UX Magazine

Designing Search: As-You-Type Suggestions

Tony Russell-Rose — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:48:23 GMT

Have you ever tried the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button on Google? It’s meant to take you directly to the result you want, rather than return a list of results. It’s a simple idea, and when it works it seems like magic.

But most of the time we are not so lucky. We submit a query and review the results, only to find they’re not quite what we were looking for. Occasionally, we review a further page or two of results, but in most cases it’s quicker just to enter a new query and try again. In fact, this pattern of behaviour is so common that techniques have been developed specifically to help us along this part of our information journey. In particular, three versions of as-you-type suggestions— auto-complete, auto-suggest, and instant results—subtly guide us in creating and...read more
By Tony Russell-Rose

Taking Mobile Global:Tips for Aligning Mobile and Global Web Strategies

John Yunker — Tue, 15 May 2012 10:56:08 GMT

With more than 55 million iPads in use around the world and more than 400 million smartphones sold in 2011, companies are increasingly thinking “mobile first” when developing their web and mobile app strategies.

Hotels.com, for example, offers not only a mobile-optimized website but mobile apps specific to both the iPad and iPhone.

Unfortunately, as companies rush to go mobile, they often overlook the importance of maintaining their global reach. That is, their mobile...read more
By John Yunker

6 Key Questions to Guide International UX Research

Liang Zhang, Pamela Walshe, Elizabeth Shelly — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:43:05 GMT

Are you worried about how customers in other countries will react to your product or service? Not really sure who your international customers even are, or what they want and need? To find out, it might be time to pop outside the domestic market and conduct an international user research study.

Understanding international customers is more critical than ever as emerging market economies continue their rapid expansion. With Internet and mobile usage in particular, the recent adoption rates have been astonishing. China reported 513 million Internet users by the end of 2011¹—an increase of 30% since 2009—with nearly 70% of them accessing the Internet using handheld devices. Meanwhile, in the next decade seven emerging economies including China, India, and Brazil, are on track to...read more
By Liang Zhang, Pamela Walshe, Elizabeth Shelly

Combining In-Person and Remote Research

Sabina Idler — Tue, 08 May 2012 11:11:26 GMT

In the early 90’s, Jakob Nielsen declared in-person user research as state of the art. “User testing with real users is the most fundamental usability method and is in some sense irreplaceable, since it provides direct information about how people use computers [...]”.¹ Sometimes in-person user research can be logistically impractical or cost prohibitive, so remote user research is often employed as an alternative. As well, companies that specialize in user research often combine both in-person and remote user research.

In-person user research has been around the longest, and is still widely used as a great way to gather feedback on websites, advertisements, or software. In-person research usually involves letting users perform tasks on a computer while asking them questions,...read more
By Sabina Idler

New Design Practices for Touch-free Interactions

Brian Pagán — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:50:24 GMT

Touch interaction has become practically ubiquitous in developed markets, and that has changed users' expectations and the way UX practitioners think about human–computer interaction (HCI). Now, touch-free gestures and Natural Language Interaction (NLI) are bleeding into the computing mainstream the way touch did years ago. These will again disrupt UX, from the heuristics that guide us, to our design patterns and deliverables.

HCI Is Getting "All Shook Up"

With touch, people were given a more natural, intuitive way to interact with computing devices. As it moved into the mainstream, it opened up new interaction paradigms. Touch-free gestures and NLI, while not...read more
By Brian Pagán

Content as Conversation

Ginny Redish — Fri, 04 May 2012 09:42:21 GMT

Every use of your website is a conversation started by a site visitor.

Think about it: why do people come to your site or app?

IA, Search, Design, and Technology All Support the Content

Site visitors and app users come for the content. Of course, the information architecture (IA) and the site search must make that content easy to find. The design must be attractive and usable. The technology must work.

But IA, search, design, and technology are all there to support the content that people come for: the words and images that make up the conversations between your visitors and your site or app.

Planning Successful Conversations

Planning is critical for successful conversations. I find that answering these three questions helps greatly for everything I write (even...read more
By Ginny Redish

New UX Job Opportunities Via UX Magazine

UX Magazine Staff — Wed, 02 May 2012 11:49:19 GMT

You may not be job hunting right now, but it’s still interesting to look at recent job postings in aggregate to see where the jobs are, what the positions are called, and what sorts of companies have the openings. And if you know someone who's looking for a change, they might find an opportunity here.

These employers' support of UX Magazine is part of what makes it possible for us to bring you frequent, high quality articles for free, so please help support us by supporting these employers in their search for new UX team members.

Associate Director, Product Partnerships
Verizon Wireless - Basking Ridge, NJ

UX Strategist
...read more
By UX Magazine Staff

Using Proto-Personas for Executive Alignment

Jeff Gothelf — Tue, 01 May 2012 10:44:52 GMT

When working in-house as a UX practitioner, one of the constant challenges is getting a seat at the leadership table. Without a VP or C-level champion who is specifically focused on UX, the alternative is often a proxy-champion such as the VP of Product, or even a marketing executive. Without a consistent voice of the customer present in executive discussions, corporate strategy, and product direction, decisions are debated and made based on each executive’s responsibilities and professional perspectives. The marketing executive will push for marketing initiatives important to meeting her goals, while the customer service champion will push for greater support for his department, and so on for each department present in these meetings. The VP of Product should...read more
By Jeff Gothelf

Creativity-based Research: The Process of Co-Designing with Users

Catalina Naranjo-Bock — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 10:29:38 GMT

The practice of co-design allows users to become an active part of the creative development of a product by interacting directly with design and research teams. It is grounded in the belief that all people are creative and that users, as experts of their own experiences, bring different points of view that inform design and innovation direction.

Co-design is a method that can be used in all stages of the design process, but especially in the ideation or concepting phases. Partnering with users ensures their inclusion in knowledge development, idea generation, and concept development on products whose ultimate goal is to best serve these same users.

In this article I will examine the different stages of a co-design research process, as well as the methods and practices that are...read more
By Catalina Naranjo-Bock

5 Ways to Create Better iPad Applications

Ken Yarmosh — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:50:00 GMT

We've just passed the two-year mark of the iPad being on the market. And with a second milestone of 200,000 iPad applications on the App Store nearing, there's no better time than now to reassess how to approach the UX of iPad applications.

Some of the ideas in this article are relevant to all tablets, not just the iPad. But in consideration of the tremendous success of the iPad (73% of all tablet sales last year), it does warrant specific attention and focus. So, without further ado, here are five interface guidelines to (re)consider when approaching the UX and design of iPad applications.

1. Retiring the Tab Bar

...read more
By Ken Yarmosh