UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
July//19//2024
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Crafting Sustainable E-Commerce Experiences. This is a very relevant and pertinent article from author Anna Rátkai on the topic of sustainability in Design, particularly in the E-Commerce arena. The article is a sound reflection on the topics of consumerism, and how Design plays a role in enhancing it, and how do we create a more sustainable future moving forward, by achieving a balancing act of not reinforcing dark ux patterns (such as continuing to push aspects as scarcity, urgency, forced action, social proofing, obstruction, misdirection, sneaking), while still creating solutions that are significant and impactful for users. Going back to the principles of Design, there’s a balancing act between creating products that are honest, long lasting, and clear. Avoiding manipulating users is indeed a goal that Design in particular, and Organizations in general should aim to achieve and attain. Highlight of the article includes:
“To achieve truly sustainable e-commerce, designers must shift from encouraging impulse purchases to supporting thoughtful decisions. Instead of using persuasion, gamification, and deception to boost sales, we should use our design skills to provide users with the time, space, and information they need to make mindful purchase decisions. I call this approach Kind Commerce.”
2.
Web Accessibility Initiative. Always important to revisit this article on the topic of Accessibility that the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) continues to promote and advocate for. As the WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) keeps moving, it’s worth revisiting what this means for the standards that are being procured/established, and how they can impact how users can access web driven products. Highlight of the article includes:
“Harmonization of Web accessibility standards is key to making an accessible Web, because it creates a unified market for authoring tools that produce conformant content. This unified market in turn drives more rapid development of improved authoring tools. Improved authoring tools make it easier to create accessible Web sites, and to repair previously inaccessible sites; for instance, by prompting for accessibility information such as alternative text for graphics, captions for audio, or summaries for data tables. Widespread availability of improved authoring tools can enable accessible design to become the prevailing design mode even for Web developers only minimally aware of the rationale for Web accessibility, or disinclined to learn guidelines and techniques for accessibility.”
3.
Making Research Outputs Actionable. Not something I typically do in the newsletter, but I’d like to highlight my latest article on amplifying the footprint of research outputs. It’s a topic that I believe needs far more attention, since while many organizations have grown to understand the power behind Qualitative Research, the challenge of what to do with these outputs & findings still remains. I’ve documented recommendations on how to set a strategy in motion, and be a catalyst for change when it comes to leveraging these findings. Hopefully this will resonate with the readers.
