Lean ways to test your new business idea I’ll be honest, I’m a bit late to the party. I’ve only just completed Eric Ries book, ‘The Lean Startup’, that was published to much acclaim last year. I put off reading it, believing it would be another generic how-to-start-a-high-tech-business book. I already have a bookshelf full of these kinds of book, most of them unread beyond the initial chapter. But now I’ve read it I think that it should be obligatory reading for any UX person. What I like about the book is that it puts UX at the very heart of new product design — and does so in language that will make managers sit up and take notice. Here’s my version of the digested read. Designing new products or services is risky because there are so many uncertainties. Sound familiar? UX practitioners have a lot to contribute to this way of working but I wanted particularly to focus on the item I’ve numbered 4 in the list above: iterative design and testing. These techniques have three things in common. The three methods I want to discuss are:
Review Of Cross-Browser Testing Tools - Smashing Magazine Tutorial: Design a Sleek Website Interface in Photoshop In this tutorial, we’re going to learn how to create a sleek & clean portfolio/blog Website interface design inside Adobe Photoshop. As we go through, we will deal with selections, layer styles, some basic typography, and so on…We’ll also use 960 Grid System to keep our layout nicely well-aligned. So come on in, let’s get started and have some fun! Tutorial Details Program Used: Adobe Photoshop CS3 or higher.Difficulty: IntermediateEstimated Completion Time: Around 2-3 hours Final Outcome Take a look at what we’ll be creating together. Step 1 As I mentioned earlier, we’ll use 960 Grid System to keep everything aligned. Since we’ll use guides a little bit too much, we need to get them—and the Rulers—viewed. Also, notice that the height of the final outcome is taller than the current one. We need to fill our website background with a light gray color. Step 2 In this step we’ll create a thin bar at the top of the page, that would state your availability status. Step 3 Step 4 Step 5 Step 6 Step 7
Eric Stromberg — How to Make an Impact During the First Month of Your Startup Job A lot has been written on the process of joining a startup, and I’ve written a bit on the topic. Less is written about what to do once you join. Truth is, that’s when the fun starts, and it’s important to optimize your experience from day one. There are a few things I wish someone had told me before I started, so hopefully the tips below will help you get up the learning curve faster during the initial phase of your startup job: 1. Find new projects - This was one of the biggest differences I observed moving from finance to a startup. 2. New employee: "Hey, have you guys ever thought about adding rainbows to the confirmation page? Generally the next part of this conversation involves the manager turning it back on the employee: Manager: "That’s an interesting idea. Most startups give their employees a lot of power to trust their instincts and quickly take action to test something out, so take advantage of this luxury from the beginning. 3. 4. 5. Take advantage of that progress. 6.
CSS Awards - 15 Creative Website Designs We asked the CSS Awards team to create a selection with the greatest submissions from the last week. Check them out below and suggest other entries in the comments! Also, feel free to submit here other cool finds or your own creations. Tao Community Website Twofold RiSER Jeph Johnson Glitch AED | Aquiesdonde De Certeau & associés Vonky yoke thirteen23 The Creative Guy Mohd Mollura Home Design Acumen Fund Black Board Consulting La Luz Mexican Grill 50 Free Tools and Apps for Web Designers and Developers | Speckyboy Design Magazine Over the past year or so I have bookmarked hundreds of various tools and resources covering all aspects of web & mobile development – There are tools that will improve your work-flow, resources that will clean and validate code, apps that will allow you to collaborate with any number of colleagues, bookmarklets that let you create mockups within your browser, productivity checklists, sites that will track and keep a watchful eye on your sites… and on … and on. So, having all of these amazing bookmarks, I thought I would share my 50 favorites with you. I have split the article into the following sub-categories for easier browsing: General Web Development Tools, Web Typography Apps, Browser Tools, Web Site Analysis Apps and, finally, Productivity Apps & Tools. The apps also don’t include frameworks, Javascript plugins nor template tools, they are all strictly small tools that can help with your development productivity. Web Development Tools ProCSSor – Advanced CSS Prettifier ScriptSrc.net
The Flexibility of the Four Stages of Competence By Jared M. Spool Originally published: Nov 16, 2011 Lost for decades, an old model has re-emerged to help how we look at today's design challenges. In the 70s, psychologist Noel Burch suggested a model for how we master skills and relationships, calling it the "conscious competence learning model." It fell into obscurity for decades, only to resurface as a powerful perspective for experience designers. The four-stage model is intriguingly simple, describing a person's path from ignorance to mastery: Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetence This is where our person starts. Stage 2: Conscious Incompetence Our person has now realized there is much more to what they are trying to do than they realized, and they don't really know what they thought they knew. Stage 3: Conscious Competence Here our person has overcome what they didn't know and started the path of learning. Stage 4: Unconscious Competence Applying the Model To Our Knowledge of Our Users Applying the Model To Our Users' Objectives
