UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
May//14//2021
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Designing for Cognitive Bias. Great article and interview with author David Dylan Thomas, on the topic of Cognitive Bias, and how it impacts solutions. The author details factors such as Serial Positioning Effect, Framing Effect, Loss Aversion, among many others, many of which actually have ties with Gestalt Principles and quite a few of the Laws of UX. Well worth reading and reflecting upon, since users perception of a product, influence not only their usage, but also their willingness to commit to a long standing relationship. Highlight of the article includes:
“Before you even do any research, you should make a map of who is involved — users, stakeholders, and anyone else who would be impacted by your product — and how much power they have,” David suggests. “You then identify the group who cares most about the outcome and give them more power. Go to them for research but also follow up and get them to collaborate on the design. Give them the power that you usually reserve for a CEO or a key stakeholder. There’s something very democractic about handing the final say to the people who are going to be most impacted.”
2.
Challenging Design Patterns: Birthday Pickers. Interesting article from Vitaly Friedman, courtesy of Smashing Magazine, on the topic of Form Design and specifically data pickers. While the article has some debatable affirmations, it’s nonetheless a thorough exploration of frustrating Design Patterns, such as data pickers. These components, which can appear across a variety of scenarios and product experiences, also have a variety of implementation venues, which typically translates into more or less successful experiences for users, depending on which platform they’re working with. It’s definitely worth reading through and understanding some aspects such as inline validation, error parsing, multi-platform experiences, to name but a few. Highlight of the article includes:
“In my own experience, forms are the most difficult aspect of user experience. There are so many difficult facets from microcopy and form layout to inline validation and error messages. Getting forms right often requires surfacing back-end errors and third-party errors properly to the front-end and simplifying a complex underlying structure into a set of predictable and reasonable form fields. This can easily become a frustrating nightmare in complex legacy applications and third-party integrations.”
3.
How to Spot Toxic Management. Once again, not a typical highlight of this newsletter, but as we collectively navigate an ever altering job market, it’s worth reading this insightful article on how to detect possibly toxic workplaces. The article focuses on aspects which can be detected on Management in general and Managers in particular such as, Empathy levels, Ability to trust and delegate, Vision, reliability and stress management, to name but a few. Researching companies, asking the right questions, can be instrumental in making informed decisions. Highlight of the article includes:
“To help you to identify gangrenous companies, it is worth looking at staff turnover, which can be a good indicator as to what is happening internally. How long does the average employee stay with the company? What caused the last people to leave? There are other indicators of an unhealthy environment such as a lack of personal development opportunities, excessive working hours or an unclear hierarchy. If you are in any doubt, contact some former employees to get their advice and some concrete feedback.”
