I’ve been doing a lot of research recently about mobile design patterns and UX best practices for smartphone and tablet devices for both iOS and Android platforms. One thing has stood out more than anything else during this process: no one is talking about Android. Ok, “no one” is clearly an exaggeration. There are a few great resources out there that have been very helpful in the quest to learn how to best design native Android smartphone and tablet applications (posted at the bottom of this article). But compared to the huge plethora of resources about designing iOS applications, resources about Android design are extremely limited. Why is this and what should we do about it?
User Experience quotes and articles to inspire and connect the UX community.
What is User Experience Strategy, Anyway?
If you’ve ever struggled with articulating the output of the UX Strategy phase of a project or initiative, you’re not alone. Almost all UX’ers can agree that defining a User Experience strategy before architecting or designing an experience is critical, but what does “strategy” really mean? What are its components, benefits, and deliverables?
Check out my article “What is User Experience Strategy, Anyway?” on my company’s (The Archer Group) blog and download the full white paper (PDF) for all of my thoughts on this topic.
In this article you’ll learn more about what specific deliverables you can work on to help answer the strategic questions of “Where are you now?”, “Where do you want to be?”, “How will you get there?”, and “How will you measure success?”. I also describe how to explain User Experience Strategy to your clients or business partners, and the value that creating a UX strategy brings to your organization.
Good designers turn their inspirations into reality
“When good designers talk about innovation, they mean ‘the successful exploitation of new ideas.’ They don’t stop with the invention. They turn their inspirations into reality.” – Simon Rucker
Read more about characteristics of good designers in Simon’s Harvard Business Review article “How Good Designers Think.”
World Usability Day: 74% discount on UX tools
As a follow-up to the last UX tools bundle offered through UX Heroes, the third annual Optimal Workshop World Usability Day bundle is now available consisting of 8 great tools and subscriptions worth $5,000 for $1,370. However, if you use the link in this post, you can get an additional $150 discount and get the bundle for $1,220.
- Usability Professionals’ Association: 4 video seminars and a live webinar
- OptimalSort: 12 month subscription of this remote card sorting
- Treejack: 12 month subscription to test and validate your IA
- Loop11: 2 projects to conduct remote usability tests of any website
- OpenHallway: A 12 month subscription and 3 TryMyUI credits will help you record a/v screencasts of user testing sessions
- SnapEngage: 12 month subscription of this service that lets you live chat with your site visitors and customers
- ConceptShare: 12 month subscription to markup visual designs collaboratively
- HotGloo: 12 month suscription to do rapid collaborative wireframing
Since this year’s World Usability Day theme is “Designing for Social Change”, $100 from each bundle sold goes to support the work of The Mekong Club, a business-led initiative to fight modern day slavery.
This is only available until the end of World Usability Day (Thursday, November 10), so check it out quickly if you’re interested!
UX Heroes Visual Prototyping Bundle – Name your price on 3 great prototyping tools
UX Heroes has a great offer available on several tools for UX Designers. The UX Heroes Visual Prototyping Bundle offers a deep discount on three visual prototyping tools to help you diagram, wireframe and prototype. You can choose your own price using the slide control at the bottom of the page. This bundle only runs until September 27th, so act quickly if you’re interested in it! You can get the following tools worth almost $200 for any price you choose:
- Gliffy Online: Create diagrams such as flowcharts, UI wireframes, floor plans, network diagrams, UML diagrams, web site maps, or any other simple drawing or diagram.
- HotGloo: Collaboratively create low and high fidelity wireframes or prototypes.
- Mocksup: Share your mockups on any desktop, tablet or smartphone, collect feedback via comments and sticky notes, and create quick UX prototypes by linking mockups together.
Plus, you can get Chalkmark (worth $109) if you spend $40.
If you use the link in this blog post for the offer, you will be able to get a discount if you go on to buy the main bundle when it is launched in a couple of weeks. That bundle will offer even more UX tools for a fraction of their retail cost.
UX principles in action: Feedback systems and Ford SYNC
The importance of providing system feedback
Providing the user feedback during an action is one of the most basic user experience principles that must be considered when designing systems. Feedback can come in a variety of forms: a confirmation message upon completion of an action, an error message if something goes wrong, a progress indicator while the system is performing an action, or other visual techniques that indicate a system’s state. Providing feedback in a design helps to minimize errors and gives users confidence while performing tasks or actions.
About
Catriona Cornett
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- @axurerp line breaks are sometimes not appearing when I generate prototypes in 6.5. Any idea why that might be happening? 1 day ago
- Similarities and Differences in iOS & Android UX Design http://t.co/Fm65OSHm via @thearchergroup #ux #mobile #iOS #Android 2 days ago
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