Blog

      Technology has created an era of immediacy within our society: users expect their interfaces to give them immediate indicators that they are on the right track or their task has been completed. If users are unable to get that immediate feedback, they can become frustrated or abandon a task. Additionally, users like feeling engaged when they interact with an interface; rather than just interacting with a rigid interface. Creating small moments of interaction between the user and the interface helps to create an overall enjoyable user experience. How can this be accomplished through something so small that it does not take away from the overall interface? This is where microinteractions come into play.

     Many people will look at a UI design and think that the color choice comes from the preference of the designer- what they thought would look the best for the given project. While sometimes this may be the case, colors are often chosen carefully and with intention. Why? Color has been proven to have a great impact on the mood and behaviors of individuals and as a result, the overall success of a product, design or web page can rest on the colors that are chosen.

     One of the big design trends that have been steadily picking up popularity is the idea of going “off grid”- breaking away from harsh grid lines, and paving the way for edgeless screens and borderless designs. Both edgeless screens and borderless designs have a similar goal in mind: doing away with chunky, blocky borders in order to create a more fluid and immersive storytelling experience. But what exactly does going “off grid” mean?

“Scrolling is a continuation, clicking is a decision.”- Josh Porter, Designer

     At the beginning of UX, users typically did not scroll vertically, simply because they just weren’t used to it. During the mid-nineties, scrolling was something that was still a new concept in regards to the development of user experience design. As a result, user’s would oftentimes just make their selections based on the information they could see without having to scroll further down, which set forward one of the biggest UX myths ever: the idea that people don’t scroll. This UX Myth has been around for a while and has impacted UX design as well, leading to the “above the fold” UX best practice- the idea that users will only pay attention to information that is “above the fold” and therefore all the important content for the user to make their decision should be available in that space without the user having to scroll.

     Many in the UX industry are familiar with the idea of the three-click rule, a golden UX best practice for design. The three click rule is the idea if that after three clicks a user cannot find what they are looking for, they are likely to get frustrated and abandon the task they set out to do. This idea quickly gained popularity a became a well known best practice for designing an engaging and effective user experience and is something that can still be seen in design that happens today. But, is the three click rule something that we should still be holding onto?

  Biometrical Authorization, while something that sounds like it would be straight out of a sci-fi film, is basically a security process that relies on certain key biological features in order for an individual to verify themselves. No more complicated login processes; with biometrical authorization, all that is needed is the specific physiological or behavioral characteristic required such as facial recognition, fingerprint identification, or voice recognition. Nor is this concept necessarily a new one; a wide variety of industries use biometrical authorization as a means to bypass traditional username and password verifications or logins. We already see an implementation of biometrical authorization in a wide variety of devices, such as fingerprint login for mobile phone and devices. So, why are we talking about it?

At its core, linear UX focuses on allowing a user to complete a task or a goal in a smooth, simplified process. As a result, this method ends up taking away a lot of unnecessary fillers or complications, thus making the user experience super streamlined and seamless. Overall, linear UX focuses on creating a goal-oriented user experience.

AI and ZeroUI are on the rise and are increasingly being used in all different kinds of industries. Part of this move is that a large part of making devices more accessible to all kinds of users is incorporating a way for them to interact with their devices in a way that does not rely on a screen (ZeroUI). It is clear that in 2018 there will be more of a focus on creating interfaceless designs in an effort to create simple, innovative and engaging user experiences.  However, looking towards the future, interfaceless designs will become more and more integrated into our daily lives. It is estimated that by the year 2020, 30% of all web browsing will be done through screenless designs and through interactions such as voice commands, gestures and eye tracking (Gartner https://www.gartner.com/).

"Where machine learning is reactive, artificial learning is proactive." - Jeff Catlin

Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are two words that are being used a lot right now in the technological world, and will probably only continued to be used more and more. Often time these words are used interchangeably, or used together, which causes their distinct meanings to become fuzzy and unclear. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, while can be used together, are ultimately two distinct concepts. This article explores the difference between the two terms and why this difference is important to remember.

Recently, technological developments have been focusing on implementing features such as AI, conversational UI and other forms that help make technology more accessible and user friendly to a wide range of audiences. When people think of accessibility, the notion of disability comes to mind. While there are users that are disabled, accessibility in UX refers to making sure that a design can be accessible to any user at any time and anywhere.