December 13, 2012 at 09:03Review of fresh materials, October-December 2012
This material continues a series of monthly reviews of fresh 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-September 2012 .
The New Era of (Non-) Discoverability
Presentation by Dan Saffer on problems in detecting functions and actions in modern touch interfaces. He compares the importance of learning and detectability of functions for different generations of computer devices and recommends improving the former for experienced users and the latter for beginners and the “eternal middle peasants”.
Android Tablet App Quality Checklist
The Android blog has published a checklist for developers and designers of tablet applications for the platform. These are 10 simple rules, some of which apply to other platforms.
'Usability of Web Photos' from UXCambridge & FOWD
Presentation by James Chudley of CXPartners on the use of photos in prototypes and real interfaces. Often this is an integral part of the content or the overall message, so you need to be careful to use the "fish" and stubs. The author also released a mini-book on this subject .
When You Shouldn't Use Fitts's Law To Measure User Experience
A good overview of the key messages of Fitts Law from Anastasios Karafillis. It was proposed in the era of mouse interaction with desktop applications, and some of these messages require adjustment now, when a significant part of the interfaces work inside the browser or are controlled by gestures and touches.
6 Ways to Get More Out of Your Order Confirmation Page
Jamie Appleseed of the Baymard Institute describes methods for increasing the conversion and loyalty of online store customers using the confirmation page that appears after order completion. At this point, the purchase process is completed and without risk of disrupting it, you can sell additional products or offer additional services.
Translation is UX
Antoine Lefeuvre writes about the importance of good translation when localizing interfaces. They allow you to maintain the spirit of the product and correctly convey the nuances of interaction.
Best Practices for Online Guided-Selling Experiences
Michael Hawley talks about one of the key use cases for online stores - shopping guides. They help to choose a product for those who are poorly versed in the subject area or cannot explicitly express their requirements. An overview of the main patterns for comparing products .
Android Niceties
Gallery of examples of beautiful Android applications made in the spirit of the platform guidelines.
Quest for Emotional Engagement - Information Visualization A
gorgeous presentation by Stephen P. Anderson on how to use infographic techniques to facilitate cognitively complex interfaces. They allow you to simplify complex tables and dashboards, give meaning to endless lists of slightly different options, help in choosing the right option or product in the e-commerce service.
Sketching interfaces A
good overview presentation by Michael Angeles on how and why to draw interface sketches.
Your Content, Now Mobile A
chapter from Karen McGrane’s new mobile content strategy book. The article itself is quite general, but the book should be interesting in the context of the fact that more and more products are present on many platforms at once .
Responsive Navigation: Optimizing for Touch Across Devices
Luke Wroblewski describes an adaptive approach to designing navigation for interfaces present on multiple form factors at once. The article has excellent illustrations on how each one is used.
Mobile Design Details: Just in Time Actions
An interesting pattern for working with forms in mobile applications from Luke Wroblewski. He suggests replacing interface elements that are not needed at the time of input with a screen keyboard hiding mechanism.
Mobile Input Methods
Steven Hoober lists modern input methods on mobile devices. This is a useful list of physical and interface approaches.
Mobile Email Newsletters
Jakob Nielsen presents research on mobile email newsletters. The state of the industry is sad - 93% of letters also had to be opened on a computer.
The top responsive web design problems ... and how to avoid them
James Young has prepared an excellent overview of modern techniques and adaptive design problems with lots of useful links.
The wrong projection
Chris Noessel describes the problems of displaying an air route on a world map using the Curry Plate, which is commonly used in aircraft infotainment systems. And offers better solutions.
Leveraging the Kano Model for Optimal Results The
best article on the use of the Kano model in interface design and product management by Jan Moorman. It describes in detail the methodology for its use, and also more fully describes the concept itself and its history.
H. Muller, JLGove, JSWebb - Understanding Tablet Use: A Multi-Method Exploration (PDF)
An interesting study by Google Henrik Muller, Jennifer L. Gove and John S. Webb on how and what tablets are used for. Leading verification of mail, games and social networks.
Behavior Design Bootcamp with Stanford's Dr. Bj fogg
Ryan Winia attended a BJ Fogg workshop (head of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab) on his behavior theory. He talks about its basic principles and provides many interesting details about the application of a behavior model. Part 2 and afterword .
5 Levers of Behavior Change
James Kalbach outlines five key conditions that can be used to alter a user's habits and behavior. And he compares these five points from different authors - Everett Roger and Keith Wood. Another publication on this topic from Frog Design .
CXPartners Same devices, different experiences
Chui Chui Tan from CXPartners published an interesting presentation on how we use our usual smartphones in Asian countries.
Introducing the Storygraph
Raffaele Boiano has published a storygraph template to describe a customer journey. And in addition to it - a storybook , its development.
Mining Social Media - Tracking Content and Predicting Behavior (by Manos Tsagkias)
A large study of the working mechanisms of social media from Manos Tsagkias, which describes, among other things, modeling the behavior of their users. Direct link to PDF .
