User experience, especially today, is not a siloed practice. To collect knowledge, generate new ideas, and ideate on design solutions, it’s best to bring people together. This job often falls on UX and occurs in the form of workshops for ideation, prioritization of ideas, affinity diagramming, or creating empathy maps and numerous other design artifacts. All these team activities are usually facilitated by UX professionals.
The facilitator’s responsibility is to make sure that the time spent in activities or exercises is as productive as possible for participants — clients, stakeholders and other team members —and generates the insights needed to move your project forward.
Click rate on the new menu link: How many users actually click on the new menu link or icon and, thereby, expose the tier-1 sections of the site? A low click rate on the menu could indicate a problem, but only when also accompanied by high overall bounce rate across the site (see above), indicating
Each step in the scenario is represented visually in a sequence. The steps can be sketches, illustrations, or photos. Depending on the purpose of the storyboard and on its audience, these images can be quick, low-fidelity drawings or elaborate, high-fidelity artifacts. Images include details
On the Kohler site, participants’ eyes gravitated towards the upper left area containing the KOHLER Worldwide icon and dropdown, and the BATHROOM menu. Some alternated looking at each of these items a few times (also an example of exhaustive review), before eventually moving their gazes to
2 Billion Downloads Later, Apple’s App Store is Still Going Strong
It would be nice if Apple gave us a better breakdown of the kinds of apps it actually delivers (free vs. paid, games vs. utilities, etc.). This kind of transparency is obviously not in Apple’s DNA, so we depend on data from third-party services like AdMob for this information. According to
Can the blockchain and IoT solve international freight’s issues?
One team has found a novel way to address these inefficiencies and authenticity challenges through the blockchain. In January Dominik Schiener and his team won first prize at the Shanghai Blockchain Hackathon for their project Cargochain. We saw their work recently here in Berlin where they
9 Blockchains Transforming the Way We Pay, Play, and Work
Look past digital currencies’ nosebleed pricing volatility, and you’ll discover a robust, decentralized, secure database. Brands and technologists are quickly figuring out how to put this powerful ledger to good use. Here are several real-world examples that demonstrate cryptos’
Accot-Zhai Steering Law: Implications for UI Design
The Accot-Zhai Steering Law (discovered by HCI researchers Johnny Accot and Shumin Zhai, but also known simply as the Steering Law) is a corollary of Fitts’s Law. The Steering Law is an equation that predicts the efficiency of very common interactions; it describes the particular case of
a model for conducting ux workshops and exercises
Eartracking: A New UX-Research Method
Although humans don’t have floppy ears, our ears don’t visibly turn in the direction of potential dangers or potential food. However, evolution has preserved vestiges of ear-turning muscles, as is clearly demonstrated by anybody who wiggles their ears. Humans have some ability for small ear
The Impact of Interaction Design on Brand Perception
In interactive systems such as websites, the way people interact with the user interface obviously has a strong impact on their feelings about the system. We know that people prefer designs that are easy to use. But as this research shows, the impact of interaction design goes deeper than simple
Radio Buttons: Always Select One?
Power of suggestion (Good): Selecting is directive. Some things to watch out for though are being presumptuous, pushy, offensive, or alienating. Consider the content and the default selection, how users will react to it, and the effect the selection will have on the user and the organization in
Why Personas Fail
Put together an action plan, pitch personas to leadership, analyze prior failures and address corresponding solutions, and communicate the business value of personas to build buy-in. Educate your colleagues, refer to personas in meetings, and solidify their place on your projects. Circle back and
UX Mapping Methods Compared: A Cheat Sheet
Designing and developing a product often involves a large team of people with different backgrounds and experiences who must be on the same page about the project goals, the user needs and behaviors, and even the component processes involved. This common understanding is often built with
Better Link Labels: 4Ss for Encouraging Clicks
The first few words are particularly important due to users’ tendency to scan web pages instead of thoroughly reading every word. To maximize the chance that they will find what they need, frontload links with information-carrying language. Then, the rest of the label text should work to
a model for conducting ux workshops and exercises
Portfolios for UX Researchers: Top 10 Recommendations
If you are changing careers to work in user experience, consider taking on volunteer projects for charities and nonprofits to build your skills. Personal projects can also show research skills: conducting independent research or preparing heuristic analyses of existing products showcase your
Eartracking: A New UX-Research Method
Currently, only 4 computers in the world are fast enough to do eartracking: 2 in the U.S. and 2 in China. Luckily, this distribution allowed us to continue our tradition of testing with both American and Chinese users. After all, we’ve previously found that Chinese users and Western users differ
A Look Back at the WP Engine London Summit .
