Food Design Digest, April-May 2014

    For four years now I have been publishing regular reviews of recent articles on the topic of interfaces, new tools and collections of patterns, interesting cases and historical stories. From the tapes of several hundred thematic subscriptions, approximately 5% of the publications worth publishing are selected, which are interesting to share. Previous materials: April 2010-March 2014 .

    Food Design Digest, April-May 2014


    Patterns and Best Practices


    Responsive Email Patterns
    A collection of responsive mailing list patterns.

    Wear UI
    A collection of wearable device interface patterns.

    Principles of Mobile Site Design - Delight Users and Drive Conversions
    Google and AnswerLab published joint recommendations on creating mobile sites. These are 25 well-illustrated rules covering all aspects of their creation. Google’s best web practices tutorial has also appeared.

    The Right Way To Ask Users For iOS Permissions
    Brenden Mulligan on how to correctly request user permissions in iOS. Translation into Russian .

    Rethinking Mobile Tutorials - Which Patterns Really Work?
    Theresa Neil parses successful and not-so-well learning screen patterns in mobile applications. And gives recommendations on creating truly popular and useful for the user.

    Side Drawer Navigation Could Cost Half Your User Engagement
    An interesting case study of the zeebox Android application from Anthony Rose, in which he talks about the lower efficiency of the sidebar as the main principle of navigation. They conducted a series of experiments and the tabs always visible on the screen showed much greater user engagement. Continuing the topic:

    Telling stories about screens for screens
    An excellent overview of product display techniques in promotional or instructional videos from Matthew Latkiewicz of Zendesk. He identifies 6 basic approaches with varying degrees of usefulness and reliability.

    User Onboarding - A frequently updated updated compendium of web app first-run experiences A
    site dedicated to parsing patterns onboarding. Continuing the topic:
    • Laura Klein criticizes the desire of many designers and managers to motivate the user to learn the product . First you need to give him the opportunity to solve his main problems and after that you can gradually teach additional opportunities.

    You are not Google. You are not Amazon.
    You are not Google. You are not Amazon. Why is it not always necessary to follow large companies? Paul Boag about links without underlining in Google search results.

    The Ideal Length for All Online Content
    What is the optimal length for a Twitter or Facebook post? How long should the title of the article and the article itself, paragraph of text, line? The results of many studies are collected in a Kevan Lee article.

    House of Buttons
    Gallery of sample buttons. Static, animated, standard, custom and many many others. Continuing the topic:

    The “Psychological” Speed ​​of Mobile Interfaces
    Oz Lubling on the psychological “secrets” of how to increase the user experience of mobile interfaces. Continuing the topic:


    List Beats Grid - Linear Feeds Perform Two to Three Times Better Than Grids
    For the Prismatic service, placing news feed items in the form of a list turned out to be 2-3 times more effective than a grid of cards. They came to this conclusion after experiments conducted in conjunction with Teehan + Lax. Studio about the project .

    Why users can't find answers in help material
    Tom Johnson's presentation on how to make the help system more effective. He describes the main problems that users face in working with them, and provides a step-by-step process for solving them.


    Mobile Usability
    Practicology’s Mobile Usability Report based on an analysis of 15 leading UK e-commerce sites. The main 5 conclusions from the report .

    Single-Field Credit Card Input Pattern
    Brad Frost has finalized a script that facilitates entering credit card data on mobile, inspired by Square. All fields are entered on one line. Continuing the topic:

    Notification Design Strategies
    Email Notification Design Strategies .

    Four Things I Wish Every Chart Did
    Des Traynor proposed 4 ideas to improve the interactivity and information content of charts and diagrams.

    Where are luxury brands going wrong online?
    Internet bugs of luxury brands. The main thing is that the sites are done by advertisers who look at the impression of static pictures and do not think about the real experience of use.

