UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
June//16//2023
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Log Off Experiences. Interesting article from Terry Nguyen for The Verge on the topic of logging off from software applications, and how that process has become progressively more complex or at least, not as straightforward as it should be. In the article Mr. Nguyen interviews User Interface Designers to get a perception if this trend of making the logout experience less transparent is indeed a deliberate wave or just an episodical, specific product occurrence. Much like the dark UX patterns, which includes misdirection, sneaking and forced action, hiding important functions such as this one reveals a misguided product experience, even if the intentions are not as nefarious as some may indicate. Highlight of the article includes:
“The logout button seems to have been rendered practically defunct. I only purposefully sign out of certain accounts when I’m trying to curb my usage of a site or app (usually it’s Twitter or Amazon). Even then, that process isn’t always straightforward. A few months ago, I was using a friend’s laptop to send some emails and realized that I was prohibited from individually signing out of my Gmail account. Doing so would also log my friend out. This is a desktop-specific nuisance that Google has maintained for many years. Instead, I had to use a separate device, like a mobile phone, to revoke account access.”
2.
Designing with Constraints. Great article from Paul Boag for The Smashing Magazine on the topic of Designing solutions with constraints. Constraints are actually one of the principles of Interaction Design, the others being Discoverability, Signifiers, Feedback, Mappings, Mental Models, and Consistency. No product solution can be contemplated without some constraints of a certain nature. The article provides context on how to deal with some of these constraints, namely demonstrating the cost of inaction or even refusal to be flexible. Well worth reading through. Highlight of the article includes:
“Over time, an organization establishes processes and procedures that have been proven to work for them. The bigger the organization, the more standard operating procedures they have, and the more constraints you encounter. Well-established companies become so afraid of losing their position that they become extremely risk-averse, and so place considerable constraints on any project. People succeed in organizations like this by doing what has been done before. This can be problematic for those of us who work in digital because most of what we are trying to do is new. To combat this bias towards the status quo, we need to demonstrate the cost of inaction. Put another way, we need to show management that if they do not do things differently, it will threaten the market position the organization has established.”
3.
The Future of Research and Insights. Great article and interview hailing from the dScout blog, from author Ben Wiedmaier with the focus of the interview being Yakaira Núñez, Vice President of Research and Insights at SalesForce. The interview traces Ms. Núñez’s professional trajectory and goes into considerable attention on where Research is headed, and how her team makes the findings they procure, both actionable and visible. It’s a very pertinent conversation on an essential topic for sensible Product Design journeys. Highlight of the article includes:
“Then the other variable is the makeup of the research team and its ratios. My team’s ratios don’t necessarily map to the way in which the products are built. It’s not because there’s not interest, because there’s plenty of it, but there’s also macroeconomic conditions that don’t often afford researcher teams a lot of headcount. For my team, we are a limited and precious resource. As a consequence of that, only a select few product managers are actually afforded the opportunity to leverage us. Sure, everybody would love to have some research if they had their druthers, right? But prioritization is critical. The scarcity of time, value, and resources means we have to apply our skills to the most important things — those are dictated by the priorities of the business. I have had partners hungry for research insights before embarking upon and their product development life cycle, and I think that’s the ideal state for everyone: timely, relevant, and ongoing insights to inform a solution. But it has to have all of the wrappers around it in order to be viable. It has to have the business buy-in, it has to have the engineering support in order to build the things, build against the findings that we’ve identified in concert with our product leadership.”
