Inspiring post on the craftsmanship of UI design and building— Read on blog.jim-nielsen.com/2024/sanding-ui/ Also consider Usability testing. Discussion on HN
Category Archives: UX blog
Clipping: empathizing with real users on the streets
It would be wonderful if such stories were more prevalent and lauded in the overall industry: it’s about how we end up affecting concrete lives. Human-computer interaction as a research field is all about this; seeing the others’ perspective. More context (HN link) leshokunin Disclaimer: I was a PM on Angry Birds. […] vvoyerNice, what’s …
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Why I do software or anything at all
In my work as designer and developer I keep coming back to this question: How do I present all that I do such that it might make sense to others… that they might understand; it’s all about the same thing! However different software development as a discipline might seem from design or from teaching or …
The Why and the How: Usability testing
When creating a digital service, there is often a rush. Often we also want user-friendly experiences where users can interact with your product without a second thought. You want to make sure that your customers can find your service, and that things go smoothly. But there may not be much time or resources available. So—often …
Conceptual Modeling: A key to better communication while building complex systems
Understanding the core concepts and their interrelationships is the foundation of any software system. Misunderstandings or misconceptions about these concepts can lead to system failure. To avoid such pitfalls, it’s crucial to communicate the conceptual system using a model. This model serves as a common language for professionals from different fields to discuss the core …
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The Risks of Modal User Interfaces: A Deep Dive
I love how much power understanding the fundamentals of UI/UX design can give you to build experiences that really flow smoothly! One of these fundamentals is modes – and how to use them well. Modes are sometimes necessary, but they can be a risky choice in a user interface. This is true especially if the …
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Product & framework thinkers: Case studies. And how about AI?
2023-06: Updated to include concrete examples and to discuss AI/Large Language Models (LLMs). Developers and UX professionals often seem like beings from different planets. I’ve found that shared understanding about software project goals can sometimes be hard to achieve. Have you ever taken a moment to consider how software gets designed and developed? You might …
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Design and Learning theories: Giving a workshop on UX
I received my original education in the field of HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). In educational learning theories, some of the same fundamental principles are central. A product designer, like a teacher, cannot assume much about the recipient of the experience they create. A product proves to be good only when a real person has demonstrated through …
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Rethinking Usability Education: Bridging Theory and Practice
Introduction During my working life I’ve taught some trainings and lectures on UX and courses on software development. Here’s some reflections on what I found central. Usability or User Experience (UX) education plays an indispensable role in bridging the gap between the theoretical principles of design and their practical applications. This post explores the essence …
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User Experience Design in Open Source: Inviting the Users
In any software project, we need to understand the people who will use the product. There are many different points of view onto what approach we should take. Spool: Vision, feedback, culture Some promote approaches to usability practice alternative to User Centered Design (UCD). Spool (2008, 2009) calls the attention of the usability community to the …
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UX Design Concept: Learnable Regular Expressions (2016)
Reach: 91K~1700 recommendations (Hacker News, Reddit, Twitter & Medium) Regular expressions you can read: A new visual syntax (and UI) Regular expressions are a technical tool, not unlike a domain specific programming language. It is intended for situations where you need to match patterns in text, in order to filter or manipulate it in various …
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Test driven development and usability testing
See also: Usability and being human blog Robert Martin spoke charismatically about test driven development in RailsConf in 2009. (Video link expired) He promotes the idea of having automated tests (unit tests) and running them all the time to prevent your code from becoming an enormous, unholy mess. When you have tests, you are not …
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UI Design: Balancing User Needs with Progressive Disclosure
The Problem As your platform matures, the number of features inevitably increases. While some users may require these new functionalities, others may find them distracting. This leads to a significant challenge: how can you accommodate the varying needs of a diverse user base? This situation is particularly true when designing an existing or new user …
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Moodle/open source usability talk slides
Usability and Users’ Experiences in Moodleland presented in iMoot 2010