    Keyboard-Only Navigation for Improved Accessibility
    Support for navigation on the site using only the keyboard. How to provide it? Tips Marieke McCloskey: 1) a clear display of the keyboard input focus; 2) all interactive elements should be available; 3) give users the opportunity to skip navigation and go directly to the main content.

    The One Little Box That's Costing You Big Dollars
    Interface tricks for entering bonus codes in online stores. What can be lost, and on what - to earn?

    Design better faceted navigation for your websites
    A great look at facet navigation from Jim Kalbach. The pros, cons, pitfalls are well described.

    Responsive Design: Why and how we ditched the good old select element
    An interesting version of the drop-down list replacement that works for both web and mobile offered by Mikkel Bo Schmidt.

    Email Subject Lines: 5 Tips to Attract Readers
    Jannele Estes tips for writing email headlines that appeal to readers.

    This is Responsive - Tips, Resources and Patterns for Responsive Web Design
    A collection of responsive design patterns, articles, and other useful materials. All examples can be felt, this is working code. Continuing the topic:

    Accordions for Complex Website Content on Desktops
    Hoa Loranger about using accordions to display content.

    User understanding


    The Illusion of Motion
    A detailed article about the perception of movement by the human eye / brain, frame rate, sweep frequency, motion blur and TVs. It will help to understand once and for all what FPS is.

    Mobile And Accessibility - Why You Should Care And What You Can Do About It The
    Basics of Mobile Accessibility by TJ VanToll. He mentions an interesting tool for checking color contrast .

    Design with Temperament (Presentation by Hienadz Drahun)
    Presentation of Gennady Dragun from the rally "Design by Fire Cafe # 34", held on Monday May 19th. Using types of temperament as a basis for quickly building user behavior patterns.

    http://www.slideshare.net/Hienadz.Drahun/hienadz-drahun-design-with-temperament-design-by-fire-cafe
    Task Analysis - The Key UX Design Step Everyone Skips
    Larry Marine about task analysis - a simple and effective method that everyone has heard about, but which little is used.

    Behavior Change Strategy Cards
    Artefact Group has published a training manual on how to influence user behavior. This is a set of basic rules for building good interfaces. Direct link to PDF .

    Barry the Blog Post ...
    Chris Noessel of Cooper Consulting writes about the intricacies of choosing names for characters.

    Inside Goal-Directed Design - A Two-Part Conversation With Alan Cooper
    Talk with Alan Cooper about Goal-Directed Design. Part 2 about the present.

    Gaining UX Insight through Dyads and Triads
    James Breeze and Gowri Penkar on the method of group user research using "dyads" and "triads." This is a great option if you need to understand the interaction of the family with the product.

    QuickPanel: Dyslexia
    10% of people suffer from dyslexia - congenital physical difficulties with reading. 5-20% - by dysgraphia - difficulties with writing. 11% of children and 4% of adults have attention deficit difficulties with concentration. Accessibility experts on how design can help these people.

    Personality And Play Styles - A Unified Model
    In search of a unified model of player characters, a fascinating mix of types of Caircy temperament, Bartle player typology, demographic game design by Chris Bateman, Calois and Lazzaro theory and much more. After reading it remains to throw the player personas on the dice, unless. Continuing the topic:
    • Another approach that considers user experience through the prism of an emotional reaction to events in the game. It can serve as the basis for a player experience journey map .

    Designing with the Mind in Mind - Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Guidelines
    Excerpt from the recently released second edition of Jeff Johnson's book “Designing with the Mind in Mind: Simple Guide to Understanding User Interface Design Guidelines”. The basic principles of perception and how to use them when designing an interface are very well described.

    Resources: Mental Modeling For Content Work (Presentation by Daniel Eizans with Confab Minneapolis)
    Presentation and useful materials from the Daniel Eizans workshop on creating mental models from the Confab Minneapolis conference. Very good overview of the process and methods.

    Designing for Your Objectives
    Rachel McCollin Design Techniques for Tasks. Simply. Effectively. Effectively. Nothing extra.

