To build a mobile site or not to build a mobile site; this is a question at the forefront of many a discussion. There is, however, another option: responsive web design. When, why, and how should you go about designing a responsive website? Read more…

By Elaine Simpson  October 25th, 2011

Contrary to what you may read, peppering your form with nice buttons, color and typography and plenty of jQuery plugins will not make it usable. Indeed, in doing so, you would be addressing (in an unstructured way) only one third of what constitutes form usability. Read more…

By Justin Mifsud  November 8th, 2011

Creating the perfect color palette for each design project can be a time-consuming task. We might settle on a color scheme, only to change our minds five minutes later.

Sometimes we’ll feel like we’ve found a solid set of colors, but don’t know how to make them work together in the project we’re working on. Sometimes it seems like we don’t have enough colors or too many colors or the wrong combination of colors.

How is it that some web designers seem to be able to come up with the perfect color combinations in the work they produce? How much of a role does choosing the right color palette play in web design?

We’re going to explore some of the most popular colors being used in modern web design in the hopes of understanding why certain colors are used for particular websites. At the end, we will conclude with a list of tools to help you select colors. Read more…

The purpose of every sign-up form is for users to complete it successfully and send it in. However, if the form is long and complicated, then the user’s excitement for your website could turn to displeasure. Here are a few innovative techniques that will make your forms faster and easier to fill out. Read more…

By Anthony T   May 5th, 2011

User interface design is constantly evolving in the digital space. As users adapt to their various online environments, so must designers and developers consider the changing landscape. “The fold” is a concept derived from newspapers, which refers to the invisible line on a web page where the user must start scrolling to see the rest of the page’s content. So in traditional media, newspapers were often delivered or displayed folded up and the area “above the fold” is the first thing the reader would see. Therefore, the most eye-catching headlines and images get the readers’ attention and draw them further into the publication. Read more…

May 5, 2011
Posted by Luke Lancaster

Everyone develops opinions regarding how things should look, how things should behave, and what things should be called. These cognitive biases make up the filter between what actually exists, and what we perceive to be true. The field of experience design attempts to realize a user’s cognitive biases, or opinions, and rationalizes design decisions that make use of those biases. Read more…

Apr 28 2011 by Jordan Julien 

The usual question: Over the past 30+ years as a consultant in the field generally known as human factors engineering (aka usability engineering), I have been asked by hundreds of clients why users don’t find their company’s software engaging. The answer to this persistent question is complex but never truly elusive. This question yields to experience and professional usability analysis.

The unusual question: Surprisingly, it is a rare client indeed who asks the opposing question: why is an interface so engaging that users cannot stop interacting with it? This is a difficult question because it requires cognitive reverse engineering to determine what interaction attributes a successful interface embodies that result in a psychologically engaging user experience. This question pops up when products become massively successful based on their user experience design – think iPhone, iPad, Google Instant Search, Nintendo Wii, Microsoft Kinect. Read more…

By Charles L. Mauro CHFP on February 6th, 2011

Why do some companies create loyal fans while others alienate their customers? How can some organizations deliver consistently good experiences while others regularly falter?

There are a lot of reasons why some companies outperform others. But one of the underappreciated areas is customer experience (CX). Sure, companies often say they are customer-centric, but only a handful put the time and energy into becoming customer-centric. That’s why it was not a huge surprise to find that only 16% of companies received “good” or “excellent” ratings in the 2011 Temkin Experience Ratings. Read more…

BY BRUCE TEMKIN / APRIL 18TH 2011

You have finally fin­ished your wire­frames. You present them to your client and your client loves them. Your job’s done, right? Not quite. Chances are the client will come back to you and present you with some ideas of their own. Some of these ideas could make sense, but some could com­pletely change your design for the worse. Not every­thing your client sug­gests will be harm­ful to your design. But what should you do if your client sug­gests some­thing that you absolutely know will hurt users?

Do your users know the dif­fer­ence between “Sign Up” and “Sign In” on your web­site? The dif­fer­ence takes a while for most users to men­tally process because “Sign Up” and “Sign In” look so sim­i­lar. They’re two dif­fer­ent func­tions, but the only vis­i­ble dif­fer­ence is the prepo­si­tions they use. The dif­fer­ence is so small that using them together con­fuses users and forces them to think. When users have to think about how the two are dif­fer­ent, it can slow down their per­for­mance, make them feel uncom­fort­able about tak­ing action or cause them to choose the wrong option. Read more…

Responsive web design is undoubtedly a hot topic in web design right now. To some degree, the popularity of the concept of responsive web design is well deserved because site users are increasingly diversifying their methods of accessing a website.iPad, iPhone, Android mobile devices, desktops, netbooks — we’re in a time where our web designs must function in a multitude number of ways.

Let us explore the meaning and principles behind responsive web design. Read more…

Mar 14 2011  by Jason Gross 

A Web form which works well on desktops won’t necessarily work on mobile devices. With the nature of desktop computers, Web forms are not designed to be efficient. Due to the constraints of a mobile device and its context of use, efficiency is extremely important when filling in a mobile form. This article offers strategies that you can apply to design a more efficient and less error prone mobile form as compared to your Web form. Read more…

Author: Chui Chui Tan   Published:  March 15th, 2011 

You have finally fin­ished your wire­frames. You present them to your client and your client loves them. Your job’s done, right? Not quite. Chances are the client will come back to you and present you with some ideas of their own. Some of these ideas could make sense, but some could com­pletely change your design for the worse. Read more….

by anthony on 03/09/11

In a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review that focused on branding, David Edelman articulates how consumers’ engagement with brands is evolving through the proliferation of social media and other digital channels. In his article “Branding in the Digital Age: You’re Spending Your Money in All the Wrong Places,” he proposes a model for consumer and brand engagement titled the “Customer Decision Journey.” This model recognizes that customer experiences increasingly include online components, where their experience of considering and evaluating choices is constantly shifting and, after making purchases, their engagement with brands continues through social media channels. Read more…

By Michael Hawley  Published: March 7, 2011

Just like the three laws that govern all of physics, there are a set of fundamental truths about how customer experience operates. And here they are, the six laws of customer experience:

1) Every interaction creates a personal reaction.

2) People are instinctively self centered.

3) Customer familiarity breeds alignment.

4) Unengaged employees don’t create engaged customers.

5) Employees do what is measured, incented, and celebrated.

6) You can’t fake it.

Jack Welch has been quoted as saying: ”Deal with the world as it is, not how you’d like it to be.” 

When it comes to customer experience, these six laws describe how it is. 

While some isolated situations may not follow these six laws, they accurately describe the dynamics of customer experience for large organizations. Anyone looking to improve  customer experience must understand and comply with these underlying realities. Read more…

BY BRUCE TEMKIN Customer Experience Transformist & Managing Partner Temkin Group - July 2010