An engaging UI experience

A User Interface is considered engaging when the experience of using it is enjoyable and easy. Its visual design, graphical consistency, color scheme and interactive elements all play vital roles in a user’s immediate perception. Less obvious aspects of the interface such as the layout and readability of the text also contribute to an engaging…

The value of experience in User Interface Design

Certain User Interaction assumptions tend to fall by the wayside the more experience and research both designers and clients gain. Some of the better insights that UI professionals have come to understand are the myth that users will only make a mistake once, remembering to use actual content and data in the very beginning of…

Listening to users during UI usability testing

Careful and attentive listening is a key component of successful usability testing. UI and UX designers will find the results from their end-user testing sessions far more productive if they let their ears do most of the work. Allowing the users the freedom to talk uninterrupted will put those observing the testing in the best…

Understanding users in UI Design

The end user’s goals should be the goals of the client and their product. It is essential for any UI system to help achieve those goals in as easy and efficient a manner as possible. They should be a guiding principle in all phases of a project, re-affirming these goals often. So it is essential…

User Interface / User Experience Quotes

“A modern paradox is that it’s simpler to create complex interfaces because it’s so complex to simplify them.” – Pär Almqvist “The more users’ expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it.” – Jakob Nielson “Obsess over customers: when given the choice between…

Real world objects and User Interface Design

In the real world, objects can be manipulated in various ways. Successful User Interface designers often take advantage of the user’s knowledge of real world objects to develop the UI’s metaphors and analogies. This allows for a more direct manipulation of the elements within a system’s environment, making the interface more intuitively learned and retained…

Keeping User Research interesting and engaging for both testers and participants

User research can sometimes be boring, especially classic usability research where you have strictly defined use case scenarios that you’re going through over and over again. Spending a day with 10 or 20 different subjects going through the same scenario over and over can be pretty draining, making it hard to stay focused and engaged.…

Visual weight in User Interface Design

When it comes to balance, the physical world tells us that weight is associated with gravity and objects being pulled downward. Visual weight, however, is more 3-dimensional in that it asserts itself in other directions as well. The visual weight each object carries pushes some UI elements to the forefront while causing others to recede.…

Selective Attention and User Experience

Selective Attention is the “looking but not seeing” that occurs when someone is focused on performing a specific task. This concept in psychology can often explain why users in testing situations fail to see certain interface elements, even if those elements are in plain sight. Concepts such as human visual perception not being as reliable…

Integrating User Research into User Interface Design

Few UI designers will argue the importance of user research in the creation of a quality, successful User interface. What may be slightly more debatable is how and when to integrate the data from user research into all phases of a product’s development. Bridging user research into design, the different forms that research data can…

Useful Techniques that improve User Interface Design

Certain design techniques tend to work the best in helping UI designers deliver successful user interface solutions. These design techniques can often go a long way to making a user interface intuitive and the experience a pleasurable one for users. Among the useful techniques beneficial to UI designers is typesetting buttons. The Proper typesetting of…

Usability testing and people with disabilities

An interesting article from the Usability Professionals Association discusses important ways to integrate testing with people with disabilities into your current usability testing methods. Changing user profiles to include different disability categories and modifying user tasks to consider supportive technology that aids disabled users and how it effects task completion and fatigue are among the…