All posts from
July 2017

The revolution will not be handheld

Moving beyond pushing pixels and designing under sea level with our iceberg.

“For those working in UX through the past several years, the shift from desktop to mobile has seemed a major event. No longer are our devices clearly situated. Instead they travel with us. Technology is now an appendage—always available in every moment of time, anywhere. (according to Holtzblatt & Beyer, 2017). The shift has forced changes to the way we design. We must cater for shallower engagement, support tasks across multiple devices, pare down UIs for smaller screens, and support touch-based manipulation.”

Gerry Gaffney a.k.a. /gerrygaffney | @gerrygaffney ~ Journal of Usability Studies 12.3

Monitoring user experience through product usage metrics

Sailing towards the ultimate goal, the cybernetics of compelling experiences. Metrics as the foundation of its feedback loop.

“User experience teams have many types of data at their disposal to ascertain the quality of a digital product’s user experience. Traditionally, these sources have focused on direct customer feedback through methods such as interviews and usability studies, as well as surveys[1] and in-product feedback mechanisms. Beyond survey methodologies, however, it can be time-consuming to create a recurring channel of in-depth UX insights through these traditional UX research methods because they require time to conduct, analyze, and create reports of findings.”

Jerrod Larson a.k.a. /jerrod-larson ~ Boxes and Arrows

UX design for big data applications

Re-inventing UX design for new technology waves.

“Through machine learning and artificial intelligence, organizations can use big data to predict our next actions – sometimes even better than we can predict them ourselves. The implications of big data are enormous—enabling us to view suggested products while on a retailer’s Web site, receive recommendations to connect with people who we might know on social-media sites, and benefit from smart IoT devices that gather data from us and those who are similar to us, then act accordingly. Organizations in the healthcare and financial arenas use big-data systems to spot potential adverse events, while also pinpointing scenarios that can bring increased profits and positive outcomes.”

Janet M. Six a.k.a. /janetmsix ~ UXmatters

Chatbots and the new world of HCI

HCI as an academic field is waking up, too.

“A potential revolution is happening in front of our eyes. For decades, researchers and practitioners in human-computer interaction (HCI) have been improving their skills in designing for graphical user interfaces. Now things may take an unexpected turn—toward natural language user interfaces, in which interaction with digital systems happens not through scrolling, swiping, or button clicks, but rather through strings of text in natural language. This is particularly visible in recent developments in chatbots, that is, machine agents serving as natural language user interfaces to data and service providers [1], typically in the context of messaging applications.”

Asbjørn Følstad and Petter Bae Brandtzæg ~ Interactions XXIV.4