UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
July//16//2021
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Accessibility. Accessibility is always a topic worth revisiting, essentially since it’s a fundamental quality of Good Product Design/Product Experience (alongside qualities to be: Useful, Usable, Findable, Desirable and Credible). It’s also a topic that to this day, and with the ongoing movements for inclusivity, always gets somewhat sidelined. This article from Todd Libby, courtesy of Smashing Magazine, focuses on aspects such as color contrast, hierarchy of items, proper tagging in code, keyboard navigability, voice assistance components, interaction paradigms, among many other others. Well worth the read. Highlight of the article includes:
“Being accessible is a good way for a company to differentiate itself from other companies, when you make a quality product, then the company buy-in becomes greater in some instances. Teams that push for accessibility usually lead the way to getting buy-in from other departments and executives. If the product is high quality and makes the company money, that’s when the company is swayed to adopt the practice. Demonstrations of live testing with disabled users are also another way to get buy-in across the board. To humanize the decision-making process and get executives and colleagues on board by showing them what struggles are faced on a daily basis by disabled users using inaccessible products. Or one that I have used in the past, don’t ask, just do it.”
2.
Interview with VP of Design, May-Li Khoe. Interviews with seasoned design professionals are always in themselves rewarding to witness and read about. Each professional has very different trajectories, strategies, points of view, and ultimately insights on the industry, technology, processes and career growth. May-Li Khoe, VP of Design at Khan Academy provides a very interesting view of her goals, in terms of the Design practice in her organization, its relationship with other disciplines and professionals, and how her own experience across different organizations, influences and shapes the best practices she puts in place with her own team. Highlight of the article includes:
“The team also needed to understand that the design system didn’t just have to be flexible for external users. “A design system is designed for multiple audiences,” May-Li explains. “But it’s a big challenge to design a system that also works for and gets adopted by the people that build the marketing pieces and product. Designing a system that is just constrained enough but flexible enough to not feel like it cramps everybody’s creativity is really hard. You need to help your team understand where they can add little details and flourishes that keep things fun and keep the creative juices running, and where they maybe shouldn’t break the rules.””
3.
Qualitative and Quantitative Studies. Another insightful and educational article from the Nielsen Norman Group, on different types of Usability Testing that can be performed. This article details both Qualitative and Quantitative methods, thoroughly explaining their usefulness, their premises, and how to be effective both running them and getting value from them. It’s as usual, succinct, to the point, and valuable for any team wanting to utilize these methods for validation of their efforts. Highlight of the article includes:
“Quantitative usability studies are usually summative in nature: their goal is to measure the usability of a system (site, application, or some other product), arriving at one or more numbers. These studies attempt to get a sense of how good an interface is for its users by looking at a variety of metrics: how many users from the general population can complete one or more top tasks, how long it takes them, how many errors they make, and how satisfied they are with their experience.
In contrast, qualitative user studies are mostly formative: their goal is to figure out what doesn’t work in a design, fix it, and then move on with a new, better version. The new version will usually also get tested, improved on, and so forth.”
