Design iteration brings powerful results. So, do it again designer!

The iterative design process is a simple concept. Once, through user research, you have identified a user need and have generated ideas to meet that need, you develop a prototype. Then you test the prototype to see whether it meets the need in the best possible way. Then you take what you learned from testing and amend the design. Following that...

• 13 shares
• 20 minutes ago

Bartle’s Player Types for Gamification

Gamification is not the same as game design, because it adds game-like elements to non-gaming environments. However, there is some overlap between game design and gamification design, and one area in which this is the case is with player types. The better you understand your players, the better you can cater to their needs. The Psychology of th...

• 39 shares
• 3 hours ago

Make Your UX Design Process Agile Using Google’s Methodology

In an age of tight resources and constrained finances companies are more reluctant than ever to commit to big design projects without a thorough understanding of their chances of success. Google has developed a methodology to make the design process fast and still offer valuable insight. Forget minimum viable products and focus on prototypes and...

• 150 shares
• 22 hours ago

User Stories - Capturing the User’s Perspective Quickly and Simply

User stories are a simple tool for articulating the user’s perspective. They are not long, wordy stories to be told around a camp fire but rather short (often only a single sentence) descriptions of what a user will do with a part of a system. They are written in plain English or in the language of the business in which they will be used and req...

• 183 shares
• 1 day ago

Service Blueprints - Communicating the Design of Services

Service blueprints were first described by Lynn Shostack, a banking executive, back in 1982 in the Harvard Business Review. They’ve become popularized over the last few years as service design has grown as a profession. In addition to being useful in service design they are often used by operational management to gauge the efficiency of work wit...

• 162 shares
• 1 day ago

Prototyping in Design Thinking: How to Avoid Six Common Pitfalls

The Design Thinking process cannot be done without prototyping and testing. However, for companies or teams unfamiliar with the Design Thinking method, there might be some common mindsets about prototyping that potentially undermine its effectiveness in helping you craft the optimal design solutions. Let’s look at six of the most common misconce...

• 196 shares
• 1 day ago

9 Free to Use Wireframing Tools

We all know that wireframing is a great way to test ideas in our UX projects but we also know that there are a ton of wireframing tools available to do it with. It can be hard to choose the right tool but one of the easiest ways to get an idea – is to get hands on with the tool and have a play with it. The wireframing tools in this article are ...

• 79 shares
• 2 days ago

Empathy Map – Why and How to Use It

Did you know that users are more likely to choose, buy and use products that meet their needs as opposed to products that just meet their wants? An Empathy map will help you understand your user’s needs while you develop a deeper understanding of the persons you are designing for. There are many techniques you can use to develop this kind of emp...

• 111 shares
• 2 days ago

7 Simple Ways to Get Better Results from Ethnographic Research

The first step in any User Experience or Design Thinking process should involve getting to know your users. When starting a project from scratch or moving into a new market, you may not have any experience or a deep understanding of your users. Ethnographic research, such as user observation and interviews, will allow you to discover who your us...

• 172 shares
• 3 days ago

How to Build Your First Freelance or Design Agency Portfolio

For most freelancers and newbie design owners, their most powerful marketing tool will be their portfolio. A portfolio is simply a collection of samples of your work that you use to demonstrate to clients that you have the experience and competence to handle their projects. As there are an awful lot of disciplines, it’s impossible to define the...

• 186 shares
• 3 days ago

20 People in UX that You Have to Follow on Twitter

If you’re stuck for where to get started in UX then one of the easiest things you can do is get active on social media. If you connect with the industry’s biggest names, you can learn a ton of new information, find out about job opportunities and network with many other UX designers at the same time. But where do you start? Well, we’re here for ...

• 139 shares
• 3 days ago

How to use Design Thinking to build the Perfect Portfolio

All the UX training in the world would be for nothing if you couldn’t get a job as a UX professional and fulfill your dream. Hiring for UX positions is difficult – recruiters need to assess many applicants’ skills, experience and attitudes towards their work. Contrary to being measured by traditional text-based résumés, UX candidates are typical...

• 178 shares
• 3 days ago

The Design Career Map – Learn How to Get Ahead in Your Work

Most people put a lot of effort into their work. Unfortunately, they often neglect themselves in the process. Time served is no longer enough to progress your career (if it ever was). You need to consciously develop your personal and professional skills to succeed and you need a plan to get from where you are to where you want to be. Developing...

• 225 shares
• 3 days ago

Build a common language by referring to design movements

Let’s check out a couple of words that are vital to us. Without them or their functions, life would be a nightmare. It would take ages to get anything done! Thankfully, we have categorization and labeling to help us understand our world and communicate with others.Labels and categories are great, time-saving building blocks. As user experience d...

• 166 shares
• 3 days ago

How to write the conclusion of your case study

You worked on an amazing UX project. You documented every detail and deliverable and when the time came, you began to write a UX case study about it. In the case study, you highlighted how you worked through a Design Thinking process to get to the end result; so, can you stop there and now move on to the next thing? Well, no! There’s just one mo...

• 157 shares
• 4 days ago

Ideation for Design - Preparing for the Design Race

Ideation is easy to define. It’s the process by which you generate, develop and then communicate new ideas. Ideas can take many forms such as verbal, visual, concrete or abstract. The principle is simple to create a process by which you can innovate, develop and actualize new products. Ideation is critical to both UX designers and learning exper...

• 178 shares
• 4 days ago

Customer and User Perception of Value and What it Means to Designers

Often we talk about value and we mean “financial value” a concept that can be measured in dollars and cents or pounds and pennies or whatever currency is near to hand. However, financial value is not the only motivating factor for users and consumers to invest in a product. In fact, it is the perception of value both financial and non-financial ...

• 215 shares
• 4 days ago

How to Create an Intuitive Design

“The main thing in our design is that we have to make things intuitively obvious,” the founder and former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs, explained. We can easily agree that design should be intuitive. We can also easily agree that something is intuitive when we can use it without thinking about it. Making a design intuitive is much tougher. Solving t...

• 123 shares
• 5 days ago

A Very Useful Work of Fiction – Mental Models in Design

Mental models play an important role in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and interaction design. They relate to the way that a user perceives the world around them and are based in belief as opposed to being a factual concept. However, if you can understand your users' mental models, you can simulate these models within your designs to make them...

• 176 shares
• 5 days ago

7 Tips to Improve Your UX Design Practice

Hey! But my UX design practice is perfect! Thankfully, we don’t hear that very much but the truth is – the longer we’re in a job, the better we consider ourselves to be at that job. Sometimes, it’s worth remembering that even the best professionals still have learning to be done. It’s also worth remembering that the longer we do things, the easi...

• 131 shares
• 5 days ago