What's Your Perception Strategy? (Why It's NOT All About Content) A
transcription of a Stephen Anderson workshop on human perceptions. He talks about how experience is formed and what affects it.
UX Persona Research Survey Results
In August-September 2012, Nellie Le Monier conducted a small survey among UX specialists on the topic of character research for her projects.
Mirror, Mirror, on the Screen
David Moscovic talks about reflective design. Since the user often transfers the product and the images used in it to himself, they can be used to improve the perception of the service and experience in general.
User Satisfaction vs Performance Metrics
Jakob Nielsen collected user research data from about 300 products and confirmed the conclusion that user satisfaction is not always tied to usability. The article has an excellent schedule for thoughtful study.
Motion & Animation: A New Mobile UX Design Material A
great Rachel Hinman article on front-end animations in mobile apps. Although she refers to Disney principles, which are often criticized as not always applicable to interfaces, they are successfully categorized and accompanied by successful examples.
Indigo Studio - Interaction Design Tool
Indigo Studio is a new multi-functional product for interface design. In addition to the standard set of different platforms and the creation of interactive prototypes, it allows you to describe animations, work with sketches, create storyboards.
Proto.io - Silly-fast mobile prototyping.
The third version of Proto.io has been released with highly advanced features -wireframes.linowski.ca/2012/10/proto-io-v3-changes-mobile-prototyping-as-we-know-it . It allows you to create interfaces for a wide range of devices in addition to existing ones - from televisions and modern refrigerators to game consoles.
Interactive Sketching Notation v1.3
Jakub Linowski has released version 1.3 of his Interactive Sketching Notation framework. It includes a large set of controls, standard icons, as well as device screens of the main mobile and tablet platforms.
Large Canvas Flows + With References An
excellent example of combining prototypes, an information map and a specification of the behavior of a mobile application from Anton Volkov. It clearly shows the general and particular details of the product.
Android DPI Calculator
Online DPI calculator with a large number of smartphone screen resolutions. A useful tool for mobile designers who work with Android devices.
Agile, OmniGraffle, and Native Mobile Wireframing
A useful overview of Omnigraffle features from Simon Keatley from Deloitte Digital. He also describes the interesting nuances of his workflow and the integration of a design tool into it.
Planning for Homepage Content
Georgy Cohen discusses the role of the homepage on modern sites. Less and less users find content through it, which affects its structure and content.
Interface Sketch
An extensive collection of paper prototyping device templates. Many resolutions are available for smartphones and tablets, as well as a classic browser.
POP (Prototyping on Paper) - iPhone App Prototyping Made Easy
The POP (Prototyping on Paper) application facilitates the paper prototyping process. The mechanism is simple - you need to photograph the sketches, place clickable areas on them and link the pages together.
PowerMockup - Wireframing Tool for PowerPoint The
third version of the PowerMockup plug-in for PowerPoint has been released, which allows you to design interfaces in a simple and familiar tool for many managers. It includes an extensive library of standard elements and icons.
The Infinite Grid
Chris Armstrong writes about building complex grids that take into account many devices. He gives recommendations that allow you to save the grid, even taking into account the weakly predictable and less popular screen resolutions. Article Translation.
Cut & Slice me
The Cut & Slice Me plugin for Adobe Photoshop eases the work of mobile designers. It helps to “cut” design layouts for developers - it saves a lot of time and energy.
Design Principles for Windows 8
Applications Konstantin Kichinsky has launched another blog post on designing and designing for Windows 8.
Are You Still Using Earlier-Generation Prototyping Tools?
Ritch Macefield offers an interesting classification of design tools and divides them into 4 generations. How convenient are they for organizing work, conducting user research, visualizing and preparing specifications?
Tips on Prototyping for Usability Testing
Jim Ross review article on how to prepare prototypes for usability testing. He lists the main nuances and situations that are important to foresee.
Research Where Your Channels Cross
Several case studies from Jessica Peterson, describing user research methods for products and services that use multiple channels at once. They are more difficult to test in the laboratory than a single product.
10 Things to Know about A / B Testing
Jeff Sauro talks about his experiences using A / B testing. These are mainly statistical calculations - when and in what cases it is possible to make decisions based on the results of such studies.
User testing in the wild - Research at conferences and other events
Nina Mehta offers conferences as an easy way to select respondents for custom research. She describes the features of such studies and gives advice on their organization.
Testing One Thumb, One Eyeball Mobile Use
Luke Wroblewski writes about the importance of testing mobile apps with one-handed use. Attached is a video that shows an exploration of key scenarios for the Polar mobile app.
10 Things to Know About Unmoderated Usability Testing
Jeff Sauro talks about his experience with remote usability testing. He lists the 10 highlights that are worth paying attention to.
Activity Analytics for Web Apps
Jared Spool talks about the experience of his company UI Engineering in combining usability testing methods and web analytics. This allows you to find non-obvious problems, although this requires fine-tuning the analytics service.
