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Interface Digest, April-May 2013

For three years now I have been publishing regular reviews of fresh articles on the topic of interfaces, new tools and collections of patterns, interesting cases and historical stories. From the tapes of several hundred thematic subscriptions, approximately 5% of the worthwhile publications are selected that are interesting to share. Previous materials: April 2010-March 2013 .

Review of fresh materials, April-May 2013

Patterns and Best Practices


This is Responsive - Tips, Resources and Responsive Web Design
A collection of patterns, articles and other useful materials on responsive design. All examples can be felt, it is a working code.
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Exploring Ten Fundamental Aspects Of M-Commerce Usability
A great article by Baymard Institute for Smashing Magazine with excerpts from their recent research of mobile online stores.

Finally, Google Has Come Up With A Predictable, Intuitive Sidebar Navigation Design
Google has included the familiar sidebar in modern Android apps. The mechanics of his work are described in detail. By the way, at the recently held Google I / O conference there were many interesting presentations about design for Android:



Infinite Scrolling - Let's Get To The Bottom Of This
Yogev Ahuvia describes in detail the strengths and weaknesses of the endless scrolling on the page. It is good for semi-structured content and does not work well in cases where the user needs to study the elements of the list.

Goodui
Jakub Linowski has launched the new GoodUI project, which collects a collection of patterns that work well for “selling” interfaces. These are simple examples and descriptions that also work as a collection of heuristics.

Setting Type for User Interfaces
Billy Whited talks about the difference in the use of text in service and content products. He describes the features of reading and their impact on the work with different amounts of text.

Designing Search - Displaying Results
Tony Russell-Rose describes typical search results page patterns. Depending on the task, it is necessary to balance the set of information in the result list item in order to ensure easy scanning of the page while minimizing transitions for detailed information.

SIX UX
The SIX UX site uses the Vine video service to store a library of interface animation patterns. These are six-second records of interesting interactions with sites and mobile applications.

Positions Of Navigation Buttons For Kids
Sabina Idler cites the results of custom navigation research for children using tablet apps. The placement of navigation elements from below, at a great distance from each other, works best.

New Layouts for the Multi-Device Web
Luke Wroblewski describes the details of how his Polar service works on different devices and different resolutions. It offers a rather interesting adaptability mechanism, which takes into account not only the resolution, but also the input method - for example, it is better not to center the content on touch laptops, but to press it to the edge.

Userium - Usability checklist
Finnish usability player Nina Patkai compiled an extensive checklist for common UX errors. Many elements of the checklist refer to detailed articles about the meaning of the error and how to do it correctly.

Understanding the user


Cognitive Overhead, Or Why Your Product Is Not As Simple As You Think
Article David Lieb from the company Bump on a very important topic - the difference between visual and cognitive complexity. Often, seeking to simplify the initial perception of the interface, its regular use is complicated.

Anatomy of intuition
Maurice McGinley describes a very interesting theory as a replacement for the misguided notion of “intuitive clarity.” He suggests using the term “accessibility” and argues in detail why.

Task model cheat sheet (PDF)
Richard Caddick from CXPartners has prepared a convenient cheat sheet for analyzing user tasks. Direct link to PDF .

Semantic environments and information architecture
Jorge Arango writes about the concept of an "information (or semantic) environment." This is an important aspect of interface design that defines user expectations and rules for interaction with the product.

Adaptation of Q-Methodology for HCI (PDF)
A detailed description of the adaptation of the Q-Methodology for use in the Human Computer Interaction field. The method itself is one of simple, but very effective means for obtaining information about the priorities and opinions of people about themselves (users, consumers, ...). Those. determination of the internal structure of attitudes and opinions. It is quantitative and qualitative at the same time. Developed by psychologists, one of its adaptations has been widely used for many years in advertising and marketing.

Control and Transparency
Ilana Westerman talks about exploring the expectations and attitudes of users regarding privacy settings for web services and applications. It was held in the US, Canada and Mexico, but it will be useful to us.

Designing the structure and interface screens


SketchMine
The application for designers and designers Sketch is rapidly gaining popularity due to the wide possibilities and speed of work. The recent impetus to its development was given in fact by folding work on Fireworks , which is close in spirit. SketchMine website collects templates and stencils for Sketch.

Facebook Brand Assets
Facebook posted its marketing guidelines. In addition to the identity, they describe the interface details of various versions of the product and give general recommendations on their use.

