As Steve Jobs once said, “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Even though the legendary tech leader spoke out about how design needs to be functional and have its usability, it is still treated as only an aesthetic part of the development process. Even when we put aside that entire debate, the usability of a … [Read more...]
You Are Creating For A Human: Here Is Some Advice
You should know whom you are creating for. Your user is not an abstract substance. Think of a person. Explore your customer persona as you would like to explore the mind of your loved one. Discover their wants and habits. It is the only way to make your product win the audience it is aimed for. Identify the context in which your prospective user will most likely use your … [Read more...]
8 Tips For Writing A Smarter Usability Test Script
They say write what you know, so as it was for my latest Usability Geek piece, this week I am writing about ... writing. However, while last week's article focused on UX writing, this one concerns itself with a different kind of scribing: a usability test script. The foundation of any sound UAT exercise, an articulate usability test script means more in-depth data and more … [Read more...]
Effective Mobile App UX Enhancement
The quality of mobile app user experience is highly relevant in terms of holding users' attention for the largest number of repeated launches. The Interaction Design Foundation claims that mobile UX must bring joy to users and this is something I agree with. The point is that such a clear idea is, in fact, a challenge for all mobile app designers. Fortunately, the … [Read more...]
How To Choose The Right Typeface For Your Design
Most UX and UI designers already understand the nuts and bolts of typography. They can tell you the difference between 'font' and 'typeface', between 'mean line' and 'baseline'. They might fret over the tracking of a particular font, or cringe at subtle kerning miscues that an untrained eye would gloss over. However, fewer designers grasp how these mechanics translate to … [Read more...]
How To Fix Your Fixed Navigation
You are probably already familiar with fixed navigation, the design mechanic where a navigation bar aka navbar (or some of its elements) remain visible on the screen as the user scrolls. Sometimes referred to as 'sticky navigation', this UX design trend has lived up to its name for the first fixed navigation bars began appearing in the early 2010s, and have since stuck … [Read more...]
Give Usability Maintenance A Seat At The Table
In user experience, not all tasks are created equal. Think of the tasks you associate with being exciting. Prototyping, designing a user interface, working on a slick product upgrade, and generally, anything pertaining to 'new' would qualify as exciting. Maintenance tasks tend not to fare so well. In the words of Kurt Vonnegut: "Another flaw in the human character is that … [Read more...]
7 Tips For Creating A Winning Mobile App Payment Screen
There is a principle of "give before you take" with apps. If you want your users to do something, such as rate the app, allow notifications, or make a purchase, you should give them value first. Where in an app is one of the most significant tests of this principle? You probably guessed it - the payment screen. If users are going to enter their credit card number and hit … [Read more...]
Light Or Dark UI? A Usability Perspective
Often, the best way to explain the difference between user experience and user interface to the unfamiliar is through a more relatable analogy. If UI is how the car looks, UX is how it drives. If UI is a dating profile, UX is how the date goes. These comparisons illustrate the differences well, but sometimes underplays the complexity of user interfaces. UI is much more … [Read more...]
In Defence Of ‘Poor’ SaaS Sign-Up Processes
Everybody knows that free trials are better than forcing users to book a demo. It is also widely accepted that you should be transparent about cost, and display pricing publicly on your website. Giving users only a cold "contact" option rather than letting them onboard immediately is plain absurd. Right? In most instances, these rules of thumb for UX would be entirely … [Read more...]
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