Call Recorder for Skype - The Skype Audio / Video Call Recording Solution for Mac
Ecamm has released a Skype add-on that allows you to record calls. This will help with remote user research. True, it is only available for Mac.
Where's the fold?
Fold Tester service allows you to check which part of the page goes to the first browser screen at different screen resolutions. True, the service does not work on some sites.
All together now
Colin Butler and Andrew Wirtanen describe peer review issues. As a solution, they propose a collective assessment approach and describe this method in detail.
Typeform - Create awesome forms & surveys that function seamlessly across devices
The TypeForm service allows you to create custom forms that better involve the user in the filling process. A useful tool for conducting custom research.
10 Benchmarks for User Experience Metrics An
invaluable collection of metrics from Jeff Sauro. He gives the average values of the 10 most popular interface indicators (NPS, SUS, SEQ and others), regarding which it is convenient to compare the research results of their products.
KPIs are Metrics, but Not All Metrics are KPIs
Jared Spool recalls the difference between metrics and KPI. These concepts are often confused, although they have different tasks and importance for business.
Quantifying the Value of a Promoter
Jeff Sauro talks about a metric that calculates the value in money of a product’s user recommendations. It uses data from the Net Promoter Score and allows you to calculate additional profit.
10 Things To Know About The Single Ease Question (SEQ)
An excellent memo on the user assessment metric for SEQ (Single Ease Question) interfaces from Jeff Sauro. He describes basic information about her and useful nuances from his experience.
One thing you should fix on your website
Jeff Sauro helps answer the question of which front-end issues to solve first. He presents the results of research on the services of large companies and compares them with widespread criticism from users.
How to Ask About User Satisfaction in a Survey
Caroline Jarrett talks about how to measure user satisfaction through surveys. It is not enough yes / no or a simple rating scale - it is necessary to take into account the context and previous experience. Accompanying presentation .
Conversion Rate Optimization - Five Key Success Factors
In anticipation of the new Conversion Rate Optimization Report, the Econsultancy website publishes some numbers of key factors that are rated as having the most impact on site conversion. This helps to understand how much we consider them ourselves.
Predicting Task Completion with the System Usability Scale
Jeff Sauro collected data from hundreds of user tests and found a correlation between the SUS (System Usability Scale) metric and the percentage of successfully completed tasks. The article has a calculator that allows you to check your data.
How to Measure Findability
Jeff Sauro offers a method for measuring the location of pages and objects in a service search. This will track the effectiveness of the search engine and improve it.
Fixing A Broken User Experience
Stefan Klocek from Cooper offers an approach that will change the interface culture in a large company with many products. He suggests starting with a basic level of visual similarity and moving on to a higher level.
What can Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive teach us about designing?
Hugh Dubberly analyzes examples of companies where top management places high value on design and interacts directly with designers to create products and builds a model for such a workflow. He takes the case of Steve Jobs as the basis, and also gives a number of examples from other companies - such as IBM, Pixar, Olivetti, Braun.
The Magical Short-Form Creative Brief
Jared Spool describes a great way to improve the quality of project meetings. This is a brief brief, which is announced before each meeting in order to confirm an equal understanding of the project goals. UXMatters column on how to organize design discussions .
Goods, Bads, and Dailies - Lessons for Conducting Great Critiques
Jared Spool provides two examples of a well-built process of design criticism. It is important to have a predictable and regular procedure at the ritual level and a sufficient result for the work to criticize - not too early and not too late.
Coherence and responsiveness
Jed Harris and Austin Henderson describe a typical problem facing a product - being more flexible or more connected and structured. They describe a model that helps you choose the best balance.
Project of How
The translation of teamwork from CMS Magazine is ongoing. Available Combination of ideas , The method of blooming lotus , the game "Insights" , Development of ideas in the format of express dates and Visualize it .
An Event Apart: What Clients Don't Know
Mike Monteiro describes well the problems in the relationship between the designer and the customer. He tells where exactly the misunderstanding occurs and how to deal with it.
Fitting Big-Picture UX Into Agile Development
Damon Dimmick writes about introducing UX into agile teams. He raises topics for breaking the zero-sprint limit, introducing the role of design owner and other interesting ideas.
The product design sprint - A five-day recipe for startups
Jake Knapp describes a five-day teamwork format for conceptual product design. In general, the articles are quite superficial, but in some parts there are many useful details.
Instagram's Mike Krieger on apps - Are you getting the design right or do you have the right design?
Co-founder of Instagram Mike Krieger talks about how the design process in the company works. In general, it is based on what IDEO promotes, but with its own characteristics. Presentation for the story .
Apollo Flight Controller 101: Every console explained The
most elegant analysis of how NASA's Mission Control Center is structured and which devices it uses. This is one of the most complex socio-technical systems in which interface and organizational approaches are interestingly combined. Continuation of the topic .
