When is it appropriate to autoplay music or video on a web site?
Never! If your website doesn’t encourage people to click play on the video then you need to rethink your strategy. People now expect the option to opt-in, i.e click play on your video rather then have it play automatically for them.
What is a “UX Unicorn”?
Let’s get this straight. A UX unicorn is a mythical object. A UX unicorn can solve not just an unusable interface, but also, poor strategy decisions, lack of management vision, an under resourced development team, a woefully inadequate budget, and a complete lack of design thinking.
UX unicorns don’t exist, but this does not stop product managers from their eternal quest to find a magical solution for problems.
However, if you are determined to find a UX unicorn, here are some places to look. UX unicorns tend to live in the misty mountains next to the Portal of Unlimited Creative Freedom. UX Unicorns can also be lured into your cube farm with Large Pots of Gold and Bonuses of Unusual Size.
How can I get good at visual and interaction design?
First things first: it is a mistake to constrain the word “design” to only “making things look pretty”. That aspect is actually the least important, in my opinion.
Design is about understanding problems. When you understand a problem fully, the solution nearly always becomes obvious.
The road to becoming a good designer is the same path as becoming good at anything else: practice, practice, practice.
Give yourself design problems, both simple and complex. Think about re-solving things you encounter every day: Stop lights. Cross walk markings. Microwave oven panels. Automated teller machines. Point of sale credit card machines. Paperclips.
All around you are real-world problems that have designed solutions. Study these problems and their solutions. Research why certain decisions were made (why are stop signs red?). Come up with better ones.
Build better mouse traps, as it were.
Pay attention to details, especially with well-designed objects and systems. A great thing to study is the interiors of aircraft. Why are things locked in certain ways? Why are the cabinets sized specifically?
Understand simplicity and ease-of-use. Why do police officers carry their gear in certain ways? What is the value of having the communications nodule mounted on the shoulder? Why are sidearms never slung for cross-draw? Police and military equipment is usually top-notch for simplicity and easy of use (consider explosive charges, stamped with “THIS SIDE TOWARDS ENEMY”).
When you start to understand the problems, you understand the solutions. And you can make better ones. And, most importantly, you will be able to communicate your designs.
Practice, practice, practice.
Practice your tools. Learn Photoshop, or Illustrator, or whatever. Learn color theory and psychology.
Learn when to innovate and when to imitate. Be comfortable with stealing ideas and having your own ideas stolen.
Practice, practice, practice.
And then you will be good.
Enter your email below and we will contact you
My client wants a page in which the following text appears:
“Enter your email below and We will contact you”
It’s then followed by a textfield (to write the email address) and a button to submit it.
Is this the right way…
Search input on mobile device
I’m designing a mobile-web app (ie: not a native app) for touchscreen smartphones.
When you add a search input, do you need to add the search button (for processing the search) or use the one present in the keyboard?
If user…
Can ugly be good UX?
It’s heresy I know, but look at DrudgeReport.com. It’s raw, hand written HTML, it’s plain, boring typography, it’s something any UX or Graphic designer would scoff at if you handed it across their desk. But it works, and it w…
Can ugly be good UX?
It’s heresy I know, but look at DrudgeReport.com. It’s raw, hand written HTML, it’s plain, boring typography, it’s something any UX or Graphic designer would scoff at if you handed it across their desk. But it works, and it w…
Name that thing: What should I call a ‘person’ in a case management system?
Think of a system that manages details about people–a case management system tracking hospital patients, or a CRM tracking phone calls by customers, or an insurance provider’s system that tracks care recipients, which includ…
What is the right success message?
What would be the right success message when the the user deletes a record?
I could think of the following:
Record has been successfully deleted
Record has been deleted
Record was successfully deleted
Record was deleted
…
How much work went into the UX for Trello?
Joel SpolskyNeither. It was neither a happy accident, nor did we use any personas, user journeys, or prototypes. In fact I can personally guarantee that no personas were harmed in the making of Trello.Obviously the team (myself excluded) are very tale…