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")…
Tag Archive for UI
Should companies with in-house UX teams evaluate their own work or engage external UX consultants to do so?
by Joseph Dickerson • February 12, 2013
Bringing in an external consultant to evaluate a team's work is a BAD idea, for several reasons. First off, the consultant can be the best UX professional in the world who makes the most cogent points possible… but he or…
What are best practices for participatory design sessions?
by Joseph Dickerson • February 11, 2013
Participatory design is a great way to have an engaging conversation with users about a particular task or situation. The main thing to remember about participatory design is this obvious point: Users aren't designers. During the design session they are…
What is the next frontier in mobile UX/UI design?
by Joseph Dickerson • February 4, 2013
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"…
What user experience means to me, and how I approach the design process
by Joseph Dickerson • February 3, 2013
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…
What are the big topics in mobile user interface design discussions in 2013?
by Joseph Dickerson • January 31, 2013
Web vs. native apps. Still. While the majority of companies are pretty firmly in the "native app" space, there are still debates and discussions taking place around HTML 5 and it's capabilities. The problem is, HTML 5 can't do everything…
What are the different design approaches/UX considerations between designing an iPad app and an iPhone app?
by Joseph Dickerson • January 31, 2013
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…
Why has the general interface of operating systems evolved but the cursor has remained relatively unchanged?
by Joseph Dickerson • January 26, 2013
Joseph Dickerson Because the cursor just works. When a user is typing, he or she needs an indication as to where the next letter or character will display. The cursor does a fantastic job of providing that "system status" with…
What are pleasant ways to move the user through a technical support request, if they are not very tech savvy?
by Joseph Dickerson • January 26, 2013
Joseph Dickerson Combine visuals with text in a balanced and useful way. If users have to find a product to solve a problem, then have images of the products along with the names and provide a filter to quickly "shorten"…
Design Mobile First? Not necessarily…
by Joseph Dickerson • January 4, 2013
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…
What is the daily work of a UX designer like?
by Joseph Dickerson • December 31, 2012
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…