UI/UX Articles And Interesting Tidbits Of The Week
April//3//2020
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Building Trust with Remote Teams. Remote work, which has been a reality for many teams and organizations, has become prevailing in the interim, with the drastic change brought in by the Pandemic. This article perfectly illustrates how Remote Work is a viable, productive and effective solution for many teams. The article anchors itself on demonstrating how remote work can be successful by focusing on topics such as: Transparency, Knowing your Teams, Setting Expectations, Output versus Time Spent and Automation. Featuring some advice from actual teams on the market, this is well worth a read. Highlight of the article includes:
“I think there’s an opportunity here to learn how to be a manager that values output, not time-in-seat. To me, the value of remote work is that trust and that ability to empower every person to manage their time, to manage their days and their responsibilities around an output. We make a promise to each other: I’m gonna deliver on this thing, and if I can’t deliver it to you, I’m going to communicate why. Natalie thinks this should be applied to office settings, too, but that it’s necessary with remote work. Once you’ve been working remotely long enough, it becomes second nature: time-in-seat isn’t a metric anymore. Ultimately, employees are held accountable for the work they do, not the hours they work.”
2.
When Trends Become Too Popular. Very interesting reflection hailing from Smashing Magazine, and author Suzanne Scacca. Succinctly, the article focuses on the fact that trends in web products, can be a decoy or a gratuitous element to elicit response from a client/user, but may not be the most strategic or most pertinent solution for the problem at hand. It’s a reflection that touches on topics such as homogenization of solutions, lack of perspective/understanding the problem, and easy diagnostics/solutions. Highlight of the article includes:
“When we overdo it by leveraging the same design trends as everyone else, we put our websites at risk of becoming redundant or, worse, invisible. So, how do we establish a cutting edge if we can’t make use of design “jargon”? The truth is, there’s no one clear-cut answer. You need to be able to read the room, so to speak, and figure out which approach is best for you. You could leave the passing trend alone, you could adopt it temporarily or you could make it your own.”
3.
Visual Design Language. Another interesting article published by Smashing Magazine. This article in particular focuses on the topic of Visual Design Language, particularly how it applies to an organization such as Huawei. The author explains the process by which that particular Visual Language was built, alluding to processes of Research, understanding markets and users, while also discussing questions such as implementation, and the extents to which the VDL should extend itself and the Brand which it supports. Worth a read for the case study itself. Highlight of the article includes:
“When working on visual language, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of who you’re designing for and how they perceive your brand. Ideally, brand identity (the way the brand wants to be perceived by users) should match with the brand image (the way users actually perceive the brand). Designers have a direct impact on brand identity. Aesthetic styles, language & tone, iconography, and illustrations — all these are elements of brand identity.”
