting topic and you just gave your side on the subject and ask what the individual thinks, expecting an answer. Yet, this individual simply stares at you blankly. You ask again. No response. You ask once more, annoyed. At this point you may do one of three things: ask again in a more annoyed tone, begin to think something is wrong with the individual, or become frustrated and leave.
Or, in web interface terms, let’s say you filled out a form and hit submit. Nothing. You hit it again. Nothing. You proceed to hit it multiple times and look around for some sort of message, but you find nothing.
Both of these are examples of situation in which case you, as the user, received no feedback in return.
It’s highly important that we understand a key point about ourselves: We. Need. Answers. When we interact with others, objects, or user interfaces we expect some sort “return on investment.” If we speak to others we expect a response, be it friendly or non-friendly. When we push a door, we expect it to open (or not). When we click or tap a submit button we expect it to give us some sort of response, whether it be a success message or an error message. When we do not receive any sort of feedback from what we are interacting with then it is a little disorienting; sometimes even alarming.
What counts as feedback? Well, almost every interaction a user does requires feedback.
Let’s check out an example of feedback more closely:
Google’s login page utilizes excellent examples of feedback techniques when you’ve forgotten or input the wrong password. If you have forgotten your password or changed it and forgotten, the form will inform you whether or not you have changed your password from the one that was inputted or if the password is wrong. even more so, the password field itself is highlighted with a red border to pinpoint the area in error.
When feedback is provided through our user interfaces we can be fulfilling three of Nielsen’s 10 Heuristics: Visibility of System Status, Error Recovery, and Error Prevention.
Visibility of System Status – By giving users adequate feedback from their interaction, users will know what is going on as a result of it and understand the situation at hand. They may know, for example, whether or not they have used a link on Google before.
Google provides feedback of used links by recoloring them if a user has used before, allowing users to make a quicker decision on following a past link or referring to a different link.
Error Recovery – In the event that users have made a mistake, displaying feedback detailing the issue at hand will exponentially aid them in diagnosing and recovering from the error.
Dropbox allows a pop up modal to appear once delete file is hit. Doing this provides users feedback of “hey, you’re about to delete this” and allow them to proceed or recover accordingly.
Error Prevention – Without any feedback given after an interaction, users may try to interact over and over again, whether it be a digital interface or face to face with an individual. Actions like these may cause more issues, depending on the user interface or individual. Providing feedback will guide the user in a general direction as to what his or her next action should be.
Microsoft’s email service Outlook provides excellent feedback when an image has been uploaded. Users can see the image transition from uploading to uploaded. In addition the image is displayed in a very noticeable way, preventing users from multiple uploads.
So when you are designing your user interfaces or simply communicating with someone, remember that providing feedback is extremely vital to users. Without it, users will almost always feel either lost or frustrated.
Don’t cause users stress!
——User First, Designer Second——
Hello everyone! Today I’ll be talking to you all about why gathering research and defining requirements is important.
Alright, so let’s say your team is building an app for a client. The client asks for two requirements, and leaves the rest to your team. Now, your team holds excellent programmers and designers that utilize the latest tools of their trade to come up with ideas of what this app will do and look like. Your team begins with making sure the basic features asked for by the client are included, then begin adding feature after feature that may help the end user and looks awesome. As your team builds the product more and more, you all begin to really fall in love with the product.
The end product is a latest-featured aesthetically-pleasing design that does what the client does and more.
Key point on more.
Six months pass and you receive a rather heated email from your client saying the app is performing far below expectations. He details out that the target demographic does not buy the app. You investigate into the issue and find that the extra features were far misaligned with what the target audience’s goals were.
This is why research and requirements are important.
You find that if you had done some research into the target audience then a few key features that were tacked on would be avoided like the plague. You would’ve known why some features were important and why were definitely not. You would’ve had a direction of where your ideas should go. Some things that could help your team in understanding why UX Research and requirements are important:
1. The product is not for you, it’s for the user. Using your “gut” and going with what you think is good are very wrong driving factors in creating a user centered product. Understanding your users is absolutely fundamental in creating this product. What do the users prefer? What type of things drive a user for the topic of this product? What sort of problems are users having in order for them to want this type of product? These are all questions you can extract valuable information from and apply to the creation of the product.
2. The interface is magic, but wandering aimlessly accomplishes nothing. The requirements are designed to help you define a “road map” to what direction your product design should go. Without these a designer or programmer is left with creating indiscriminately, meaning there is no set way on where their designs are heading. These requirements are to help drive your ideas in the direction your users would prefer based on educated conclusions, rather than aimlessly wandering in a direction.
So next time you and your team are commissioned in doing a product, try to understand your target audience and define a path first. Don’t throw features at an interface and hope or think something good will come out of it.
——User First, Designer Second——
Hello everyone! Today I’ll be talking a bit about User Experience and the lowdown on how it is not just UI.
Just before I begin, here’s the website heading the point I’m getting at in this post. The site has multiple file types and sizes of a side-by-side comparison of UX vs UI. I recommend checking it out!
Alright, so let’s take a scenario:
You’re a UI/UX Designer speaking with a client about an app. The client is asking for you to work with the team of programmers who are currently working said app. The client asks you “tack on the design.” You inquire about the research or prior planning that’s been done and the client responds with “we had an idea, thought it was good, and went with it. Just do your design or UX stuff.”
OK. That’s an issue.
“User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”
— Jakob Nielsen and Don Norman
Simply put, UX, or User Experience, involves a process.