How To Build A Site That Looks Great On Every Screen The responsive design revolution is upon us. With tablet and smartphone use soaring and changing our media habits, Web publishers no longer have a choice but to build designs that work properly on any device or screen size. The hard-working Silicon Valley design firm ZURB has recently released version 2.0 of its responsive design boilerplate kit called Foundation, which is a fundamental framework for a one-size-fits all Web project. Foundation is a CSS and Javascript framework that comes with a boilerplate and the necessary plug-ins. It uses a 12-column grid that is both "fluid and responsive," meaning that it flows properly in response to different or changing screen sizes. It responds to percentage-based widths as well as media queries, so you won't have to worry about how the layout will work on different screens or devices. ZURB is demonstrating Foundation on its Soapbox page, so you can play around with it yourself and see how well it works. More Responsive Design Resources
The Value of Customer Journey Maps: A UX Designer’s Personal Journey Effective Customer Journey Maps So what makes an effective customer journey map? What made me a believer? The best practices that follow can greatly improve your chances of delivering effective journey maps. Based on Real Research Journey maps succeed when they’re based on ethnographic research and contextual inquiry that allows researchers to experience a day in the life of a customer. Based on Behavior To breathe life into journey maps, you must base your personas on actual customer behavior and clearly communicate the core tasks that customers perform. Before our project with Boeing began, Boeing already had a set of detailed personas in place, which were based on job roles such as Crew Chief or Structural Engineer. Not Always the Optimal Experience During the early stages of the project, the majority of Boeing stakeholders agreed that the company had room to improve on the customer experience, but most couldn’t articulate the extent of the issues. The Results Conclusion Reference
Page Speed Service - Web Performance, Delivered. Webmaster level: Advanced Two years ago we released the Page Speed browser extension and earlier this year the Page Speed Online API to provide developers with specific suggestions to make their web pages faster. Last year we released mod_pagespeed, an Apache module, to automatically rewrite web pages. To further simplify the life of webmasters and to avoid the hassles of installation, today we are releasing the latest addition to the Page Speed family: Page Speed Service. Page Speed Service is an online service that automatically speeds up loading of your web pages. In our testing we have seen speed improvements of 25% to 60% on several sites. At this time, Page Speed Service is being offered to a limited set of webmasters free of charge.
5 Ways to Be Persuasive in Your UX Work By Michael Hawley Published: November 1, 2011 “To be successful as a UX professional, you need to know how to be persuasive.” In your work as a UX professional, do you ever find that you need to convince people that the team should follow a user-centered design process? Do you need to convince stakeholders they should do user research? Being good at persuading people is particularly important in our profession, for a variety of reasons. Recognizing the importance of persuasive skills, I was very intrigued when a speaker at a recent conference recommended the book 27 Powers of Persuasion by Chris St. 1. “Persuading others is much easier if they like you.” In the literature, this is a common theme: persuading others is much easier if they like you. First, start with the basics of etiquette. Second, find something that you like about the people you work with. I had this experience with a CEO I was working with on a project. Finally, don’t be afraid to be different. 2. 3. 4. 5. Yes, and…. St.
20 Advantageous Web Development Tools Web Development tools help the developers to increase their productivity and make the best use of their limited time. There are many types of Web Development Tools that solves their worries sort almost all types of issues. This post has a collection of some Web Development tools that you will certainly find highly useful. If you like this article, you might be interested in some of our older articles on Apps For Cloud-Based Web Dev, Project Management Tools, Network Monitoring Tools, and Server Monitoring Tools. Advertisement CKEditor CKEditor is a text editor to be used inside web pages. More Information on CKEditor Pretty Diff Use this free open-source file comparison tool to accurately diff between file versions regardless of comments or minification to the whitespace. More Information on Pretty Diff Animated JavaScript Slideshow This dynamic JavaScript slideshow is feature packed and under 5KB. More Information on Animated JavaScript Slideshow Google Chart Tools Display live data on your site
Eye Candy vs. Bare-Bones in UI Design The general public seems to be kind of shallow when it comes to user interfaces. They think "prettier = better." A couple of gradients here, some fancy translucent buttons and there you go: an interface that's just overflowing with awesomeness. Fact is though, fancier graphics do not equal a better interface. Most UI/UX professionals agree that graphics should be kept firmly in check or they'll take over the entire application, sacrificing usability over eye candy. Should we then abandon eye candy altogether? Either approach, when designed without care, will yield the same result: decreased usability. Attracting attention by having a pretty front-end is important, as it makes the user want to use the product. Note: by "first experience" I don't mean the very first time you ever laid eyes on the application. The saying goes: "Don't judge a book by its cover". So where do graphics fit into this story? Why yes, they do! Some recommended reading