What Does It Take to Be a User Experience Designer?
Niko Nyman | January 26th, 2012This is a Usabilla guest-post by Niko Nyman
I love good products. I love a kitchen knife that is perfectly balanced, I love it when someone transforms a product category by taking a fresh look at the process – the old way of doing things – and making it easier for everyone involved, I love a car so cleverly designed it has a light underneath the door to show me where I put my foot when getting out, I love a web app that draws me in without blocking my flow with four-step registration and a five-minute tutorial video, and I love great service from companies who empower staff to overcome customers’ problems. I love products with a great user experience, whether physical, digital or service-based.
A Smashing Redesign
Jurian Baas | January 24th, 2012Given that we love everything UX and design related, it must come as no surprise we are big fan of Smashing Magazine. Their choice of subjects is always spot on, and their articles show an impressive amount of attention to detail. They recently had their site redesigned, and the result is a beautiful, spacious site, designed from the typography out.
I took a closer look at the new design and I’d like to discuss some of the findings with you. I will not speak only based on my own observations however: I set up a Usabilla design feedback test among 30-some of our loyal followers.1 They pointed out which elements they like on the homepage and which they would like to improve, and elaborated on both tasks by leaving notes. In total, I got 220 notes placed on an image of the new Smashing Magazine homepage.
Usabilla UX Tweet Scoop – Week 4 of 2012
Jurian Baas | January 23rd, 2012Time again for the best articles we have read last week!
Cameron Koczon shares an eloquent view on how we live in an important time for design. Designers used to only do client-work, which makes it hard for people to see design as something else than a commodity. This is changing with the focus on design by startups. This renewed focus on design gives a lot of opportunity, but also presents a challenge: how do you let design flourish in organization that doesn’t really understand it as a craft, and how can a design team be seen as a partner, rather than a service provider?
How Beauty Brands Seduce You With Emotional Design
Sabina Idler | January 19th, 2012In order for you brand or product to be successful, you need to appeal to your target group. There are countless appeals you can use: fun, friendship, relaxation, luxury, beauty, or sex, to name only a few. As long as it’s reasonably linked to your brand, anything can be used to draw attention to your website. With clever use of appeals, you can draw your customers in and take charge of their will. I admit this sounds a little scary, but really it is rather helpful for everyone designing for the Web.
Web Designers Should Just Become Designers: an Interview With Don Norman
Anneke Schapelhouman | January 17th, 2012Donald Norman is one of the world’s most influential designers and writers about design. We are big fans, and really proud that Anneke could talk to him about his books, the future of designing for the web, emotional design, the balance between design as an art-form and as a form of marketing, and much more.
'Emotional Design' by Donald Norman - a must read.
Usabilla UX Tweet Scoop – Week 3 of 2012
Jurian Baas | January 16th, 2012First up, Jamie Davidson has a nice post for beginning designers. His Resources to Hack Design is a basic but complete list of tutorials, inspiration, and other tips. Might be too basic for you, but can come in handy for friends who are taking their first steps in design.
Read the rest of this entry »
Why We Need Better Tools to Tell Stories With
Jurian Baas | January 12th, 2012Once in a while, I come across an immersive, beautiful piece of interactive storytelling in my browser. It uses the capabilities of the Internet to create an experience that cannot be created on any other medium.
But I don’t see them often. They’re mostly called an experiment. Interactive stories are being passed on to me by enthusiastic nerds who say that it ‘demonstrates so well what technology X is capable off’, without much attention for the story itself.
Not Just Pretty: Balancing Emotion and Function
Sabina Idler | January 10th, 2012In web design, getting the usability right used to be major goal. Now that most designers seem to master this goal, usability has become like a commodity: As basic requirement for a functional website, we find its presence throughout the Web. This shift of attention has created space in the field of web design and visual design has regained its central position. However, visual design in its new definition embraces more than just looking pretty. Don Norman split it into three levels; visceral design, behavioral design, and reflective design. Together the three can reveal the full power of visual design and guide you to a successful website.
Usabilla UX Tweet Scoop – Week 2 of 2012
Jurian Baas | January 9th, 2012We certainly hope that 2012 will bring as much interesting content on UX and design as 2011 did. Like last year, we will tweet links to everything we think is interesting, and provide you with a digest of the best articles every monday.
Tailor a Perfectly Fitting Website in 6 Steps
Sabina Idler | January 5th, 2012A fashion and a web designer have a lot in common. They both design. But they also try to make something that is practical and pretty for their user. They even follow the same steps to get there. However, designing fashion is much more hands-on than designing a website. Fabrics are physically manufactured into a tangible piece of clothing. A web design on the other hand is made of digital pixels that are arranged on a screen. So, where am I getting with this?
