Skeuomorphic is Metaphoric
“Essentially, every user interface on Earth is ornamentally referencing and representing other unrelated materials, interfaces and elements. The only questions are: what’s it representing, and by how much?” @Hladecek
Good article on Skeuomorphism in UI design. I specifically liked his notion that Skeuomorphic is metaphoric.
Product Experience
Does the minimum-viable approach lead to gaps in the user experience? It doesn’t have to. There’s a distinction to make: The set of features you choose to build is one thing. The level you choose to execute at is another. You can decide whether or not to include a feature like ‘reset password’. But if you decide to do it, you should live up to a basic standard of execution on the experience side. —@rjs
Good advice from Ryan Singer on user experience in product development. He refrences the Kano Model which is interesting to read up on. The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano which classifies customer preferences into five categories. Attractive Quality, One-dimensional Quality, Must-be Quality, Indifferent Quality, and Reverse Quality.
Presentation at NIC
Here are the notes from a recent presentation I gave to Steve Mackeys class at North Island College.
The presentation titled Building Architexture reviews my process for rebuilding Architexture and covers an overview of frameworks and grid systems.
My apologies for the lack of depth to the slides, it was rather last minute.
Watch & Listen
“The more you watch users carefully and listen to them articulate their intentions, motivations, and thought processes, the more you realize that their individual reactions to Web pages are based on so many variables that attempts to describe users in terms of one-dimensional likes and dislikes are futile and counter-productive. Good design, on the other hand, takes this complexity into account.” ― Steve Krug
Copywriting is Interface Design
Good writing is good design. It’s a rare exception where words don’t accompany design. Icons with names, form fields with examples, buttons with labels, step by step instructions in a process, a clear explanation of your refund policy. These are all interface design. —Getting Real
This chapter from Getting Real has stuck with me over the years.