UI/UX Articles And Interesting Tidbits Of The Week
November//29//2019
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Productivity Style. Interesting article on the topic of increasing productivity, hailing from the always reliable magazine, Fast Company. The article bases itself on the book by author Paula Rizzo, who identifies particular options which allow for increased productivity, such as understanding when an individual works best (times of the day), accountability (being accountable to someone as a catalyst for increasing focus) and also productive environments (what context best highlights your productivity), to name but a few. Well worth the read and the reflection. Highlight of the article includes:
“For some people, setting a deadline can help you be more productive. “If I know I’m working on this project from 11:30 to 12:30, for example, I can focus enough to say ‘I’m only doing this now,’” says Rizzo. “Put it on your schedule. Preplanning with deadlines can help you be more productive.” Working with deadlines requires that you know how long tasks take, which takes some time tracking. “Set a timer down to the minute,” suggests Rizzo. “As a TV producer, I’m very in tune with how long 30 seconds is. Taking time to figure out how long something takes will help you dictate where to put it on your schedule. Not knowing how long it takes to do tasks is what gets people stopped up.””
2.
Transparency in Design. From author Scott Welliver, and Abstract’s Blog, comes an interesting article on the topic of Transparency in Design. It’s not necessarily a new topic or something that hasn’t been tackled before (I wrote an article on this back in 2016, which you can find here), but it’s a testament to the fact that achieving Transparency, and therefore an integration of efforts from Design through other teams and Departments within an Organization, continues to be essential for successful endeavors, team integration, and overall reinforcement of the applicability of what the essence of Design Thinking is all about. Highlight of the article includes:
“Building a common language with the rest of your company can inspire trust as you work toward an open design framework. Jenifer Sessums, Fannie Mae’s Director of Experience Design, worked with her design leadership team to bring innovation training for the company’s design teams. The training didn’t stop just at design, because rarely is design the only group that can usher innovation. Jenifer’s teams joined others across the organization and trained with the LUMA Institute (thanks to the efforts of her colleague Aza Damood). “By going through the LUMA Institute program, everyone in and outside of design is coached on design thinking practices. This created a common vocabulary for us,” Jen says.”
3.
Contract for the Web. It’s not much of a shocking statement these days to announce the world is in a constant state of upheaval. That may have always have been the case, but the age of information has made matters that much more aware for everyone who lives in this global village. This highlight, The Contract for the Web, is a document that aims to register the intentions underlying the democratization of a tool such as the Internet. It’s a contract documented from the perspective of Governments, Companies and Citizens, something well worth a read, for its intentions, powerful statements, and above all, for the sentiment of unity and global parity of access that sustains it. Highlight of the article includes:
“Engaging in national and international multi-stakeholder dialogues and mechanisms to ensure the maintenance of uninterrupted internet connections and promoting a Web that is not restricted by public policy at borders.
Engaging in transparent and documented coordination with private sector actors to ensure that any attempts to restrict access to the internet are necessary and rely on means that are proportionate to achieving a legitimate end, while minimizing the unintended side-effects of legitimate actions on third parties.
Researching and documenting the cost of service interruptions to the national economy, business and users.”
