The Concept of Brand: A Lesson from Edward “Blackbeard” Teach
Edward Teach, the pirate better known as Blackbeard, is one of the most infamous pillagers in history. More relevant to our interests, however, is that he was also a man who understood the importance of creating an enduring impression. In short, he understood the value of brand.
Before a siege, Blackbeard dressed himself in a dark heavy coat and captain’s hat to accentuate his domineering stature. He strapped pistols to his chest and tucked lit, smoking fuses under his hat and in his beard to create an image reminiscent of the devil himself having just emerged from some smoky brimstone...
Think of service blueprints as a part two to customer journey maps. Similar to customer journey maps, blueprints are instrumental in complex scenarios spanning many service-related offerings. Blueprinting is an ideal approach to experiences that are omnichannel, involve multiple touchpoints, or
The “users” of your portfolio will be hiring managers, recruiters, or fellow UX professionals, so your portfolio must appeal to these different groups of people. Think about which capabilities you want to showcase and how each group will understand this information. Very rarely will hiring
Why are we willing to sleep in strangers’ beds, or conversely, let strangers into our homes? We do so because Airbnb has established a trusted, secure, and easy to use customer experience. Similar to Rent the Runway, Airbnb is a player in the growing “sharing” economy. The peer-to-peer online
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
She explained that the original design of the Internet was driven more by considerations of interoperability rather than security, and as a result we are now faced with almost insurmountable issues. Some examples include online criminals who steal our information, mass bandits who have the ability
Optimizing Business Decisions With Blockchain Technology
When businesses fail to make better decisions, they are bound to fail. In fact, studies have shown that most firms fail at strategy formulation and execution rather than product development. Simply put, a business may have the best product in the world, but if it fails to make the right
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
Finally, Hathaway sees this as a unique opportunity for the United States to work with countries around the world, and with organizations on an extremely local level. “We cannot succeed if our government works in isolation,” she added. It requires “leading from the top” from
Slider Design: Rules of Thumb
Another major consideration when designing a touch interface is the accessibility of various UI elements. Think about how challenging it would be to interact with a slider control for users with motor difficulties. Would they be able to select a value even close to what they wanted? How much effort
brand is experience in the digital age
Indicators, Validations, and Notifications: Pick the Correct Communication Option
Notifications have the design challenge that they are not the immediate and obvious result of a specific user action. On the contrary, the user is likely in the middle of doing something different and may not be thinking about the issue raised by the notification. This requires notifications to
Instructional Overlays and Coach Marks for Mobile Apps
The Makr iPad app uses a series of tips each time the user reaches a new section of the app. Unfortunately, these tips are overly wordy, and present a multi-step workflow before the user has been able to do anything. Rather than learning-by-doing, users must memorize all of the steps before being
6 Ways Ecommerce Sites Can Compete With Amazon
One user browsing Amazon Daily Deals was frustrated by the poor design of the listing page. She was interested in checking the detail page for a pair of Bluetooth headphones. When she clicked the image of the headphones or the product name, she was asked to sign in. She said, “Why does it make me
Communicating Ecommerce Discounts and Promotions
Sometimes, promotional offers might be subject to qualifiers or restrictions. If that is the case, ensure that the offer clearly indicates what restrictions apply. Link to more detailed information about these conditions if necessary, but do not require users to dig through the fine print to
Let Loyal Shoppers Edit Saved Credit Cards
When a user’s credit card expires, many banks reissue a card with the same number, but an updated expiration date. Allowing the user to update only this information rather than create a new entry, is simpler for the user and better for the site. Out-of-date information is removed, and the update
Design Guidelines for Input Steppers
These 3 mobile screenshots show 3 different approaches to numerical input. American Airlines (left) used a dropdown for selecting the number of passengers. This control required several gestures (select the field, scroll and select the number, then hit Done). Treadmill Run Tracker (center) used a
brand is experience in the digital age
