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5 Best Tools that Make Organization at Work a Breeze

Organizing your workday can be very tricky. Whether you belong to a big or small enterprise, getting through the gamut of workday tasks will always have its challenges. With the popularity of remote work gaining a strong foothold in today’s “new normal,” managing your workload while making sure that everyone stays connected and on top of things has become twice as hard. 

It can be a bear trying to get everyone on the same page. Too many tasks, meetings and collaboration, new information coming in daily, new employees joining, old ones leaving, trying to preserve and update knowledge within the company — how do you not get lost in the chaos?

Luckily, there are tools out there geared towards organizing your work and helping you run your workday more efficiently. There are hundreds of them floating around the interwebs and you can get lost in the chaotic list of organizational tools, ironically enough. So how do you choose the right one for you?

Choosing the right tool

First, you will need to take stock of what you have and what you need. What kind of service are you looking for? Are the tools you found equipped with the features you need in your organization? Compile a list of possible apps that might be useful for you. 

Second, once you’ve compiled a list of possible organizational tools that you might use, consider their ability to address all the things that you need them to do for you. If you can find just one tool to do all the organizational tasks you need to be done, then why get two or three separate tools to do what one platform can do?

Third, read up on the reviews. You’ll need to hear what actual clients have to say about the tools you are considering. Feedback is a key component to an informed decision; and once you’ve picked the tool/s you need, return the favor and write an honest and constructive review. 

Fourth, test them out. You really won’t know if the tool will work the way you envisioned it if you don’t try it out. Go through your picklist and take the tools for a test drive. Put them through the tasks you need them to run and see how well they hold up or how fast and efficiently they can accomplish those tasks for you. 

So now that you have the initial steps in choosing the perfect organizational tool for you, let’s delve into our list of tools (our absolute top favorites!) that we think might just be what you need.

The Best Organizational Tools for Work

Trello

Let’s start our list with Trello. This is a project management and organizational tool that uses task cards and project boards. This tool allows you to write down your daily tasks into virtual cards, assign due dates, and add attachments. You can invite your team and assign tasks to them, as well. 

Their project boards allow you to put your visualizations into an organized platform where you can monitor your project’s progress. You can collaborate with your team regardless of where each of you is based. It is very easy to use, and best of all, Trello syncs across all your devices. 

Slab

As their headline says, Slab is a “knowledge base that democratizes knowledge.” It’s a nifty tool that lets you create, store, and organize your data. It also integrates well with your existing tools, so there would be no need to replace your stack and relay new instructions to team members. Its Unified Search feature allows you to pull any needed data from any of your existing tools. Sweet, right? This shaves off time trying to remember which tool has what data. Another useful feature is Slab Topics, which not only organizes data into folders and tags, but also provides relevant context for easier browsing, learning, and transferring of knowledge within the company.

It also offers dozens of templates from industry leaders to get you inspired and give you ideas一so whether it’s onboarding new employees, documenting weekly team meetings, or creating user manuals, Slab has an extensive library of templates designed for your organizational needs.

And a bonus: it’s easy enough to use that creating and organizing can be done even by the least savvy members in your organization.

ProjectManager.com

If you manage large and diverse teams, you might want to consider ProjectManager.com. This award-winning tool has over a thousand integrations including Microsoft Office, Salesforce, Dropbox, Slack, and Google Apps. 

It has Gantt charts, kanban boards, and task lists. They have project management software, planning tools, and project dashboards among other things. You can collaborate and plan projects with your team quickly and easily. It works on both PC and Mac and doesn’t need any downloads or complex installations. 

Box

Box is one of the most secure cloud storage services available today. You can choose with whom you want to share your files. You can store all your confidential business information into the Box Drive and rest easy that it will remain secure. 

It is also integrated into Mac Finder and Windows Explorer so you can use it in both Windows PC and Mac. You can edit any file, even CAD, in your browser and it will automatically be saved to Box. 

The app itself takes up little disk space. It allows sharing large files without having to download anything. You can just share the link to your files with your team. It doesn’t bog down your systems with large downloads, and it allows for easy and real-time collaboration within your team. 

Microsoft OneNote 

If your company has a subscription to Office 365, you most likely have access to Microsoft OneNote, a great and secure collaboration tool that organizations can utilize in project management, process improvement, and daily operations. OneNote is ideal for managing projects with members in multiple locations as the tool allows real-time correspondence and feedback. 

A feature called SharePoint allows teams to create their own “wiki” and organize and store large amounts of information in one place, making streamlining ideas and resources easier for everyone. 

Conclusion

No matter how busy you get or how chaotic your workdays seem to become, there is always a tool, or several, out there that can help you keep your tasks and schedules organized. These things are there to make your work a lot easier, your collaborations more fun, and your team engaged no matter where each of you is based. All you need to do is find the right tools that will work for you.

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What is Lean Product Development?

Lean product development is an approach to developing products that focuses on reducing waste, speeding up delivery, and increasing profit. This approach to product development is used by dozens of successful companies, including John Deere, Nike, and Intel. Originally formulated by Toyota, lean product development is a great approach for new businesses seeking to capture the most customer value with the least amount of waste. Here’s what entrepreneurs need to know about lean product development. 

