Disney created a color called Go Away Green. A very bland green shade you see a lot of in the park but don’t really think anything about. It was created with the idea that the common eye would glaze right over it. Truth is, unless you’re looking for it, it is all too easy to just … Read more
Aesthetics is a set of principles concerned with the nature and appreciation of beauty, especially in art. Aesthetic experiences, such as looking at paintings, listening to music or reading poems, are linked to the perception of external objects, but not to any apparent functional use the objects might have. Aesthetic experience involves more than preference, … Read more
“Do not solve the problem that’s asked of you. It’s almost always the wrong problem.” – Don Norman Designers have often been told to focus on outcomes, not features, so that they solve the right problem instead of building the wrong thing. While this rule has been accepted and practiced within experience design, it is … Read more
Listening is one of the most powerful things we can do. It is also very challenging. It seems strange that it is difficult. But it is… because it demands us to be both self-aware and willing to be compassionate. Active listening is all bright-eyed, big smile and nodding approval kind of a listening. Deeper listening is … Read more
A dialog (or dialogue) refers to a conversation between two people. In user interfaces, a dialog is a “conversation” between the system and the people interacting with the system, and often requests information or an action from the interaction. Regular dialogs (windows) are nonmodal (or modeless). Sometimes these dialogs are fixed in a location but … Read more
We cannot get away from digital forms. They are everywhere – at work, home, banks, grocery stores, coffee shops, food trucks, kiosks, mobile apps, everywhere. Yet, so many are still poorly designed. It’s not easy to design a good form… there are a lot of thing to consider. We have discussed Form Design Best Practices … Read more
Markets are changing faster than ever. Driven by expediential changes in technology, customers want more personalized experiences and they want it now. How do you keep up with the ever-changing market landscape and deliver high-quality products and services? No matter how deep our up-front understanding is of our market, we really cannot predict our customers’ … Read more
In Agile Development, a “sprint” is one iteration of a continuous development cycle. Within a sprint, planned amount of work has to be completed by the team and made ready for review. During the sprint: No changes are made that would endanger the sprint goal Quality goals do not decrease Sprints are limited to a … Read more
We held our first product camp in San Diego in October of 2018. It was a great event. I was impressed by the turnout and quality of discussions. A product camp is an “unconference” for product marketing, management, design, development or related topics. An unconference is a participant-driven meeting. Modern unconferences have been around since … Read more
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was first proposed by Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in Psychological Review and later fully expressed in his 1954 book Motivation and Personality. This hierarchy is a popular framework in sociology research and management training. Maslow’s theory suggests that the most … Read more
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 … Read more
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