Visual design dictates how interactive elements look in an interface. It influences the user experience in many ways; for example, it:
affects legibility
creates visual balance on the page
coaxes the eye to move toward certain page elements
directs users toward actions
builds trust and credibility
reinforces the brand
Given its importance, all UX designers (and everyone on crossfunctional development teams) should have at least a baseline understanding of visual design and share a common language. But even proficient UX designers are not always versed in visual design, and few teams are able to create a solid common vocabulary. That difficulty can lead to hours of back-and-forth communication, countless unnecessary...
Quality over quantity is the best rule to follow when putting together your portfolio. Since hiring managers don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to each candidate’s portfolio, it’s best to choose a few of your best projects to showcase from your prioritized list you made in the previous
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
At first, you might think that such an innovation in the field of reverse logistics should not be discussed in a UX article, but many pieces of the user experience are improved by optimizing this backend operation. A traditional UI-only solution to the problem of high demand would be to clearly
4 Ways to Enter the Blockchain Industry
The Internet combined with the decentralized framework of Blockchain now allows anyone in the world to start a business. Anyone — anywhere — will be able to execute transactions securely. Before the Internet, this kind of powerful encryption was inaccessible to many small business
The Future of Blockchain: Technology Partnerships with AI, Bots, and IoT
Although the blockchain can do some amazing things, there are still limitations to this relatively new technology. A Medium article on these limitations listed some of the blockchain’s limitations. These included significant energy consumption during the mining process, scalability problems
Optimizing Business Decisions With Blockchain Technology
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) is the name given to the organizations where decisions are made electronically through the blockchain and smart contracts system.When a business operates in such a system, it is governed by rules established through open voting with the weight of each
Defeated By a Dialog Box
Upon further experimentation, I discovered another way of getting rid of the options box: uncheck the checkbox marked "Show options dialog." This, of course, completely violates the design rules for checkboxes and radio buttons , which are not supposed to have any immediate effect when they are
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UI Copy: UX Guidelines for Command Names and Keyboard Shortcuts
Commands are the bread-and-butter of applications; because applications often need to offer a large number of features and commands, command names are usually short — there is simply not a lot of space in an application screen to accommodate a lot of long command names. That means there is
7 Tips for Successful Customization
You may want to allow users to select the background color of their interface, but is there adequate payoff or interest in that option to account for the additional cost of implementation? You may want to allow users to move content areas around a page to create a unique experience, but again, it
Creepiness–Convenience Tradeoff
Many people in our research reported being apprehensive at first about technologies due to their perceived creepiness, which caused uneasiness that outweighed the product’s perceived benefits. However, for some of our participants, the uneasiness wore off over time. Eventually, they came to
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
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
How to Recover Abandoned Shopping Carts for WooCommerce Stores
Imagine this: You’ve spent months getting your new eCommerce shop up and running. You set up WooCommerce, installed a bunch of plugins, found a perfect theme, dotted all your i’s and crossed all your t’s on tax compliance, logistics, and customer service. You roll out your beautiful new shop
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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
WP Engine Culture Recognized at Greater Austin Business Awards
The annual Greater Austin Business Awards competition, presented by The Austin Chamber of Commerce, is designed to honor excellence in all aspects of business. In order to promote awareness and perpetuate good practices, the Awards recognize companies and organization in the Austin region for
Troubleshooting Group Ideation: 10 Fixes for More and Better UX Ideas
With looming deadlines, email notifications, and text messages competing for attention, it can be hard to keep everyone in the session focused on ideation. Even when teammates manage to stay on task, their engagement in the session can be diminished by the stress of other priorities waiting at
The Sketch Test: Test and Improve Your UX Deliverables and Other Documents
Conduct audience-based testing in order to increase understanding of UX deliverables such as documentation, infographics, wireflows, and data visualizations. Do a quick sketch test: provide a printed copy of your deliverable, recruit a representative colleague, and ask them to explain to you what
Accordions for Complex Website Content on Desktops
Accordions may seem to be a good solution for shortening long content pages. However, in many situations when all the page content is relevant to users, it is more advantageous to show all the content at once, even if doing so results in longer pages. On the desktop it is easier to simply scroll
How To Secure Your IoT Devices And Why Should You Do It
Since 2015, when the IoT devices started to become more and more popular, the technology has been a controversial subject. Recently, the FBI released a statement through which they warned people in the entire world that these devices can be as dangerous as they are useful. Of course, we had the CIA
Data Science Careers: From Fragmentation to Necessity
Over the past decade — the concept of being a data scientist has become a “normal” occupation title. It is no longer an unusual way to phrase the job description in data analytics. Now this to the industry standard term for a swath of data careers. Data Science. Like any career
Is Your Chief Security Officer Prepared for M&A?
We have all put trust in standards and compliance to be our safety net, but compliance is only as good as the cadence it honors, the parties who spend time reviewing them and the depth to which the standards go. I always consider why a standard was created and whom it’s intended to protect. All
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
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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
Technical Writers are Vital for Technology Startups
Do you need an operational manual? Hire a technical writer. How about a Disaster Recovery Plan for critical applications? A technical writer can write this with the help of subject matter experts and strategic stakeholder interviews. These are the writing gurus that interview your tech team to
Visual Design Terms Cheat Sheet | Visibility of System Status
Visibility of System Status
Even when users cannot see the effect of an action because the system does not have a screen (like is the case for voice-only devices such as Amazon Echo and Google Home), a minimum feedback that the command was heard is essential. Amazon’s Echo displays a ring of light on the device to indicate
Back-to-Top Button Design Guidelines
The popularity of responsive web design has led to a proliferation of single-column, long-page designs both on mobile and desktop. A consequence of these designs has been the Back to Top button, which is a shortcut that allows users to quickly navigate to the top of the page. When users get at the
No More Pogo Sticking: Protect Users from Wasted Clicks
The tool needed to find this data may be named differently in various web-analytics platforms, but it should be available in each of them. Analyzing specific navigational paths within a website can be a time-consuming task, so it is best to first identify those pages that are candidates for pogo
