Blog
How To Improve Fine Strokes In Fireworks CS6
FireWorks’ Stroke feature gives the user three basic options: align to outside, align to center and align to inside. On top of that you can use Photoshop Live Effects Stroke with those same basic options. With simple rectangular shapes there is no visible difference but not all of them rendered equally elegant results when used…
Enhancing Reality With First Person User Interface Design
Software companies have tried to use real world metaphors in their design, (i.e. the desktop) in an attempt to bridge the interface design and user understanding. While many applications do mimic reality somewhat, truly enhancing design leads to: Helping the user to be more productive Discovering newer ways to communicate Better managing increased data So…
4 Ways To Create Better User Experience
One of the four factors of user experience (UX) is content. It is the visual culmination of all the thinking, testing, coding, planning, and designing that goes into a site. Users can decide in a matter of seconds if all of your painstaking effort is worth it which makes engaging them all more important. Here…
10 Tips For Designing A Usable Interface
Designing a usable interface is about the skills of the designer as well as how they are able to teach the user how to interact with the site. Here are ten tips we have used to design user interfaces: Know your target audience – This is the first question to ask and answer before any…
6 Ways To Make Forms Less Painful For Users
When it comes to forms, many customers don’t like them and in some cases, that’s putting it mildly. Their reasons range from fear of being spammed to inability to get the form to work to resenting the company’s attempt to start a relationship when all they want to do is click the ‘buy’ button and…
Should Simplicity Be The Objective Of UX Design?
No one goes into UX design saying, “Let’s make this as complex as possible.” When it comes to design and usability, simplicity is beauty while complexity is corruption. But what constitutes simplicity? Just because something has less does that make it simpler or more desirable? Not necessarily. For one thing, simplicity can be seen as…
Adaptive Design: What It Isn’t And What It Can Be
Adaptive design has sometimes been (mis)understood by designers to mean adding some features to a website or application that will allow users to customize the interface to suit their needs. However, in order for the concept of inclusive adaptive design to really work, we need to understand more about what it isn’t. What adaptive design…
5 Lessons That Super Mario Bros. Teaches Designers About Inclusive Design
One aspect of making any design great is making it inclusive. Inclusive Design embraces the notion that one doesn’t size fits all and it doesn’t have to; there’s plenty of room for everyone at the table. But the question is, how do we design the table? Over the years, the technology available has grown by…
A Few Hints On Amazon's Next-Gen E-Ink Kindle
While the world is anticipating Apple’s next step, Amazon is (quietly) improving its Kindle. One of the major complaints is that users need ambient light to read the devices. Now, while I don’t doubt that users who love Kindle will do anything for their Kindle, there is something to be said about having to make…
Which Tablet Is Tops?
On April 2, 2012, Consumer reports came out with its top tablet ratings and who else would be at the top but the Apple iPad The new iPad has a high resolution screen that doesn’t drain the battery, a 5MP camera that takes good photos and healthy 4G capability. A couple of downsides appear to…