Design - The Usabilla Blog

Not Just Pretty: Balancing Emotion and Function

on January 10, 2012 / by Sabina Idler / 2 Comments

In 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.

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Design

Pen & paper or screen: context switching in design

on December 22, 2011 / by Sabina Idler / 1 Comment

Which approach to design works best for you? Design is a delicate matter. It is not only a question of taste, but just as much a question of approach. How designers go about their work is highly personal. Almost every approach will be different. At the same time, there is one thing I see all good designers do. They use pen & paper and digital media interchangeably, and they know when to switch between the two.
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Design

The Paradox Of Technology And 5 Ways To Avoid It

on December 15, 2011 / by Sabina Idler / 3 Comments

Does our life become easier with every new invention on the market? I don’t think so. New technology presents us with great possibilities and limitations at the same time. Let’s have a look at this quote:

The same technology that simplifies life by providing more functions in each device also complicates life by making the device harder to learn, harder to use. This is the paradox of technology.

— Donald Norman, The Design of Everyday Things (1988)

What Norman said about technology in 1988 is still valid today. Our economy, educational system and our social interactions have changed dramatically with available technologies. In order to stay competitive, products become more and more ingenious, their features adding up. The idea is to make our lives easier. But does it work?

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Design

UX Designers: Culture Affects Your Job

on December 13, 2011 / by Jurian Baas / 3 Comments

Cultural characteristics, such as norms or values, influence product design. Most people can give an example of cultural influences when it comes to tangible products. For instance, toilet seats are designed differently in the US and Thailand. Online, these cultural differences might be less explicit, but this does not mean they don’t exist. Just as with other products, the way we interact with a website is in large part defined through our culture.

In order to ensure that web sites are globally accessible and equally appealing to different cultures around the world, user experience designers need to be aware of how culture affects the way we think, communicate, and consume information. I’ll explain how culture affects us in terms of visual design, navigation design, and information design.

Cultural UX differences - Worldwide Internet Usage

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Demo UX Cases

How the leading Dutch news network was improved with user feedback

on November 15, 2011 / by Jurian Baas / No Comments

NU.nl, the biggest news network in the Netherlands, redesigned it’s website this year. The main objective of the redesign was to improve the overall user experience and retaining the clear presentation of content, which the website is known for. One specific goal was to direct more visitors from the homepage to the content that the news network offers on different topics. Annemarie Boon, usability specialist at Sanoma Media, used Usabilla in the process to achieve this goal. Thank you Annemarie, for being so kind to share your findings with us.

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Announcements

My time as an intern at Usabilla

on October 31, 2011 / by Suzanne Gause / No Comments

Suzanne helped Usabilla a great deal this summer. Her design skills proved invaluable, most of all in creating user flows and thinking about the user experience of our upcoming backend. It was great to have her as an intern, both on a professional and on a personal level! Suzanne was so kind to write a bit about how she experienced her time here, which you can read below. All the best Suzanne! — The Usabilla team

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Design

5 Quick Wins For Your Website’s User Experience

on October 27, 2011 / by Sabina Idler / No Comments

You don’t have to be an expert in usability guidelines and research methods to improve the user experience on your website. Sure, there are countless methods and tools to measure, analyze, test, and improve the user experience. But a lot of these are tools for specialists, who have gotten down the basics. They already improved their design with a lot of quick and small wins.

Here is a list of things you can do yourself to improve the user experience (UX) on your website today.

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Design

Different Ways To Approach User Centred Design

on September 27, 2011 / by Sabina Idler / No Comments

User testing. Everyone knows it, everyone does it, or at least knows he should be doing it when creating user interfaces. Over time many different kinds of user testing, such as classic in-lab user testing, remote, or automated user testing, have evolved. They are all based on the same idea: user centred design. And they all have their advantages and their disadvantages. Let’s look into different approaches to user centred design and how the saying ‘many a little makes a mickle’ applies to automated remote user testing.

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Design

The Power Of Colors On The Web

on September 22, 2011 / by Sabina Idler / 1 Comment

Colors are powerful. No doubt that everyone who ever put a little thought in the subject has figured this out. However, I’m not talking about how red stands for energy and green has rather calming effects. There is quite some literature on the meaning of colors and for those who want to catch up on that I recommend the eBook A Guide to Color Symbolism by Jill Morton.

Instead I want to focus on the ‘why’, the ‘when’, and the ‘how’: Why do colors influence people? When do colors influence people? And how can we use the power of colors for our own purpose?

Figure 1 - Visible electromagnetic radiation between violet (380 nm) and red (760 nm)

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Design

The Squint Test: How quick exposure to design can reveal its flaws

on July 26, 2011 / by Jeff Gothelf / 4 Comments

You’ve put in the hours, worked hard and pushed the pixels around until they’re perfectly positioned. You’re ready to call it quits and deliver your design to the client. Before you ship it though, have you put your design through The Squint Test?

Perhaps this is a bit much but you get the idea. (Photo courtesy of: http://www.realself.com/files/228024-5325.jpg)

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