Responsive mobile site for bbc sport
BBC Sport released an adaptive version of their site, as project manager Lucie McLean talks about. This is a very interesting example - the BBC has to solve problems with both a large amount of information and a wide variety of devices.
Enroll UX 2014
A research project by IDEO and organizations in the US healthcare industry that is exploring modern approaches to health insurance. They study, among other things, trust in the company and its products - what users put into this concept and their expectations .
The Magical Tech Behind Paper For iPad's Color-Mixing Perfection
An interesting case about working on a new color picker in Paper for iPad. This is a great example of a breakthrough interface solution that often requires serious work on complex domain models.
Kinect Genealogy - A Brief History of Gestural Interfaces An excellent
article on the history of gesture-based interfaces dedicated to the two-year anniversary of Kinect. Many examples of videos of technological concepts and products dating back to the 60s.
Atari Teenage Riot - The Inside Story Of Pong And The Video Game Industry's Big Bang
The story of Atari and the Pong game, the first commercially successful and massive game, it recently turned 40 years old. Although they came up with it in the Magnavox Odyssey home console, which was released shortly before Pong.
The story of Nokia MeeGo
The history of the MeeGo mobile OS and its interface in particular. A good example of a problem product and the reasons for the failure of the platform.
New Rule: Every Desktop Design Has To Go Finger-Friendly
Josh Clark notes that with the release of Windows 8, desktop computers should begin to support touch control. As the first experience of using hybrid devices (tablet + laptop) shows, the “gorilla arm” problem is exaggerated, and users use the touch as the main, and not an auxiliary way to control.
Sci-Fi Interfaces
Nathan Schedroff and Christopher Noessel wrote the book Make It So, which analyzes the interfaces from science fiction films. The site of the book has collected many excerpts and useful materials. Description on the publisher’s website Rosenfeld Media. Speech by Chris Noessel on the topic of the book.
Over the top - The new war for TV is just beginning
A gorgeous series of articles by The Verge, dedicated to the latest media consoles, platforms and ecosystems for modern TVs. It includes 6 device reviews from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony and small manufacturers, as well as a useful list of “boxes” from cable operators. Review and comparison of the main products six months ago.
Substituting Information for Interaction (PDF)
Robert Glushko and Karen Nomorosa explore the design of modern services at the intersection of information and entertainment. They offer methods of research and development of such products.
Intranet Users Stuck at Low Productivity
Jakob Nielsen talks about the results of a recent study on the usability of intranet sites. Over the 10 years since the last study, the situation has become even a little worse - it is more difficult for users to find the necessary information and solve their problems.
Information Architecture's Two Schools of Thought
Nathaniel Davis compares the definitions of information architecture and divides them into two main approaches. The first concerns only the structure of the site or application and the navigation tools on it, the second concerns the entire product as a whole.
Service Design Magazine, Research Book and Poster
Service Design Magazine and related industry research from a group of organizations from Finland and Estonia. They describe the history and current state of the industry.
Bulletin Ergonomist, Issue 3 (PDF)
The third issue of the Bulletin on Applied Ergonomics has been released.
Content Strategy for Decision Makers
Rahel Bailie and Noz Urbina published a book on content strategy with an emphasis on the process of working with decision makers in the company. It is temporarily available in free access.
Designing meaning - Translating insight into design
Simon Norris from Nomensa talks about the importance of “designing meaning” when creating products, not just interfaces. In modern teams, design, technology and psychology must work in one bundle in order to get the required solutions. Later, the author will publish a model of this process.
Parsons Journal for Information Mapping, volume 4, issue IV
The fourth quarter of 2012 was released by the Parsons Journal for Information Mapping. It has three articles on infographics and data visualization.
ASIS & T; Bulletin: IA Issue (Oct / Nov 2012)
ASIS & T's latest issue of October-November 2012 has been released. Direct link to PDF .
Ivan Zamesin - Interfaces, usability and common sense
Ivan Zamesin publishes translations of interface articles from English on his blog. It opened only this year, but already has half a dozen materials.
UX Week 2012 Videos
Video recordings of the UXWeek 2012 conference, held August 21-24 in San Francisco, have appeared. As always, there are many interesting topics from leading industry experts. Microsoft's Jensen Harris revealed the first Windows 8 layouts .
Publishing and Presenting
Jim Ross motivates designers and designers to speak more often at conferences and publish articles on a professional topic. This is a series of articles listing key concerns like “I have nothing to say” and specific tips for preparing articles and presentations. The second part .
EPIC2012 Conference Proceedings
Materials of the conference EPIC2012 (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference), devoted to the practical use of ethnographic research. Direct link to a PDF report with abstracts and presentation materials .
UX Magazine: Seminars
UX Magazine has opened a seminar section that publishes announcements of paid and free training lectures. True, for the number in the list there are many extraneous topics like programming or SEO.
Fresh links can also be tracked in the same Facebook group .
