CategoryProductivity

March 6, 2014 — During brainstorming sessions, UX professionals would generate concepts as paper or whiteboard sketches. But this artifacts limit participants from visualizing interactivity and the system’s flow. In this article Svetlin Denkov will look at clickthrough prototyping on the iPhone with the Prototyping on Paper (or POP) app. His goal is to introduce the tool, share his prototyping experience and discuss competitors. Read more…

December 19, 2013 — Adobe is feature-freezing Fireworks. And it is not offering a replacement tool for Fireworks users. What does this mean for you if you use Fireworks to design user interfaces and screens? In this article, Michel Bozgounov will take a close look at Adobe Fireworks, explaining why it is a unique and powerful design tool, how we can continue to use it effectively, and what our alternatives are for the future. Read more…

November 14, 2013 — Veterans in this industry should mentor new team members and share with them the knowledge that they know they will need to succeed. This article is a follow-up “Lessons Learned in Leading New Web Professionals.” This one looks at the other side of the team leader-new employee dynamic. We’ll cover the practices that Jeremy Girard has found are consistently followed by employees who excel in their new role and grow in this industry. Read more…

July 26, 2013 — We all make mistakes. Whether in our design and development work or just in life in general, we all do it. Thankfully, even the biggest mistakes carry valuable lessons. In this article, Jeremy Girard will share stories of some of the missteps he had made in the course of his career and the lessons he’d learned in the process. Read more…

July 2, 2013 — Technology enabled us to do more, not less. Tools such as email enable us to communicate more, rather than make life easier. In fact, many people are now overwhelmed by the amount of email they receive. The trick is to process everything out of your inbox. Do that and I promise you will never look at email with the same horror again. Read more…

June 11, 2013 — A front-end developer had just the few operations duties lumped into their role, and even then, many people chose to skip those steps. Alex Sexton thinks things are about to shift, and he’d (humbly) like to help guide that shift, because he thinks it’ll be great for the Web. Read more…

December 28, 2012 — The most valuable part of a computer is also its most fragile: Data are the wealth of a digital lifestyle, a currency of which many notes are irreplaceable. Ben Gremillion guides us through his research to better ways to safeguard his digital life. Read more…

June 19, 2012 — Paul Boag says we can have side projects, a life beyond computers, and get the job done. He believes that personal projects can be fun, good for the career, and also facilitate a life beyond the Web. Read more…

November 22, 2011 — In this article, Robert explains why it’s not about deliverables but instead about results. Understanding why this works the way it does depends on understanding the real role of the designer and the deliverables they create. Read more…

November 3, 2011 — This is the final part in a three-part series on how to build and grow successful user experience teams in agile environments. It covers challenges related to organization, hiring and integration that plague UX teams in these situations. The perspective is that of a team leader, but the tactics described can be applied to multiple levels in an organization. Read more…