    Defining Patient Experience A
    scientific publication describing 14 years of experience in studying and designing the nuances of patient-medical interaction by Jason A. Wolf, Victoria Niederhauser, Dianne Marshburn and Sherri L. LaVela. Useful material for those involved in the design of services.

    Mobile First? Not So Fast
    Laura Klein on a more meaningful approach to mobile design. The deciding factors should be the task facing the user and the context of use, not the size of the device.

    Learner Centered Design (Book Review)
    A small review of Dorian Peters' book, Learner Centered Design: Interface Design for Learning. It describes approaches to training users in different products - from sites to games.

    Boardroom Comics - A Business-Scenario Visualization Tool For Executives
    Ajax Revels on a method for understanding the target audience and its scenarios by collaboratively creating comics.

    Playful or gameful? Creating delightful UX
    Andrés Lucero, Evangelos Karapanos, Juha Arrasvuori and Hannu Korhonen offer the PLEX (Playful Experience) concept for designing interfaces with game elements. The concept is well described, including a set of playing cards and the characteristics of such interfaces.

    Data-Driven Design vs Design Intuition
    Design based on data and design based on intuition. The topics are discussed by Bradford Cross (founder and CEO of Prismatic), Brynn Evans (Google’s leading UX designer) and David Gauquelin (Prezi’s design head) and Braden Kowitz (Google Ventures design partner).

    Why 55% of Potential B2B Buyers Might Not Trust Your Website Content
    The main problems with the trust of B2B sites. The list is headed by: 1) lack of available contact information; 2) low-quality content in the section "About the company".

    Information architecture and conceptual design


    Creating a Concept Model (Video Dave Gray) A
    video workshop from Dave Gray and Christina Wodtke on creating conceptual models. Step-by-step 40-minute video. After that a detailed article came out.



    Orchestrating Touchpoints A
    video by Chris Risdon from the Adaptive Path, in which he parses such a customer journey item as touchpoints. Continuing the topic:




    Brainsketching: Collaborative Interaction Design
    Jay Vidyarthi writes on a brainsketching working meeting technique. Participants sketch their ideas on paper instead of discussing them, and then exchange notes several times in order to develop other people's ideas.

    Service Blueprinting
    Presentation by Izac Ross of Cooper Consulting about Service Blueprinting.

    Design and design of interface screens


    Rumor: Google's Plan To Bridge Chrome, Android, And Search To Do Everything On Your Device
    June 25-26, Google I / O will be held and there is a chance that the new version of Android will look something like this. Application icons can also be simplified . Continuing the topic:



    Plugins and templates for Sketch

    The Guide to Wireframing
    Chris Bank from UX Pin wrote a series of articles about wireframes, and then combined them into an e-book. Articles themselves:

    Project Parfait (Beta) - PSD CSS Extraction, Measurements and Image Optimization Service for the Web
    Adobe launched the online service Parfait to facilitate the translation of PSD layouts into layout. It allows you to dimension the design and get CSS code for selected objects. Continuing the topic:
    • Avocode , another Photoshop-less PSD tool.

    Speed ​​Design with Illustrator - 14 tips to create interfaces in minutes A
    basic reminder for creating interfaces in Adobe Illustrator. 14 tips on the main features of the work.

    Creating Style Guides
    Susan Robertson on how to create HTML guidelines.

    Website Deck
    Playing cards with thumbnails of typical interface screens.

    Demonstrate - Mobile Prototyping
    Demonstrate application for rapid prototyping of mobile applications for iOS.

    UI Design Dos and Don'ts
    A selection of basic rules for creating interfaces for iOS7 from Apple. By the way, the official guidelines came out in the form of a book on iBooks .

    Mitya - Prototype your Interaction Animations
    Another tool for creating interactive prototypes from layouts. It syncs with Dropbox and shows directly on devices. Official Facebook tool group .

