UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
May//20//2022
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Web Design in 2022. Interesting article from The Web Designer Depot and author Rebekah Carter on the state of Web Design in 2022. The article itself functions as a reminder of where that discipline currently lies, and also lists an inventory of parameters essential for Web driven products to function properly. It warrants an additional look at Smashing Magazine’s article on Quality Assurance on the web, which focuses on aspects such as Perception/Visibility/Technical/Content/Services, as informative factors of what makes Web driven products effective. Highlight of the article includes:
“When we lose conversational fidelity, our brain’s survival circuits activate and fill in all the gaps in the communication with negative assumptions, leaving us prone to misinterpret someone’s message. There are times, however, when real-time communication isn’t an option, especially for fully remote companies with people spread all across the world. In that case, consider using a tool like Loom to give your feedback, or you could even record an audio message on your phone and upload that. In doing so, you still retain your tone and give them some body language to work off of. Failing that, you’ll need to work a little harder to ensure things are taken well. Remember, you’re losing a lot of fidelity here, so you’ll need to compensate.”
2.
Neurodiversity and Inclusion. Author Sophie Clifton-Tucker has writen a brief but insightful article on the topics of inclusivity and accessibility. The article sheds light on some of the techniques that are being used to bring more inclusivity to digital products/solutions, while also listing additional resources for readers to explore further (including links for the UK’s government for Design Principles, Safe colors, to name but a few). For those wanting to read more on the topic, here’s an article from 2017 published by The Smashing Magazine on that topic. Well worth a read. Highlight of the article includes:
“Dyspraxia affects an individual’s movement and coordination. Dyspraxic people, too, can suffer from sensory overload, so avoid busy screens with too many graphics or a lot of text. Some colour contrasts can also prove tricky, particularly black text on a white background. Dyspraxic people can also be highly creative, empathetic, and unique thinkers, which is also true of other neurodivergent people.”
3.
Design Thinking and Agile. Hailing from the Marvel App Design Blog, this article written by Matt Cooper-Wright in 2016, is still as pertinent and relevant as it was upon its original launch. The author discusses not only considerations on Design Thinking and Human Centered Design, but also how Agile, and its focus on continuous improvement, allows for this relationship between the Understand/Explore/Materialize chapters to actually become a reality. Well worth reading. Highlight of the article includes:
“Software development in general doesn’t have a ‘synthesis’ stage. Often the learnings from the last iteration are the direct input for the next iteration. It’s common for requirements to be collected and then, at best, prioritized before work commences. Design Thinking is better at taking learnings and then spotting patterns to make an informed leap to something new. This mysterious process of synthesis is possibly more unique to IDEO than we realize.”
