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Information Visualization – Who Needs It?
Jesse James Garrett, the information designer, says; "What makes people passionate, pure and simple, is great experiences. If they have great experience with your product and they have great experiences with your service, they’re going to be passionate about your brand, they’re going to be committed to it. That’s how you build that kind of commi...
Laws of Proximity, Uniform Connectedness, and Continuation – Gestalt Principles (2)
In this, the second part of our examining Gestalt principles, we’ll look at another Law – the Law of Proximity. This one is especially useful as it deals with how our eyes and brains draw connections with design images. Of course, connecting is also important to us – that’s what we want to make happen between our users and our designs!“The eye t...
The Continuum of Understanding and Information Visualization
Information visualization is a process by which data (or information) is represented to help the recipient, of the information, build an accurate representation of it in their mind. It is most common for information visualization to be constructed graphically (e.g. to facilitate visual understanding) but it may also be carried out in sound (e.g....
Test Your Prototypes: How to Gather Feedback and Maximise Learning
Once you’ve built your prototypes based on the ideas you and your team generated, it’s time to gather feedback from the people on whom you are testing these. Optimising how you gather feedback — and, therefore, learn from your prototypes and users — is essential to help you save time and resources in the Prototype and Test stages of the Design T...
Visual Hierarchy: Organizing content to follow natural eye movement patterns
Let’s look at a topic that deals with, oddly enough, how we look at designs. Once you understand how the human eye processes these, you’ll find yourself better able to arrange your elements more effectively. Content in any digital page layout will follow a specific hierarchy. Headers appear above body text. Menus go at the top, bottom, left, or...
The Law of Similarity - Gestalt Principles (1)
Gestalt is a German word that carries much importance, especially for us as designers. Let’s have a close look at its principles so that we can see how much information this little word encompasses!The central principle to the Gestalt theory was neatly summarized by the Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka: "The whole is other than the sum of the pa...
Our Three Brains - The Rational Brain
The triune brain model may not be an entirely accurate depiction of the human brain and its development, but the concept of our three brains (reptilian, paleomammalian, and neomammalian) represents a useful guide for us as designers who are looking to capture what it means to be a human user. Thus, many of the insights we derive in this way can ...
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...
Customer Journey Maps - Walking a Mile in Your Customer’s Shoes
Perhaps the biggest buzzword in customer relationship management is “engagement”. Engagement is a funny thing, in that it is not measured in likes, clicks, or even purchases. It’s a measure of how much customers feel they are in a relationship with a product, business or brand. It focuses on harmony and how your business, product or brand become...
What is Interaction Design?
Interaction design is an important component within the giant umbrella of user experience (UX) design. In this article, we’ll explain what interaction design is, some useful models of interaction design, as well as briefly describe what an interaction designer usually does. A simple and useful understanding of interaction designInteraction de...
The Grid System: Building a Solid Design Layout
Now that we’ve seen some grids at work in the Rule of Thirds article, let’s examine them a little more deeply. As a concept that deals so fundamentally with the fabric and background of our work as designers, it’s easy to overlook the power of grids and think more about the elements we want to create. Many traditional artists still paint their m...
Principle of Consistency and Standards in User Interface Design
Learn to design with consistency and standards in mind and understand the reasons why they’re important to incorporate them into your work. Derived from Jakob Nielsen and Rolf Molich’s Ten User Interface (UI) Guidelines, ‘Consistency and Standards’ are evident in many of the widely-used products created by some of the most successful companies. ...
Create Some Space – for Ideation Sessions and Design Thinking
The spaces we occupy deeply influence our experiences, our feelings, and our behaviours. Our state of health, psychology, productivity, mood, and creativity spaces influence us on many levels and also influence our interactions with each other. The spaces in which we journey through Design Thinking and Ideation sessions must be set up in such a ...
How to Calculate the Return on Investment of a Design Education
One of the biggest challenges facing designers is how to begin and how to further their design education. Do you go for the university degree or book-learning or e-learning or pay for classroom learning? While we all have some natural preference for one (or more) of these learning methods, one thing we really need to consider is the return on in...
The Concept of the "Triune Brain"
In the 1960s, American neuroscientist Paul MacLean formulated the 'Triune Brain' model, which is based on the division of the human brain into three distinct regions. MacLean's model suggests the human brain is organized into a hierarchy, which itself is based on an evolutionary view of brain development. The three regions are as follows: Rep...
Information Visualization – A Brief Introduction
Have you ever thought about how much data flows past each of us in an ordinary day? From the newspaper you read at breakfast, to the e-mails you receive throughout the day, to the bank statements generated whenever you withdraw money or spend it, to the conversations we have, and so on?There is a tidal wave of data associated with each aspect of...
The User Experience of Recruitment – Why You May Not Get the UX Talent You Really Want
Businesses are still stuck in the idea that UX is about the products and services they offer their customers. They are yet to grasp the idea that UX can be applied to all services within a business. A UX focused of review of recruitment or accounting (or whatever) can quickly improve the way that a business function, which will never (or rarely)...
Design Thinking: Select the Right Team Members and Start Facilitating
If we apply the analogy of Design Thinking as a journey, having good travel partners is important to safely and successfully arriving at your desired destination. The process of Design Thinking takes you into unknown and sometimes uncomfortable territory. Members of a Design Thinking team need to be open minded, curious, collaborative and allow ...
Workshops to Establish Empathy and Understanding from User Research Results
Honestly, how much do you enjoy reading research reports? And how engaging do you find them? Unsurprisingly, receiving a report with your insights into the target group may not get your clients to empathize with the potential users of their product or service optimally. Alternatively, you might consider organizing a workshop for them. This allow...
Three Ideation Methods to Enhance Your Innovative Thinking
“In a world where business is more interested in ‘best practice’ rather than different practice, is it any wonder that products and services, companies and organisations are all beginning to look the same?” the three authors rhetorically ask in ?What If!'s classic book on creativity and innovation, Sticky Wisdom. How to Start a Creative Revoluti...
