UI/UX Articles And Interesting Tidbits Of The Week
October//18//2019
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.https://theblog.adobe.com/why-does-modern-design-look-the-same
Visual Design Sameness. Interesting article hailing from the Adobe blog. This topic, while not a novelty, focuses on the fact that Visual Design/Interface Design solutions, have become homogeneous across a variety of solutions and products. This is something the article ponders, but it also goes beyond that and insinuates that this mindset has permeated across the strategy applied by Design professionals when contemplating solutions. It’s an interesting article and podcast. Highlight of the article includes:
“In the early days of the web as we know it, web designers were very much ‘making it up as they went along.’ They turned to the offline world for inspiration (clicking a loudspeaker icon to play a sound file, for example). In evolving our design practices, designers created a digital visual language of their own.”
2.hhttps://www.brandly.com/blog/when-brand-identity-goes-wrong-5-embarrassing-mistakes/
Accessible Color Systems. Extremely thorough case study, detailing the approach of how an accessible color systems was achieved for an organization. It’s a fascinating in-depth view of how color plays such a pivotal role on UI Definition (and quantifiable success), but also of the variables, including internal team member discussions and testing, which can go into it and influence the outcome. Highlight of the article includes:
“Color contrast is an important aspect of accessibility. Good contrast makes it easier for people with visual impairments to use products, and helps in imperfect conditions like low-light environments or older screens. With this in mind, we recently updated the colors in our user interfaces to be more accessible. Text and icon colors now reliably have legible contrast throughout the Stripe Dashboard and all other products built with our internal interface library. Achieving the right contrast with color is challenging, especially because color is incredibly subjective and has a big effect on the aesthetics of a product. We wanted to create a color system with hand-picked, vibrant colors that also met standards for accessibility and contrast.”
3.https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2019/10/how-to-use-proven-industry-data-to-guide-your-clients/
Data and Guidance. An interesting article from the always insightful Suzanne Scacca. This article focuses on strategies and tools available to Designers and Design Teams, to communicate with clients, diverse shareholders, when there’s conflicting expectations and data being exchanged. These tools allow for a more straightforward and analytical approach to the discussion of which path to take when it comes to devising product solutions. Highlight of the article includes:
“For someone who builds websites day in and day out, it makes sense to watch industry insights closely. For your clients, though, it might not. That’s because they come from a place where they make business decisions based on internal data — data about their audience, their location, their product, etc. They might use industry analytics as benchmarks, but not to drive something as important as their company’s direction. Let’s take a look at why this issue might arise and how you can overcome it by showing how analytics from a website paired with industry data is the best solution for designing a website.”
