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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...
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...
An Introduction to Usability
Usability and user experience (UX) are not the same thing: the usability of a product is a crucial part that shapes its UX, and hence falls under the umbrella of UX. While many might think that usability is solely about the “ease of use” of a product, it’s actually more than that. The ISO 9421-11 standard on usability describes it as: “The exte...
Our Three Brains - The Emotional Brain
In 1952, Paul MacLean introduced the term 'limbic system', which refers to the interconnected brain structures responsible for much of our emotional experience. MacLean's recognition of the limbic system as an important and functional set of connected structures perhaps represents his most prominent contribution to the field of neuroscience. Wit...
Symmetry vs. Asymmetry - Recalling basic design principles
Now we’re going to look at two powerful design principles that may, at first glance, seem too simple and second nature to us to warrant too much thought. However, we would be wise not to underestimate their capabilities and the benefits of their effects. Always keeping a firm appreciation for symmetry and asymmetry close to mind can equip you to...
The basic principles of effectuation –How to use what you already have to become more innovative
In your role as a designer, coming up with creative and innovative designs and ideas that should have a positive impact on both users and business is part of the job description, whether you are employed, a student or an entrepreneur. Sometimes, though, devising the next great idea can be a challenge, especially when a client’s requirements for ...
Bad Design vs. Good Design: 5 Examples We can Learn From
Looking at examples of bad design alongside counter-examples of good design is not only fun but also draws important lessons for designers. They highlight pitfalls for designers to avoid and let us understand how to translate design theories into solutions that work in the real world. Jared Spool, the American writer, researcher and usability ex...
The Principles of Service Design Thinking - Building Better Services
Service design is all about taking a service and making it meet the user’s and customer’s needs for that service. It can be used to improve an existing service or to create a new service from scratch. In order to adapt to service design, a UX designer will need to understand the basic principles of service design thinking and be able to focus on...
The Seven Simple Principles of Conversion Centred Design (CCD) and How to Use Them
Oli Gardner – the Creative Director of Unbounce (a landing page builder for marketers), is an advocate of CCD. He says that deploying CCD makes each page you create on a website a piece of “accountable content”. In that you can measure the impact, purpose and success of each page as that page plays a part in converting visitors into customers.De...
KISS (Keep it Simple, Stupid) - A Design Principle
It was Albert Einstein who said; “If you can’t explain it, you don’t understand it well enough.” Though it is often mis-reported as being; “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it well enough.” What Einstein was driving at was a particular application of “keep it simple, stupid”. From scientific concepts to products t...
It Ain’t What You Do, It’s the Way That You Do It – Mobile App Usability Best Practices
There are best practices for mobile usability as there are best practices for usability on other platforms. These best practices are not a substitute for user research and usability testing; they are intended as a “quick start” guide to get your designs moving in the right direction. There are no absolute rules in usability design and your users...
How to design great 404 Error Pages
Getting a 404 Error page is very similar to many real-life situations. What do we mean? Well, for example, if you are an “I-don’t-need-a-map” kind of person in an unknown place, you will most likely get lost. And while your frustration level rises to the level of Leonardo Di Caprio at The Oscars, imagine that someone approaches you and gently he...
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 ...
Don’t Build It, Fake It First – Prototyping for Mobile Apps
The design phase for mobile applications should include a prototyping stage. It is at this point that users can “play” with your ideas and concepts and give you valuable feedback that shapes the final designs before you begin development. This can save time and money in development and create products that offer significantly better user experie...
Reduce the Likelihood of Rejection with Implied Consent
Implied consent is something you can use with the best intentions possible whenever you don’t want to disturb the users’ flow when they’re accomplishing a task. However, it’s still a little bit suspicious when you deliberately hide information, hoping your users will overlook it. Get some striking examples of both well-intended and darker design...
No-UI: How to Build Transparent Interaction
Here, we will explore and teach you about the incredible user experience opportunities which you can take advantage of when designing for interaction beyond the classical Graphical User Interface (GUI). Non-visual User Interaction (no-UI) is pioneered by the ground-breaking work of researchers who have realized that, in today’s world, we are sur...
Micro-moments: Are you designing for them?
Today, we’ll start with the rants of a Manhattan restaurant to exemplify the relevance of what Google calls “micro-moments”. Why? Because with the pervasive culture that mobile devices have generated, as UX designers, we’re needed now more than ever! This is why we need to equip ourselves with methods and tools to research our users’ lives befor...
Safety: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Safety is one of our basic, evolutionary needs. Most of our decisions and actions are based on sustaining or improving our circumstances. While we may not be in constant danger like early man, we are no less driven by the need for safety for us and our loved ones. This drive is carried over into user and consumer behavior. For this reason, produ...
Stage 2 in the Design Thinking Process: Define the Problem and Interpret the Results
An integral part of the Design Thinking process is the definition of a meaningful and actionable problem statement, which the design thinker will focus on solving. This is perhaps the most challenging part of the Design Thinking process, as the definition of a problem (also called a design challenge) will require you to synthesise your observati...
Our Three Brains - The Reptilian Brain
Neuroscience has offered many important insights into both the structure and function of the human brain. One of the most well-known models of brain structure, and how it relates to function, was provided by neuroscientist Paul MacLean, whose 'Triune Brain' model is based on three dominant structures in the human brain. These three structures ar...
