It is a common misconception that design thinking is new. Design has been practiced for ages: monuments, bridges, automobiles, subway systems are all end-products of design processes. Throughout history, good designers have applied a human-centric creative process to build meaningful and effective solutions.
In the early 1900’s husband and wife designers Charles and Ray Eames practiced “learning by doing,” exploring a range of needs and constraints before designing their Eames chairs, which continue to be in production even now, seventy years later. 1960’s dressmaker Jean Muir was well known for her “common sense” approach to clothing design, placing as much emphasis on how her clothes felt...
More guidelines regarding the usability of store finders and locators can be found in the full report available for download. The report contains 58 design guidelines for both desktop and mobile store locators, and is published as a volume of the e-commerce UX report series but can also be read as
Despite the observed change in shopping behaviors, we do not mean to suggest brick-and-mortar shopping is dead. On the contrary, real-world locations are still an important shopping channel. Their relevance in the retail ecosystem is simply changing. People still want to go to the store for many
Journey maps should always be created to support a known business goal. Maps that do not align to a business goal will not result in applicable insight. The goal could be an external issue, such as learning about a specific persona’s purchasing behaviors, or an internal issue, such as addressing
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
How Blockchain Can Solve Major Problems for Gig Economy Freelancers
Ongoing payment issues create marketplaces devoid of freelancers, with talent moving away from platforms that have an unbalanced scale of power. Making matters worse, some companies take advantage of independent freelancers and delay processing payments to gain control of their cash flows. This
Blockchain Beyond Banking
And what does this mean for business? From the looks of it, some existing revenue streams may be threatened as blockchain’s prevalence grows. Banks, for example, may find a good chunk of their transaction fees substantially reduced (or even eliminated) because of blockchain technology replacing
Brand Is Experience in the Digital Age
As his pillaging continued and Blackbeard grew in craftiness, he realized it would be prudent to extend the essence of his menacing nature from afar. He devised a tool to extend his message — an early version of the skull-and-crossbones pirate flag we all know well today. The flag served as
design thinking 101
Brand Vocabulary in the Context of UX: Key Terms Defined
Typically, brands have a set of 3–7 brand attributes, which are well-defined within the context of the organization. In both the Walmart example above and the Spotify example below, the organization has taken time to provide specific definitions for what these potentially vague terms mean for
When and How to Create Customer Journey Maps
Successful journey maps require more than just the inclusion of the “right” elements. Journey mapping should be a collaborative process informed by well-defined goals, and built from research. It requires hard work to keep the process on the right track and to build the buy-in needed to
The Anti-Mac User Interface (Don Gentner and Jakob Nielsen)
Physicists and mathematicians often stretch their imaginations by considering what the world would be like if some of their basic assumptions and principles were violated (for example, see [1]). This has led to new concepts such as non-Euclidean geometry, positrons, antimatter, and antigravity. At
Beyond Usability: 3 User Experiences Reshaping Their Industries
It used to be that you would buy two or three nice outfits to have in your wardrobe and would rotate them for special events. But in today’s era, with social media like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, all your friends will see what you wear, whether they go to the same event or not. And even
Best Application Designs
That we would ever classify a radiology application as "lightweight" defies the imagination, but it's appropriate in the case of VitreaTeach because it focuses on one thing: allowing residents and experienced radiologists to manage images for learning purposes. We might even call it the Pinterest
Cards: UI-Component Definition
Cards are often associated with flat design 2.0: they retain some aspects of the aesthetic of flat design, but reintroduce visual depth as a signifier of clickability. Though the basic concept is older, in the last few years, cards have received a lot of attention in the software-design world, with
design thinking 101
Parallel & Iterative Design + Competitive Testing = High Usability
Once you have all the parallel versions, subject them to user testing. Each test participant can test 2 or 3 versions. Any more and users get jaded and can't articulate the differences. Of course, you should alternate which version they test first, because users are only fresh on their first
Iterative Design of User Interfaces
This paper was written while the author was a member of the Applied Research Division of Bell Communications Research (Bellcore). Data on the home banking and cash register projects analyzed in this article was collected while the author was on the faculty of the Technical University of Denmark and
WP Engine Launches World's First Global Edge Security For WordPress with Cloudflare
Created by the leading brands in WordPress digital experiences and cloud security, WP Engine’s Global Edge Security is a cloud-first, high performance, advanced security solution built on Cloudflare’s intelligent network, providing the best security protection against top Open Web Application
Join WP Engine in Web Week 2018
During Web Week, we encourage our customers to take advantage of this low-stress time of year to create more personalized, dynamic, and better-performing digital experiences. For brands and agencies, this is the perfect time to kick your feet up, re-access, and get creative. It’s the ideal time
StudioPress Theme Spotlight: Altitude Pro .
What is a child theme? A child theme works in combination with the parent theme. With regards to Genesis, child themes serve as a sort of skin that can change the way a theme looks, while relying on the functionality of its parent theme (in this case, Genesis). Child themes offer users the added
Data Privacy Attitudes and Connected Cars: A Deeper Look
Connected cars make it possible for companies and governments to deliver diverse new services using connected car data, so automotive OEMs should look closely at drivers’ data sharing attitudes. Many have already invested in building trustworthy brands, and the next step is to build processes
What does the WPA2 vulnerability mean for IoT?
KRACK shows us we are now living in the new age of exposure. It is a combination of a world of devices that either can’t be updated or cannot have any security software running on them. Since we can’t stop using smartphones, remove all the smart TVs, take away the connected healthcare unit
Has Martech Made Things Too Complicated?
It may not be surprising, then, that the idea underpinning Jebbit — to speak to the consumer directly — came from two founders outside the industry. Coburn and Lacoste, realizing that most marketers today rely on third-party data, researched the inaccuracies of third-party data and the problems
For Startups, a SaaS Solution is an HR Killer App
Every startup wants to become the next market unicorn. That means that no two startups are likely to do things the same way, or have the same needs in an ATS system. Bullhorn Staffing and Recruiting offers an ATS solution that covers all the standard bases – and has a robust third-party
design thinking 101
Meet Meural, Fine Art on My Walls at Home
The Meural has lots of software that you can get online to find pretty much anything you would ever want to look at or display. But,the magic is to see how employees have added to this collection of interesting thoughts, pics, and items. Our coworking space friends have added to the art pieces —
E-Commerce Failures and Mistakes: Why do so Many Startups Fail?
Don’t purchase from a company if they don’t have a clear product policy. As a buyer, I always lookout for an accessible and understandable policy. As a seller, make sure your information is precise and understandable. A lot of new e-commerce businesses have no policy, seeing which customers
Design Thinking 101 | The Anatomy of a List Entry
The Anatomy of a List Entry
When users browse a list of options, they want to determine quickly which items are of interest and which they can disregard. Too much information can overwhelm users and create a cluttered appearance. On the other hand, a list entry without enough detail leaves too many questions unanswered
Website Response Times
In a recent study for our work on Brand as Experience (now a full-day training course on branding and UX), we asked users what they thought about various websites they had used in the past. So, their responses were based not on immediate use (as in normal usability studies), but on whatever past
Changes in Web Usability Since 1994
There are still a few users who rarely scroll. Even those users who are willing to scroll may be tempted to choose one of the initially visible options when it seems to match their goals. Such users will never see an even better, but invisible, choice that would have required scrolling. Therefore
