Uncharted Waters: Why It’s Important to Design for Newcomers
As design professionals, we must consider design through various lenses to ensure we design for target audiences. If design relies on users’ mental models formed by their own perceptions and past experiences, are we inherently missing a critical lens? What if an experience is altogether new to a user? What if they’re a first-time user, a “newcomer”. A design lens can work as a mental device for thinking about your design in a different way. It focuses attention on a single design principle, illuminating issues that may have been invisible before.
Uncharted Waters: Why It’s Important to Design for Newcomers
As design professionals, we must consider design through various lenses to ensure we design for target audiences. If design relies on users’ mental models formed by their own perceptions and past experiences, are we inherently missing a critical lens? What if an experience is altogether new to a user? What if they’re a first-time user, a “newcomer”. A design lens can work as a mental device for thinking about your design in a different way. It focuses attention on a single design principle, illuminating issues that may have been invisible before.
Uncharted Waters: Why It’s Important to Design for Newcomers
As design professionals, we must consider design through various lenses to ensure we design for target audiences. If design relies on users’ mental models formed by their own perceptions and past experiences, are we inherently missing a critical lens? What if an experience is altogether new to a user? What if they’re a first-time user, a “newcomer”. A design lens can work as a mental device for thinking about your design in a different way. It focuses attention on a single design principle, illuminating issues that may have been invisible before.
Behavioral Science Can Help to Create the Right Mental Model for your Users
Mental models are a bit like windows in a house. If you look outside from one window, your view is different from another. As product designers, we get to build the windows, and the customers get the view! The good news is that it’s incredibly easy to build windows on Day 1 – the customer’s view is unobstructed. On Day 2, the customer is already used to the window and the view. To change it, you’d need to build a new mental model for them. It’s possible, but it’s much harder than on Day 1. In other words, build the right mental model from the beginning, and you’ll be a model of success.
Design Lessons from Evolutionary Biology
What does biology have to do with UX design? Joseph Knelman reveals how Biophilic Design can create a better user experience, by aligning with our evolutionary needs.
How Cultural Relativism Influences Design Decisions
Cultural relativism is the understanding that a person’s behaviors and activities should be interpreted in the context of their own culture. Author and IA Summit speaker Ramya Mahalingam explains why it matters, and how it impacts UX.