    MMLayershots
    MMLayerShots allows you to assemble all the screens of an iOS application into a single structured PSD, which is convenient enough to check on the quality of implementation. Assumes some coding and Mac skills.

    Density Converter by Jeff Broderick
    Calculator for adapting the design of smartphone and tablet applications to screens of different resolutions and densities from Jeff Broderick.

    Collaborating With Adobe Fireworks On Large Design Teams
    Dan Nisbet details how to use Adobe Fireworks effectively in teamwork. Although support for the tool has essentially ceased, many still use it effectively and have a couple of years.

    Peek View
    A plugin for Photoshop that allows you to quickly view layouts on a bunch of connected smartphones and tablets. The creators say it works faster than Skala. Continuing the topic:
    • Pixl Preview  - Another tool for viewing Android layouts on the device.

    iOS 7 UI Kit Photoshop Action Set
    A set of actions for Photoshop that simplify working with iOS7 layouts.

    User research and testing, analytics


    Experiments at Airbnb The
    excellent material of the AirBnB team about their A / B testing methods, as well as the specifics of using tools and methods. Translation into Russian . Continuing the topic:

    Easy Color Contrast Testing
    An easy way to test color contrast using the Chrome Accessibility Developer Tools.

    The Moderator's Survival Guide - Handling Common, Tricky, and Sticky Situations in User Research
    Excerpt from a book released last year by Donna Tedesco and Fiona Tranquada "The Moderator's Survival Guide: Handling Common, Tricky, and Sticky Situations in User Research."

    Identifying the 3 Types of Missing Data
    Jeff Sauro talks about how to analyze incomplete user survey data. Different situations are possible - a specific question was uncomfortable for a significant part of the respondents and a large percentage did not have answers to it, or the answers were skipped randomly.

    Usability Testing for Detailed Design Using Mechanical Turk
    A case study of how the Prismatic team used Amazon Mechanical Turk to simplify their choices using A / B testing.

    Readability.io - Check for readability of texts
    Readability.io online service helps improve informational texts in interfaces.

    Visual programming


    The “designers should code” bullshit and a not so new idea
    Davide Casali's interesting thoughts about the message that has been popular in recent years about whether a designer should be able to typeset.

    Macaw - The Code-Savvy Web Design Tool
    Beta released Macaw, a new modern tool for designers and planners to replace the heavy Photoshop. Like Sketch, it eases the workflow, but goes further and promises the visual programming that leading designers have long dreamed of. The output is clean and neat HTML and CSS that supports responsiveness. Continuing the topic:
    • Less trendy and ideologically correct, but potentially interesting Tumult Hype .

    Next-Generation Responsive Web Design Tools: Webflow, Edge Reflow, Macaw
    A detailed review of modern tools for visual "layout" of responsive sites. Continuing the topic:
    • Sparkle , a related tool.
    • Brix visual tool for creating responsive sites based on Bootstrap.

    Framer - Modern Prototyping The
    third version of Framer.js has been released with a bunch of new features. Continuing the topic:

    Avocado for Quartz Composer
    IDEO's Avocado Framework, another add-on for Quartz Composer. Its version 1.0 has been released . Continuing the topic:

    Understanding CSS Timing Functions A
    detailed walkthrough of how modern CSS animation by Stephen Greig works. Given that it’s becoming easier to do such things with your hands, it’s useful to understand the general principles and details.

    Famo.us
    Javascript framework for creating complex user interfaces for any screens. Good documentation, full of demos and tutorials, a growing community. A 3D engine is built in that works in almost any browser - you can do anything from complex animations to games.

    Facebook Pop
    Facebook opened the code of its Pop framework for animations in mobile applications, which was used to create Paper. More about him . Continuing the topic:

    The Parallax Done Right
    Dave Gamache from the Medium team describes the technical nuances of creating the right parallax on the web. Demo to accompany the article .

    Refills
    Another Refills constructor for quick assembly projects. It is based on the Bourbon CSS framework and its Bitters and Neat add-ons.