THE HISTORY OF LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Lean product development, or lean manufacturing, originates from Toyota in the late 20th century. The Toyota Production System was born from a need to meet the varying tastes of car buyers. After World War II, the growing middle class desired cars of different shapes, sizes, and colors, a demand that Ford’s factory model wasn’t equipped to meet. Consumers wanted different models, thereby requiring different materials, production lines, and skilled labor.

Toyota’s approach to meet this demand depended on two central tenets: jidoka and just-in-time. Jidoka is a Japanese phrase that roughly translates to “automation with a human touch.” It refers to a method of quickly identifying and correcting issues that may cause faulty production. “Just-in-time” is a concept that focuses on refining and coordinating each step in the production process so that it only produces what is required for the next phase in the sequence, dramatically lowering waste. 

The rest of the lean product development methodology flows from these two core values. Toyota designed a system that minimizes waste while maximizing value to the customer in terms of product quality, price, and good design. Other companies have since applied the values of lean product development to software, consumer goods, and other manufacturing processes.

PRINCIPLES OF LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Stemming from jidoka and just-in-time are seven key principles that encapsulate the approach to lean development. These principles dictate how an entrepreneur or new business can adhere to the lean development approach to deliver value and minimize inefficiencies. These principles are: 

Eliminate waste: waste includes anything which does not provide value to the end-user. Lean product development experts define waste very broadly, from “unnecessary movement of workers on the shop floor” to inventory deadstock and overproduction. 

Build quality: this is a disciplined approach to making sure products are well-crafted. It includes things like incremental development, automating tasks prone to human error, and constant feedback. 

Create knowledge: provide a way to capture knowledge and document learning throughout the process. 

Defer commitment: “To defer commitment means to not plan (in excessive detail) for months in advance, to not commit to ideas or projects without a full understanding of the business requirements,” explains one expert.

Deliver fast: deliver a simple product to customers quickly and iterate and enhance new versions thereafter.

Respect people: communicate effectively, resolve conflict proactively, respect others and work as a team for the benefit of the end-user. 

Optimize the whole: every part of the operation must be optimized for one specific end goal – delivering value to the customer. 

Lean product development principles have been rewritten and applied to the product design context, as well as to starting a company. The Lean Startup, a 2011 book about product development, outlines how to avoid building a product that no one wants or needs by learning from Toyota’s original lean product development principles. In today’s competitive economy, applying a lean product development approach can dramatically improve your company’s chance of success. 

HOW TO USE LEAN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

Lean product development begins by considering what specific value your product or service can provide for customers. What problem are you solving by developing this product? Do market research and competitive analysis to make sure the demand for what you have to offer truly exists. 

Next, incorporate the principle of holistic optimization. Get all stakeholders involved from the start. Identify a partner who can work with your business from product design to sourcing to production management and logistics. “Collaboration in the early stages of a project reduces the number of negative impacts and holdups that can happen down the line as progress continues. Getting manufacturing involved ahead of time allows for problems to be identified and resolved early, before they cause deliverability issues later,” describes one expert. 

Then, look at ways to eliminate steps in the process that are wasteful or inefficient. The next phase of your lean process seeks to optimize production – often simply constructing a minimum viable product for consumer feedback and testing. An MVP is a version of a product with just enough features to allow customers to conceptualize what your final product will be and provide feedback accordingly. Respond to customer pull and iterate your initial vision based on what the market demands. 

Finally, repeat the process until you’ve achieved perfection. Perfection, as defined by lean product development, is “measurable value with no waste.” It’s an extremely sustainable, profit-building method for product development. Inevitably, this approach benefits both consumers and brands. 

This article is originally published on: Gembah

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4 Different Approaches to Successful Product Design

Fast Company’s Innovation By Design award winners in 2019 all have a few things in common: they’re sleek, intuitive, and many have a sustainability focus. From a carbon-negative, algae-based plastic raincoat to a reusable takeaway-cup service for large venues, the winning designs all meld form and function to create a great user experience for the customer and the planet. 

Designing a great product doesn’t happen overnight. There are many product development strategies an entrepreneur can take to reach a break-through design. The process could start with something as simple as a napkin scrawl and continue with finding the right partner to move your design a leap ahead. Here are the different approaches that many businesses take to designing a new product. 

TRADITIONAL BUSINESS APPROACH

The traditional business approach considers two factors when designing a product. Will the product be viable, i.e., how does it benefit the business? And, what is the operational and technical feasibility of designing the product? Using the traditional business approach to design, a company would identify a problem, or a set of problems, and then derive what the company thought it could offer as a profitable solution. 

The traditional business approach to product development strategy seems relatively straightforward, but it often doesn’t lead to success. It focuses on the “how” and “what,” rather than the “why” – why does a customer need a product? The metrics for greenlighting a product design, namely viability and feasibility, are company-centric and don’t consider the needs of the end-user. Hence, the rise of design-thinking. 

DESIGN THINKING APPROACH

Design thinking incorporates the user experience into the design process, moving beyond the simple look and feel part of product design. Design thinking was popularized by IDEO founder Tim Brown, who describes it as “a human-centered approach to innovation that draws from the designer’s toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibilities of technology, and the requirements for business success.” 

