Articles from around the web on all things user experience, sorted chronologically.
October 23, 2020 — Grids give more precise control over alignments and layout on different screen sizes. This article highlights the most important aspect of the responsive grid and how product designers can adapt grids in their design workflow.
Read this storyOctober 20, 2020 — On product pages, product images are tremendously important in users’ product-evaluation experience, providing critical visual information about key product details. Yet in order to be most valuable, users have to know how to find additional images and what important product attributes they depict.
Read this storyOctober 19, 2020 — This is an excerpt from Stephen P. Anderson and Karl Fast’s book Figure It Out: Getting From Information to Understanding. 2020, Rosenfeld Media.
Read this storyOctober 18, 2020 — On–off controls that switch between two different system states need to clearly communicate to users both the current state and the state the system will move to, should the user press that control.
Read this storyOctober 15, 2020 — Email accessibility matters on all levels. It is increasingly vital for your business to thrive, to say nothing about its unintended benefits. Therefore, it should be taken into account each time you create a digital newsletter.
Read this storyOctober 14, 2020 — As systems of visual style spread across a widening landscape of components, platforms and outputs, design tokens — and their names — are increasingly important. Effective token names improve and sustain a team’s shared understanding of visual style through design, code, and other interdisciplinary handoffs.
Read this storyOctober 13, 2020 — The aesthetic-usability effect describes a phenomenon in which people perceive more-aesthetic designs as easier to use than less-aesthetic designs. The effect has been observed in several experiments and has significant implications regarding the acceptance, use, and performance of a design.
Read this storyOctober 11, 2020 — The ability to recall the location of things is an important aspect of human memory. In graphical user interfaces (GUIs), this capability is absolutely essential, as it allows users to quickly locate controls without undergoing laborious visual search each time.
Read this storyOctober 11, 2020 — To improve customer experience, organizations can choose solutions ranging from low to high investment and impact, depending on their current state, budget, risk tolerance, transformation readiness, and unmet needs.
Read this storyOctober 8, 2020 — The concept of system 1 and system 2 thinking has been popularized by behavioral economist Daniel Kahneman, who defines system 1 thinking as automatic thinking that involves little rational control, or “quick thinking,” and system 2 thinking as calculated, effortful thinking that requires active attention, or “slow thinking.”
Read this storyOctober 6, 2020 — This article discusses the 3 issues that occured during large-scale UX testing with not having “Applied Filters Overviews”, outlines 3 solutions for desktop and 2 for mobile, and discusses 2 implementation considerations.
Read this storyOctober 1, 2020 — The work of my teammates on the IBM.com Library is by no means finished — in fact, they’re just getting started. Here are my 10 hot takes on what can make or break a design system and the team behind it.
Read this storySeptember 29, 2020 — Globally, 1 billion people have a near or distant vision impairment impacting how clearly they can see objects, including web pages. Chrome DevTools recently added support for emulating color vision deficiencies, helping you better optimize your pages to be inclusive of users with differing levels of color blindness.
Read this storySeptember 27, 2020 — A content inventory and audit are two important activities to complete before developing a strategy to improve your digital content. Conduct them together to set your content up for success.
Read this storySeptember 22, 2020 — The ability to create and think in user flows is one of the most important skills in a UX designer’s toolkit. What’s a user flow? The short definition is: A series of steps a user takes to achieve a meaningful goal. It shows the path a user takes through the product as they complete a specific task.
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