Very large touchscreens: UX design differs from mobile screens

At an abstract level, all design deals with users, context, domain (structure of content), and constraints.

“Only a few mobile-design skills and design recommendations translate well to designing for very large touchscreens, as found in kiosks and other nonmobile use cases. Users’ field of vision, arm motion, affordance, and privacy are a few of the different considerations for such screens with up to 380 times the area of a smartphone.”

(Kara Pernice ~ Nielsen Norman Group)

From wayfinding to interaction design

Allways thought wayfinding had more in common with navigation and information architecture. Features (a.k.a. code) and data (a.k.a. content) perspectives differ.

“Wayfinding is the process of planning and making journeys through spaces; wayfinding design companies develop systems to help make this planning and journey-making easier. These systems come in all shapes and sizes, and can cover area naming, signage design, cartography, defining route networks and installing new landmarks to give an area more character.”

(Matt Cooper-Wright ak.a. @matt_speaks ~ Medium)

A beautifully illustrated glossary of typographic terms you should know

Basic elements of typography are the foundation for any digital designer.

“The world of typography often seems like it has its very own language, full of serifs, strokes, and swashes. Sorting out all those terms can be confusing in itself, so we’ve compiled a visual glossary that will guide you through the lingo – whether you’re an aspiring typeface designer or just a general typography enthusiast. Learning the building blocks of typography will help you better understand how to pick a suitable font and apply it effectively within your design projects.”

(Janie Kliever ~ Canva)

The language of modular design

Design lang, sys and lib are the foundation of great CX and UX.

“The biggest challenges around modularity are all the decisions that need to be reached: when to reuse a module and when to design a new one, how to make modules distinct enough, how to combine them, how to avoid duplications with the modules other designers and teams create, and so on. When modularizing an existing design or building a new one, it’s not always clear where to begin.”

(Alla Kholmatova a.k.a. @craftui ~ A List Apart)

Who needs UX strategy?

Something about eating and breakfast of UX in businesses.

“UX strategy has come into prominence in the past few years as a specialty area within the field of User Experience, as shown by the rapid increase in UX Strategist job titles and events such as the conference UX STRAT. For many of us who have been in the field for a long time, UX strategy is a counterbalance to efficiency-driven, product-centric methodologies like Agile, Lean Startup, and Lean UX. For others, it is a natural progression from basic UX design activities like wireframing to more rigorous, analytical activities such as formulating data-driven personas.”

(Paul Bryan a.k.a. @paulbryan ~ UXmatters)

Inspiration for UX design from the Arts and Sciences

As long as the human experience is the focus of design, anything goes.

“Our experts have taken inspiration from such diverse fields as music, dance, philosophy, theater, and gastronomy. Have you taken inspiration from another profession and applied it in your UX design practice? If so, please share the source of your inspiration in the comments. Read on to learn about some of our experts’ sources of UX inspiration.”

(Janet Six ~ UXmatters)

Omnichannel customer experiences: A new design challenge

Omnichannel requires omnidesign and omnidesigners. Such much for omni to do.

Disclosure: I work at Informaat experience design (The Netherlands) ~ “Forget native apps, forget responsive webdesign, and say hello to omnichannel. We have moved away from the design of a single application, product or service. Increasingly, organizations have to deal with a multitude of them. This evolution is triggered by technology and raises a number of issues, challenges, and problems. How can we create a ‘seamless’ experience between all of the channels? How can we always keep the customer at the center of the design? And are our tried and tested design methods good enough, or do we also need a new way of designing, so-called omnidesign, to meet omnichannel’s needs?”

(Jantine Geldof a.k.a. @JantineG ~ Informaat BiRDS on a W!RE)

Omnichannel is not the golden calf of content strategy

Content as the cement of the digital and physical human experience.

“Omnichannel is not a fad. It’s not some buzzword that replaces multichannel (although many people in the digital industry throw it around that way). Omnichannel also does not have to consider every existing channel out there or all channels (Latin definitions of omni aside). It’s not something to throw up — no pun intended — and display as something that is the be-all, end-all solution for all things within multichannel publishing. Omnichannel presents a model for placing the consumer at the center of a brand experience. In contrast, multichannel considers more than one channel. There may be a strategy behind multichannel, but in its essence, the term means more than one channel.”

(Kevin P. Nicols a.k.a. @kpnichols)

The roots of Minimalism in web design

There comes a time that web design will be part of art history. As a design movement in the early 21st century.

“Many of today’s most popular design trends are influenced by minimalism. This web design movement began in the early 2000s, but borrows its philosophy from earlier movements in the fields of fine art and human–computer interaction.”

(Kate Meyer ~ Nielsen Norman Group)

Sketch in Enterprise UX

As a matter of exception, a tool item in an interesting context.

“There is an old adage that says ‘Use the right tool for the job’. However, with technology and User Experience Design, knowing which tools to use can be a bit nuanced. Often there are many tools for the job, all of which have their strengths and weakness. I’ve been thinking about a recently popular tool, Sketch, and where it fits into our practice of Enterprise UX Design.”

(Jaron Frasier a.k.a. @frason ~ Designmap) courtesy of @BaardAard

The future of UX design

Everything has a future, some bright, some less.

“The future of user experience is growing rapidly and remains strong as designers, developers, and those who hire them realize that user experience is becoming just as important as the product or service in which they are promoting. User experience and its body of knowledge as a whole is being refined and redefined as we learn what works and doesn’t work and how to overall best serve the users in which we design for.”

(Amber Leigh Turner a.k.a. @amberlturner ~ The Next Web)

Design with analytics

In God we trust, all others must bring data.

“When we think of analytics, we think of marketing campaigns and funnel optimization. Analytics can seem a little overwhelming, with so many charts and lots of new features. How can we use analytics for design insights? The best thing about analytics is that they can show us what people do on their own. The worst thing is that analytics don’t tell us much about context, motivations, and intent. Like any kind of data, there are limitations. But that doesn’t mean analytics aren’t useful. Working with analytics is about knowing where to look and learning which questions you can reasonably ask.”

(Pamela Pavliscak a.k.a. @paminthelab ~ UXmatters)

Can we design trust between humans and artificial intelligence?

Get used to it.

“For many years, interacting with artificial intelligence has been the stuff of science fiction and academic projects, but as smart systems take over more and more responsibilities, replace jobs, and become involved with complex emotionally charged decisions, figuring out how to collaborate with these systems has become a pragmatic problem that needs pragmatic solutions. Machine learning and cognitive systems are now a major part many products people interact with every day, but to fully exploit the potential of artificial intelligence, people need much richer ways of communicating with the systems they use. The role of designers is to figure out how to build collaborative relationships between people and machines that help smart systems enhance human creativity and agency rather than simply replacing them.”

(Patrick Mankins a.k.a. @patrickmankins ~ FastCo Design)