UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
January//21//2022
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Voice Assistants. Interesting article hailing from The Next Web on the topic of Voice Assistants, and how their proliferation is impacting users habits. The article highlights the fact that while these Natural Language Processing driven experiences still need to continue their evolution, in order to truly partner with what users want and need to do, some of the issues the current products suffer includes lacking integration between these different platforms. The article also highlights new voice assistants such as Blutag, Instreamatic, and Disruptel. Well worth reading through. Highlight of the article includes:
“Voice assistants have several decades of history. But it wasn’t before 2011, when Apple introduced Siri, that they became widely available. Since then, the market has been growing rapidly. Microsoft and Amazon respectively released Cortana and Alexa in 2014. Google released its Assistant in 2016. And Samsung released Bixby in 2017. Not all of them have been equally successful, but they have brought about a change of culture in the way people use their devices. More than 50 percent of U.S. households now own a smart speaker. According to some estimates, 128 million people in the U.S. are using voice assistants. Voice accounts for a considerable portion of online searches, and more than 50 percent of searches for local businesses. And voice assistant usage is growing in cars and other settings where users rather not be looking and interacting with a screen.”
2.
ProtoPie Design System. Case studies are always a type of article I like to showcase. They’re grounded in reality, detailing actual challenges, as opposed to being articles that mostly document theoretical or aspirational concepts that are amply discussed but never truly applied. While this article also serves as a promotional tool for ProtoPie, it is a demonstration of the process of crafting a robust Design System, the numerous variables to account for when establishing this foundational language, and the reasoning behind all of the components highlighted. Highlight of the article includes:
“We made sure to continuously explain these guidelines and changes to all the teams involved in updating our design system, from designers to engineers. Whenever they had questions or queries, we took the time necessary to explain our thinking — and to communicate how these changes would have a positive impact on our users. These guidelines — from the basics of our elements and the rationale behind each style, all the way to steps to further expand the design system — serve to form a consensus between our teams and solidify the design principles that we had previously established.”
3.
Maximizing an MVP. Interesting article from Joe Procopio, courtesy of Inc. Magazine, on the topic of enhancing what an MVP actually is. The author proposes looking at 5 essential questions, to understand how well crafted that product solution actually is, including: does the customer actually need that product, can the product be used and delivered without friction, and will the market accept this product, to name but a few. It’s an article that asks for a solid reflection from Organizations and their teams, particularly when it’s time to assess if an MVP is making sense with what the users and the market and general are claiming for. Well worth a read. Highlight of the article includes:
“There will be one of three outcomes of your viability test. Rarely, you’ll see an unqualified success. Sometimes, you’ll be met with total failure. Most of the time, the results are inconclusive. So to give your MVP its best chance of moving on to actual version 1.0, define what makes it a success, in terms of customer adoption, revenue, margin, and profit. Then set expectations for what determines a success and a failure. Anything that falls in between those two thresholds means you’ll need to readdress the feature set, which is time-consuming and expensive. So make sure the area in between success and failure isn’t too wide, and prepare yourself to move forward with version 1.0 if you succeed or pack it all in and go home if you fail.”