User Experience has to do with a user’s full experience, not just “how the interface looks.” It involves every button click users must interact with to reach their target goal, the euphoric (or distressed) feeling they experience while completing an online purchase. It involves the users’ drawn attention to a specific portfolio piece that fits in with what they are interested in.
UX involves every aspect of the user’s interaction with an interface, and even outside the interface. It involves the customer service users experience from the interface owner, the thoughts of returning to said interface tickling at the mind when a need for a product located within that interface arises. UX is much more than just UI.
Now, don’t get me wrong. UI, or User Interface, is still a very important component.
Kaplan expertly uses UI elements in their website to enforce usability and promote a unique experience for the user by attracting them to key elements on the page. The contrasting green against the white/purple palette points out the starting point of the site clearly, and emphasizes what is important (in this case, you and where you start!). Gestalt principle of Continuity is in play using the white lines and arrows that draw the eye to the multiple career choices.
Zurb’s Pattern Tap uses UI elements in a way that draws you to what you want from this site: the massive library of excellent design examples. Each example owns its own nicely-sized thumbnail that is small enough to be friendly on load time, but large enough to display the featured design example.
The User Interface is an invaluable piece of UX that must never be forgotten. It is never just one or the other. UI is like an entire section of a full UX orchestra; it can’t be complete without it.
So there you have it. Remember that UX is not something to be used interchangeably with UI, because it can’t. It just can’t.
UX is not UI!
——-User First, Designer Second——-
Hello again everybody! Today we’re gonna delve into a bit of an interesting topic: Web Designer, UI/UX Designer, or both?
You’re a Web Designer that has the ability to create beautiful interfaces. You know how to utilize colors well, how to use the Gestalt Principles like the back of your hand, and have a keen eye for pixel-perfect design. The creations you make are extremely aesthetically pleasing.
On the flip side of the coin, you know exactly why everything in your interface is designed the way you have it. You’re an expert in Color Theory, know Nielsen’s Ten Heuristics, a guru at Conceptual Design, and always think of the User First. The interfaces you make are not only pleasing to the eye, but provide an excellent experience for users.
So, what exactly are you?
A hero.
Did you learn too much?
Absolutely not!
You’re one of the extreme rarity who know both Design AND UX. Your skills are invaluable in the world!
So is there any real significance to this?
Other than the fact that you’re highly marketable in the job market, your designs have a higher “class” than just any design. Your designs are built with a concrete plan supported by real-world data. You are one of the few who can truly combine both UX and UI. You are truly a remarkable rarity.
Not only are your designs great to the eye, but they have a true meaning of how they are designed.
——User First, Designer Second——
Ladies and gentlemen, you should check out Ms. Sarah’s interesting blog post about changing behavior with design. She dives into a specific formula that are key components of behavioral change and which one we should focus on.
Seriously! Check it out!
Alright, how’s it goin folks? Today I wanna talk to you about the iPhone 5s’s fingerprint recognition! This’ll be a short one, but I think you’ll like it!
Now now, before you go ham about how this is privacy violation I want you to hear me out! Take for example you are at Buffalo wild wings with some blazin’ wings in one hand and a drink in the other. Your $500 smartphone flashes with a text message, and you look down to see your mom’s number flash on the screen.
Now, normally people know the normal ending to this: clean your hands and text back. Now what does that require: You have to either get up and go wash your hands, use 6 sanitary wipes to attempt to clean your hands, or use a paper towel and text back.
You’re lazy, so you choose option 3…and now you are attempting to unlock your phone with one hand.
Or, let’s say you are crossing a street attempting to unlock your phone. See what I’m getting at?
Now this is where the finder recognition comes in. One finger and the phone’s unlocked! No hassle in unlocking the phone at awkward or dangerous times!
This feature is using the heuristic flexibility and efficiency of use and Minimalist design. This feature is an effective shortcut that significantly cuts down the time for an individual to unlock his or her phone. On top of this it’s extremely simple!
Response to James’s “Good Design, Reddit”:
Hmm…interesting post. I’d like to disagree with Reddit’s way of organizing things. I think it’s violating Minimalistic Design because of the amount of text that’s just on the main page. Everything is extremely close together and runs as one. Very confusing for the eyes.
I’m also seeing a violation of Proximity because of the closeness of the posts. For me, they seem to run together, and not stand out from each other.
There’s also a Recognition rather than recall violation with the red at the top (error?). What do you think of this in comparison to 9gag?
Alright ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for another real talk moment. I’m sure many of you had reached a point in your life where everything’s about to change, and you come to think about the memories you’ve made.
4 and four months ago there was a nervous eighteen year-old teen standing in an unknown ground called college. This teen had one thought: I’m at college! Video games took much of his time, and in his major he thought he wanted to do video game modeling. He eventually met people who became friends in his cramped dorm. The room he had to live in was ridiculously small! Whenever he would go to the dining court he would pile food mountain-high on his tray (seriously!) and destroy it.
Time crept on by, and that teen began to change. He began to really focus on what he wanted to be, started dabbling in different areas of his major. He began taking more risks, becoming more driven to accomplish something more. Eventually he found something he began to enjoy: UX. He saw something fun, something challenging with it. Above all, he saw a way to enhance something for the benefit of people.
Fast forward again, and this now 23 year old is sitting back remembering all the things he’s learned, all the friends he’s met, all the changes he’s seen in himself. This 23 year old remembered how he came from a nervous teen to the Mad Hatter.
And now, the Mad Hatter’s curious: How far will he go now?
——User First, Designer Second——
Mad Hatter 