#usability
Usability is the core ingredient for designing successful digital products and services.
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Reply to a Tweet by Eric Eggert
“Periodic reminder that not everyone has a ‘first name’ and a ‘last name’” ..and that not all names consist of six or more characters
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CAPTCHAs are really, really bad UX design
Robin Christopherson just wrote an important article on the AbilityNet blog: “AI is making CAPTCHA increasingly cruel for disabled users”.
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The UX design case of closed captions for everyone
Are video subtitles chiefly for users who cannot hear or lack an audio device?
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Rail travelers need web accessibility, too!
Using train WiFi on a Deutsche Bahn train is a great example how accessibility efforts (here: image alt text on Twitter) benefit everybody.
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IxDA Berlin #69: Inclusion and diversity - first hand
25 September 2018 marked the first World Interaction Design Day, running under the global theme of “Diversity and Inclusion in Design”. The Berlin IxDA chapter arranged an inspiring event, inviting two speakers who examine these issues both personally and professionally. IxDA Berlin…
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The costs and benefits of tracking scripts - business vs. user
Jeremy Keith: “Too many businesses treat analytics and tracking scripts as victimless technologies—they only see the benefits (in data acquisation) without understanding the costs (in performance).”
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UX for users with cookies disabled - a neat example
The design takes into account privacy-conscious users with cookies disabled. When closing the notification popup, the user learns that by using an alternative URL, they can reach a version of the site without the notification
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Turning the Feb 2017 AWS outage into a case for "offline first" design
Recent writings about the consequences of the AWS outage on centralised services make me believe that an “Offline First” mindset can help improve the worth and use experience of digital artefacts. (Screenshots from the Mashable article quoted below and offlinefirst.org) Allow…
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Using the "Cognitive bias codex" for design concept evaluation
Cognitive bias - the tendency of the human brain to interpret information based on unrecognised irrational factors - is a phenomenon that has been fascinating me for well over a decade. There is no more efficient way to improve the quality of a design concept than by doing a heuristic evaluation on…
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Social media and usability - people-centred design in communications
Social media and usability are words rarely expressed in one sentence. Publishing in social media means adherence to a strict corset: the services limit the length of texts, unify the appearance of messages and profiles, and define the interactions enabled around them.
If usability in only seen as a question of easy-to-use and smooth interfaces, the means to make an impact are indeed limited. But considering technical usability along with context of use and individual worth for the user, communication professionals can largely improve the usability of their organisations’ social media channels.by
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Ignoring social inequality in design: poor customer experience
As sociologists, we frequently use inequality as a lens to examine various dimensions of social life. A blog post by Jenny L. Davis illustrates how the non-use of technology (in this particular instance, due to lack of access) may not only be a manifestation of the so called “digital…
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MoMo - the anxiety that strikes when friends become non-users
The impact of social technology’s non-use on its users is sometimes abstract to explain. But every now and then, the issue surfaces in very accessible manner as in an editorial piece by Radhika Sanghani on the Telegraph. While active social media users, through constant sharing of detailed…
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The job anniversary that wasn't
A few days ago, I noticed an interesting item on my LinkedIn feed that serves to illustrate one of the instances how non-use may manifest itself in social web services. A message featured in the news feed encouraged me (and likely a large number of others) to congratulate a former colleague for her…
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Leaving the phone behind: Intentional disconnect and the appropriation of "flight mode"
“Leave your phone behind”, a recent writing by a NYC startup CEO on LinkedIn gained quite a bit of traffic and comments when Rafat Ali suggested to create short periods of disconnection from the omnipresent network and its distracting forces. Both in the article and the 100+ comments by…
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Scarcity of personal time resources as a reason for quitting Facebook?
The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project published some interesting non-use related numbers related to Facebook, in a report titled “Coming and Going on Facebook”: 61% of current Facebook users say that at one time or another in the past they have…
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Designing for social interaction - value and experience beyond the interface
The IxDA Helsinki October meeting was an evening filled with discussions about the current state of interaction design, the industry and new ideas. Paavo Westerberg rocked the house with an insightful and lively presentation about 15 Golden Rules for creative processes and event host Idean shared…
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Social littering: When “social media” turns friends into spambots
“Press ‘Like’ and win an iPad”. “Share your workouts with your friends”. “Complete your profile to tell more about yourself”. Digital services bubble over with calls for users to share more about themselves, about products and people they like as well…
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What a Dutch street intersection can teach us about social interaction design
Do you remember the times before mobile phones and the internet? The most instant technology for distance communication was the land-line telephone: Devices were spread out around the country, connected by wires, and a voice connection could be established between them by entering a numerical code…
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When sites promise privacy but deliver leaks instead – a designer’s view on Firesheep
The release of Eric Butler’s Firesheep, a browser add-on allowing to hijack browser sessions over unsecured wireless networks without any technical expertise, has triggered a flood of commentary how users may protect themselves. However, while protecting their own connection makes a user safe…
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