  One of the aspects of design thinking that makes it so successful is the prototyping phase. Designers can help lower the risk of launching a new product by testing the product design with small groups of users throughout the development process. A prototype helps validate that the product is something a customer can understand, will use, and that the design is appealing before the product goes to mass production. 

  LEAN UX APPROACH

The Lean Start-up and Lean UX approaches take design thinking a step further, putting the prototyping process front and center. Lean Start-up is an approach to starting a business venture that takes an idea, translates it into a product or service, measures how customers respond, and then takes the learnings to pivot or iterate. Lean UX takes that same approach and applies it specifically to design. 

  Lean UX focuses on the human experience behind the design. The deliverables of the entire product development strategy are less important than the learnings the design process delivers. “The core objective is to focus on obtaining feedback as early as possible so that it can be used to make quick decisions,” explains one UX blog. 

  The goal of Lean UX is to get feedback quickly and use it to continuously improve. It’s an approach that is particularly collaborative – as if the customer is designing the product alongside the company. The drawback is that this approach to design can ignore other factors related to development; Lean UX can lead to somewhat of a product design bubble. 

  DESIGN SPRINT APPROACH

Design sprint is a subset of the design thinking approach. There are five phases to the design sprint process that take place on five separate days: 

Map

Sketch

Decide

Prototype

Test

Design sprints focus on a small part of the problem, or one aspect of the design, rather than building a completely new product. The process allows designers to work with their customers in the prototyping and testing phases, and to learn quickly – within five days – to continue to design a winning product. Obviously, design sprints integrate elements from the other approaches, but with a more focused, disciplined aspect to product design. 

  Which approach is right for you? It depends on the maturity of your company and the resources at your disposal. Speak to one of the experts at Gembah to learn how our experts can help with product development strategy. 

This article originally appeared on: https://gembah.com/successful-product-development-strategy/

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What is a Market Product Grid and Why should you use one?

Interested in growing your business? There are a variety of ways to do so; but how do you know which strategy is right for your venture?

A market product grid helps companies plot out their growth strategy and visualize the risks associated with expansion. It can help key leaders make decisions around product development, distribution, marketing, and even hiring. The matrix was initially published by Harvard Business Review and has since become a core teaching at business schools all over the world. Here’s what you need to know about a market product grid, and how to use one to initiate your growth strategy.

WHAT IS A MARKET PRODUCT GRID? 

A market product grid, also known as an Ansoff Matrix or a product-market expansion grid, is a tool that businesses use to develop a growth strategy by considering new and existing markets, new and existing products, and the risks of each possible relationship. 

The market product grid divides strategic outcomes by four major categories:

Market penetration: a business creates growth by bringing its current products to existing markets 

Market development: a business creates growth by bringing its current products to new markets. 

Product development: a business creates growth by bringing new products into existing markets. 

Diversification: a business tries to create growth by bringing new products to new markets. 

Why use a market product matrix? The goal is for the company to plan it’s existing products and new products – as well as where they’re going to sell each product – and learn about the risk associated with their plan. The grid is best used to understand your business growth options, but it won’t tell you what actions you should take. 

HOW TO MAKE A MARKET PRODUCT GRID

The simplest market product grid uses two axes: the x-axis for products (new and existing), and the y-axis for markets (new and existing). To use the matrix effectively, business leaders must have a firm understanding of where the best opportunities lie given the company’s current position. Recognize how many resources you can expend, as well as what your risk tolerance is. 

Typically, strategic leaders start in the market penetration quadrant, where they’re bringing an existing product to an existing market. This quadrant is considered the most obvious starting point for any company: it attempts to gain market share in an existing market. This approach “does not require the company to venture into unexplored markets and products. As a result, it provides a lower amount of risk because essentially the organization’s scope remains unchanged.” 

However, sometimes increased competition or economic and legal constraints prevent a company from pursuing further market penetration. In these instances, a company might choose to pursue product development: bringing a new product to an existing market. This strategy is one level up on the risk scale. It involves diversifying to new products, but not to new markets; often, companies mitigate this risk by using the same core technology, instead of developing entirely new products. Likewise, this strategy is likely to be more expensive as new talent and tools may be needed to create a new product. 

Some companies prefer to forgo product development in favor of a market development approach. Market development, bringing an existing product to a new market, requires an effort in planning and customer research. But it doesn’t need to be so complicated. A new market can be tapped simply by: 

Distributing to a new geographical area; 

Implementing new pricing to attract a new customer set; 

Or, developing new distribution channels. 

Lastly, the riskiest growth strategy for a company is full diversification: bringing a new product to a new market. This risk, however, can be offset by the potential gains. Diversification inoculates a company against economic upheaval; when one market fails, or one product goes out of style, the company is protected. Diversification may have the highest investment in terms of research, distribution, and marketing, but it can pay off big-time. 

WHAT GROWTH STRATEGY IS RIGHT FOR YOUR BUSINESS? 

A product market grid can help you answer this question. But, strategic leaders must factor in costs, risk, and their type of product or customer. A manufacturing or distribution partner can help alleviate some of the burden of expanding into a new market. Mature businesses will have different risk tolerances than a startup, and depending on your industry, it can be hard to find a place that isn’t already fiercely competitive. Do your market research to learn more. 

