Category: UX

Interaction models

To a western eater, definitely to a Spaniard like me, the first time having ramen breaks a few well-established mental models. Eating out is a social event. Long noodles equals spaghetti, which you eat using a fork. Soup is to be eaten with a spoon, and the person sitting next to you will not hear… Continue reading Interaction models

Tour de Workforce — here comes the collective economy

Image Credit: Simon Darby What does a group of lycra-clad cyclists have to do with the future of work? More than you might think. If you’re familiar with road cycling, you’ll have heard the term ‘peloton’ before. If you’re not partial to a hoard of people in spandex on two wheels, then maybe you haven’t. The… Continue reading Tour de Workforce — here comes the collective economy

Building a mobile app UX testing setup for under $50

What we learnt testing different versions of the sled: The first version had a flat sled which the user had to hold with the phone in their hand (rather than having it on a flat surface) — whilst this is more in line with how a user will naturally hold their phone it meant that the setup… Continue reading Building a mobile app UX testing setup for under $50

10 steps for a better queer user experience

Do allow users to change or write in their own gender, if this is something your application makes use of. Forcing a user to re-create their whole account if their gender identity should shift isn’t a great experience and it feels like a waste of resources. Consider not having users specify a gender. There are… Continue reading 10 steps for a better queer user experience

The importance of Design QA in digital product design

Great customer experiences don’t happen by accident. In digital product design, the customer experience encompasses everything that the product team does; development, design, DevOps, and QA — everyone’s role impacts the customer experience but especially the design and user experience. Since I’m a product designer, there’s a particular part of the process that I’m obsessed with, and… Continue reading The importance of Design QA in digital product design

The workshop fallacy — and more UX links this week

Workshops won’t solve the whole problem › You are in a meeting, and at some point the discussion goes into an endless loop. People don’t seem to agree on what the ideal solution should be. Different points of view are being thrown into the discussion, and the conversation is starting to heat up. At some point,… Continue reading The workshop fallacy — and more UX links this week

How to hack people loyalty with care?

First thing first: If you have a few friends in your life, care is not designed to fit your skillset. Having a lot of friends proves how much effort and time you have spent to build a loving community around you. Care requires the same effort and it should be mandatory for every startup. “Caring… Continue reading How to hack people loyalty with care?

Sharing work in progress in design — and more UX links this week

If you like the links, don’t forget to ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Delivering your work in layers › Some designers like to work on a product piece by piece. They focus on one screen or feature at a time, and dedicate full days of work trying to make that one piece look as polished and finished as possible. Before… Continue reading Sharing work in progress in design — and more UX links this week

Raising a Design System in a team

DDesign systems have been around for quite a while. They’ve arisen with the need of designing for not only one thing, but for a whole set of elements, keeping the same look & feel among them, so all the individual parts look as though they belong to the same family. Design systems were first developed… Continue reading Raising a Design System in a team

We need a better name for UX, and that name is “Screllvus”

The debate has been raging for decades now over what to call the practice currently known as “UX.” It’s been called at times (and sometimes all at once) Web Design, UI Design, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Product Design, User Experience, Customer Experience, and everything in between. But now I have definitively come up with a… Continue reading We need a better name for UX, and that name is “Screllvus”

HanaBot Reservation Chatbot — A Case Study

The Ask: Enhance the chatbot experience and improve the user on-boarding process. User Goals: Ability to make a reservation easily Ability to create an account quickly Ability to alter existing reservations (Ex// Cancellations, extending time) Business Goals: Provide users with a positive reservation experience at HanaHaus AND on-the-go Increase customer engagement with the chatbot Convert… Continue reading HanaBot Reservation Chatbot — A Case Study

Competitive analysis is a method, not a solution

Pineapples might look cool, but that doesn’t mean that every fruit should be spiky. (source) We all have been there: you have been with your team in a room for a couple of hours now, and it seems you hit a dead-end while discussing one design problem. Suddenly, someone brings up the solution for it all:… Continue reading Competitive analysis is a method, not a solution

