Podcasts – UIE Brain Sparks

The web is no longer fixed width. Designs are more malleable than ever because of fluid grids, media queries, and everything else that comes with responsive web design. This makes using static photoshop comps as a deliverable unmanageable. Design workflows inevitably have to change and adapt as the way we design for the web evolves.

Frameworks and design patterns are no strangers in the world of web design. As responsive web design becomes common practice, making sure these templates work across every imaginable screen and device is trickier. There have been attempts to break down page elements in separate modules, but you often never see it fully assembled.

With the mobile web, specifically m dot sites increasingly becoming a thing of the past, responsive web design has become common practice. The ability for your site to display across screen sizes and devices, reduces development time and allows for one design to work anywhere. However, this shouldn’t signal a shift away from mobile-first thinking.

The “designer who can code” has been dubbed the elusive unicorn of the UX realm. But more important than being equally good at both skill sets is being able to communicate with the other side. If designers understand even a little bit about code it breaks down silos within the team. Greater communication leads to shared understanding. This collaborative environment allows for faster iteration and better design.

Responsive web design seems to come up in every other discussion or article about UX these days. And rightfully so as it’s an elegant way to make sure your design adapts to the multitude of devices on the market. But with the Internet of Things looming, it’s becoming more than just the visuals of your site that are of major concern. How your content displays on a car dashboard, “can a watch handle this page weight?”, or “is this refrigerator JavaScript enabled?” are not unrealistic issues moving forward.

There’s a traditional way of building a product. Normally there’s a huge time investment made as you come up with the idea, design, build and re-build until it’s released. At this point you’re hoping this solution solves the users’ problems, and also that it doesn’t crash and burn. And if it does fail, there’s going to be some hell to pay.

As responsive web design becomes more prevalent, our approach to designing for the web is changing. With former assumptions, as dismissive as they may have been, that the web was a fixed width, it was easier to have a more linear workflow. With the need for the web to reconfigure and adapt to different devices and displays, designers and developers need to adapt to changing workflows.

Getting great participants for usability studies can provide invaluable insights for your design process. But if you aren’t doing your own recruiting, you could be missing out on additional important information. Dana Chisnell has learned that the best way to find great participants is to think of recruiting as bonus user research.

Ensuring that your site is responsive or adaptive is becoming essential to your mobile design strategy. With the plethora of devices available, users want to be able to access your site on whichever one they’re using. The days of the separate mobile site are gone. But as your design is reflowing to display perfectly across devices, what’s happening to your content?

As much as we may like to pretend, there is nothing natural about usability testing. There’s always a level of concentration involved that likely wouldn’t be present in a natural setting. This “unnaturalness” is magnified when testing mobile applications. Users have to focus on things like posture and how they’re holding the device while trying to interact with it realistically.

Nowadays, design is an increasingly important business tool. As Jared Spool reminds us, Apple is one of the largest companies in the world, largely based upon continually engaging in good design. A great user experience can be a differentiator in the business landscape. For Jason Ulaszek, a good design starts with good research to guide and direct the organization’s decisions.

Technology changes quickly. A lot of organizations struggle to keep up with this change. It’s not just mobile design that’s throwing a wrench in the spokes. Content strategy and information architecture are more important than ever in this changing, multi device landscape. Karen McGrane believes in the not too distant future IAs and UXers will be leading organizations in the face of these changes.

In considering your user's experience with your design, keep in mind that there's a difference between something looking good and being good. But how do you determine good? How can you measure it? If, for example, you’re a print company building a digital presence, do you focus on retention or acquisition based on the shifting experience? It’s easy to ask for something that already exists, but much harder to describe something that one might want or need.

Given the amount of communications a user takes in on a daily basis, how you speak to them is incredibly important. The “voice” a company uses contributes to the establishment of the brand as well a creates a distinguishing identifier that sets it apart within the daily deluge of content users encounter. A consistent voice can help a user feel comfortable and familiar with your organization.

Creating visualizations from data can be a powerful and intriguing way to present findings. But way too many design teams sit on vast amounts of data. They also spend entirely too much time making static images rather than interactive tools.