This article originally appeared on: https://gembah.com/what-is-a-market-product-grid/

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Master Your Craft with These Top UX Tools

This post was written by Olha Bahaieva, Designer for Toptal.

Having the right UX tools at hand can be the crucial difference between having a collaborative, seamless, and overall highly effective design workflow and a workflow that’s slow, unproductive, and unaccountable.

It’s important to stay up to date with the latest tools and technologies, and learn about the interesting ways designers can use them to create and collaborate more efficiently. Some tools are more effective than others depending on the size of the team, the stage in the design process, and any other tools that are already part of the workflow.

Let’s take a look at the top UX tools, from wireframing and prototyping to UX research and analytics, that are helping teams do incredible things in 2018.

Design + Prototyping + Design Handoff Tools

InVision/InVision Studio

Platform: web (integrates with Sketch and Photoshop), and macOS Price: from $13/month for individuals, or $89/month for teams of five

Note: The price applies to the core InVision web app, not InVision Studio, which is free.

The InVision web app displaying the status of various app screens

InVision is arguably the mightiest UX tool yet. It allows Sketch and Photoshop designers to import their static screens and turn them into dynamic prototypes, and stakeholders to offer constructive feedback that can then be converted into actionable, manageable tasks. Combine that with their user testing and collaborative whiteboard technology, and the InVision web app becomes an invaluable, seriously impressive, tool.

In 2017, InVision shipped new design handoff features, and now in 2018, InVision has has become a complete, all-in-one solution as they introduce their own UX design tool, Studio, which is free and includes advanced animation and prototyping features.

For teams that want a fully-stocked toolbox under one subscription, InVision is here.

Studio, InVision’s new UX design tool

Framer/Framer Studio

Platform: macOS Price: $12/month for individual users, or from $250/month for teams of three

In terms of offering, Framer is the tool that most closely resembles InVision, since they both combine a mature web interface with a brand new UX design tool. It comes down to personal preference with these two, but where Framer is slightly cheaper for individuals, InVision is clearly the bigger brother when it comes to design collaboration.

Figma

Platform: web, macOS, and Windows Price: free for starter teams, or $12/month

Figma stood out from the rest early on in its development as the leading tool for multiplayer design, allowing multiple designers to work on the same design file all at once. With the ability to create responsive designs and added handoff features, it’s impressive how they’ve offered these features across the web, macOS, andWindows versions of the product.

If you enjoy an energetic, collaborative design workflow, Figma is for you.

Adobe XD

Platform: Windows and macOS Price: free for 1 prototype, or $20.99/month for unlimited prototypes

When Sketch became the #1 tool for wireframing and interface design, Adobe almost had no choice but to admit that Photoshop could never be the UI design tool that designers needed. Adobe decided to make Adobe XD available to Windows users where Sketch didn’t, and also built in the ability to prototype user flows and inspect designs, helping veteran designers familiar with the Adobe ecosystem to stick with a familiar workflow.

UXPin

Platform: web Price: from $8.10/month for one user, with other options for teams

UXPin is a complete product design platform offering everything from design, wireframing, prototyping, collaboration, user testing, and handoff all in a single web application. The downside is that UXPin is one of the more difficult tools to use due to the number of features, cluttered interface, and (sometimes) performance lag that often haunts bulky web apps. However, enterprise teams in need of impressive features such as design systems and the ability to take advantage of web frameworks and technologies such as Bootstrap and Google Fonts shouldn’t overlook it too quickly.

Design + Prototyping Tools

Sketch

Platform: macOS Price: $99/year

Photoshop handed the crown to Sketch as they became the leading design tool for both wireframing and interface design in 2015, and as of 2017 they’re still leading the charge. Sketch’s innovative approach to screen design introduced invaluable features such as artboards, symbols, and exports, that would then inspire a wave of new design tools like Adobe XD, Framer Studio, and InVision Studio. This incredibly-intuitive (and lightweight) vector tool helps UI designers iterate much faster than ever before.

However, here’s the “but” (and it’s a big but): Sketch isn’t available for Windows, and their decision to implement tools for prototyping designers so late in the game means that their competitors have quickly taken over this market, with InVision being arguably the most dynamic prototyping tool available today. Even though Sketch functionality can be tailored with an impressive catalogue of plugins (including integrations with the likes of Flinto, Zeplin, Marvel, Principle, and even InVision themselves), some designers may favor a more native experience with these features readily available out of the box.

All in all, Sketch is excellent for ideation and wireframing, or those that don’t mind topping up their toolbox to add better prototyping and collaboration tools.

Webflow

Platform: web Price: a variety of options aimed at single-site individuals, multiple sites, and teams

Webflow is a WYSIWYG editor for the modern-day designer who wants to build responsive websites without code, and even host them, all with a single subscription. Webflow outputs clean, semantic code so that you don’t have to, and delivers robust features that lets web designers create anything from static websites to eCommerce stores, where even the content and inventory is managed from the same dashboard.

Principle

Platform: macOS Price: $129/year

Although more of a prototyping tool than a design tool, the highly-rated Principle app is for designers that focus on high-fidelity prototypes, and uses timeline animation to help design advanced micro-interactions where Sketch and Adobe XD don’t. If the design features aren’t sophisticated enough for your needs, Principle integrates with Sketch.