Patterns and Best Practices
The New Era of (Non-) Discoverability
Presentation by Dan Saffer on problems in detecting functions and actions in modern touch interfaces. He compares the importance of learning and detectability of functions for different generations of computer devices and recommends improving the former for experienced users and the latter for beginners and the “eternal middle peasants”.
Android Tablet App Quality Checklist
The Android blog has published a checklist for developers and designers of tablet applications for the platform. These are 10 simple rules, some of which apply to other platforms.
'Usability of Web Photos' from UXCambridge & FOWD
Presentation by James Chudley of CXPartners on the use of photos in prototypes and real interfaces. Often this is an integral part of the content or the overall message, so you need to be careful to use the "fish" and stubs. The author also released a mini-book on this subject .
When You Shouldn't Use Fitts's Law To Measure User Experience
A good overview of the key messages of Fitts Law from Anastasios Karafillis. It was proposed in the era of mouse interaction with desktop applications, and some of these messages require adjustment now, when a significant part of the interfaces work inside the browser or are controlled by gestures and touches.
6 Ways to Get More Out of Your Order Confirmation Page
Jamie Appleseed of the Baymard Institute describes methods for increasing the conversion and loyalty of online store customers using the confirmation page that appears after order completion. At this point, the purchase process is completed and without risk of disrupting it, you can sell additional products or offer additional services.
Translation is UX
Antoine Lefeuvre writes about the importance of good translation when localizing interfaces. They allow you to maintain the spirit of the product and correctly convey the nuances of interaction.
Best Practices for Online Guided-Selling Experiences
Michael Hawley talks about one of the key use cases for online stores - shopping guides. They help to choose a product for those who are poorly versed in the subject area or cannot explicitly express their requirements. An overview of the main patterns for comparing products .
Android Niceties
Gallery of examples of beautiful Android applications made in the spirit of the platform guidelines.
Quest for Emotional Engagement - Information Visualization A
gorgeous presentation by Stephen P. Anderson on how to use infographic techniques to facilitate cognitively complex interfaces. They allow you to simplify complex tables and dashboards, give meaning to endless lists of slightly different options, help in choosing the right option or product in the e-commerce service.
Sketching interfaces A
good overview presentation by Michael Angeles on how and why to draw interface sketches.
Your Content, Now Mobile A
chapter from Karen McGrane’s new mobile content strategy book. The article itself is quite general, but the book should be interesting in the context of the fact that more and more products are present on many platforms at once .
Responsive Navigation: Optimizing for Touch Across Devices
Luke Wroblewski describes an adaptive approach to designing navigation for interfaces present on multiple form factors at once. The article has excellent illustrations on how each one is used.
Mobile Design Details: Just in Time Actions
An interesting pattern for working with forms in mobile applications from Luke Wroblewski. He suggests replacing interface elements that are not needed at the time of input with a screen keyboard hiding mechanism.
Mobile Input Methods
Steven Hoober lists modern input methods on mobile devices. This is a useful list of physical and interface approaches.
Mobile Email Newsletters
Jakob Nielsen presents research on mobile email newsletters. The state of the industry is sad - 93% of letters also had to be opened on a computer.
The top responsive web design problems ... and how to avoid them
James Young has prepared an excellent overview of modern techniques and adaptive design problems with lots of useful links.
The wrong projection
Chris Noessel describes the problems of displaying an air route on a world map using the Curry Plate, which is commonly used in aircraft infotainment systems. And offers better solutions.
User understanding
Leveraging the Kano Model for Optimal Results The
best article on the use of the Kano model in interface design and product management by Jan Moorman. It describes in detail the methodology for its use, and also more fully describes the concept itself and its history.
H. Muller, JLGove, JSWebb - Understanding Tablet Use: A Multi-Method Exploration (PDF)
An interesting study by Google Henrik Muller, Jennifer L. Gove and John S. Webb on how and what tablets are used for. Leading verification of mail, games and social networks.
Behavior Design Bootcamp with Stanford's Dr. Bj fogg
Ryan Winia attended a BJ Fogg workshop (head of the Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab) on his behavior theory. He talks about its basic principles and provides many interesting details about the application of a behavior model. Part 2 and afterword .
5 Levers of Behavior Change
James Kalbach outlines five key conditions that can be used to alter a user's habits and behavior. And he compares these five points from different authors - Everett Roger and Keith Wood. Another publication on this topic from Frog Design .
CXPartners Same devices, different experiences
Chui Chui Tan from CXPartners published an interesting presentation on how we use our usual smartphones in Asian countries.
Introducing the Storygraph
Raffaele Boiano has published a storygraph template to describe a customer journey. And in addition to it - a storybook , its development.
Mining Social Media - Tracking Content and Predicting Behavior (by Manos Tsagkias)
A large study of the working mechanisms of social media from Manos Tsagkias, which describes, among other things, modeling the behavior of their users. Direct link to PDF .
What's Your Perception Strategy? (Why It's NOT All About Content) A
transcription of a Stephen Anderson workshop on human perceptions. He talks about how experience is formed and what affects it.
