Revolutionary User Interfaces

The human computer interface helps to define computing at any one time. As computers have become more mainstream the interfaces have become more intimate…

UI: Proper Indicators for Hidden Elements

Tabs, collapsed menus, accordion forms, and the ever popular hover items such as mega menu drop-downs – progressive disclosure is a great way to cut down visual clutter while still offering the user lots of content and features.

Minka

Minka from Birdling Films on Vimeo.

A film about place and memory, a farmhouse in Japan, and the lives of the people who called it home.

www.minkafilm.com

UX Killed Usability

Usability is dead (or at best on life-support and not conscious), and I’m sorry to be the one that has to tell you this, but it’s been mortally wounded by UX (aka User Experience).

Latest Examples of iPhone App UI Design

I have become an enormous fan of the iPhone App store after having used the phone for a couple year now. The quality of interface designs are light-years above what you can find on Windows Mobile and even most Android apps. It’s because of this reason I like to celebrate the best interfaces I can find and share with the design community. This encourages new developers to jump onto these trends and build up a small viral market.

UX Design as a Two-Way Conversation

Thinking about UX design as a two-way conversation can be the key to creating smart sites and apps that meet users expectations, because when you begin to think about all design as a conversation, you are able to apply the rules of basic conversation to your design process.

Startups, this is how design works.

The simplest definition. Design is so many things, executed in many different ways, but the function is always the same. Whether it’s blueprints, a clever UI, a brochure, or a chair – design can help solve a visual or physical problem. 1

Designing for Emotions – by Aarron Walter

Designing for Emotions by Aarron Walter from my point of view is one of the best written books about design process. It has great insights, well explained case studies and good sense of humor embedded in all the pages. Every piece of information in this book comes from real experiences and challenges, and immediately makes you think about ways of improving your own projects or design process.
I encourage you to purchase it, to read it because it will make you a better designer. It has already started to change some of my concepts in my design process.

Most Web Design Agencies Suck

Over the years I’ve heard plenty of designers moan about their clients. I’ve also witnessed a recent outburst of complaints against authors and speakers on Twitter. However the group that rarely comes under fire in public, but probably should, are the mass of terrible agencies out there.

The Importance of Transitions

In a recent article Mark Cossey shares his thoughts on the importance of transitions in interface design.

Bylines for Web Articles?

Should you say who wrote the content on your site? Sometimes yes (for credibility), sometimes no (for brevity). And rarely in mobile.

15 Free Ebooks about User Experience and Interface Design

I have collected 15 free ebooks about UX and interface design including some best selling books which are definitely worth reading.

The High Cost Of Task Failure On Websites

Purchasing, reserving, comparing and communicating—Internet behavior is largely a goal directed activity. If a website doesn’t help users accomplish their goals then it’s unlikely users will return and refer their friends.

Mobile Sites vs. Apps: The Coming Strategy Shift

Mobile apps currently have better usability than mobile sites, but forthcoming changes will eventually make a mobile site the superior strategy.

Crafting the Front-end

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.

There’s No Formula for Great Designs

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.

Quiz: are you good at customer experience work?

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

Salaries For UX Researchers, Designers, Managers And IAs

So for example, designers making around $105k per year are making more than are 75% of all designers. Information Architects making $50k are paid higher than 25% of all IAs.

Android Design

These design principles were developed by and for the Android User Experience Team to keep users’ best interests in mind. Consider them as you apply your own creativity and design thinking. Deviate with purpose.

12 of the Year’s Best Ideas in Interface Design

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.

6 Steps to Better UX Design

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.

Optimization vs innovation

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?

User Experience Beats Everything Else (Including Software)

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).

Figuring Out What Motivated Your Customers to Buy

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.

The Importance of Storytelling to UX Design

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.

Feedback in Interface Design

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.

Why good design matters to this blind geek

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.

Design the Invisible to Tell Better Stories on the Web

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.

10 steps to an engaging interactive user experience

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.

Saving the task from the tool: Techniques for user experience requirements analysis

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.