Keynote, PowerPoint and Photoshop UI Templates for BlackBerry 10 Apps
Patterns for designing BlackBerry 10 applications in PowerPoint and Keynote. The kit includes typical screens, interface elements, standard icons and gestures.

Metaphorical analysis
Cyd Harrell and Jodi Leo write about how to create metaphors for interfaces and accompanying artifacts. This is a great way to talk about complex concepts and to clearly show insights.

VERSUS IO
The Versus IO service allows you to visually compare the physical dimensions and characteristics of modern smartphones. Another table comparing screens and sizes of popular devices .

Android cheatsheet for graphic designers
Excellent memo on the design and interface design for Android-smartphones.

Gettin 'HIGgy With It - Architecting iPhone Flexible iPhone Experience
Excellent overview of navigation patterns in iPhone applications described by the official Human Interface Guidelines. The author offers clear and moderately short chains of transitions between screens for different tasks.

Expanded user journey maps - Combined several UX deliverables into one useful document
Rian van der Merwe offers an interesting documentation format, combining in itself a few close in spirit - business goals and USP, customer journey maps, USP, content plan. So far only an intermediate example is available, but the description is quite detailed and sounds promising.

Information Wayfinding - A Not-So-New Metaphor
Tyler Tate writes about how the principles of reading and navigating websites and books differ. This is the first article in a series on finding information in digital products. Another material on the subject .

InVision - Free Web & Mobile Mockup and UI Prototyping Tool
The second version of the online design tool InVision has been released. Now this is a full-featured solution that allows you to carry out the entire process of working on a task, including testing, approvals and communication with stakeholders.

Flinto - iPhone and iPad Prototyping
New online tool for designing applications for the iPhone and iPad. Allows in a simple mode to combine static images into an interactive prototype and discuss them with customers and colleagues. Another similar service is Brief .

WireKit - An iPhone App Wireframing Kit
Cute template for designing iPhone applications in Adobe Photoshop.

KSS - Knyle Style Sheets
A tool for creating interactive UI-style guides. Paired with BDD frontend gives significantly more control when developing the UI of large projects. This is a cool base for a so-called. live documentation .

User research and testing


User Research Methods - Has-beens and Stars
The Jim Ross article on why some of the methods of user research take root and spread, while others remain less applicable. What has stood the test of time, and what remains in history.

A Collaborative Lean UX Research Tool
Tomer Sharon talks about the method of quick user research, allowing you to do without heavy in the preparation and reading of the report. This approach requires the full involvement of all participants in the process, but it helps speed up decision making and reduce intermediate artifacts.

UXkids - A blog about children and media
The UXKids company specializes in user research of children's interfaces. In her blog published useful articles on this topic.

Seven Ways to Test the Effectiveness of Icons
Jeff Sauro describes seven ways to test icons in interfaces. They include different ways of describing associations and metaphors, the influence of context, search and retrieval in memory.

10 Metrics For Testing Website Navigation
Jeff Sauro leads ten metrics to help test site navigation.

PowWow - Schedule User Research
PowWow makes it easy to plan your user research. This is an add-on to Google Calendar, which makes it easier to work with respondents.

My place or yours? How to decide where to run your next usability test
David Travis on the laboratory (in his own or in the laboratory usability lab), remote, field usability testing. Strengths and weaknesses of each of the approaches to user testing.

Seven Tips for Writing Usability Task Scenarios
Jeff Sauro advises on scripting for usability testing. They will make them understandable, consistent and passable, which directly affects the representativeness of the data obtained during the study.

Eight Lessons in Mobile Usability Testing
Tania Lang gives a series of useful tips on testing mobile interfaces. She talks about software tools and equipment, as well as features of such studies.

How to Measure Learnability
Jeff Sauro writes about how to assess the learning ability of users to work with the interface. He proposes to consider it as usability changes over a period of time, and therefore the testing process should repeat the same task in different conditions.

Using Card Sorting To Test Information Architecture
The FAQ on testing information architecture from Jeff Sauro, partly the reverse method to card sorting.