UX Persona Research Survey Results
In August-September 2012, Nellie Le Monier conducted a small survey among UX specialists on the topic of character research for her projects.
Mirror, Mirror, on the Screen
David Moscovic talks about reflective design. Since the user often transfers the product and the images used in it to himself, they can be used to improve the perception of the service and experience in general.
User Satisfaction vs Performance Metrics
Jakob Nielsen collected user research data from about 300 products and confirmed the conclusion that user satisfaction is not always tied to usability. The article has an excellent schedule for thoughtful study.
Designing the structure and screens of the interface
Motion & Animation: A New Mobile UX Design Material A
great Rachel Hinman article on front-end animations in mobile apps. Although she refers to Disney principles, which are often criticized as not always applicable to interfaces, they are successfully categorized and accompanied by successful examples.
Indigo Studio - Interaction Design Tool
Indigo Studio is a new multi-functional product for interface design. In addition to the standard set of different platforms and the creation of interactive prototypes, it allows you to describe animations, work with sketches, create storyboards.
Proto.io - Silly-fast mobile prototyping.
The third version of Proto.io has been released with highly advanced features -wireframes.linowski.ca/2012/10/proto-io-v3-changes-mobile-prototyping-as-we-know-it . It allows you to create interfaces for a wide range of devices in addition to existing ones - from televisions and modern refrigerators to game consoles.
Interactive Sketching Notation v1.3
Jakub Linowski has released version 1.3 of his Interactive Sketching Notation framework. It includes a large set of controls, standard icons, as well as device screens of the main mobile and tablet platforms.
Large Canvas Flows + With References An
excellent example of combining prototypes, an information map and a specification of the behavior of a mobile application from Anton Volkov. It clearly shows the general and particular details of the product.
Android DPI Calculator
Online DPI calculator with a large number of smartphone screen resolutions. A useful tool for mobile designers who work with Android devices.
Agile, OmniGraffle, and Native Mobile Wireframing
A useful overview of Omnigraffle features from Simon Keatley from Deloitte Digital. He also describes the interesting nuances of his workflow and the integration of a design tool into it.
Planning for Homepage Content
Georgy Cohen discusses the role of the homepage on modern sites. Less and less users find content through it, which affects its structure and content.
Interface Sketch
An extensive collection of paper prototyping device templates. Many resolutions are available for smartphones and tablets, as well as a classic browser.
POP (Prototyping on Paper) - iPhone App Prototyping Made Easy
The POP (Prototyping on Paper) application facilitates the paper prototyping process. The mechanism is simple - you need to photograph the sketches, place clickable areas on them and link the pages together.
PowerMockup - Wireframing Tool for PowerPoint The
third version of the PowerMockup plug-in for PowerPoint has been released, which allows you to design interfaces in a simple and familiar tool for many managers. It includes an extensive library of standard elements and icons.
The Infinite Grid
Chris Armstrong writes about building complex grids that take into account many devices. He gives recommendations that allow you to save the grid, even taking into account the weakly predictable and less popular screen resolutions. Article Translation.
Cut & Slice me
The Cut & Slice Me plugin for Adobe Photoshop eases the work of mobile designers. It helps to “cut” design layouts for developers - it saves a lot of time and energy.
Design Principles for Windows 8
Applications Konstantin Kichinsky has launched another blog post on designing and designing for Windows 8.
Are You Still Using Earlier-Generation Prototyping Tools?
Ritch Macefield offers an interesting classification of design tools and divides them into 4 generations. How convenient are they for organizing work, conducting user research, visualizing and preparing specifications?
User research and testing
Tips on Prototyping for Usability Testing
Jim Ross review article on how to prepare prototypes for usability testing. He lists the main nuances and situations that are important to foresee.
Research Where Your Channels Cross
Several case studies from Jessica Peterson, describing user research methods for products and services that use multiple channels at once. They are more difficult to test in the laboratory than a single product.
10 Things to Know about A / B Testing
Jeff Sauro talks about his experiences using A / B testing. These are mainly statistical calculations - when and in what cases it is possible to make decisions based on the results of such studies.
User testing in the wild - Research at conferences and other events
Nina Mehta offers conferences as an easy way to select respondents for custom research. She describes the features of such studies and gives advice on their organization.
Testing One Thumb, One Eyeball Mobile Use
Luke Wroblewski writes about the importance of testing mobile apps with one-handed use. Attached is a video that shows an exploration of key scenarios for the Polar mobile app.
10 Things to Know About Unmoderated Usability Testing
Jeff Sauro talks about his experience with remote usability testing. He lists the 10 highlights that are worth paying attention to.
Activity Analytics for Web Apps
Jared Spool talks about the experience of his company UI Engineering in combining usability testing methods and web analytics. This allows you to find non-obvious problems, although this requires fine-tuning the analytics service.
