Last week I was in Denver for a three day conference put on by User Interface Engineering. I met lots of great people, and the workshops and talks were fantastic. Would highly recommend to anyone looking for a good UX conference to attend.
http://uxim14.uie.com/
Brad Frost
We don’t know what will be under the Christmas tree in two years, but that is what we need to design for.
Principles of Adaptive Design
- Ubiquity
- Flexibility
- Performance
- Enhancement
- Future Friendly
Tools
Atomic Design
- Break down design elements into reusable components of a system:
- Atoms
- Molecules
- Organisms
- Templates
- Pages
More details on Atomic Design here: http://bradfrostweb.com/blog/post/atomic-web-design/
Ben Callahan
Dissecting Design
Part 1: Establish the Aesthetic
Use tools you are comfortable with to establish the aesthetic
Part 2: Solve the Problem
- Static design tools (photoshop, etc)
- Responsive design tools
- html/css
You best solve problems using tools you are fluent with
Part 3: Refine the Solution
Static tools- Instead of static design hand-offs, consider design pairing: one engineer, one designer, working together side by side.
Efficiency is key with refining a design solution
Group improvisation
The fact is, there is no one way to design for screens. Every project is different. Every team is different. It’s interesting to look at it as a form of group improvisation, where everyone is contributing in the way that makes this particular project work.
“Group improvisation is a challenge. Aside from the weighty technical problem of collective coherent thinking, there is the very human, even social need for sympathy from all members to bend for the common result.”
Group Improvisation requires individuals on a team to be…
Ben’s Theory on Web Process
Create guidelines instead of rigid processes. “The amount of process required is inversely proportional to the skill, humility, and empathy of your team.”
More details on Dissecting Design here: http://seesparkbox.com/foundry/dissecting_design
Luke Wroblewski
Mobile Growth
Mobile shopping in US
- 2011: 14%
- 2012: 30%
- 2013: 50%
Paypal mobile payments
- 2010: $750M
- 2011: $4B
- 2012: $14B
- 2013: $27B
Mobile revenue
- Yelp: 40%
- Facebook: 53%
- Twitter: 75%
We’ve only had about 6 years to figure out mobile design, vs 30 years of figuring out PCs. We have lots to learn. And more importantly, lots to unlearn.
On the hamburger menu
- Test showed that a button that reads “MENU” was selected 20% more than when a hamburger menu was used
- Interesting Polar Mobile case study, where hiding content under a menu vs using a segmented control showed an instant and major drop off in usage as soon as they changed it
- Measure measure measure
On the importance of good inputs
- Airport wifi login – 23 steps on mobile to pay money to get online
- Designers talked to Luke about how they cut it down to 19.
- Luke’s response – I have an idea that uses *4* inputs.
- Hotel Tonight — Using a signature gesture to solve the baby booking the hotel room problem. So good.
- Booking a hotel happens in 3 taps and a swipe, giving them a competitive advantage
On Startups
- Release – As quick as you can
- Refine – by observing real use
- Repeat – design is never done
Idea: Preemptive customer service
They were watching the user logs, and when they saw bugs they fixed them before users complained, and then reached out to let them know they had fixed something. User feedback was 100% positive. Brilliant.
Jared Spool
Designing Designers
Job interview test
- Present candidate with a messy sketch of a web form
- A good designer cleans it up
- A better designer simplifies
- An even better ask why do we need this info
Side comment about unintentional design: What happens when you spend time working with everything in the system *except* the user’s experience
The need for design talent is growing, massively. How do we staff it?
IBM is investing 100M to expand design business. 1000+ UX designers are going to IBM. This means all the big corporations are going to start hiring UX like crazy. How do we as the design community even staff that? Especially since today, all design unicorns are self taught.
How to become a design unicorn <3
- Train yourself
- Practice your skills
- Deconstruct as many designs as you can
- Seek out feedback (and listen to it)
- Teach others
It doesn’t happen like this in school, though.
- Schools have too many constraints
- Out of date (3yr accreditation process)
- There aren’t enough schools to keep up with the new jobs in demand
- Schools don’t go deep enough
- The semester / class based school system can’t support the kind of learning designers need to do to develop their skills
Tying the education problem back to Unintentional Design. We focused so much on the system that we forgot what we were actually trying to do.
Changes to education system?
What if design school were more like Medical Education (combines theory and craft). This idea of pre-med, medical school, internships, residences, and finally fellowships.
Changes to our workplace?
- We are the future managers of this next wave. What can we do?
- Building a culture of learning
- Integrating *practice* into our routines (critiques, sketching, what else?)
- Apply our design skills to design learning
Jared is exploring this idea with The Center Centre — formerly known as the Unicorn Institute
Nate Schutta
JQuery Mobile Prototyping Workshop
“If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many meetings is a prototype worth?”
Useful links:
http://ianbarlow.wordpress.com/2014/04/13/notes-from-ux-immersion-mobile-conference-2014/