Why is everyone talking about DesignOps now? — and more UX links this week

DesignOps: the questions you’re probably asking yourself now › As design teams start to scale in size (and the design process in complexity) our industry turns the spotlight to DesignOps: a new nomenclature for an old profession that is becoming increasingly important for every company seeking to create great, consistent, and efficient work. We have… Continue reading Why is everyone talking about DesignOps now? — and more UX links this week

Safety in numbers during design research

The taxi driver asked whether we were sure we had the right address, whether we actually knew the person we were visiting, “You know, you just don’t seem like the types to be visiting someone round here” Ten minutes north of The Bronx, NYC in a sleeting-cold January storm, two colleagues and I had arrived at… Continue reading Safety in numbers during design research

When no one catches an error, it’s like it never existed — and other UX links this week

If you like the links, don’t forget to ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????? You don’t learn anything from design inconsistencies that go unnoticed › Each pixel off you’re able to notice makes you feel more powerful. You feel entitled, sometimes even a little arrogant; after all, you are now able to poke holes in other people’s work. That’s an… Continue reading When no one catches an error, it’s like it never existed — and other UX links this week

What an iPhone notification dot told me last night

I am the red notification dot on your iPhone, I make sure you keep seeing me. I’ll create new tasks for you to finish, Come on, just tap on me. Why am I so irresistible? How do I make your finger tap? Do I provide you with the unconditional love you long for, Or am… Continue reading What an iPhone notification dot told me last night

The 6 types of user segmentation and what they mean for your product

MYOB People by Nick, https://dribbble.com/shots/3322055-MYOB-People Marketing helps you understand your user, focus your product on your user needs and take the product to market. This post is set up to mimic what would you go through when segmenting your customers. Marketing segmentation Only few companies are big enough to supply the needs of an entire… Continue reading The 6 types of user segmentation and what they mean for your product

UX debt symptoms

User experience (UX) design has a wide scope and touches many things in both a product and in an organization. The field itself is fairly new and evolving rapidly along with technology. It’s no wonder that many of us in the technology and business world can lose track of UX’s latest evolution. It can be… Continue reading UX debt symptoms

Most common excuses for not doing user research

“We don’t have a usability lab” Well, sorry to be the one to break the news: but you don’t need one. First, there are tons of user research methods other than usability testing —user interviews, surveys, card sorts, A/B tests, scenarios, diary studies, intercepts, shadowing — so stop thinking about “usability testing” as soon as you hear… Continue reading Most common excuses for not doing user research

What’s the impact of Design, you ask?

A quick introduction Design, to me, is to bring compelling ideas to life. Having come from an Engineering background with a bit of experience in Product Marketing, I quickly realized the importance of Design. I dream of being in the front row in creating experiences that positively impact a million people’s lives. Like I want… Continue reading What’s the impact of Design, you ask?

Enterprise design stack: the tools we use to design the datacenter operating system

I love reading about how other Design teams are working together and what tools they’re using. It’s reassuring to know teams you admire and respect use the same tools you do. It’s also usually a trigger for me to try some other tools that either I haven’t heard of or that I’ve been meaning to… Continue reading Enterprise design stack: the tools we use to design the datacenter operating system

Solving distraction: iOS Do Not Disturb concept

Reverse Engineering Habits “Smartphone addiction” is a bit of a misnomer as people aren’t addicted to the phones per se, but to the actual apps installed on them. In order to understand how to combat habitual behavior, we first need to understand how these apps are designed to suck our attention. Several years ago, “behavioral… Continue reading Solving distraction: iOS Do Not Disturb concept

Beer Cards – Creating a real-life Facebook 'Like' button.

This is a follow up to my previous blog post on “How we gamified our help desk with ‘Beer Cards’ and fuel productivity.” You can read more about it here. ‘Beer Cards’ is our attempt to introduce social prods in our workplace. Social prods are actions that require minimal effort to create a social interaction,… Continue reading Beer Cards – Creating a real-life Facebook 'Like' button.