Archive for the “UI” category
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 (…)
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 (…)
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 (…)
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, (…)
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 (…)
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 (…)
Why Wireframe?
by Lance on March 7, 2011
Wireframing, on the other hand, is all about corralling these ideas into a cohesive flow of pages with a clear, well-executed focus. A ruthless eye for editing is paramount: throwing every “nice to have” feature haphazardly into the mix will (…)
Managing UI Complexity
by Lance on March 6, 2011
Interface complexity is an issue every designer wrestles with when designing a reasonably sophisticated application. A complex interface can reduce user effectiveness, increase the learning curve of the application, and cause users to feel intimidated and overwhelmed. I’ve spent the (…)
Dark patterns – An Overview for Brand Owners
by Lance on March 2, 2011
Normally when you think of “bad design”, you think of laziness or mistakes. These are known as design anti-patterns. Dark Patterns are different – they are not mistakes, they are carefully crafted with a solid understanding of human psychology, and (…)
Quick Wireframes with Wirify
by Lance on January 26, 2011
Need a quick wireframe of a particular site? Get one with just one click, thanks to Wirify and to Volkside for creating such a handy tool. Wirify is a bookmarklet that lets you turn any web page into a wireframe (…)