When you read about UX research you find lots of emphasis on the planning and structure of the research sessions. Where will you do research at a person’s home or in a research facility? Will you go through a recruiting agency or recruit from your own network? Are you looking [...]

Right there in the center of my boilerplate for design proposals is a section that I glare at with more resentment each time I complete it. It’s called “Deliverables,” and it’s there because clients expect it: a list of things I’ll deliver for the amount of money that I specify [...]

In my 12+ years as a designer, I’ve been in all types of situations with clients and worked in all types of situations. Some clients really have a handle on strategy and a tight focus, and others have tons of great ideas but it is more difficult to get to [...]

The best products don’t focus on features, they focus on clarity. Problems should be fixed through simple solutions, something you don’t have to configure, maintain, control. The perfect solution needs to be so simple and transparent you forget it’s even there. However, elegantly minimal designs don’t happen by chance. They’re [...]

At Interaction-Design.org, we make educational materials by top designers and top professors and give it away for free. We have prepared a preview for UX Magazine readers of our newest material: an authoritative overview of social computing, which includes many relevant perspectives for the UX community. The overview of social [...]

Have you read Where the Wild Things Are? The storybook has fluidity of content and design figured out. It goes that one night, protagonist Max “wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind or another.” He hammers nails into walls, pesters a small dog. Author Maurice Sendak doesn’t [...]

Design patterns for mobile are emerging as the platform matures. Theresa Neil’s new book”Mobile Design Pattern Gallery” provides solutions to common design challenges. Read a sample chapter on Invitations and learn how to immediately engage your customers with your application. We recently had a new mobile project starting and all [...]

Much has been written about the design studio methodology within the design community. In order to really understand how and why design studios work, though, designers must look beyond design—in particular, to social psychology and behavioral economics. Too often, design problems are tackled ad hoc. A team stumbles into a [...]

There are many ways to skin a redesign (I think that’s how the saying goes). On a philosophical level, I agree with those who advocate for realigning, not redesigning, but these are mere words when you’re staring a design problem in the face with no idea where to start. This [...]

The headline is a contradiction, for what is fashionable cannot be timeless — nevertheless, this is how I see the designs of Jonny Ive, Apple’s chief designer. His original iMac was a work of style. It was made out of shiny, transparent plastic, was full of anthropomorphic curves and came [...]