UI/UX Articles And Interesting Tidbits Of The Week
June//12//2020
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Brand Guidelines. I’ve been highlighting more branding related articles recently, primarily because a brand is a very important consideration as Designers tackle Product Design challenges. Secondly these articles, are in themselves a manifestation of not only the consistency, seamless integration, heuristic views Organizations place upon themselves, but also and just as equally important, how they communicate who they are and their values to the world in general and consumers/users in particular. This article in particular, looks at brand guidelines from a while ago. It documents not only the thoroughness that went into these products, but also serves as a reminder of the continuous improvement and refinement of the brand and product narratives, Organizations are continuously doing and deploying. Highlight of the article includes:
“Nowadays brand guidelines are more of an afterthought. Here is how the spacing works, these are the brand colors and please for the love of god don’t place the logo on a messy background. 99% will fit the same template. A lengthy corporate document one rarely wants to look. 40 or 50 years ago this was not the case. Brand guidelines used to be beautiful pieces of work which carry the original vision and aesthetic of the author. A sign of an era where visual identities were crafted by world class artists.”
2.
Designing Mixed Reality Experiences. Product experiences are continuously evolving. This very relevant article, sheds light on the topics of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and in particular, Mixed Reality. While quickly succinctly providing definitions on what each one of these avenues contemplates, the author of the article, Grzegorz Wcisło, proceeds to dive deeper into a specific case study, where himself and his team went through the exercise of building Mixed Reality Glasses, and what they learnt from that process. Well worth a read. Highlight of the article includes:
“The essence of VR is full immersion in a virtual world. Whenever a user put a VR headset on, all they can see is a computer-generated ecosystem displayed on the screen inside. They can interact with the virtual environment using head movements and controllers held in hands that can detect motions and button clicks. What’s important is that VR is the most mature of Extended Reality technologies and allows designers to have the most control over what the user sees and experiences — due to full immersion in a digital experience that’s fairly easy to control. Because of that, it has become popular in employee training (especially for high-risk jobs) to simulate conditions or unique training gear. However, VR is most commonly used in gaming where game designers are providing users with more and more interactive ecosystems.”
3.
The Future of Smartphone Interfaces. Hailing from The Fast Company, this article looks at the possible evolution of how we use Smartphones, and essentially how apps may potentially have their days numbered. It’s an interesting reflection on how technology is impacting not only how we communicate, but also our living spaces, and how we can control them more effectively. Well worth a read for the considerations that it poses, while shedding some light on some of Google’s endeavors. Highlight of the article includes:
“Huang points to ease of use, explaining that in the case of turning on a light, you might do so dozens of times a day; a quick tap makes more sense than a verbal command — especially if it’s 3 a.m. and you just want to change your thermostat without shouting to the Google Assistant. Some research has shown that the total number of voice commands people use regularly may be on the decline following an initial spike after the release of the Amazon Echo in 2014, while consumers haven’t embraced any voice-controlled app as a breakout hit.”
