UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
June//4//2021
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Strategies for Self-Onboarding. Great article from Fast Company and author Amy Drader on the topic of self onboarding. I’ve previously written on the topic of Onboarding Designers, but this article goes beyond a specific industry and professional field, and includes sound advice and strategies for when professionals essentially have to onboard themselves. This includes strategic meetings, Seeking Advice and Perspective, Delivering Quick Wins, to name but a few. Essentially, devise a strategy for understanding the business, the teams, the intentions currently going through the business, and how your participation can be effectively leveraged. Well worth a read. Highlight of the article includes:
“What helps people adapt to a new job and workplace the most is time. It is hard in the beginning, especially at that point when you realize how much you don’t know and need to learn. It is more difficult when you are onboarding yourself through it. However, take stock of your skills, strengths, and experience. You were selected for the position because people believe in your ability to be effective in your role. You can do this. It would be great if every organization had a robust onboarding program, but not all do. All is not lost if you are left on your own. By demonstrating initiative, reaching out, asking for advice, delivering small wins, and being patient, you can add value quickly and integrate into your role effectively.”
2.
Insights into Animation in UI. I’ve recently been asked to provide feedback on a particular portfolio from a seasoned Designer. While the quality of the work is not in question, I was puzzled by the fact that literally everything on the portfolio, including navigational menu, imagery, to the actual content of this person’s case studies, all the elements were animated. Everything. Aside from the issues of performance, it also forced me to actually wait for everything to progressively load, becoming cumbersome from a time perspective, and also fracturing my ability to parse through the content in a linear fashion. When utilizing animation in UI, be it micro-animations, or transitions, it’s important to keep in mind the experience that is being provided to users. This article allows some considerations to be brought forth, including factors such as pertinence of use, duration, technical virtuosity, to name but a few. Well worth a read. Highlight of the article includes:
“You’re all happy that you’ve got your animation’s purpose but hold on! The game doesn’t end there. For animation to serve the intended purpose, it has to comply with a few significant things to be great. One of them is its duration and speed. It’s been found that the optimal duration for a UI animation should be between 200 and 500ms. Click and hover animations should be on the lower spectrum of the above-mentioned duration, whereas animation spanning over a large portion of the screen or whole screen transitions will be on the higher one. Also, do not use motion blur. Just don’t. That is for animation used in different places.”
3.
Support Teams and Prototypes. Interesting article hailing from the Marvel Blog and author Lydia Koh. While the article aims to promote Marvel’s prototyping capabilities and virtuosity, which I subscribe to since I am a paying customer, what this article indeed illustrates, is the relevance of early prototypes and validations, to gather feedback, morsels of information, which can make all the difference when actually going through a Product/Feature Design exercise. I’ve recently written an article on this precise topic, early validation efforts. This article in particular looks at how Marvel redesigned their Help Center, and the importance Prototypes (and even ones with animated GIFS) played in that role. Highlight of the article includes:
“Last but not least, we used prototypes as part of the redesign of our Help Centre. Prototypes are a great way to showcase a new design to your users, even if the product is not completely ready. They get to have a first glimpse of your product and input to the final outcome. While you get input from users to improve your design before shipping! When we decided to redesign our Help Centre, we followed the same process as if it were a page or feature in Marvel being redesigned. Like any good design process, we followed a systematic step-by-step process, involving prototypes: Identify user pain points; Design wireframe prototype in Marvel; Use Marvel User Testing to collect feedback; Design low-fidelity prototype in Marvel based on feedback; User test again; Design high-fidelity prototype for final approval; Use Developer Handoff to share the design with others; Commit to code!”
