McMansion Problems - Don’t Design for the Extras Darian O'Reilly / Mon, Oct 24, 2016 There is a blog that I love called McMansion Hell – you know those crazy monster houses built in bulk starting in the 1980’s? They are usually found in great clusters and sometimes on very small pieces...
The Magic is in the Details: The Beauty of Well Designed Micro-interactions and the Horror of Badly Designed Ones Diane Spengel / Fri, Jul 31, 2015 What are microinteractions? Microinteractions are the tiny details of a process that create the flow from beginning to completion. Dan Saffler defines Microinteractions as single moments within a use...
You Don’t Need a Usability Lab Jim Ross / Wed, Nov 27, 2013 Sadly, a lot of usability testing doesn’t happen because people think it requires an expensive usability lab. The term “lab” itself implies some kind of high-tech science experiment. It sounds formal...
Stop asking people what they think! (and start watching what they do) Marshal Datkowitz / Tue, Oct 8, 2013 I listen to developers of software and websites all day, they have great ideas and observations but I try to balance what I hear with what I see. Many product managers tell me what their customers...
UX of Responsive Web Design Marshal Datkowitz / Wed, Jan 23, 2013 What is Responsive Web Design? Ethan Marcotte first used the term Responsive Web Design in his article in A List Apart in May of 2010. Marcotte explains that designing for every screen size and device...
Are You Design-Driven? Probably Not. Kevin Richardson, Ph.D. / Fri, Jan 18, 2013 The phrase “design-driven” seems to be used a lot these days. From design blogs to books on building corporate culture to marketing campaigns, everyone either thinks they are “design-driven” or need to...
Top 5 ways of dealing with difficult clients Marshal Datkowitz / Fri, Oct 26, 2012 Top 5 ways of dealing with difficult clients We’ve all had to deal with difficult clients at one time or another. Sometimes we inherit difficult clients, sometimes we create them, and other times they...
AVG’s new Windows 8 style UI (formerly known as Metro). Tobias Komischke / Wed, Sep 19, 2012 AVG is an anti-virus software. In anticipation of the upcoming Windows 8, they’ve just modernized their UI to look like Windows 8 style UI – what was formerly known as Metro. It used to look like...
Remote usability testing: preparing for the worst-case scenario Miao Wang / Fri, Aug 31, 2012 One project I’ve been working on lately has involved a remote usability testing session that accommodates all the challenging resources: multiple channels (live screen tracking + audio recording + a test...
Listening to users with Iterative Design Marshal Datkowitz / Thu, May 3, 2012 The heart of User Centered Design (UCD) is to listen to users. By "listen" I don't mean just hearing their words but using all the methods of observation to understand what users want from a product....