The Sketch Test: Test and Improve Your UX Deliverables and Other Documents
While it is tempting to focus primarily on what the participant says (especially direct suggestions for changes), the observation process can provide equally or even more important insights. Watch for areas of the document that the participant refers to when explaining ideas in order to figure
Dropdowns: Design Guidelines
A while back, as part of a presentation on web-usability methods, we ran a small user test for the audience. When completing a registration page, our test participant had to enter her address on a form with a text field for the name of the street but a dropdown menu for the type of street (Avenue
WP Engine Named a Great Place to Work in Ireland
I had never experienced a work culture as wonderful as the WP Engine culture before,” said Darren O’Dwyer, a Senior Talent Advisor at WP Engine’s Limerick office. “I love it here, the people genuinely enjoy working here, which makes the work environment a great place to be, and we have
WP Engine Named a Great Place to Work in Ireland
Almost three years ago, WP Engine expanded its global presence and opened a second international office in Limerick, Ireland (our first was in London). Known as a city where technology and culture collide, Limerick has been the perfect location for WP Engine to grow and evolve. At its start, the
WP Engine Sales and Customer Service Teams Recognized at The Stevie Awards
The Stevie Awards are a set of hundreds of business awards given annually by the American Business Awards organization. They were created in 2002 to recognize the accomplishments and contributions of companies and business people worldwide. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Stevie Awards are given to
Why the Free Market is our Last Best Hope for Industrial Cybersecurity
Everything in our world is connected to a network. That’s not news to consumers or observers of the emergence of IoT, however today’s ubiquitous connectivity now also applies to all things industrial. Everything from the operational systems that run power plants and factories to elements of
What does the WPA2 vulnerability mean for IoT?
Fortunately, the world as we know it is not going to end for now, but the Izrael notes that KRACK is a proof-of-concept. As patches are now being released, the hope is that it will not be exploited in the wild, but it’s likely that criminals will try. He suggests that for
Hackers are Ready to Exploit Zero-Day Flaws; Companies are Slow to Act
Even devices with existing security systems can fall prey especially if users or administrators aren’t aware of the exploits or fail to apply stop-gap measures to prevent attacks. While not technically in its zero-day period during the Equifax breach, the event illustrates how slow reaction
A 60-Second Trailer of the 60-Day Report on Cybersecurity
She explained that the original design of the Internet was driven more by considerations of interoperability rather than security, and as a result we are now faced with almost insurmountable issues. Some examples include online criminals who steal our information, mass bandits who have the ability
brand is experience in the digital age
Business Loan? Budding Entrepreneurs Raise Their Chances
While getting a business loan application approved by a banker, angel investor, or a private equity (PE) fund has always been a tall order. It has become even more complicated in the last two decades in the aftermath of global economic crises. There has been the subprime crisis (2008), the Eurozone
How to Get Away From a Growth Mindset and Start to Scale
Growth can take a business from one customer to 100, but to get from 100 to 100,000, you’ll need to scale. Growth depends on individual decisions made in the moment, but scaling is built on predictable, repeatable processes designed with efficiency in mind. If you have strong processes, you can
Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age | Top 10 Enduring Web-Design Mistakes
Top 10 Enduring Web-Design Mistakes
Facets and filters define the search space for users, and different criteria help in different contexts. Employees looking specifically for last Tuesday’s PowerPoint presentation on sustainability can benefit from narrowing by document type and date, but also by topic. An ecommerce site might
Customer-Service Information on Websites: The Hub-and-Spoke Model
Although users were generally successful at finding customer-service information on websites, the path to this content was not always straightforward. Many study participants had to work hard to find the information they sought, and this process often included a lot of trial and error as users
Scrolling and Attention
Interestingly, the increase in screen resolution did not lead to a decrease in scrolling, as one might have expected. The reason is probably that designers and developers did not leverage the larger screens, and instead, opted to spread content further apart. For better or worse, users are now
