UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
August//9//2024
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
What is Minimum Viable Data. Fantastic article from the Figma blog and authored by Herbert Lui, this documents a fascinating interview with Ovetta Sampson, Director of User Experience Machine Learning at Google. It brings to focus the importance of data, its accuracy and pertinence, as AI and Large Language Models leverage these items in order to perceive patterns, and both created interpretations and even predictions as to what can possibly occur in a variety of different fields. One of her quotes includes: “With generative AI, we can build anything we want just by talking. Now that more of us have been exposed to AI, we’ll realize our place in it. The box is open, and now that people are aware, next comes advocacy.” It’s a great conversation with a plethora of insights. Highlight of the article includes:
“Consider the pool of mortgage data that makes up credit worthiness models in the U.S. The math formula that underlies FICO scores was written in 1958, but women couldn’t buy mortgages or sign for credit cards until the 1970s. Similarly, the oldest data set that we have is the U.S. Census, which began in 1790 and didn’t recognize LGBTQ individuals until 2021. So what happened? Did they exist before that? The worst thing you can do with ML and AI is be careless about the data — the people — you omit. Minimum viable data is a call to product builders to pay attention to the quality of the data a product needs to make its business case, and to consider if ML and AI are the right tools for the challenge. There is no AI and ML without data, and there is no data without people. That data was generated, created, engineered, and transformed by a human.”
2.
Print Advertising Ideas. This article is another one that is atypical for the newsletter, but one worth bringing up, since it illustrates the power of good storytelling, creative thinking, and addressing users/audiences with relevant content. The article from Grace Fussell showcases some examples of some powerful Advertising campaigns, and offers some reasoning as to what made them so resonating. Amongst the brands picked are: McDonald’s, AirBNB, Marmite, Old Spice, and IKEA, to name but a few. It’s a resilient demonstration that knowing your audience and being creative goes a long way in maintaining brand relevance. Highlight of the article includes:
“In 2023, Airbnb was on the lookout for more hosts to add to their ever-expanding selection of homes-away-from home. The result was a campaign called “Airbnb It,” which used animation and isometric illustrations to drive home the idea of a home being easily converted to an Airbnb while the hosts were on vacation. The TV ad spots used quirky animated shorts created by agency Buck, and the stills were translated into cute print advertising to help target these as of yet unconverted audiences.”
3.
Setting Research Priorities. Great article from People Nerds, which documents a conversation from dScout’s Colleen Pate with Greg Marinelli (Executive Director of User Experience Research at JPMorgan Chase) and Dr. Nikki Smith (Experience Research Manager at Enterprise Mobility). It’s a conversation on the topic of making research valuable by making its outcomes actionable, and how business goals and parameters play a fundamental role in deciding what to research and get insights on. Very pertinent and relevant read. Highlight of the article includes:
“I think similarly at JPMorgan Chase, we’re a giant organization. We have close to 300,000 total employees. Having been at Chase now for close to seven years, when I joined, the UX component of Chase was under 100 people, which is still a substantial size. We have about 1,000 UX practitioners now working full-time on Chase products and about 140 researchers specifically. That’s quite a large organization holistically. I will echo Dr. Nikki’s sentiments that one of the reasons that we’re able to be successful is because we have integrated with what we call our “quad partners”. The quad is Design (representing designers, content strategists, and researchers), Product, Tech/Dev, and Data and Analytics. We make decisions together. We think about what types of items we want to research together, what we want to learn together, and what our strategic priorities are together. We’re all working toward a common goal.”
