Posts Tagged ‘Design’

We are pleased to present below all posts tagged with ‘Design’.

Design Patterns: When Breaking The Rules Is OK

We’d like to believe that we use established design patterns for common elements on the Web. We know what buttons should look like, how they should behave and how to design the Web forms that rely on those buttons. And yet, broken forms, buttons that look nothing like buttons, confusing ...

Read more...

The History Of Usability: From Simplicity To Complexity

The story of usability is a perverse journey from simplicity to complexity. That’s right, from simplicity to complexity—not the other way around. If you expect a “user-friendly” introduction to usability and that the history of usability is full of well-defined concepts and lean methods, you’re in for a surprise. Usability is ...

Read more...

Stop Redesigning And Start Tuning Your Site Instead

In my nearly two decades as an information architect, I’ve seen my clients flush away millions upon millions of dollars on worthless, pointless, “fix it once and for all” website redesigns. All types of organizations are guilty: large government agencies, Fortune 500s, not-for-profits and (especially) institutions of higher education. Worst of ...

Read more...

Gamification And UX: Where Users Win Or Lose

The gaming industry is huge, and it can keep its audience consumed for hours, days and even weeks. Some play the same game over and over again — and occasionally, they even get out their 15-year-old Nintendo 64 to play some Zelda. Now, I am not a game designer. I actually ...

Read more...

Designing With Audio: What Is Sound Good For?

Our world is getting louder. Consider all the beeps and bops from your smartphone that alert you that something is happening, and all the feedback from your appliances when your toast is ready or your oven is heated, and when Siri responds to a question you’ve posed. Today our technology ...

Read more...

Not Just Pretty: Building Emotion Into Your Websites

Emotional design has become a powerful tool in creating exceptional user experiences for websites. However, emotions did not use to play such an important role on the Web. Actually, they did not use to play any role at all; rather, they were drowned by a flood of rational functionality and ...

Read more...

The Elements Of Navigation

When users look for information, they have a goal and are on a mission. Even before you started to read this article, chances are you did because you either had the implicit goal of checking what’s new on Smashing Magazine, or had the explicit goal of finding information about “Navigation ...

Read more...

A Dad’s Plea To Developers Of iPad Apps For Children

I spend a lot of time buying and testing iPad apps for kids. To be more specific, I lovingly do this for a certain two-year-old girl who is currently on a very successful #OccupyiPad mission in my house. Through extensive observational research, I’ve discovered what works and doesn’t work for ...

Read more...

Designing Engaging And Enjoyable Long-Form Reading Experiences

Finally some good news from the media industry: digital subscriptions are growing. We see positive reports from newspapers like The New York Times and magazine publishers like Conde Nast: announcements about increases in their digital content sales and paywall members. When you have fantastic and original content, ensuring your readers have ...

Read more...

↑ Back to top