Prototyping Tools (Only)

Flinto

Platform: macOS Price: $99/year

Flinto takes transitions and micro-interactions to the next level with advanced animation tools, including springs and easings, 3D rotation, scrolling effects, and even allows trendy designers to export animations as videos, GIFs, and Dribbble shots.

While Flinto is focused solely on prototyping interactions, it does it well. Pair with Sketch for best results.

Origami

Platform: macOS Price: free/open source

Origami is an app prototyping tool developed by the design team at Facebook. While it’s similar to Flinto (minus the price tag), it’s not maintained as often as similar tools, and its logic-based approach to designing interactions results in a steeper learning curve.

For designers on a budget, Origami is well worth a look.

Prototyping + Design Handoff Tools

Marvel

Platform: web Price: $0-12/month for individuals, or $42-84/month for teams

Enterprise teams requiring SSO and handoff features should __inquire directly_._

Marvel is an online prototyping tool known for being one of the easiest to master, however, the trade off is that it’s not as sophisticated as InVision when it comes to dynamic prototyping features, and requires integration with Sketch to become a complete design + prototyping solution. That being said, it does integrate with Lookback, bringing user testing to the table, and includes design handoff features.

Marvel also allows teams (even non-designers) to choose an artboard and illustrate a low-fidelity idea using shapes and text, making it ideal for design sprints (especially since it also lets users convert paper prototypesto low-fidelity Marvel prototypes).

Design Handoff Tools (Only)

Zeplin

Platform: web Price: free for one project, $17/month and $26/month for three and 12 projects respectfully

For large organizations, their $7.65/user/month option offers more advanced user permissions and the ability to copy color and text styles between projects.

Zeplin has consistently outperformed competitors Sympli and Avocode, where it has recently added Adobe XD and Figma integrations alongside its already-existing Sketch and Photoshop CC integrations. While many all-in-one tools have added design handoff to their list of features, Zeplin fills the void for the tools that haven’t (Sketch, Photoshop), and those still experimenting with handoff features (Adobe XD, Figma).

Wireframing + Prototyping Tools

Axure

Platform: Windows and macOS Price: $29/49/99/user/month for Pro/Team/Enterprise users respectively

One-time purchases of Axure RP 8 also available from $495.

Axure is built specifically for the design of wireframes and rough prototypes, and comes with features that make creating data-driven, dynamic, and adaptive mockups so easy you’ll forget that it’s a tool with no high-fidelity UX prototyping features. For designers focusing solely on wireframes and prototyping, Axure is a top choice, used by 87% of the Fortune 100 companies.

Justinmind

Platform: Windows and macOS Price: $19/user/month, or $39/user/month for enterprise teams

Justinmind doesn’t receive enough love for what it offers, which is advanced UX prototyping, collaboration, some basic design tools, and also 500+ web and mobile widgets for wireframing. Wireframing isn’t something that many competing prototyping apps have focused on, making Justinmind one of the few UX tools that does.

Wireframing Tools (Only)

OmniGraffle

Platform: macOS Price: $100, or $200 for a Pro license

OmniGraffle is a wireframing tool with diagramming features, useful for apps and websites where the user flow or information architecture might need more attention. As a native macOS app, the interface is very friendly, making it an easy UX tool to master.

OmniGraffle has a very handy feature: “stencils,” that are ready-to-use, drag-and-drop reusable design components in a “stencil library” which designers can use for building wireframes, mockups, or even final visual designs. Users can create their own library, and there are also thousands of stencil libraries available on the web for download, a lot of them free, saving time and effort.

Graffletopia is one of the largest stencil depositories on the web containing a mix of free and paid libraries. With over 1,100 stencils, Graffletopia has stencils for every use—designing mobile apps, websites, network diagrams, flowcharts, and more.

Balsamiq

Platform: web, macOS, and Windows Price: from $90/user/year for cloud access, or $89 for the desktop apps

Balsamiq is the opposite of Justinmind, focusing more on wireframing than prototyping. Their built-in UI elements use a sketched-out visual aesthetic to encourage brainstorming, and is uniquely aimed at product managers and developers, as well as wireframing designers, allowing entire teams to be a part of the design process early on.

UX Research and Testing Tools

Lookback

Platform: web Price: $49/user/month or $99/user/month depending on features

Lookback introduces live, moderated user testing to the UX design process, allowing designers to record the face, screen, and voice of anyone in the world. For teams using Marvel as their prototyping tool, Lookback integrates with it seamlessly.

UserTesting

Platform: web Price: $49/test (min. 15 tests), with enterprise options available

UserTesting is similar to Lookback in terms of features. Although it’s a terrific standalone user testing tool with a huge repertoire of experienced user testers (with Marvel you’ll need to find user testers yourself), UserTesting seamlessly integrates with InVision, too.

Eyequant

Platform: web Price: $499/month for individuals, $999/month for teams of 10 (+ enterprise options)

Eyequant uses machine learning to help teams make better design decisions and improve their CRO efforts. Its hefty price tag might deter some customers, but those that do invest receive training on how to simulate users, analyze metrics, make the most of their A/B testing, and more.