    Hello Processing
    As part of the Hour of Code ™, a sub-site was launched with training video materials on the Processing programming language, which was refined for data visualization.

    Flowhub - Peer-to-peer full-stack visual programming for your fingers
    Flowhub visual programming tool (formerly NoFlo ) raised money on KickStarter earlier this yearand is now in beta. It is based on JavaScript and allows you to work with the web and applications on Android and iOS. Review article .

    Forms - The Complete Guide
    A form prototyping guide from Martin Polley using the Zurb Foundation framework. Part 2 .

    Webflow - Website Interactions without Code
    Webflow adds the power of interactive animation, so it’s even better for single-page promotional sites.

    Snap.svg
    JS-library for creating graphics and its animation in SVG. Continuing the topic:

    Cody
    Refillable collection of building bricks for your web project. There are both complex HTML / CSS / Javascript solutions, as well as individual small components.

    iOS Hat
    iOS Hat helps turn layers from Photoshop into working code on Objective-C. Supports export of colors, vector shapes, text styles. Dimensions and anchors are taken into account.

    PaintCode
    Another modern tool for designers who want to shorten the chain from layouts to implementation. It allows you to export layouts for iOS to resources and code in Objective-C and C #.

    Visual Programming Languages ​​Snapshots
    History of visual programming tools from the 60s to our time from Eric Hosick from Interface Vision.

    Get shit done
    Framework based on Bootstrap 3.

    The Answer to PhoneGap UI Development
    Onsen UI HTML5 framework for creating Android and iOS applications. Positioned as the best alternative to PhoneGap.

    Metrics and ROI


    Why consumer product metrics are all terrible
    Andrew Chen writes the truth about custom metrics for social services. In some cases, only 1% of visitors will register; 95% of your users will be inactive on any given day; More than 50% of users will remain alone without joining anyone.

    Management of front-end projects, processes and teams


    PJ McCormick's Leading Your Design Through Danger
    PJ McCormic is about building a process inside his design team at Amazon.



    Building a Solid Foundation for Efficient Design
    Angela Cravel from EffectiveUI on how to analyze the situation in the company.

    A look Inside Design at HubSpot
    Joshua Porter, UX Director of HubSpot, talks about organizing the design process at the company.

    Fuck Innovation, Everything We Have Now is Shit
    Amy Hoy about product design, that first you need to make simple things work, and only then chase after "innovation." To be continued . Continuing the topic:

    4 Myths About Apple Design, From An Ex-Apple Designer
    Mark Kawano, ex-UX evangelist at Apple, reveals 4 myths about the company's design process. Translation into Russian .

    7 Reasons Usability Problems Don't Get Fixed
    Jeff Sauro describes 7 main reasons why the discovered usability problems remain unresolved: 1) It is not clear how often the problem occurs, how many users it affects; 2) The problem affects a small number of users; 3) There is no agreement within the team whether the problem is really a problem; 4) The correction requires major alterations of the product; 5) The impact of the problem affects the user experience only slightly; 6) Estimation of correction costs is more than potential gain; 7) The product already works, makes money. The hosts know about the problems, but are satisfied and do not want to change anything yet.

    Maximum Viable Product
    CXPartners' Joe Leech on the reverse concept for lean UX - Maximum Viable Product. This is the set of functions that is the limit after which overload of capabilities and deterioration of the interface begin.

    Stop Dancing Around Criticism and Put It to Use with These Tips from Airbnb's Head of UX
    Katie Hill Airbnb's Tips on How to Critically Design. Moreover, painted on both sides - presenting and criticizing. Continuing the topic:

    How to Spot Good UX Designers
    New UXMatters column on how to spot a good UX designer?

