I attended last week’s Rosenfeld One-Day Virtual Conference of “31 Awesomely Practical UX Tips “ hosted by the UX Toledo Region User Experience Community with TecEd’s Senior UX Consultant Larry Rusinsky.
It was a terrific event, thanks to Keith Instone and other volunteers – over 50 people attended at the Bowling Green State University Levi Commons site. Afterwards Larry and I decided it would be fun to write up all 31 tips, in fact Larry counted 29 of them in his notes. Below is our reconstructed list; we will share more detail on some of the individual tips that were particularly thought-provoking or of note, so look for future blogs!
31 Awesomely Practical UX Tips (by Presenter)
Steve Krug
- Don’t wear white after Labor Day –a rule that does not exist, but people still follow it; analogous to technology changes fast, however people change slowly, so design for that
- Never underestimate how little people actually know
- Always start by testing other people’s stuff
- Focus ruthlessly on fixing the worst problems first
- Remember: Clarity trumps everything
Our TedEd Takeaway: Do not let the difficulty of recruiting your target audience make you avoid usability testing. Just test!
Whitney Quesenbery: Making Content Better for Everyone
- Think accessibility first
- Have a conversation with the audience
- Break down walls of words – make content digestible, easy to consume.
- Recognition, not recall – it helps when users intuitively know what to do instead of having to rely on their memories.
- Describe images meaningfully
- Design for all senses: design for everyone
Our TedEd Takeaway: Make it a priority to develop content with informative and active headings, with verbs, questions, statements.
Jeffrey Eisenberg: The One-Minute Shopper
- Relevance – are you relevant to my query?
- Value-do I know why you are the right solution for me?
- Call to Action –is it obvious what I need to do next?
Our TedEd Takeaway: Visitors must achieve their goals, not yours. Understand how they buy and design a great user experience.
Susan Weinschenk
- Human Attention Is Selective
- Too Many Choices = No Choice-choice=control=survival so don’t provide too many options for users, it confuses them
- Most Mental Processing Is Unconscious-about 90% , three brains are involved: new, mid and old
- UX = Mental Models – conduct user research, then consciously design, test and validate
- “We don’t have to design for engagement — we have a captive audience that has to use our software” (a common error in thinking because just the opposite is true)
- The Myth Of Multi-Tasking – we can switch from task to task, but not multi-task
- People will use whatever technology is at hand to be social – we all want social connection
Our TedEd Takeaway: Only offer users 3-4 options to choose from, it’s all we can handle.
Aarron Walter
- Systems not pages- pattern libraries help with speed, consistency, responsiveness as you design
- Use it while you design- actually use the application while designing
- Big Data UX – collaborate with other stakeholders and collect user data they have, any single user’s feedback counts
- Visual research – get insights, develop personas and make the data visual, memorable
- Ambient learning- every application interaction on any platform provides new insights and learning
Our TedEd Takeaway: A pattern library gives an inherent sense of beauty and purpose in a design.
Luke Wroblewski: Mobile Design Tips
- One Handed Use – be sure the interface is easy to use with one hand.
- Visually Engaging – images rule on mobile
- Focused Flows – use less input fields, less clicks = more conversions
- Just In Time Actions – keep the screens uncluttered, show a keyboard only when needed
- Cross Device Usage – people jump from smartphones to tablets to laptops; don’t design with preconceived notions from the desktop when designing for mobile.
Our TedEd Takeaway: It can always be simpler!
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