September 2010
8 posts
2 tags
Keep On Learning
One of the greatest qualities in most creative problem solvers is a thirst for learning. Most designers and user experience professionals I know have some level of post-graduate education. But if you were to dig a little deeper, you would likely find that many have degrees in either partially or completely unrelated fields. The truth is the greatest thing you learn while getting a college...
1 tag
Groupon and the Value of Copywriting
Speak to any seasoned designer long enough and the topic of copywriting comes up. Any designer worth their salt knows the value of great copywriting and how it can transform a dull, routine web experience into a delightful one.
But what exactly does it mean to write great copy? How do we know when we’ve achieved it? Is this something that we can learn as part of the design process, or...
1 tag
Designers Lie. That's OK.
Our guest author this week is Cennydd Bowles, UX designer at Clearleft. His new book Undercover User Experience Design is out now and worth your time and attention.
And then, of course, you ask us how we work. We respond with confidence, bold Helvetica outlining our design process: research, ideas, prototyping, testing, iteration. We hope you approve of our rigor, and perhaps even believe it...
1 tag
What makes a good UX Designer?
At the recent Warm Gun conference in San Francisco I heard a similar refrain: we’re looking for a good UX designer and can’t find one. I heard this from both startups and huge companies. Representatives from both Google and Facebook complained they could not find enough good UX designers.
That’s actually amazing. The two most successful software companies on the planet are...
1 tag
Match the Tool to the Problem
Our guest author this week is Daniel Ritzenthaler. Dan is a web design consultant based in Boston. He makes videos about common questions he hears from clients on Design Thoughts, and can always be reached on Twitter @danritz. Learn more about him at http://wurkit.com/.
How long has it been since you’ve heard designers argue about which method is better: sketches, wireframes, mock-ups, or...
1 tag
Design Systems Need To Be Challenged
As designers, we all have processes, systems and tools that we use day in and day out. Each one employed to solve a specific problem in a specific way. As we attempt to automate our design process and optimize our methods we invariably realize that our answers are becoming more and more generic—formulaic, if you will.
As we utilize frameworks and design patterns to help us move faster, we are...
3 tags
How Constraints Drive Creativity
“Constraints drive creativity.”
You’ve probably heard this quote (or some variation of it) before. I see it all the time. But I always find myself asking: “What is it about constraints that make us more creative?”
Is it a mindset we get into, that forces us to think deeper about the underlying problem we’re trying to solve? Or is it that our back is...
2 tags
User Testing Can Save Your Life
Okay, so maybe it won’t save your life. But it certainly can keep you out of the ER due to the stress-induced heart attack you were about to have because you have no idea whether or not your customers can actually use the thing you just poured your life into building. Usability testing is one of the best things you can do to understand whether or not people can use the product as you...
