Employers expect UX designers to bring with them coding, business and leadership skills in addition to the latest design skills. Now, designers are being asked to further broaden their core competencies to include UX writing.
If you want to create winning IoT devices and apps, from wearable health trackers to customer service chatbots, designing a great user experience (UX) is essential. Traditionally, that’s involved conducting user research, creating wireframes, creating visuals and completing other “design” tasks. But there’s an aspect of that great user experience that’s often…
We had a very enthusiastic Q&A session at the end of our recent Introduction to Voice Design webinar, which you can download here. The content sparked a lot of thought-provoking questions from attendees. I’m answering five of them here.
Q: What is the biggest change to voice user interfaces (VUI) when used in a car scenario? Can something like Alexa link into the car systems?
Since Amazon has just released their Echo Auto and accompanying Alexa Auto SDK this year, that question is an easy one to answer on the surface. It’s a definite yes. What gets more interesting is how…
I was fortunate to get to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this year, and spent a lot of time in the North Hall of the LVCC, which held the latest offerings in transportation — everything from flying cars to super yachts to rideable luggage.
Many of the concept cars lacked what would be considered a traditional car cabin. Instead, the focus seemed to be on ultra-comfortable chairs, sleek interactions and displays on every imaginable cabin surface. Without a steering wheel or pedals, it would be difficult to recognize these as automobiles if I saw them out of context.
I’ve…
The medtech industry is among the most traditional. Product development has historically followed a classic, top-down waterfall approach focused squarely on the technology, not the user. Though greater attention is paid to usability these days thanks to FDA guidelines and compliance regulations, some device manufacturers continue to view user experience (UX) design, which puts the spotlight on the user, as an unnecessary expense.
Fortunately, that's rapidly changing as more companies take steps to establish a strong UX focus on their product design teams, …
Digital technology envelopes modern life, from invisible urban infrastructures that micro-manage traffic flow to trackable pills that provide health data on the user. Analysts predict that by 2020, a mere year from now, there will be nearly 200,000 billion connected digital devices in the world. So what’s the responsibility of user experience (UX) professionals — the people who design these ubiquitous devices — to recognize their influence on the quality of our everyday life, and ensure they're making a positive impact?
Our resident design leader, Dorothy Shamonsky, Ph.D., explores the…
Wednesday, January 9, 2019 - 13:49
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By Stephanie Van Ness, Rex Palmer
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UX Design, medical device
This blog launches our new series on software design of medical device user interfaces (UI), which will explore usability, safety, risk management, key regulatory standards, usability testing, and wearable medtech user experience (UX) design.
Building great software has always been challenging. Building software that safeguards patients while flawlessly controlling sensitive embedded and connected medical devices — from room-sized proton radiation systems to portable automatic external defibrillators (AED) — magnifies the challenge. It should be no surprise that design issues cause many…
Why should you invest in user experience (UX) design? Simply put: to increase revenue by delivering a better product, one that truly works for users. Implemented early, UX design helps you create products people want while shrinking costs and inefficiencies related to product development. Whether you’re building a consumer product, a medical device, industrial equipment or anything else, investing in UX design helps you build the right product, the right way.
The Right Product
According to the Interaction Design Foundation, UX design is “the process of creating products that…
Monday, December 24, 2018 - 09:16
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By Dorothy Shamonsky, Ph.D., Stephanie Van Ness
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ROI of UX Design, UX
A user experience (UX) strategy insures that you’ll spend your design budget wisely. In the absence of a UX strategy you may find that your UX dollars are wasted.
Here's the backstory. UX design is increasingly recognized as the essential part of any software project that users will interact with. Still, many companies are sensitive to the cost of UX design. That’s understandable. It can feel like an added expense, particularly to those coming from an engineering practice where prioritizing users above adding functionality is not the norm.
But investing in UX design makes sense.…
Tuesday, November 27, 2018 - 09:35
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By Stephanie Van Ness, ICS Development Team
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gamification, web
At Integrated Computer Solutions (ICS), we create a lot of games for our clients for use at trade shows and conferences, and for sales teams to show off products. We’ve built a wide variety of game types, including target games, races, puzzles and 3D-immersion games. Most-often requested are trivia-based games.
