Blog

       More and more the world of banking and investing is moving into the online and technological world. Terms like “cryptocurrency” and “bitcoin” have steadily been gaining popularity as user’s are finding ways to handle their finances in a way that matches today’s fast-paced, digital world.  In relation to online financial going ons, another term that is gaining a lot of recent attention is “blockchain”. Blockchain is not a new term, but it is generating increasing buzz since they will have a massive impact on the future of online banking, investing, digital identity, and more. While blockchain is not a new concept, it is still in its exploration stage in terms of how exactly it will be designed and applied.

     One of the big buzzwords circling UX and tech circles lately is “robotics process automation” or RPA for short. Robotic process automation is a big fancy way of talking about the process of using “software robots” or other specialized computer programs as a way to have repeatable business processes become automated, standardized, and ultimately, something that no longer has to take up actual human bandwidth. If you are reading this and thinking to yourself that this sounds like the beginning stages of allowing the robots to take over, have no fear. This is where user experience research and design comes in to save the day.

      With the prevalence of Agile, Scrum, and Lean, software development cycles has been shortened dramatically, compared to the Waterfall development cycle. As a result, user research has to fit into the same cadence, from study design, data collection, to presentation. While traditional research, especially in an academic setting, would typically take months from start to finish, user researchers in the industry have found ways to make research more efficient and tactical, while remaining effective and informative.

      In collaboration with Priscilla Lim.

      User experience research and design is a hugely collaborative process; it involves a research team, a design team, project leads, clients and more. A large part of this collaborative effort lies in being able to get stakeholders to engage in the UX process. Stakeholder engagement is something that should be sought after as soon as stakeholders have been identified in order to ensure that they are engaged in the project every step of the way. They can provide rich insights and context about a project or product that equips UX teams with the necessary background they need to get started. Stakeholder engagement is something that should be seen as a key part of the UX process, rather than an afterthought. For this article, we’ll focus on engaging stakeholders in research. So, what are some of the ways to engage stakeholders in user experience research projects?

       If one performs a job search on a job board, one job might require Python and another might say Javascript. What do the experts think are important? Github and Stack Overflow list Javascript as the top trending programming language (“Major Programming Trends to Prepare for in 2019”  2019). Although Github and StackOverflow list Javascript as number one, it does not specify with Javascript package such as Vanilla, Angular, or React. This is why knowing and keeping up to date with programming trends are important for employers and employees alike. 

       Being a full-service UX research agency, Key Lime employs researchers take pride in wearing many hats. The versatility of our researchers is what allows our staff to be nimble and adaptable in tailoring our services to every client. Part of training at Key Lime includes brushing up on skills that haven’t been flexed in a while or might benefit from being stronger.  Last week, our researcher Mindy Eng spoke withJess Gamble, a client relationship management expert, about her pro-tips as an account director working with clients around the world.

        Imagine being tasked to uncover and deliver findings on a niche topic that is new and uncharted among your audience. Let’s say you have been tasked, as a researcher, to explore the behaviors and attitudes of people living with Celiacs Disease for the product development of a new gluten detector. Although your audience is familiar with gluten-free food, they are unaware of the nuances that separate gluten-free ‘fadist’ from people living with an autoimmune disease that requires a gluten-free lifestyle. How will you illustrate the differences between the lifestyles once uncovered? How will you distinguish the lifestyle of a person living with Celiac from other dietary limited lifestyles?

       
            There have been breathless articles written about how virtual or augmented reality is going to change everything for decades. Virtual Reality (VR) hardware (often glasses or goggles) allow the user to interact with a computer-generated immersive environment, where Augmented Reality (AR) devices overlay information onto the world without the processing power requirements of virtual reality. Costs are down, bandwidth is up, but it’s 2019, and with few exceptions, what Adam Draper of Boost VC calls “digital reality” remains a technology in search of a killer app.

      As our technological devices keep changing, we see that physical buttons are being replaced with smooth touch screens that instead invite users to tap, swipe, drag and more. Users are able to navigate and control their interface without having to rely on pushing physical buttons. Nowadays, as users, we are more and more interacting with devices by using gestures as opposed to pushing any kind of button. But, does that mean physical buttons are disappearing? And is this a good or bad change for users?

     In collaboration with Ryan Stratton.

     Delightful and effective user experiences don’t usually happen by chance. More often than not, they’re the result of following a methodical design process that includes research, ideation, testing, analysis, and iteration. Prototyping is a critical practice that adds value throughout the process and helps to ensure a good user experience. In this article, we review what prototyping means and why it is so important for the field of UX design and research.