January 2010
8 posts
1 tag
Apple's iPad: For what Audience?
After years of speculation, Apple finally released a tablet computer yesterday called the iPad. There was fanfare! There was rejoicing!
There was also much criticism: everything from it doesn’t have a camera or USB port to it doesn’t support Flash or HDMI out to it doesn’t let you multi-task. In 24 hours we have dozens of reasons why the iPad will fail in the marketplace.
But...
1 tag
Constraints Fuel Creativity
We are often led to believe that the more freedom we have the more creative we will be. Full creative license? Sweet. Unlimited budget? Awesome! No timetable? Even better.
Yeah, right.
I say embrace your constraints and draw out of them the very solution that sets you apart from the crowd.
The imposition of constraints can lead to great design decisions. Limitations often force you to view...
1 tag
Deliverables vs. Delivery
Wireframes, flow diagrams, personas, card sorts, content strategy documents, etc. All of these things are important to design, and designers need some combination of them to synthesize their user research and communicate what they’re doing with the other members of the team.
But too often these deliverables are the last line of contact for designers. Too often these deliverables are what...
2 tags
Sketch, sketch, sketch
I’ve heard it so many times: “I can’t sketch a stick-figure to save my life.”
Some people are afraid of showing their drawing to others. They think they’ll be ridiculed if their sketch looks like it was drawn by a five-year old.
In truth, it doesn’t matter if you are good at sketching. The less formal the sketch, the better. In fact, avoid the urge to use a pencil...
1 tag
Solve Existing Problems
In our attempt to create amazing user experiences, we often want to push the envelope, to create something new, to show people a bright new future. But too often we fall into the novelty trap. The novelty trap is when, in an attempt to dazzle our clients and our users, we focus too much on the new and not enough on the now.
To create great user experiences we need to focus on the now. In...
4 tags
Solutions are easy if you know the problem
“Good design is problem solving.” – Jeffrey Veen
You could say that actually solving the problem is good design in practice.
This rarely boils down to choosing whether or not to apply that “1px inner glow” or rearranging a few blocks of content. Quite often, it means eliminating one’s own assumptions and applying problem-solving techniques in order to truly identify the problem area. Some...
3 tags
The First Rule of UX
“You cannot not communicate. Every behaviour is a kind of communication. Because behaviour does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behaviour), it is not possible not to communicate.”—Paul Watzlawick’s First Axiom of Communication
This is the first rule of UX. Everything a designer does affects the user experience. From the purposeful addition of a design element to the negligent omission...
1 tag
What Makes the User Experience?
The user experience is made up of all the interactions a person has with your brand, company, or organization. This may include interactions with your software, your web site, your call center, an advertisement, with a sticker on someone else’s computer, with a mobile application, with your Twitter account, with you over email, maybe even face-to-face. The sum total of these interactions...
