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Behavioural economics, persuasive design: I knew the theory, but could I put it into practice at my daughter's 'Cake and Candy day'?Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational and Daniel Gilbert’s Stumbling upon Happiness are two of the best books about using the quirks of the human brain to help you market and sell. We always keep these basic ideas in mind when designing websites and social networks. But there's nothing like the evidence of your own eyes to ram home a concept. ...
The future popularity of tablet computers was predicted more than ten years ago, but it took the genius of Apple to bring it to the mainstream. It's the same trend we’ve seen many times before: Apple makes a groundbreaking innovation and within a fairly short space of time it becomes the norm, as we are now seeing with the iPad and tablet computing – a trend which looks to be far more important than the "flash in the pan" of ...
Adii Pienaar, the inventor of an internationally-successful Wordpress theme-creation business, gave a recent presentation where he raised the idea of "User Experience (UX) and Design versus Tech". He asked the question: "Is one more important than the other?"Themes are essentially "plug and play" skins for Wordpress sites, allowing a user to change the style and design of their site on the fly, at the click of a button. It has generally cut down, or cut out, the need for ...
You’ll have noticed Jimmy Wales looking ruggedly handsome at the top of every Wikipedia page. But have you clicked? Probably not, because the promo is in the wrong place. Here’s why…Web users are goal-driven. The big brains of web design have known this for a long time, and you only have to observe your own online behaviour to understand exactly what it means.Let’s say a friend calls you up and says, “I’ve just been diagnosed with Mortimer’s disease.” She ...Adhering to good design principles is one of the fundamental tenets of success for any startup and the UX associated with the Beatles' initial launch on iTunes should give you a fair indication of what to look forward to in the foreseeable future. Following the current trend, while 2010 may have been the breeding ground for the idea that simpler web design is better, 2011 takes it one step forward by boldly declaring: Keep it simple, unique and creative.Long gone ...
Google Instant Preview is a relatively new feature on the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). When a user hovers over a search result, Instant Preview displays a large image preview of the webpage that a search result will link to. It sounds simple, but it adds a whole new dimension of information for searchers deciding on what search result to click through to, and could have an immense impact on the way sites are designed from this point onward.The ...
User testing (UX) is a fundamental component of the web development process. It is conducted as a matter of course in the US, UK and other developed economies during the development of any large website. In emerging markets, the entire field of Usability is still relatively small, and user testing is infrequently conducted. It doesn’t have to be like this, and it shouldn’t be.Let’s begin by taking a look at the kind of situations that warrant user testing, ...
Seesmic Desktop 2 (SD2) is the new social media client on the block. It professes to be a desktop client from which "you can engage with various social media channels and accounts with power and ease". This article will look at three main areas of functionality to judge if it lives up to its promise.The Main Feeds Interface
On first impressions the interface appears slick and minimal. Three tabs divide the functionality within the app into ‘All’, ‘Accounts’ and ‘Userlists’. Each ...
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