I’ve crafted a semester-long course based on my book “UX 101: A Primer on User Experience Design.” This book serves as the backbone of our syllabus, offering both beginners and seasoned designers a structured journey into the world of UX.…
Tag: design
UX Articles
How will AI like ChatGPT change UX design?
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What did Dieter Rams mean when he said “good design is honest”?
I think he means that good design aligns with the materials used and is straightforward about it’s purpose. A coffee pot isn’t made of wax paper, it’s made of materials that support the heat and liquids that you put through…
UX Articles
Making ‘Touch Banking’ Work for Customers
Originally written for and published by BAI/Banking Strategies, December 22, 2010 Within the last year, tablet computers, led by the Apple iPad, have made a tremendous splash in the market. While only a handful of financial institutions are currently offering…
UX Articles
UX and “Minimal Viable Design”
Aside
What are some design problems a young designer can work on to build he design “chops”? Here’s a couple of ideas:
Learning how to read and write. Adult literacy around the world is at an all-time high, but there are still thousands of adults who can’t read or write. Can an self-guided app help solve this problem?
Budgeting. People need to budget their finances, but when you look at the amount of credit card debt in the country you see that many of us live beyond their means. A simple practical/instructional app can help people learn how to budget.
Decluttering. People have a lot of stuff, and in many cases way too much stuff. Can an app help them inventory and then prioritize their possessions, to help them simplify their life?
Aside
A great experience comes when what is designed aligns with the needs and desires of the users. This means that the offering “fits” the user, if not like a glove then… like a nice warm bathrobe. A great experience accommodates all the factors – shape, touch, mental models, emotional drivers, and the user’s expected behaviors and outcomes. Controls should work as anticipated, and respond quickly.
Sounds easy, right? Well, how of you get there? How do you ensure that the great experience takes place? The primary thing to do is know your user. Research, dig deep into what they need and expect and then use that understanding to inform your design. Iterate, taking the candidate solutions back to users to test them, and then refine based on the feedback received.
The process will vary, but the key are the two things noted above: Iteration and user research. You have to do both in order to ensure a great experience.
My Quora answers, UX 101, UX Articles
When creating web and mobile application UIs, what is better: "Flat Design" or "Skeuomorphic Design"?
It depends. Yes, I know, that's a cop-out, but not really… There are benefits and drawbacks to both, and what your are designing and who you are designing for is just as important as the design "style" ("Flat" or "skeuomorphic")…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What is the next frontier in mobile UX/UI design?
Three things that are going to be a big focus for mobile UX/UI designers in the years to come: Voice Interaction: Accessing information from your mobile device or the cloud through speech is here now, but we "turn it on"…
My Quora answers, UX 101, UX Articles
What user experience means to me, and how I approach the design process
I may sound like Pollyanna, but to me user experience design is a way to make the world a better place. OK, so it's not like we UX folk are curing cancer, or finding new sources of energy, or stopping…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What are the different design approaches/UX considerations between designing an iPad app and an iPhone app?
First, and most obviously, you need to consider the constraints of both platforms. The primary constraint when you are designing an iPhone app is screen size. You have a smaller "canvas" to work with, and that constraint means that you…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What is the most astonishing fact about design or innovation you ever heard?
That little things can make a big (sometimes VERY big) difference. Two examples: Example one: Jared Spool wrote a great often-cited essay about the $300 million dollar button, which I will summarize: A major online e-retailer (I suspect Amazon) redesigned…
Technology, UX Articles
Design Mobile First? Not necessarily…
Over the past year, a lot of user experience designers have advocated a “Mobile First” design strategy. The primary idea behind this strategy is when you design the mobile UI and experience first you are able to focus on the…
My Quora answers, UX 101, UX Articles
What is the daily work of a UX designer like?
It depends on several factors, primarily the stage of the project(s) being worked on and the type and size of company. I have found that the typical design process traditionally has four stages: Analysis and Research, Conceptual Design, Design Testing…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What would it take to make a mobile banking application outstanding?
Joseph Dickerson Well, my "day job" is designing mobile and online banking apps, so I've spent some time thinking about this question (a couple of years, in fact). The most important thing I've learned (through various iterations, user tests, and…
My Quora answers, UX Articles
What are some best practices that can increase the usability of long (20 question+) web forms?
Well, the first thing I would do, when looking at a long web form, is question why it was long in the first place. Do you really NEED to ask all the questions that you are presenting? Is there anyway…