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“The article sketches the basic steps of a theoretically informed practical testing of opportunities inherent in the interfaces and procedures of communication. It is an experience-based technique for discovery and problem solving.”
(Lars Nyre a.k.a. @LarsNyre ~ The Journal of Media Innovations)
“Technology extends our grasp, making it possible for us to achieve our goals rapidly and efficiently; but it also places its own set of demands upon us. The fields of industrial design, graphic design, and software user experience design have all evolved in response to these demands – a need for a human way to relate to and interact with our new tools.”
(Jenn Webb a.k.a. @JennWebb ~ Radar O’Reilly)
“We’re at a revolutionary information crossroads, one where our symbolic and physical worlds are coming together in an unprecedented way. Our temptation thus far has been to drive ahead with technology and to try to fit all the pieces together with the tried and true methods of literacy and engineering. Accepting that the shape of this new world is not the same as what we have known up until now does not mean we have to give up attempts to shape it to our common good.”
(Andy Fitzgerald a.k.a. @andybywire ~ Radar O’Reilly)
“According to J.D. Power, eighty-seven percent of travelers used the Internet for the bulk of their travel planning in 2012, yet the online booking experience being offered by modern airlines is still stuck in the 90s. Inspired by the opportunity to bring progressive disruption to this huge marketplace, we reviewed all major airline websites, and graded them against design and usability criteria including: information architecture, interaction design and visual design. The results were disheartening. We believe that unless the airlines take drastic measures to improve their digital experiences, third-party sites like Kayak and Expedia will continue to eat into their profits. So we launched an experiment to explore, What if?”
(Fi)
“In today’s global cities, public urban space is constituted in my different ways. Residents in the same neighborhood may have very diverse types of knowledge about their shared public space: The children know the neighborhood at ground level, the tech designer knows the Wi-Fi coverage at the cafes, the homeless know about the night fauna. How do these understandings of urban space affect our view, use, and design of technology?”
(Saskia Sassen a.k.a. @SaskiaSassen ~ Interaction14 videos)
“Although these are obviously very important aspects of translating a website, I miss one other essential aspect: creative writing. It is all very well to get your website ranked number one in Google, but if the website itself puts off visitors because it is badly written, the whole website becomes pointless. It is important to keep in mind that, in the end, websites are written/translated for human visitors, not just for search engines.”
“(…) user interface design is a context-specific articulation of an underlying information architecture. It is this IA foundation that provides the direct connection to how human end users find value in content and functionality. The articulatory relationship between architecture and design creates consistency of experience across diverse platforms and works to communicate the underlying information model we’ve asked users to adopt. (…) This basic distinction between architecture and design is not a new idea, but in the context of the Internet of Things, it does present architects and designers with a new set of challenges. In order to get a better sense of what has changed in this new context, it’s worth taking a closer look at how the traditional model of IA for the web works.”
(Andy Fitzgerald a.k.a. @andybywire & +Andy Fitzgerald ~ O’Reilly)
“We’ve actually tapped into one of the oldest pieces of graphic and information design around — business cards, calling cards, greeting cards, playing cards. They all have the same embodiments because they’re all reflections of a similar set of design problems.”
(Mark Wilson a.k.a. @ctrlzee ~ Fast Co.design)
“I’m going to share some insights about cards and explore other design patterns that those drawn to cards might want to consider. (…) The cards design pattern is a smart solution for the modern web, which is both dynamic and responsive. However, the pattern has its limitations and might be a challenge to adopt when designing for a complex interface.”
(Wan-Ting Huang ~ EchoUser) ~ courtesy of @iatv
“(…) by embracing large screens, designers have the opportunity to work within a larger fold, presenting the user with more content simultaneously, lessen scrolling on longer pages, and create a richer, more expansive user experience. And by using the same practices we developed to adapt layouts to smaller screens and identifying some common patterns for large screens, we need not necessarily introduce extra cost or time to our projects.”
