Puzzles of Thirst: A man dies of thirst in his own home. How's this possible? And can UX help?
Reflections on Google’s New Multi-Screen World Study
How many times do you work on your computer during the day? What about your tablet? How often do you pick up your phone to do a quick internet search or find a store nearby? Do you play on your phone while watching TV?
Google asked these questions in their study "The New Multi-Screen World Study: Understanding Cross-platform Consumer Behavior," published in 2012.
Why am I talking about this on a UX blog? Because there are some incredibly valuable lessons to be learned about when and how people view your website/app/thing-you-designed-to-be-viewed-on-a-screen.
Dr. Grace Murray Hopper - UX Pioneer
Perhaps, if you are an inquisitive geek or fond of history, you have heard of Dr. Grace Murray Hopper. I think I may have heard the name in passing at one time or another, but the name didn't mean much to me until the other day when I read a section in this book to my daughter:
Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women
Wherein I realized that Grace Hopper is the most awesome role model ever for a woman following her dreams in the user experience field.
Find UX Events
Looking for UX events? Check out Find UX Events. Their motto is "Helping UX Professionals find UX Events" and they certainly live up to it with events across the globe and even events in 2015.
If you'd like to see or hear previous conference presentations visit UXMastery's list of UX Conferences for materials.
Fruity Cone: the Food Trailer of the Future
During Aquent Gymnasium's Coding for Designers, the instructor often encouraged us to expand on and practice ideas presented in the class. One assignment was to code the home page for a restaurant website based on a Photoshop comp. Not only did we practice creating pixel perfect CSS, we also learned and experimented with Twitter Bootstrap and Google Web Fonts.
The extra credit assignment for this assignment was to invent our own restaurant and design a Photoshop comp for the desktop version of the home page. Then we had to code the website utilizing Twitter Bootstrap and Google Fonts.
2013 Online Course Wrap-up
Happy 2014! Want to learn something new? Try a free online course!
I've participated in several during the past year. What I've noticed is that online courses have different goals and different audiences depending on the source. Thus you'll get different things out of each one. Here's an overview of the courses I took. See what works for you.
Smart Transitions in User Experience Design
This article from Smashing Magazine is definitely worth reading. It talks about how small interaction details can significantly improve the user experience. And it provides nice animations to demonstrate each concept. Smart Transitions In User Experience Design By Adrian Zumbrunnen
The Skeleton
Every design needs a first draft. Three is even better! Brainstorming different ideas gives you several advantages over just charging down the first path you think of:
- The first idea is probably not going to be the best idea.
- By having several ideas, your ego is not wrapped up in one specific idea. You'll feel free to critique any particular design more, thus improving it.
- You can compare and contrast the different designs. And you can mix and match parts from each.
Not Just Telling Stories
Lately, it seems like my life has been filled with stories, tellers of stories, promoters of stories, and promoting with stories.
First, and most obvious, having a child in the house leads to lots and lots and lots of stories. And as I tell these stories, whether from a book or my head, I find myself asking whether the story I'm telling sends the right message. Does it teach my child a life lesson that is important? Does it teach good coping mechanisms?
Does the story show how to be an adaptable, compassionate and thoughtful person by example?
Interaction Design Foundation
Calling all current and aspiring Interaction Designers! I just found a spiffy resource for you:
Open educational materials - made by the world's design elite
That tagline is certainly calling my name!
They boast quite a collection of open access textbooks to further your design knowledge. There are also videos, research, courses, conferences, a design library, curated toolbox and an educational initiative.
Most of the content is free outright and a few things are free if you join the organization.
It looks promising! I'm heading that way now...