Much has been spoken and written recently about the virtues of craftsmanship in the context of web design and development. It seems that we as fabricators of the web are finally tiring of seeking out parallels between ourselves and architects, and are turning instead to the fabled specialist artisans.

Recently I took part in a 30 mile mountain bike ride. It was quite a challenge and on reflection made me think about not only my cycling ability but also user experience design… naturally!…

Sometimes we’ll make decisions to improve function, other times because they make a design ‘feel’ right. You’ll know when you’ve made a right decision. You’ll feel it.

The skills of empathy, analysis, and synthesis are essential in solving customer experience problems

Some words from the design leaders about 2011.

What is their user experience like when they get our emails, meeting invites, invoices and deliverables?

A typical new visitor to your website will determine whether to stay or leave within the first 15 seconds. Since the web got infinite alternatives to your site, it’s crucial that you immediately instill a sense of trust.

Security is not the concern of someone else, it’s the concern of everyone. Every feature needs to be designed with safety in mind. Empathize with your users, who may be savvy or may be accident-prone. Also take a walk in the shoes of a hacker.

User interfaces, when done well, are the unsung hero of product design. They’re the difference between a printer whose buttons you can figure out without even reading the instructions and one you want to throw across the room.

Everything you do, wear, drive, eat, and so forth are expressions of your character. If it is you that makes you unique, then let’s talk about the storefront that’s open 24/7 — your website — and see how it’s applicable to other designs as well.

You might have tried it before: as you incrementally tweak your web application with small changes, you can’t seem to convert your users any better. It seems as if you’ve hit a dead end. A large number of A/B tests and multivariate testing seem to have found the best working solution. Is the essence of my application just not good enough to convert better?

So whenever I’m asked why we are focusing on hardware-based client frameworks, although we are a software company, I always tell people “because we don’t focus on software, we focus on user experience. And if hardware beats software any day of the week, user experience beats everything else (including software).

Traditional marketing advice tells you to focus on benefits not features. I would go one further and figure out exactly what psychological motivators drove your customers to want your product, and focus your product/marketing on satisfying that.

As web sites and web applications become increasingly modular in their construction, Designers run the risk of creating applications that consist of an endless, near random, stack of modules. This situation is common to many ecommerce experiences.

Great web design requires more than color and composition. It demands more than content optimization for search engines. No matter how wonderful our design looks, or how many people find us through Google, if our visitors don’t convert as intended we have failed as designers. In this article, we will discuss one of the most challenging website design problems: reducing abandoned shopping carts.

Visual feedback is extremely important in User Interface Design. It tells the user what’s happening, or what’s going to happen next, and without it the user is left guessing or frustrated. In reality buttons, controls and objects react to our interaction, so this is how people expect things to work.

Accessibility has always been an essential element of how a well crafted website functions, but it is not and should never be considered in isolation. If accessibility ignores design, the design will fail to achieve its purpose. If design ignores accessibility and more so usability, the design will fail to achieve its purpose.

For design to be meaningful we need to tell stories. We need to design the invisible, the cues, the messages and the extra detail hidden beneath the aesthetics. It’s all about the story.

For people who aren’t well versed in the digital space, I often compare the work that I do as a UX designer to an architect. Like the architect who builds your home, my UX team builds a comprehensive blueprint, which outlines every single detail of the site’s features and functionality.

Put simply, most applications are developed to help users solve complex problems. The problem is complex enough; your application should not be a problem in itself.

The key to a successful A/B test is consistency and control. You want your data to be as accurate as possible, and that requires careful planning and execution. By following the best practices above, you’ll have a successful A/B test with sound results on which you can base important decisions.

As web developers, we will often need to know the screen size of the device we are displaying content on. Perhaps on the server, perhaps on the client, perhaps to be used as a clause in a media query.

…What’s interesting is that across all company sizes the median number of UX professionals has increased between 20% and 30% over the last two years.