Copywriting is now where the interface lives or perishes.
by Lance on July 3, 2012
The visual language of our interfaces has gone through a lot of changes over the past decade. Remember what the Web 2.0 interfaces felt like? Giant type, ginormous forms, and buttons that would make Fitt’s Law insignificant. God forbid you went off task or didn’t know exactly what to do next. Icons lined our digital streets (and still do in some parts). Need to cancel something? A big red circle with an “x” is here so you can be sure what it means.
More on Francisco Inchauste’s post
The UI Layer as Experimentation Layer
by Lance on April 24, 2012
The key thing to remember is everything must be in service to the user’s experience. It’s way to easy to forget this and get in an endless cycles of finessing the UI – which I must remind you might not even be the right experience.
Read more on Bill Scott’s article
What Startups Need to Know About Design?
by Lance on April 17, 2012
It’s getting harder and harder to differentiate based on tech talent alone. Designers like Jonathan Ive at Apple, Joe Gebbia at Airbnb, and Dave Morin at Path (to name a few) are changing the world today – not entirely because Apple, Airbnb, or Path have better tech, but because they make their products more usable, aesthetic, and human.
Design is the link missing from your founding team. The perfect balance of business, tech, and design is an incredibly powerful tool… and an even more powerful business model.
Designing Objectively
by Lance on March 2, 2012
It’s a common misconception that art and design are one and the same. But although design can be artful, the process behind it is quite different.
Artists engage in the manipulation of a particular medium to produce an aesthetic and personal response. Art is valued for its originality and ability to express an idea. Some people get it, some don’t, and that’s okay. Design, on the other hand, must solve a specific problem relative to a particular user or task, and is evaluated simply by how effective it is at solving that problem. If it doesn’t work, then it failed—period.
Eric Fisher on Designing Objectively
What Makes a Good UX Designer?
by Lance on February 26, 2012
The big difference between someone who is a UX professional and someone who isn’t comes back to that word: responsibility. When your job is to provide a positive user experience, you have to do whatever it takes to get it done, from imagining new designs to measuring current ones to make sure they work. You have to advocate for your users when their voices aren’t heard, and align the business objectives with user objectives at every step.
From 52Weeks of UX
Hello 2012.
by Lance on January 1, 2012
“I know, I know – we all need to save the world. But trust me: the world will still need saving tomorrow.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
The Expanding Role of User Experience Design
by Lance on November 17, 2011
User experience is not only about seeing the big picture of how our applications and websites are used, but also about how they are made.
Our expanding presence in the project lifecycle does not make us project managers, though. Budgets, scheduling, and client management is a job unto itself. We’re simply the stewards of ideas, which can get compromised and mangled in a game of telephone as they are passed between team members.
Windows 8: Reinventing the Basics of File Management
by Lance on August 24, 2011
We wanted to do an early Windows 8 post about one of the most used features, and one we have not improved substantially in a long time. With the increasing amount of local storage measured in terabytes, containing photos (in multiple formats and very large files), music, and video, these common operations are being taxed in new ways. These changes, along with consistent feedback about what we could improve, have inspired us to take a fresh look and redesign these operations.
Read the full article here
UXMovement on Dialog Button Placement
by Lance on May 30, 2011
There are certain platform design conventions that are widely used today because they work for users. But the point here is that platform design consistency should never satisfy a designer as the sole reason to do something. A true designer needs to understand the problem at a deeper level. And understanding the reasons why you should design your user interface one way, as opposed to another way is key.
Riding the Flux: Design is changing in myriad ways. Are you?
by Lance on April 29, 2011
I find this quote by Virgina Postrel about the design profession funny and striking:
(Design as a profession have) a peculiar combination of arrogance and insecurity. One minute, they’re declaring that they have uniquely appropriate skills for every problem, and the next they’re worried that people without the right credentials are using design..
More Kevin McCullagh’s Core77 post