    Product Management and Analytics


    Designer Duds - Losing Our Seat at the Table
    Does design justify itself for the sake of design, for example, Carousel apps from Dropbox, Paper from Facebook, Jelly? After all, design should bring results. The "magnificent" design that brings a small return is actually a failure. Facebook's Tuhin Kumar responds to the article . True, a little from the position of "first achieve."

    A Guide To Validating Product Ideas With Quick And Simple Experiments
    Grace Ng describes a method for testing product hypotheses and a visual label for this. She gives a simple example from her practice, showing how to work with the template.

    Solving Strategic Problems - Going Beyond Being a Technology Order Taker
    Good cases on how you can convince a company to change product plans. Continuing the topic:

    Rap Genius Explains Why Worse is Better
    A very useful programming article about Tom Lehman, the creator of Rap Genius, in which he talks about the history of the product and his conviction “the worse, the better.” Its purpose is to test live product ideas in the simplest possible way, driving a bolt on weak ones. This is contrary to the desire of many designers to lick every little thing, often not paying attention to the fact that it has low value for the user or is not needed at all. Tom's message, of course, is completely radical, but it allows you to find the right balance between attention to detail and rolling out working solutions. Translation into Russian .

    The Last Goodbye - How To Shut Down A Failing Product
    A good Kevin Stone memo on how the product closes. Step-by-step instructions for managers, designers and planners.

    Methodologies, Procedures, Standards


    Establish user experience transformation as a continuous evolution
    Richard Berkman and Marvin Klein from IBM describe a modern approach to creating products in the banking sector. Their common message is that there are no more redesigns and large versions for which the interface should be perfectly licked. Rather, products are restarted in the form of a platform that is constantly updated and improved, so the release is only the beginning of the journey.

    Accessibility in Practice - A process-driven approach to accessibility
    Problems of practical support for accessibility. What they prefer to close their eyes. Very often, if implemented incorrectly, the priority is formal technical compliance with the standards, and not the quality of the interaction. Sometimes the wrong standards are even chosen, for example, WCAG compliance is checked where it is necessary to check for WAI-ARIA. Accessibility support is not built into the system from the very beginning, and the existing system is “customized” to formal compliance with standards. It will also be useful:

    The future of UX-methodology and its problems
    Andrey Sikorsky's presentation on the evolution of UX from the RIF + CIB 2014 conference.


    Cases


    Good design ain't pretty
    Luke Jones criticizes Dribbble and Behance's popular unsolicited redesigns of major services using the flat Mac OS as an example. At the bottom of the article is a good heated discussion on the topic. Other controversial or overtly bad attempts at such redesigns:

    Lenta Inside - A workshop by Galina Timchenko at the School of New Media
    A workshop by Galina Timchenko, the former chief editor of Lenta.ru, on how the recent redesign of the publication was made and what problems it encountered during its course.



    How Facebook Used UX Research To Personalize The Way We See Each Other
    Case study to improve Facebook user profile with a bunch of studies. From co-design with users to running on the percentage of the audience.

    Hybrid sweet spot: Native navigation, web content
    David Heinemeier Hansson of 37 Signals on the evolution of the Basecamp mobile app using a hybrid approach.

    Story


    The Woman Behind Apple's First Icons
    About Susan Kare, one of the first digital designers, author of the first Mac icons, and generally one of the most legendary personalities in product design, they write regularly. But this article is probably the most detailed and interesting of all.

    25 old school websites for 25 years of the web
    Microsoft, Google. Apple, BBC, CNN ... How 25 famous sites looked 15-20 years ago.

    The Secret History of Hypertext
    Another article about Belgian librarian and entrepreneur Paul Otlet and his contribution to the advent of the Internet. It turns out that in addition to his well-known project Mundaneum, he was ahead of the ideas of Vannevar Bush, who is considered the founder of the concept of hypertext and computer as an “expander of abilities” of a person.

    The Videophone Turns 50 - The Historic Failure That Everybody Wanted
    Mashable is about the 50th anniversary of AT&T's first video background and the tricky way video calls come into everyday use.