Hotjar

Platform: web Price: variable pricing depending on number of daily pageviews

Hotjar makes it easy for teams to optimize user experiences by combining user feedback with analytics, heatmaps, clickmaps, scrollmaps, and visitor recordings. Where heatmaps and clickmaps illustrate where users are moving and clicking their mouse respectively, scrollmaps indicate at which point users might be losing interest.

Crazy Egg

Platform: web Price: from $29/month for 20,000 pageviews

Similar to Hotjar, Crazy Egg is used to optimize user experiences and conversion rates by analyzing user behavior with heatmaps and visitor recordings, although it also includes easy-to-use A/B testing tools to help decipher what is and isn’t working.

Optimal Workshop

Platform: web Price: $166/user/month, with free and enterprise options available

Optimal Workshop is a user research toolkit focusing on card sorting, surveys, tree testing, first-click testing, and qualitative data discovery.

Analytics Tools

Google Analytics

Platform: web Price: free

While Google Analytics doesn’t sport the most inspiring or most usable interface, it does deliver a fair amount of data for a free tool, making it a suitable starting point for user research and acquiring insights that you might want to explore further in another tool.

Mixpanel

Platform: web Price: from $99 per 1 million data points, with free and enterprise options available

Mixpanel allows anyone, from executives to simple contributors, to use data to make more strategic decisions. With a friendlier interface compared to Google Analytics, designers might find that it’s easier to analyze user journeys, learn how users engage with the product, and decipher complex behavioral analysis with Mixpanel.

Pendo

Platform: web Price: pricing is determined based on the number of users and features required

Pendo, with a much simpler interface compared to most other analytics tools, allows designers to track NPS (net promoter score), segment users, optimize funnels and user journeys, and anything else you’d expect from a top website analytics tool. Besides that, designers can deliver targeted announcements, contextual help, and tailored experiences based on the data that’s been tracked.

Conclusion

Choosing the right UX tools requires careful consideration. We need to factor in the costs, the required level of collaboration with other designers and stakeholders, the platform, and any other tools that we might need to integrate with in order to maintain a seamless workflow. Once you’ve narrowed down your choices, sign up for their free trials and consider running a 5-day design sprint to test the waters.

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Typeface Styles for Web and Print Design

This article  is originally published at Toptal.

The vast majority of people are bombarded with typefaces from the moment they wake up in the morning until the moment they go to bed at night. From the apps on their phones to the grooming products in their bathrooms to the signs they see on their morning commute, typography is everywhere. But how many people ever really notice the typeface styles they’re surrounded by every day?

Even designers underappreciate typefaces and often form type decisions on loosely-based opinion rather than objective understanding. Do most designers even know about the original industrial contexts for which various typefaces were designed? What do these contexts and histories mean for determining the legibility, appropriate character, and use of a given typeface? No matter what design discipline one is working in—whether it’s visual design or UX or traditional print design, typefaces are essential elements of virtually every bit of design produced.

Some of the most influential typefaces in use today are often overlooked in favor of unique typeface designs that are newer to the market—and sometimes rightly so. Each of the typefaces in this article is decades, if not centuries old, and were all designed for different technological contexts. Thus, there have been many alternatives or updates created since they were introduced. Even some of the fonts originally designed for screens have become outdated as displays and printers become higher resolution and capable of displaying more complex shapes accurately.

Serif Typefaces

Baskerville, Georgia, Garamond, and Times New Roman are popular examples of serif typefaces.

Understanding the difference between serif and sans-serif typeface styles is one of the most fundamental rules of type. For many, this may be obvious, but the serif is the stroke given to the end of main horizontal and vertical lines of a character. There are many subclasses within serifs, including hairline, wedge, and slab serifs, which all describe the visual qualities of the serif itself.

Generally, serifs have a longer history than san serifs, as they were the first typefaces used to print books following the invention of the Gutenberg Press. Essentially, serifs allow for more comfortable reading at length, as the serifs guide the eye smoothly from character to character, making the serif ideal for long-form printed works. Because of this, serifs are still generally the go-to typeface for printed works such as books or reports, though it’s not an absolute rule. Each typeface has its own specific qualities, and there are some serif typefaces that aren’t really suitable for large chunks of body text (and some sans-serif typefaces that are perfectly legible and readable for long-form works).

Baskerville

Baskerville is one of the classic serifs that has stood the test of time and is still in wide use today. Baskerville was designed in a transitional period between the first typeset faces (Bodoni and Didot) and the 19th- and 20th-century typefaces to come. Baskerville has succeeded due to its noticeably high-contrast letterforms.

The designer, John Baskerville, was an intense perfectionist and thus created a font with beautiful detail. The typeface could only be printed on his own machines to ensure that the letterforms be transferred correctly to the page. This history is significant, as Baskerville has been adapted to the various mediums we work in today. The details incorporated into each letterform make Baskerville unsuitable for low-resolution mediums, including low-resolution displays or bad printers. That being said, when Baskerville is given the opportunity to express its quality, it’s an excellent serif typeface.

A good example of a modern, digital typeface that Baskerville has heavily influenced is the typeface that Amazon has commissioned for the Kindle, Bookerly. If you’re looking for an alternative to Baskerville that maintains its 200-year-old richness while being updated for legibility on-screen, Bookerly could be a good solution. Other alternatives include Mrs. Eaves and Plantin.