(Mike Pick a.k.a. @mikepick ~ A List Apart)
“Planes, buildings, automobiles, software. On the surface, one of these things is not like the other. But at a recent talk at the Warm Gun conference in San Francisco, our UX Developer Federico Holgado connected the systems of manufacturing and app development. The rapid iterations and MVPs inherent to software already exist in the assembly of products much bigger and more complex. What Federico points out is that a ship, a building, and a car are merely collections of components. Components are manageable and flexible. So long as the components join together seamlessly in the end, modularizing the pieces translates to flexibility, speed, and paradoxically both independence and collaboration.”
(MailChimp ux a.k.a. @MailChimpUX)
“Design thinking is a slightly murky concept that means different things to different people. At heart, though, it is about fusing the creative and open-ended with the analytical and operational, combining very different ways of thinking and acting. This is, of course, easier in theory than in practice. How do you get children’s book authors and chemical engineers to click into something greater than the sum of the parts — rather than devolve into warring camps? Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way as CEO and rules we all try to adhere to at Lippincott.”
(Rick Wise ~ Fast.CoDesign) ~ courtesy of riander
“An effective site search tool is hugely important tool for ecommerce as it’s a common way for shoppers to navigate sites and find products. In fact up to 30% of visitors will use the site search tool and these tend to be highly motivated shoppers who know exactly what they’re looking for. The speed in which results are returned is very important, but there are also many other factors that influence the overall user experience and could be the difference between making a sale or losing a potential customer.”
(David Moth a.k.a. @DavidMoth ~ Econsultancy)
“Psychology provides a framework for understanding how your users think. This post explains how to use that knowledge to improve your websites.”
(Joe Leech a.k.a. @mrjoe ~ CreativeBloq)
“Technology cycles have been on a tear for decades, with each chip iteration bringing more capabilities at lower prices. But less can be more in tech products-and design is the way to balance that factor.”
(Kevin C. Tofel ~ GigaOm)
“The core problem seems to be a feeling that the word ‘content’ reduces thoughtful, artistic expressions to a commodity. The websites and apps we develop to elegantly deliver words, images and media experiences are perceived as empty containers, hungry for content to be poured into them. Content marketing campaigns depend on calendars that demand to be filled on a regularly scheduled basis. This may give the impression that an effective approach to content is to churn out generic stuff that fits the size and shape of the container, and meets the deadlines.”
(Rachel Lovinger a.k.a. @rlovinger ~ Razorfish Scatter Gather)
“Though some decry flat user interfaces as pure fashion, or the obvious response to skeuomorphic trends, many designers have embraced the flat approach because the reduction in visual styling (such as gradients, drop shadows, and borders) creates interfaces that seem simpler and cleaner. The problem is that most flat UIs are built with a focus on the provision of content, with transactional components (i.e. forms) receiving very little attention. What happens when flat and forms collide? User experiences can, and often do, suffer.”
“(…) at the heart of the aspiration to cultivate a kind of visual literacy so critical for modern communication. Here are a few favorite pieces from the book that embody that ideal of intelligent elegance and beautiful revelation of truth.”
(Maria Popova a.k.a. @brainpicker ~ Brain Pickings)
“Moving beyond prevalent technological notions of metadata, this essay conceptualizes metadata as the outcome of diverse social practices from the perspective of communication theory. First, I revisit cybernetics and consider the relevance of the concept of meta-communication for the study of the digital media environment. While the bit trails that users leave behind are not normally conceptualized as communication, they are prime candidates for inclusion in a contemporary theory of communication. Second, I discuss digital media as metamedia – media that potentially reproduce and integrate other types of media, old and new. Metamedia yield new varieties of meta-communication and meta-data. Third, I outline a typology of meta-communication for further research on digital media, integrating insights from cybernetics and semiotics.”
(Klaus Bruhn Jensen ~ First Monday Oct. 2013)
“A fellow designer and I were discussing this in detail and jointly came to this disappointing conclusion. It was quite a significant conclusion and likely to be correct, as both of us were in positions to manage design processes and teams, and also shape and influence design centric business strategies. I do not think that this epiphany happened as a result of this discussion. This was something that has been cooking at the back of my mind since design thinking started gaining traction in the competitive corporate environment. My thoughts include design thinking’s impact, its fallout, and its side effects. This was really not an easy post to write, there were lots of information for me to manage and reorganize. As with any story, lets start from the beginning by looking at why design thinking was even needed in the first place?”
(Avi Bisram a.k.a. @avi_bisram)
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