Regardless of game style, we’ve found interactive games succeed when game creators follow these five simple rules:
1. Understand Motivation
Why would someone play the game? To win a prize (extrinsic motivation), bragging rights or because it’s fun (intrinsic…
“You always wear such nice suits.” — General Ross to Tony Stark (“The Incredible Hulk”, 2008)
People often talk about thinking “outside the box” but one of the things I find most exciting in modern technology is being able to design “off the glass” — meaning a piece of technology that isn’t bound to a glass screen with a perimeter of plastic. Thanks to Moore’s Law and cheap computing power, we can embed technology into items worn on the wrist to monitor your health, or shoes that count your steps, or rings that can store data. Or, if you’re me, 3D-printed armor with micro-processor…
Wednesday, November 14, 2018 - 07:07
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By Dorothy Shamonsky, Ph.D.
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UX Design, natural user interface (NUI)
With the Internet of Things (IoT) and the rise in touchscreen interfaces on devices, virtual control panels are popping up everywhere, from in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems to medical devices. The interactive experiences they offer can be attractive and advantageous over their legacy physical counterparts, but so often they are not. One key reason: the ubiquitous button. Virtual buttons are being so overused these days, to the point of becoming a scourge. Yet, I can just hear people shouting, “Now that we can use our hands to control our devices, shouldn’t we have more buttons…
"Move Fast and Break Things," once Facebook's infamous mantra, referred to the company's emphasis on speed over perfection. The company was satisfied if new features on the platform were not perfect when rolled out, as long as they were created quickly.
But that was 2014. Since then, the company has taken a step back from iteration and is working harder to get things right the first time. Why? Ask Captain Hindsight and he'll give it to you straight: "You know what you should have done? Not that."
Although Move Fast and Break Things was meant to spark innovation, the company's well-…
If you’re designing a natural user interface (NUI) you want to facilitate effortless interactions. It may seem obvious, but it bears stating: touch target size affects usability. Small targets are more difficult to hit because they require greater accuracy — hence effort — on the part of a user. So, given that screen real estate can be tight, how do you choose minimum target sizes?
Creating a Finger-Friendly Design
Fingers come in different sizes, of course, so although you can find recommended minimum touch target sizes with a quick Google search, they’ll vary between .5 to 2 cm because…
There’s one major reason why designing for embedded devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) is challenging: there are few common design aspects shared across devices. No similar operating system platform or interactive modality, for instance.
User experience design for embedded devices is a vast frontier because there is a very open landscape with only a few settlements that are quickly evolving.
Unlike designing for desktop computers or the web, anything from a growing family of possible technologies can be thrown at you, the designer. A device might feature physical buttons…
“I will be there at home and then go to the gym and then I will send you the link to the video of the guy who was the guy.” This masterpiece was written by a robot — specifically, through the “top suggestions” in my SMS app. (I sent it to a friend without context. They are still rather confused).
The message does not remotely reflect what I would type to someone. I don’t say “I will be there at home.” The last gym I went to was a jungle gym. And I don’t know who this “guy” is.
Let’s face it, some things are better done by a human.
Don’t get me wrong, automation isn’t all bad. It can…
Tuesday, August 14, 2018 - 08:46
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By Dorothy Shamonsky, Ph.D.
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UX Design, natural user interface (NUI), Graphical User Interface (GUI)
In the near future the majority of user experiences will be NUIs.
I was at a user experience presentation about augmented reality. At the end of an interesting talk, as audience members were gathering belongings and checking phones, the person sitting beside me turns and says, “I don’t know. I prefer my GUI” while gesturing at his phone. I suppressed my design nerdiness to correct him, but in my head I was exclaiming “Technically, that’s not a GUI, it’s a NUI!”
I know the gist of what he was saying was, “I like having a visual interface.” That’s ok. People use the term GUI — or graphical…
Short answer: usually. But it’s worth it. Here’s why.
A friend of mine, who works in a field completely unrelated to new technology, recently asked me whether the advent of simple digital products and voice interaction would make the profession of user experience (UX) design obsolete. Clearly, he was assuming that a simple-appearing product indicates a simple design process.
His is not a completely surprising question. Simple and elegant user experiences do appear to be effortless to achieve. The irony is that simple, elegant products often require more design effort than less-streamlined…
At a previous job, my boss brought her four-year-old son to the office. He immediately thought I was the coolest person in the world. It could be my keen fashion sense or the fact that I was the only male in the office (#feminism). But it was probably because he is four and clearly hasn’t met enough people.
Regardless, this development meant that I would end up playing babysitter and doing kid activities — not something I had originally looked forward to. But little did I know when he first “outside-voiced” that he wanted to color, it would be a transformative experience.
If you’ve never…
Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 14:18
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By Dorothy Shamonsky, Ph.D.
