User Experience and Generative AI

AI

In the ever-evolving landscape of technology, one of the most promising and transformative advancements is the integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into user experience (UX) design. Generative AI, powered by deep learning models, is changing the way we interact with digital interfaces, offering unprecedented opportunities to create more personalized, intuitive, and engaging user experiences. … Read more

Technologies That Could Soon Enhance You in Body and Mind

Here comes the future! Are you ready for augmented vision, brain-computer interface and the end of personal computers and smartphones? From Elise Bohan, 10 Human Body Modifications You Can Expect in the next Decade: “Your smartphone enhances your mind, your spectacles enhance your vision, and your pacemaker (if you have one) regulates your heartbeat. Our … Read more

Information Architecture

Information architecture (IA) focuses on organizing, structuring, and labeling content in an effective and sustainable way.  The goal is to help users find information and complete tasks. The Information Architecture Institute defines information architecture simply: “Information architecture is the practice of deciding how to arrange the parts of something to be understandable.” The purpose of your … Read more

An Experience is More Than What it Looks Like

Visual appearance is important. Studies have shown that if your product appears professional, customers are more likely to fault themselves for usability issues versus the product. Visual appearance also contributes to the overall aesthetics of your product that create that important emotional connection. It is important to get your visual appearance right. But your brand … Read more

User Story Maps and Wireframes

In Agile, user story maps are a holistic view of your product backlog. A product backlog is a repository of requirements for the releases of the product. The user story map is focused on the user experience target outcomes and identifying the best way to ‘slice’ your product releases by minimal viable product (MVP). A … Read more

10 Tips to Increase Website Homepage Conversion

I started developing website in the 1990’s – HTML 1, before CSS, basic JavaScript and the beginning of the dot com boom. Now there is HTML 5, CSS 3 and all sorts of libraries and frameworks to create sophisticated websites. One thing hasn’t change about websites – they still need to be easy to use. … Read more

Form Design Best Practices and Guidelines

Every day, we fill out forms. At the office to get our work done and at home to take care of our domestic needs. Forms are the lifeblood of digital information sharing. A couple of excellent guidelines on forms: Luke Wroblewski’s Web Form Design Best Practices shares guidelines on input fields, input labels, validation, feedback, … Read more

Before You Write Your Requirements, Create a Prototype

Prototype your ideas before you develop them. Use prototypes to solicit feedbacks from subject matter experts to ensure you are solving the right problem, to inform stakeholders, get feedback from your customers, and collaborate with development. Before you write your requirements, create a “prototype.” This could be a sketch – or sketches –  on a … Read more

Crafting Experiences for The Enterprise

In 2007, I wrote an article for Pragmatic Marketer magazine entitled “Easy to Use for Whom: Defining the Customer and User Experience for Enterprise Software.” I opened the article with: “Enterprise software is only easy to use if the customers and users think it is easy to use. To determine “ease of use,” first understand … Read more

Death of the Password with Better Authentication Design

I recently attended Jared Spool’s presentation “Insecure & Unintuitive: How We Need to Fix the UX of Security.” If you haven’t heard Jared speak then I recommend that you do. Jared is both highly entertaining and highly informative. In this presentation, Jared shared how organizations are losing millions of dollars because people don’t remember their … Read more

Experience Design Principles for Machine Learning

I find myself going back to Fabien Girardin’s excellent article, Experience Design in the Machine Learning Era, and mining it for more gold. Fabien shares: “Nowadays, the design of many digital services does not only rely on data manipulation and information design but also on systems that learn from their users. If you would open the … Read more

Sometimes You Need to Show the Seams: Ubiquitous, Invisible and Seamless to Seamful Design

Mark Weiser gave us the concepts of ubiquitous and invisible computing.  Ubiquitous – available to us anytime and everywhere – and Invisible – we don’t see it and it doesn’t get in our way of completing our task at hand. Nowadays, we expect our mobile phones, wearables, home systems, etc… to be ubiquitous and invisible – … Read more