Call Recorder for Skype - The Skype Audio / Video Call Recording Solution for Mac
Ecamm has released a Skype add-on that allows you to record calls. This will help with remote user research. True, it is only available for Mac.
Where's the fold?
Fold Tester service allows you to check which part of the page goes to the first browser screen at different screen resolutions. True, the service does not work on some sites.
All together now
Colin Butler and Andrew Wirtanen describe peer review issues. As a solution, they propose a collective assessment approach and describe this method in detail.
Typeform - Create awesome forms & surveys that function seamlessly across devices
The TypeForm service allows you to create custom forms that better involve the user in the filling process. A useful tool for conducting custom research.
Metrics and ROI
10 Benchmarks for User Experience Metrics An
invaluable collection of metrics from Jeff Sauro. He gives the average values of the 10 most popular interface indicators (NPS, SUS, SEQ and others), regarding which it is convenient to compare the research results of their products.
KPIs are Metrics, but Not All Metrics are KPIs
Jared Spool recalls the difference between metrics and KPI. These concepts are often confused, although they have different tasks and importance for business.
Quantifying the Value of a Promoter
Jeff Sauro talks about a metric that calculates the value in money of a product’s user recommendations. It uses data from the Net Promoter Score and allows you to calculate additional profit.
10 Things To Know About The Single Ease Question (SEQ)
An excellent memo on the user assessment metric for SEQ (Single Ease Question) interfaces from Jeff Sauro. He describes basic information about her and useful nuances from his experience.
One thing you should fix on your website
Jeff Sauro helps answer the question of which front-end issues to solve first. He presents the results of research on the services of large companies and compares them with widespread criticism from users.
How to Ask About User Satisfaction in a Survey
Caroline Jarrett talks about how to measure user satisfaction through surveys. It is not enough yes / no or a simple rating scale - it is necessary to take into account the context and previous experience. Accompanying presentation .
Conversion Rate Optimization - Five Key Success Factors
In anticipation of the new Conversion Rate Optimization Report, the Econsultancy website publishes some numbers of key factors that are rated as having the most impact on site conversion. This helps to understand how much we consider them ourselves.
Predicting Task Completion with the System Usability Scale
Jeff Sauro collected data from hundreds of user tests and found a correlation between the SUS (System Usability Scale) metric and the percentage of successfully completed tasks. The article has a calculator that allows you to check your data.
How to Measure Findability
Jeff Sauro offers a method for measuring the location of pages and objects in a service search. This will track the effectiveness of the search engine and improve it.
Management of front-end projects and processes
Fixing A Broken User Experience
Stefan Klocek from Cooper offers an approach that will change the interface culture in a large company with many products. He suggests starting with a basic level of visual similarity and moving on to a higher level.
What can Steve Jobs and Jonathan Ive teach us about designing?
Hugh Dubberly analyzes examples of companies where top management places high value on design and interacts directly with designers to create products and builds a model for such a workflow. He takes the case of Steve Jobs as the basis, and also gives a number of examples from other companies - such as IBM, Pixar, Olivetti, Braun.
The Magical Short-Form Creative Brief
Jared Spool describes a great way to improve the quality of project meetings. This is a brief brief, which is announced before each meeting in order to confirm an equal understanding of the project goals. UXMatters column on how to organize design discussions .
Goods, Bads, and Dailies - Lessons for Conducting Great Critiques
Jared Spool provides two examples of a well-built process of design criticism. It is important to have a predictable and regular procedure at the ritual level and a sufficient result for the work to criticize - not too early and not too late.
Coherence and responsiveness
Jed Harris and Austin Henderson describe a typical problem facing a product - being more flexible or more connected and structured. They describe a model that helps you choose the best balance.
Project of How
The translation of teamwork from CMS Magazine is ongoing. Available Combination of ideas , The method of blooming lotus , the game "Insights" , Development of ideas in the format of express dates and Visualize it .
An Event Apart: What Clients Don't Know
Mike Monteiro describes well the problems in the relationship between the designer and the customer. He tells where exactly the misunderstanding occurs and how to deal with it.
Fitting Big-Picture UX Into Agile Development
Damon Dimmick writes about introducing UX into agile teams. He raises topics for breaking the zero-sprint limit, introducing the role of design owner and other interesting ideas.
The product design sprint - A five-day recipe for startups
Jake Knapp describes a five-day teamwork format for conceptual product design. In general, the articles are quite superficial, but in some parts there are many useful details.
Cases
Instagram's Mike Krieger on apps - Are you getting the design right or do you have the right design?
Co-founder of Instagram Mike Krieger talks about how the design process in the company works. In general, it is based on what IDEO promotes, but with its own characteristics. Presentation for the story .
Apollo Flight Controller 101: Every console explained The
most elegant analysis of how NASA's Mission Control Center is structured and which devices it uses. This is one of the most complex socio-technical systems in which interface and organizational approaches are interestingly combined. Continuation of the topic .