Times New Roman

Times New Roman, like many widely-used fonts that have been around for a while, is a polarizing typeface that is loved by many but loathed by some as well. Often, what people either love or hate about TNR is the same: its apathetic neutrality.

Matthew Butterick writes “Times New Ro­man is not a font choice so much as the ab­sence of a font choice, like the black­ness of deep space is not a color. To look at Times New Ro­man is to gaze into the void.” Times New Roman feels so plain largely due to its overwhelming ubiquity as a result of its exposure from the paper it was designed for, the Times of London.

Times New Roman was designed for the commercial interests of the newspaper, which was to maintain legibility while cramming as many words into a line—and therefore page—as possible. The designers were very public about the font’s use with newspapers, as it is narrower and more legible in thin columns, but not ideal for books with longer line lengths. This efficiency was achieved by increasing the x-height and significantly reduced the tracking, or space between characters.

Due to the success of the typeface with the Times, Times New Roman became adopted soon after by most American newspapers, thus making it one of the most ubiquitous typefaces. Because of this ubiquity, some designers advise against using Times New Roman, as it can give the impression of apathy or cheapness. Some other editorial-style fonts you might consider are Arnhem, Le Monde Journal, or Plantin.

Garamond

Garamond Antiqua is a purist old-style typeface designed by the iconic Parisian punchcutter Claude Garamond. Garamond was one of the first faces designed for the type set, meaning that it was ideal for the long body texts of the newest craze of its time: novels.

As an inherent quality of the era in which it was designed, Garamond gives text a sense of old-world style. Yet, its rounded serifs keep the text more informal than many of its serif counterparts. Garamond has remained a prolific font by virtue of its clear forms, allowing users to read at length without tiring. The characters’ large bodies and tall x-heights create a lot of space around each letter, making the words perceptively bigger and thus more legible.

Although many designers would argue for Garamond’s timelessness, its forms simply are not ideal for web typography. Garamond’s virtues in print include its soft curves that blend from character to character, making it more readable for long periods of time. The downside is that these curves become blurry at smaller sizes on screen, impeding its legibility. Thus, despite the numerous recreations of Garamond that you may find online, most designers for the screen believe it has become obsolete. That said, the designers of EB Garamond still think otherwise and are trying to revitalize this classic in the open source community.

If you’re looking for alternatives to Garamond, check out Sabon or Minion.

Georgia

Perhaps in response to typefaces like Garamond’s failure on screen, Matthew Carter was commissioned by Microsoft in the 1990s to design a typeface specifically for on-screen legibility. And Georgia was born.

Many believe that Georgia lacks the neutral quality of other mass produced serifs, such as TNR, and it gives the text a friendly and charming quality. Thus, Carter’s impressive design feat is that he managed to solve the issue of on-screen legibility while maintaining the attractive character of print faces.

The story is that Carter designed Georgia while working on a new version of the 19th-century font Scotch Roman. Georgia maintains many of its predecessor’s qualities. However, in order to craft Georgia for the screen, Carter made some essential changes: increasing the x-height, rounding out the numerals, and creating slight misalignments in order to maintain a sense of character.

Although Georgia is now established as a classic, it’s also widely considered to have a more modern feel than many other serif typefaces. Miller and Abril have a similar feel and are good alternatives.

Sans-Serif Typefaces

Verdana, Gill Sans, Helvetica, Franklin Gothic, and Futura are some of the most commonly used sans-serif typefaces.

Although some may argue that the sans-serif typeface style first occurred in ancient times, they weren’t officially incorporated into widespread use and modern society until the 19th century. As advertising, newspaper, and media boomed, there was a need for typefaces that could be read as clear headings from a distance as well as be representative of a new era of industry.

Verdana

Verdana shares a similar story with its cousin, Georgia, as they were both designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft in the 90s. Thus, Verdana is a sans-serif designed specifically for the screen. Similar to many fonts striving for clarity, Verdana has a large x-height to increase legibility. Verdana is referred to as a humanist sans-serif, which means that it maintains some of the qualities and design logic of serif typefaces.

However, Matthew Carter was aware of the potentially constraining spaces that some text may get crammed into on screen, so Verdana’s character sizes are balanced just enough to avoid cramming in apps or in platforms without stable leading. Considering that Verdana was designed for use in the 90s, it is especially effective still on low-resolution devices. Yet, as screens become higher in quality, Verdana’s strengths are lost, and it does not perform quite as well as it once did.

If using Verdana in print, its wide-set spacing gives it the quality of a monospaced typewriter font. This quality makes Verdana a poor choice for large bodies of text in print. An alternative that you might consider now instead is Colfax. The designers of Colfax take into account the lack of mechanical constraints on type design today and have crafted a font that’s more appropriate for both high-resolution displays and inkjet printing.

Gesta and PT Sans are both good alternatives to Verdana.

Franklin Gothic

Franklin Gothic is a realist sans-serif typeface that was originally created in 1902 by Morris Fuller Benton of American Type Founders (ATF) and expanded to include more weights in the 1970s and 1990s by ITC. Digital versions of the typeface have been created by Adobe, International Typeface Corporation (ITC), Monotype Imaging, and URW.