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UX Design, design leadership, product design
We’ve become accustomed to minimalist design in app and web design. But with the Internet of Things (IoT), the trend in user experience (UX) design is toward even more extreme minimalism, at least on consumer side. Consider a few of the most well-known IoT products out there – FitBit, Nest Thermostat, Amazon Echo. They all have very simple interfaces, paired down to the most basic and necessary elements.
The Rise of Super Minimalism
Minimal UX design style gained momentum in the mid-2000s. This style is characterized by simplicity, clarity and functionality of every element with nothing…
Yes.
Ok, perhaps I should elaborate.
If you were to pick any user experience (UX) blog right now and run a search, you’ll see one word repeated ad nauseum: empathy. This makes complete sense, as empathy really does get at the heart of what a UX designer does. (Although “empathy” in this sense relates to the user, clients are users as well, and in my opinion, the most important since they are the ones signing off on your design).
Problem is, we often devalue or overlook the client’s opinion in defense of our own — which is the opposite of empathy!
This all reminds me of my many years…
Last week I implored you to include your stakeholders in the creative process in terms of UX design. Now I’m going to share proven ways to actually do that.
Stakeholders can offer designers invaluable insight on a project, but often it’s tough to get them to speak in-depth to share their knowledge. Still, it's worth the effort to get them to share because their input can lead to a more effective design solution because you’ll understand thoroughly the problem you’re solving. It’s up to you to facilitate the right kinds of conversations to get stakeholders to address the nitty…
Stakeholders — the people or groups with the power to affect (or are affected by) your project — often have valuable opinions and insight that can positively impact the design of the user experience (UX) on your project.
Perhaps they’re domain experts in the subject area relevant to your project. Or the business owners who control project funding. Whether they’re innovators who champion your project or simply users who benefit from your design, their participation in the creative process can elevate your project’s success.
Here’s why you should consider co-creating your next project with…
Often, clients — project owners that come to us seeking user experience (UX) design expertise — have “pre-designed” their project to some extent before our kickoff meeting. This can be very helpful and we encourage it. It means they’ve already done a lot of thinking on their project so it’s easy to get the ball rolling.
But this eagerness can be a double-edged sword. The problem is, if the project owner is convinced their approach is the correct direction, they’ll likely have little patience for the UX question-and-answer sessions typical at the start of every project. Plus, the project…
In user experience (UX) design, friction is understood to mean interactions that limit a person from achieving his or her goals in a digital interface in an easy and intuitive manner. For instance, say you’re buying something online. You want to edit your purchase right before the Confirmation screen but the website doesn’t seem to have an Edit or Back link so you bomb out and start your purchase over again.
Friction is undesirable because it can cause users to abandon tasks or even eliminate a whole product from their suite of apps.
Frictionless interaction has recently become a popular…
According to Kevin Systrom, co-founder of Instagram, you have just 30 seconds to capture someone’s attention. In terms of IoT devices, and mobile and desktop applications, that all-important first impression is driven by effective user experience (UX) design.
Great UX makes a device or app appealing and easy to use. So, of course spending time on UX should be a priority when bringing that device or app to life. Right?
Yes, but…
Problem is, UX takes time. Often, that’s time stolen from software development, which is always the most complex aspect — the long pole — of any project. And that’s…
Usability testing refers to the practice of evaluating a feature, product or service by testing it with representative users. From a user experience (UX) standpoint, this process helps designers understand whether the “product” — a software application’s user interface, for instance — is user-friendly.
During a test, participants will try to complete typical tasks while observers watch, listen and take notes. The goal is to identify any usability problems, collect qualitative and quantitative data and determine the participant's level of satisfaction with the product. Ultimately, this data…
Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 13:33
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By Dorothy Shamonsky, Ph.D.
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UX, design leadership, best practices
Using design best practices ensures your user experience (UX) design and development process is focused and efficient. These four best practices — ensuring visibility of the process, following logical steps, taking ownership of work, and communicating effectively — are a must for any successful UX team.
Successful Collaboration Requires a Plan
Team collaboration is always a challenge, both within a UX team itself and between UX designers, engineers and stakeholders. To be sure, you need effective working practices to achieve good outcomes. Process methodologies…
You start a new design project. Quickly, you need to make some big decisions about the strategy, overall concept, information architecture and layout templates. And you have to follow up by making even more decisions.
What interaction patterns will you use? What elements should have animations? What are the best colors and fonts for this project? These major decisions provide the foundation for your mockups and a spec.
Since development has now begun, or is about to, you’re home free, right? Not so fast. As the designer, there are still a lot of smaller “micro” decisions you need to…