I came across this MIT Sloan post, Make Your Data Insights Visually Consumable by Nancy Duarte, and wanted to pass along these best practices. Highlight Data with a Pop of Color Draw attention to your data by using color highlights on the most important pieces of information. Use neutral colors for the rest of the … Read more
How we make machine learning transparent to our customers is one of the great design challenges of our time—and a very necessary one. Machine learning refers to different kinds of algorithms that learn from inputs like human interaction or data and create evolving feedback over time from that input. It can use preexisting data to … Read more
Listening is one of the most powerful things we can do. It is also very challenging. It seems strange that it is difficult. But it is… because it demands us to be both self-aware and willing to be compassionate. Active listening is all bright-eyed, big smile and nodding approval kind of a listening. Deeper listening is … Read more
Legend has it that the late management guru, Peter Drucker, said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” It doesn’t appear in any of his 39 books, but the phrase was attributed to him in 2006 by Mark Fields, who later became chief executive of Ford, and the phrase is gaining new currency as part of the … Read more
Tree testing is a usability technique for evaluating the findability of topics. A tree test evaluates a hierarchical category structure or tree. Tree testing is done on a simplified text version of your content – without the influence of navigation aids and visual design. Tree testing can be used for websites, intranets, mobile UI, apps, games, … Read more
I was recently working with a client developing an online resource center for educators. First, we assess their business needs for this project and developed our UX plan. Then we ensured understanding of the market problem we were solving and defined our target audience. Next, we did our competitive analysis and looked at what other … Read more
This article first appeared in LinkedIn November 14, 2017. Written by one of my heroes, Tim Brown, CEO at IDEO: Some of today’s most successful companies—Airbnb, Nike—have CEOs who are also designers. And leading organizations across industries, like Apple, 3M, and Pepsi, have highly influential Chief Design Officers at the helm. Making design a priority isn’t just … Read more
Human-Centered Design (HCD), as the name implies, is designing solutions around people. HCD involves the human perspective in all steps of the problem-solving process by observing the problems within context, brainstorming, conceptualizing, developing, and implementing a solution. It is the process that innovators like Apple and IDEO follow. In this process, you first need to clearly define the problem then … Read more
Every day, we fill out forms. At the office to get our work done and at home to take care of our domestic needs. Forms are the lifeblood of digital information sharing. A couple of excellent guidelines on forms: Luke Wroblewski’s Web Form Design Best Practices shares guidelines on input fields, input labels, validation, feedback, … Read more
Based on the Agile Manifesto, I would like UX to have its own manifesto. Here is my first draft (below)… I would appreciate feedback. Human-Centered over System-Centered Contextual Inquiry over Surveys Asking over Guessing Listening over Telling
A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) center around the business perspective. It asks the question “what is the minimum product I have to build to figure out whether I have a business?” You might do that from testing signups on landing pages or putting up price points and collecting payment information to helps assess the true … Read more
This year’s SoCal UX Camp was another success! Every year this event gets bigger and better. If you have never heard of SoCal UX Camp, it is a free, user-driven, collaborative “unconference” for User Experience Designers, Research Analysts, and students held in Southern California. It is a one-day gathering of User Experience folks to share, … Read more