Management of interface projects and processes


Key UX Strategy Methods, Tools, and Deliverables / Communicating UX Strategy
The new column UXMatters discusses the UX-strategy, its essence and methods of implementation. Among the answers are mine. By the way, the first conference on UX-strategy will take place on September 8-11 in Atlanta. And in this issue of the online magazine there were some more useful materials on the topic:


Stop Doing What Youre Told
The presentation of Stephen P. Anderson, which calls on designers and designers to be critical of all incoming requests from clients and managers, they often replace the task with a solution. The author gives an exhaustive list of misconceptions and false promises that lead to the failure of projects.

Collaboration experience
Gregg Bernstein of MailChimp talks about examples of workspace organization that improves communication and facilitates the exchange of project information. He lists successful practices in major companies like Adobe and Pixar.

Methodologies, procedures, standards


Getting Your Web Site's Structure Right
Nathaniel Davis writes that in a conversation with customers and other interested parties it is more appropriate to use the term “site structure” instead of “information architecture”. To discuss applied problems, this is enough to preserve the meaning and not to load the customer with specialized terms.

Cases


The Re-Imagining of Microsoft
A joint presentation by Albert Shum from Microsoft and Todd Simmons from Wolf Ollins about what it takes to change products and the image of a company like Microsoft. They tell what exactly happened in the last 4 years and on what principles the work was built.


Making Medium.com
An interesting case study on the recently launched Medium service from the creator of Blogger and Twitter. This is the right approach to the cooperation of the agency and the grocery company, and in general to the creation of new products with a vaguely defined concept.

Design Council - Design for Public Good
A large study of the governments of the UK, Finland and Denmark on how useful investment in the design of public services is. The document also includes a description of working methods and a series of cases. Direct link to PDF .

Redesign VK music
Case redesign music application for Windows 8 from Konstantin Kichinsky. The article is interesting not only a step by step description of the tuning process, but also a good selection of player patterns for the platform. The second , third and fourth part .

Trends


User Experience Benchmarks for Tablets and Smartphones
The most interesting reports of Pfeiffer Consulting on how tablets are used, and in the first place, the rapidly growing 7 ". Most current publications describe the experience of working with 10" tablets, but about 7 "materials are very few.

Valve design
Valve began testing biofeedback-based gameplay. In the video, a staff psychologist explains the basic principles of the system.


First Look: How The Google Glass UI Really Works
A detailed presentation of how the Google Glass interface is organized at the technical and user levels. Other materials:



What is Customer Experience Management? Did Pine and Gilmore get it wrong?
The terms UX and “usability” were slightly devalued when they were used by all who were caught and the same thing now happens with the design of services. Steven Walden from Beyond Philosophy writes about what customer experience should look like and what doesn't. Another article on the topic .

Rethinking Mobile First
Fred Wilson says that the “mobile first” ideology should be treated with caution, because from a business point of view, the distribution and development of a product for smartphones has many difficulties, and there are very few successful examples. He refers to the Vibhu Norby article , which describes his own experience of launching an exclusively mobile product.

User Experience Awards 2013
List and presentations of the winners of the User Experience Awards 2013. They control the context systems with the algorithms of mutual cooperation (proactive systems).

Device Motion in Application Design
Luke Wroblewski talks about how to use spatial orientation sensors in modern laptops. In smartphones, this is a common thing, but in computers they appeared relatively recently and there are almost no good examples of working with them.


Firefox OS Simulator
Mozilla has published an emulator for its mobile Firefox OS. This is an add-on for Firefox, allowing you to explore the entire interface of the upcoming operating system.

Steampunking interaction design
An interesting analysis of steampunk-movement from the point of view of interface design. The article describes the design principles of such products and how they can be applied in classic UX.

Donald Norman's book Designing Things of the Future
The Strelka Institute is publishing a new book by Donald Norman, “ Designing Things for the Future .” An excerpt from it is available. By the way, the completely redesigned "Design of familiar things" is coming soon.

Professional Development


Sharpening Up Your Soft Skills
Mia Northrop lists the skills of an interface specialist in addition to performing basic tasks that make it more complex. And gives examples from different areas in which different sets of such skills are valued.

Project Futurologists
"Futurologists" talk about the future of the UX, its limitations and problems. An unusual format - short two-minute thoughts on a topic from leading domestic experts.

UXBastards
Independent podcast on the knee. Interviews and private opinions on topical issues in the design of experienced interaction, design of user interfaces, creation and development of Internet products and services.

Fresh links can also be tracked in the Facebook group of the same name .

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/183950/


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