    Trends


    The leaked New York Times innovation report is one of the key documents of this media age
    The NY Times internal report on trends in content projects and the state of the publication itself went public. It is extremely interesting about where this industry is developing. Also will be interesting:

    Spike and Die - Why Products Created by Ad Agencies Fail
    One of the trends of the moment - advertising and creative agencies are starting to engage in UX and product design. It turns out at first glance very impressive, but fraught with success for the products themselves.

    From Paths to Sandboxes
    Stephen P. Anderson's presentation on an alternative view of service design. He suggests abandoning work on optimizing specific scenarios and creating a platform with simple rules of work that users could use as it suits them best. Such services have significantly greater involvement and flexibility - almost like game worlds.


    Why VC Firms Are Snapping Up Designers
    Design Partner at a Venture Company - A New Opportunity for Designers? For example, John Maeda transferred to KPCB, and Irene Au starts working at Khosla Ventures.

    KPCB Internet trends 2014
    Internet trends for 2014 from KPCB.


    Fresh about car interfaces

    Post Flat
    Wells Riley reflects on what post-flat design can be. A small concept from Pietro Schirano with more active use of gradients.

    Software is Eating Hardware - Lessons for Building Magical Devices
    Adam MacBeth, who worked on the iPod, Jawbone, Fifty Three Pencil, writes about the features of creating new devices.

    Predicting too early is as bad as not predicting at all
    Don Norman analyzes his predictions made 16 years ago in Invisible Computer. What has come true, what is not, and what else can happen, and also gives new predictions for the next 10 years. Continuing the topic:
    • Jacob Nielsen talks to Google about his vision for the future of usability.



    Samsung Design Platform
    Samsung has launched a subset dedicated to the company's design principles and things that it is proud of. Waves of sarcasm have already gone (for example, Fast CoDesign ), but this is interesting anyway. Continuing the topic:

    Everyone Deserves Great Design
    A great design for everyone - a concept created by Ehsan Noursalehi. The idea is to develop simple, functional products that are equally accessible in advanced and developing countries. Such as the classic Casio watch, which has been produced for more than 20 years, Bic pens, plastic chairs, cheap GE portable ultrasound scanners ... Accessibility is not only limited physical, but also limited financial capabilities, limited access to resources. 90% of the world's population live in limited conditions.

    One billion dollars later ...
    Companies have experienced a wave of admiration for big data and web analytics. Anil Dash about the expected appearance of “personal / consumer analytics” tools, where UX quality will be critical.

    What Comes Next Is the Future
    A documentary featuring many famous designers, launched on Kickstarter.

    Professional Development


    Design Culture
    A new book by Vlad Golovach dedicated to the history of design and its impact on culture. Deep and capacious. Online version .

    Get Started in UX: The Complete Guide to Launching a Career in User Experience Design
    Excerpt from a new book by Matthew Magain and Luke Chambers "Get Started in UX: The Complete Guide to Launching a Career in User Experience Design" on the topic of starting a career in UX.

    Designing in the Borderlands by Frank Chimero
    A powerful long read on the subject of design experts and generalists from Frank Chimero. He distinguishes three roles of design - decoration, production and communication of ideas. The publication is more about graphic design, but relevant for any direction.

    Best Book Collections

    Better UX Internships
    Jim Ross's excellent material is why internship experience at companies is often negative for both the employer and the intern. He analyzes in detail the causes of failures and gives recommendations to both parties. Continuing the topic:

    Why Designers Leave
    Julie Zhuo of Facebook ponders why designers are leaving the company. She describes a typical scenario of the arrival, inspiration, disappointment and departure of a specialist. Also will be interesting:

    How I passed CUA
    Anastasia Shchebrova about my experience in obtaining a certificate CUA (Certified Usability Analyst). A set of "cheat sheets" to prepare for it. Continuing the topic:

    The Hidden Value of UX Connectors and the Future of Our Community
    Cory Lebson reflects on local UX communities and their leaders. He recalls an attempt by Lou Rosenfeld and other mastodons to create UXnet in 2004, an initiative to support such communities. Then, probably, it was too early, but now such an organization would have been welcome.

