CategoryProcess

February 12, 2015 — Designers are great at producing visual artifacts. We create mockups, images, code and all sorts of other material to document our solutions. But looking only at those artifacts doesn’t account for the actual creative process. In their article “Documenting Design-In-Process,” John Bassani and Carolyn Barnes highlight a potential reason: We view our design approaches as intuitive and emotional, so we have a hard time developing documented, human-focused design processes. Read more…

February 4, 2015 — This article will discuss the transformation of our design process from the classic Prototype → Design Mockup → HTML → Implement approach for every screen to a modern and more efficient framework-based approach. Read more…

September 10, 2014 — In a previous article, I discussed using POP to create sketch-based clickthrough prototypes in participatory design exercises. These prototypes capture well the flow and overall layout of early design alternatives. The same piece briefly mentioned another category of clickthrough prototypes: widget-based mockups that are designed on the target device and that expand on sketches by introducing user interface (UI) details and increased visual fidelity. These prototypes can be used to pitch ideas to clients, document interactions and even test usability. In this article, I will teach you how to use the iPad app Blueprint to put together such prototypes in the form of concept demos, which help to manage a client’s expectations when you are aligning your visions of a product. Read more…

March 6, 2014 — As UX professionals, we often lead design exercises with our stakeholders, including immediate team members and external clients. In these brainstorming sessions, participants identify opportunities to improve the design, thereby aligning everyone’s vision and expectations of the project. Read more…

January 2, 2014 — Research wall, design wall, research board, ideation wall, inspiration board, moodboard, pinboard — Working walls are known by countless names. Underlying them all is a single idea: that physically pinning our sources of inspiration and work in progress, and surrounding ourselves with them, can help us to rearrange concepts and unlock breakthrough insights. Read more…

July 24, 2013 — What does it take to craft a great product? For those of us who design and build apps, websites and software, a great product means one that delights its users. But digital product development is a complex beast. Delivering a successful product requires multidisciplinary teams to efficiently work through varying opinions and conflicting views and, ultimately, to gather behind a common vision with a focused plan. Read more…

May 7, 2013 — This article is about design consultancy. It’s about wrangling that client who uses empty sentences like, “We want a snappy, simple experience,” or, “It should be on brand and should really pop.” Read more…

March 12, 2013 — Currently, our user experience tools tend to focus on “who” users are. Stephanie Troeth believes this is a hangover from how we traditionally approached marketing and market research. Designing with users in mind is a tricky thing, and Stephanie will show us a different method, which has proven useful in a few of her own projects. Read more…

February 15, 2013 — This article discusses how to influence behavior by designing well-crafted feedback loops. Assist your users in understanding and achieving their goals by continually optimizing your feedback loops. Focus on making them fast, meaningful, quantified and contextual, and your users will thank you for improving their lives. Read more…

February 14, 2013 — Our knowledge of building digital things changes rapidly, taking us from newborn to adult and back again every couple of years. So, it seems pretty normal that our methods of designing and building websites are questioned every so often. But in this article, Francisco Inchauste will teach us some new things. Read more…