Improving UX Design with AI

Artificial intelligence has been the biggest tech buzzword of the last few years. The idea of AI sometimes is daunting and reminiscent of science fiction, but it’s rapidly becoming integrated into different products and into the daily lives of many people. The more obvious examples of AI include Amazon’s Alexa, Apple’s Siri, Google Home and...

Increasing Diversity in Design

Design, specifically UX and UI, lies at the intersection of understanding people, technology and branding. You can’t build effective, easy-to-use products and platforms without connecting with the end-user and understanding their needs, desires and pain points. So, technically, the more diverse a design team is — with regards to gender, race, thought, experiences, abilities and...

Designing for Accessibility

The Interaction Design Foundation succinctly summarizes the importance of accessible design: “A design is only useful if it’s accessible to the user: any user, anywhere, anytime.” People often think the need for accessibility is only targeted at people with disabilities, but really, it’s just about making sure that anyone can understand, interact with and contribute...

Designing Against Misinformation

With our current 24/7 news cycle, we’re subject to new information from publications and across social media platforms nearly every second of the day. It’s overwhelming to begin with, but it becomes even worse when you have to sort through fake news as well, something most people didn’t realize was so prominent until the 2016...

Gamification in Design

Today, the gaming industry in the United States and across the world is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are conferences, competitions, and communities everywhere you look. From Mario Kart to Fortnite, the global interest in games is obvious and intriguing. Given the stunning success of this hobby, how can other industries model the same? How...

A UX Lesson From Coffee

“Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like.” Steve Jobs once quipped, “People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how...

Understanding Emotional Design

Emotions play a crucial role in how we understand and experience the world. For generations scientists, psychologists and designers have worked to capture the essence of human emotion and various ways to appeal to it. Don Norman, author of Emotional Design made some valuable observations, which every designer should be familiar with. Where cognitive science...

How to Quickly Evaluate Browser Compatibility for New Web Technologies

When designing for the web, designers and developers are often tempted by new technologies. Recent advancements such as embedded fonts, parallax scrolling, JS animation, SVGs etc. have had varying levels of cross-platform support. Depending on the requirements of your website or application, browser support limitations may become a deal-breaker to including modern UI/UX advancements. Can...