    Aquent Gymnasium
    Free video courses from Aquent, including responsive design and coding for designers.

    UX Job Descriptions Made Easy (er)
    Vitamin T compiled examples of general descriptions of requirements for different levels (junior, "specialist", senior) positions: Interaction Designer, Visual Designer, User Researcher.

    Service Blueprinting - Transforming the Student Experience
    Rethinking learning using service design methods.

    10 Surpisingly Common But Painful User Experiences
    A series of fun posters from Jeff Sauro showing interface issues.

    6 Differences Between B2B and B2C Usability
    Jeff Sauro on the difference in usability specialist’s work in enterprise and consumer applications.

    Goodbye from Five Simple Steps Five Simple Steps has
    ceased to exist, publishing Hardboiled Web Design, Practical Guide to Designing for the Web, Practical Guide to Designing with Data, and Practical Guide to Information Architecture. This is due to the purchase of the parent Mark Boulton Design font company Monotype ... However, a month later the publisher decided to continue working. Continuing the topic:

    UX How-To with Luke Wroblewski
    A series of short instructional videos from Luke Wroblewski recorded for the Intel Learning Channel.



    Important people in the industry


    100 Most Creative People 2014
    100 of the best creative professionals in 2014 according to Fast Co Design.

    John Maeda Interview
    Interview with John Maeda, one of the most interesting contemporary designers. Interesting enough about how he advises companies and teaches design managers. Continuing the topic:
    • John Maeda on 3 principles of successful design : 1) Start with design, not end with it; 2) Allow designers to code, and developers - to draw a design; 3) Do not contrast business and design, business goals and user goals.

    Designing Mobile Usability
    Interview on mobile usability with Jacob Nielsen for the Dorm Room Tycoon site.

    Meet the godfather of wearables
    Interview with Alex Petland, one of the "grandfathers" of wearable devices. Under his leadership, in the 90s, the first prototypes were created in MIT laboratories: glasses with an integrated display; watches with temperature, pulse and blood pressure sensors; belt with wireless Internet access; icon with a built-in camera and microphone, a keyboard sewn into a vest, etc.

    Conference proceedings


    Video from the MX2014 - Managing Experience
    Speech from the MX2014 - Managing Experience conference, held March 16-17 in San Francisco. I have long wanted to get on it and this year it turned out - this is a unique event in terms of composition and themes. Presentations were sent to the participants, but for some reason have not yet been made publicly available. Todd Wilkens of IBM and Bill Scott of Netflix and Brandon Schauer topped the most powerful performances. There was a lot of bullshit, largely from the guys from the service design (solid water about values ​​without specifics). But in general - it was cool to see how the design process and values ​​are arranged in the largest companies. Some of the presentations:

    Video from From Business to Buttons 2014
    Proceedings of the From Business to Buttons 2014 conference, which took place on April 3 in Sweden. Some performances:





    Video from the Lean Day London 2014
    conference Proceedings of the Lean Day London 2014 conference, which was held March 25-26 in London.

    Video from The Service Experience Conference 2013
    Materials from the Service Experience 2013 conference held on October 3-4 in San Francisco.

    Video from ProfsoUX 2014
    Materials of the ProfsoUX conference held on April 26 in St. Petersburg.

    OFFF Digital Media Culture Festival in St. Petersburg
    For the first time in a decade, the OFFF Digital Media Culture Festival will be held in Russia. On July 5 and 6, Anton Repponen & Irene Pereyra (FI), Florian Schmitt (Hi-Res), Rama Allen (The Mill) and others will perform in the Creative Weavers space.

    Recent links can also be tracked in the same Facebook group. Thanks to everyone who also publishes links in it, especially Gennady Dragoon.

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