At the end of September, we held our 2018 WP Engine Summit in Austin, Texas. Last week, agencies, brands, and digital innovators from EMEA came together in London for the WP Engine EU Summit. Attendees discussed the future of digital experiences, Gen Z’s perception of the Internet, and the
Hackathon 2019 Goes Boldly Where No Engineers Have Gone Before
Last week, our first hackathon of the year kicked off with more than a dozen teams and respective projects. After the 48-hour build period was up, those groups presented their cutting edge ideas to a packed audience of WP Engine employees. The presentations lasted an entire day, and only after all
A First Look at WordCamp US .
In less than two weeks, members from the WordPress community around the world will head to Nashville, Tennessee for WordCamp US. This is the second consecutive year that the event has been held in Music City and WordPress community has evolved significantly since 2017. The most anticipated topic of
3 Tips to Convert a Data Science Internship into a Job
Transitioning from an internship into a high-paying career is hard. In the data science world, the competition for employment is intense. While there still are a lot of unfilled roles out there, most of them require something slightly more than just a textbook education. The best way to make the
Why AI and Viztech hold the key to a safer internet
Just a few weeks later in September, the heads of state of the UK, France and Italy met with internet companies at the UN General Assembly in New York to discuss the issue. In a speech ahead of the meeting, UK Prime Minister Theresa May threatened the internet giants with huge fines if they could
Security Teams Need to Be Prepared With an Incident Response Plan
A true security incident refers to something that could negatively impact information security objectives like confidentiality, integrity, or availability. When something in the system triggers an alert or looks unusual, security teams need to have a protocol in place to diagnose, act on, and
Importance of Application Software
In tech-savvy times, applications have become a daily part of our lives, from music to data we take help of applications for almost everything we do for example shopping, music, traveling, food and even business. when it comes to businesses, these days they are increasing in size, complexity, and
a model for conducting ux workshops and exercises
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Melissa Hathaway came across our radar recently when President Obama tasked the former Bush administration aide with leading a 60-day review of Bush’s Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative; a largely classified, purported $30 billion, multi phase plan to address cybersecurity issues
7 Business Killers — Thoughts Startups Ought to Consider
No one needs to settle for a dimmed existence due to a lacking sense of self-worth. Many business startups individuals can buy into thoughts that there is something wrong with them. Some feel that they, personally, are somehow inadequate, not good enough and not worthy of being a competitor. These
A Model for Conducting UX Workshops and Exercises | Nielsen's Law of Internet Bandwidth
Nielsen's Law of Internet Bandwidth
Nielsen's law is similar to the more established Moore's law. Unfortunately, comparing the two laws shows that bandwidth grows slower than computer power. Moore's law says that computers double in capabilities every 18 months, which corresponds to about 60% annual growth. As shown in the table
Empathy Mapping: The First Step in Design Thinking
Some of these quadrants may seem ambiguous or overlapping — for example, it may be difficult to distinguish between Thinks and Feels. Do not focus too much on being precise: if an item may fit into multiple quadrants, just pick one. The 4 quadrants exist only to push our knowledge about users and
Give Thanks for Good UX
What do these user experience improvements have in common? Nothing at first sight: a bunch of disparate technology platforms and user tasks. But look deeper, and we see that the designs are targeted at overcoming quite specific user pain points at opportune moments. Once these solutions are pointed