Responsive mobile site for bbc sport
BBC Sport released an adaptive version of their site, as project manager Lucie McLean talks about. This is a very interesting example - the BBC has to solve problems with both a large amount of information and a wide variety of devices.
Enroll UX 2014
A research project by IDEO and organizations in the US healthcare industry that is exploring modern approaches to health insurance. They study, among other things, trust in the company and its products - what users put into this concept and their expectations .
The Magical Tech Behind Paper For iPad's Color-Mixing Perfection
An interesting case about working on a new color picker in Paper for iPad. This is a great example of a breakthrough interface solution that often requires serious work on complex domain models.
History
Kinect Genealogy - A Brief History of Gestural Interfaces An excellent
article on the history of gesture-based interfaces dedicated to the two-year anniversary of Kinect. Many examples of videos of technological concepts and products dating back to the 60s.
Atari Teenage Riot - The Inside Story Of Pong And The Video Game Industry's Big Bang
The story of Atari and the Pong game, the first commercially successful and massive game, it recently turned 40 years old. Although they came up with it in the Magnavox Odyssey home console, which was released shortly before Pong.
The story of Nokia MeeGo
The history of the MeeGo mobile OS and its interface in particular. A good example of a problem product and the reasons for the failure of the platform.
Trends
New Rule: Every Desktop Design Has To Go Finger-Friendly
Josh Clark notes that with the release of Windows 8, desktop computers should begin to support touch control. As the first experience of using hybrid devices (tablet + laptop) shows, the “gorilla arm” problem is exaggerated, and users use the touch as the main, and not an auxiliary way to control.
Sci-Fi Interfaces
Nathan Schedroff and Christopher Noessel wrote the book Make It So, which analyzes the interfaces from science fiction films. The site of the book has collected many excerpts and useful materials. Description on the publisher’s website Rosenfeld Media. Speech by Chris Noessel on the topic of the book.
Over the top - The new war for TV is just beginning
A gorgeous series of articles by The Verge, dedicated to the latest media consoles, platforms and ecosystems for modern TVs. It includes 6 device reviews from Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Sony and small manufacturers, as well as a useful list of “boxes” from cable operators. Review and comparison of the main products six months ago.
Substituting Information for Interaction (PDF)
Robert Glushko and Karen Nomorosa explore the design of modern services at the intersection of information and entertainment. They offer methods of research and development of such products.
Intranet Users Stuck at Low Productivity
Jakob Nielsen talks about the results of a recent study on the usability of intranet sites. Over the 10 years since the last study, the situation has become even a little worse - it is more difficult for users to find the necessary information and solve their problems.
Methodologies and General Issues
Information Architecture's Two Schools of Thought
Nathaniel Davis compares the definitions of information architecture and divides them into two main approaches. The first concerns only the structure of the site or application and the navigation tools on it, the second concerns the entire product as a whole.
Service Design Magazine, Research Book and Poster
Service Design Magazine and related industry research from a group of organizations from Finland and Estonia. They describe the history and current state of the industry.
Bulletin Ergonomist, Issue 3 (PDF)
The third issue of the Bulletin on Applied Ergonomics has been released.
Content Strategy for Decision Makers
Rahel Bailie and Noz Urbina published a book on content strategy with an emphasis on the process of working with decision makers in the company. It is temporarily available in free access.
Designing meaning - Translating insight into design
Simon Norris from Nomensa talks about the importance of “designing meaning” when creating products, not just interfaces. In modern teams, design, technology and psychology must work in one bundle in order to get the required solutions. Later, the author will publish a model of this process.
Parsons Journal for Information Mapping, volume 4, issue IV
The fourth quarter of 2012 was released by the Parsons Journal for Information Mapping. It has three articles on infographics and data visualization.
ASIS & T; Bulletin: IA Issue (Oct / Nov 2012)
ASIS & T's latest issue of October-November 2012 has been released. Direct link to PDF .
Ivan Zamesin - Interfaces, usability and common sense
Ivan Zamesin publishes translations of interface articles from English on his blog. It opened only this year, but already has half a dozen materials.
Conference proceedings
UX Week 2012 Videos
Video recordings of the UXWeek 2012 conference, held August 21-24 in San Francisco, have appeared. As always, there are many interesting topics from leading industry experts. Microsoft's Jensen Harris revealed the first Windows 8 layouts .
Publishing and Presenting
Jim Ross motivates designers and designers to speak more often at conferences and publish articles on a professional topic. This is a series of articles listing key concerns like “I have nothing to say” and specific tips for preparing articles and presentations. The second part .
EPIC2012 Conference Proceedings
Materials of the conference EPIC2012 (Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference), devoted to the practical use of ethnographic research. Direct link to a PDF report with abstracts and presentation materials .
UX Magazine: Seminars
UX Magazine has opened a seminar section that publishes announcements of paid and free training lectures. True, for the number in the list there are many extraneous topics like programming or SEO.
Fresh links can also be tracked in the same Facebook group .