UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week

February//22//2019

Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!

1.https://icons8.com/articles/web-usability-above-fold-design/
Usability and Content Above the Fold. Interesting article focused on the importance of being strategic about content placement above the fold. This article is particularly relevant not just for web driven products, but in more encompassing strategic considerations, when determining how content is placed and the impact, readability and effectiveness of the message being conveyed to users. Highlight of the article includes:

“With the advancements in responsive web designing, the folds for different sizes of devices is almost the same. As per Optimizely, an average fold line that all the web designers have agreed upon is at approximately 1000 pixels wide and 600 pixels tall. This is the best scenario where the screen resolution is 1024*786 pixels, with browser window maximized and no installed toolbars. There are many online tools to determine this fold, one of them is a heatmap. Heatmap collects data from real-time users about how they interact with the website and display the results using different colors like dark red showcasing the frequently used part of the page, yellow for the medium used parts and light green for the least used sections.”

2.https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/02/testing-mobile-first-experiences/
A/B Testing for Mobile First Experiences. Another great article from author Suzanne Scacca, focused on A/B testing for mobile experiences. The article is filled with interesting insight, relevant tips and interesting epiphanies, such as understanding how consumers embark on their purchase journey on mobile, eventually decamping on desktop or in person experiences to finalize their purchase experience. This also reinstates the need for truly omnichannel experiences, that rely on qualities such as consistency, optimization, seamless experiences, orchestration and collaboration. Highlight of the article includes:

“Although research on Generation Z as consumers is still relatively new, many suggest that they are going to be true multichannel shoppers. Most of their research will be done on mobile devices, but the preferred shopping experience will be from a computer or in person. Whether or not that’s true for Gen Z, millennials or any other generation of consumer, I think it’s a smart idea to test for this hypothesis. Until your mobile conversion rates are consistently and significantly higher than desktop and in-person conversion, encouraging mobile users to “Save” their progress on your site might be the better design choice.”

3.https://www.cmarix.com/optimising-ux-ecommerce-store-key-tips-consider/
UX for E-commerce Stores. Very interesting article focused on optimization of product experiences on e-commerce platforms. The article includes different factors/considerations, such as Voice Search, Intuitive Navigation (mixed with progressive content disclosure), Sales Funnel Metaphor insights, Performance considerations, among others. Highlight of the article includes:

“A website unfolds the message and its offerings gradually rather than by providing all information and functions at once. This gradual unfolding and accommodating user activities leading to purchases happen through navigation. Remaining at the home page the user may not decide to go for a product at all. But when being informed he can decide for the same. The browsing of products to checking out for purchases, all activities need the customer to navigate and move from one page to another. Now, how intuitively the web store allows the customers to navigate remains to be the most crucial.”