The original typeface, which Benton admitted was designed as an homage to Benjamin Franklin, was most suitable for headlines and trade use rather than long blocks of body text. Updates with additional weights and styles have since expanded the usage options.

Franklin Gothic’s timeless quality makes it a popular choice for many media outlets still, more than a century after its original release. Time Magazine and The New York Times both use it for various headlines, Scrabble tiles in the US and Canadian versions of the game feature it, and the condensed version was even used for the opening crawl in the Star Wars films.

While Franklin Gothic is incredibly popular still, a popular alternative is News Gothic, Benton’s popular successor to the original, with a narrower build and less stroke contrast. Other alternatives include Trade Gothic, Benton Sans, and Maple.

Futura

Futura, released in 1927, is a direct result of one of the first geometric sans-serif (as opposed to humanist sans-serif) typefaces. Futura’s largest competitor, Erbar Grotesk (released in 1926), was designed at the hugely influential Bauhaus, with the intent of communicating everything that the school felt to be modern at the turn of the 20th century. This meant that geometric logic did away with any hint of ornamentation and aimed for pure logic in the letterforms created.

Like Erbar Grotesk, Futura includes letterforms based on geometric shapes, primarily the circle (though also squares and triangles where circles weren’t appropriate). It includes low contrast between its strokes, with tall lowercase ascenders and uppercase characters that share proportions similar to Roman capitals. Its designer, Paul Renner, believed that modern typefaces should have modern sensibilities rather than simply being reiterations of previous designs.

Futura has experienced a lot of fame over the course of the 20th century, as the Apollo 11 astronauts left a plaque on the moon in Futura; Volkswagen and many other brands have adopted it; and several filmmakers, including Stanley Kubrick and Wes Anderson, have reappropriated it. If you appreciate the modern quality of Futura but find it a little bit overused, considering trying FF Super Grotesk, HK Grotesk (open source), or Neuzeit.

Gill Sans

Monotype, the same typeface foundry that brought us Times New Roman, commissioned polymath Eric Gill (a sculptor/typesetter/graphic artist) to produce a font for London’s modern signage. Gill Sans, contrary to Futura, is a humanist font with a less regimented style than its German contemporaries. The “R” is slightly flared and the “eyeglass” lowercase “g” is near iconic. The font’s naturally bold quality works well for displays and headings, yet the lighter weights released later are well suited for body text.

Gill Sans is based on 

Edward Johnston

’s 1916 “

Underground Alphabet

)” and is the official font of the 

London Underground

.

Its history in the London Underground, the BBC, and The Church of England, plus its modern yet human quality, make the typeface quintessentially British. Although the font is classic in proportion, it has some artistic flares which make it more cheerful than its austere German counterpart, DIN.

That said, many of these artistic flares have made Gill Sans undesirable by some graphic designers. Specifically, the lower case “a’” is often criticized for being unbalanced and throwing off the legibility.

Looking for alternatives to Gill Sans? Check out ITC Johnston or P22 Underground.

Helvetica

Helvetica is the only typeface to have inspired its own film (2007). It’s arguably the most famous/ubiquitous font today. The font was born out of a widespread competition in the 50s for new versions of the widely popular Grotesk fonts.

The Grotesk fonts had evolved gradually to increase legibility. However, not all of the typefaces worked well with both handset linotypes and mechanical ones. The linotype machine required both regular and italic characters to be set with the same width, thus forcing italics to appear too wide and regulars to appear too narrow.

Helvetica was designed specifically with acute character adjustments to maintain the modern beauty and legibility of Grotesk typefaces while allowing designers the benefits of mass production. First released at the “Graphic 57” trade show, the font became ubiquitous throughout Swiss design.

Other typefaces that make good alternatives to Helvetica include Maison Neue, Univers, and Folio.

Monospaced Typefaces

Monospaced typeface styles were originally designed for the typewriter. The main quality to understand about this category of typeface is that the typewriter required each character to be typed out with equal spacing. Thus, every character is placed within a single organizing matrix in a body of text whereas, often, other fonts vary in spacing in order to manage legibility.

Ultimately, outside the context of the typewriter, there are few applications where it makes sense to use monospaced typefaces. The equal spacing means that they are less efficient and generally less legible as well. An exception to this rule is in applications designed for writing code, where equal spacing can actually aid legibility.

Some examples of these are Courier, Consolas, Letter Gothic, or Source Code Pro (free). However, some designers just can’t deny the nostalgic aesthetic; thus, they remain popular.

System Typefaces

System typefaces are the ones that come with your device or program. There are different system typefaces for Mac, Windows, and even Adobe products. All of the typefaces included in this article have at least some variations that are system fonts.

There are a few drawbacks to using system fonts. The largest is that these typefaces are generally incredibly overexposed. Because they’re included on almost everyone’s computer, people see them day in and day out, in both good designs and terrible ones. While not every typographic project needs to be on the bleeding edge of originality, it’s important to understand that if the brand you’re designing for is supposed to be unique and original, using a system font will often undermine that.

Another major drawback to using system fonts is that some of them just aren’t very good. Arial comes to mind…

Finally, many system fonts are designed specifically to be highly legible on screen and may not be particularly readable in print. This might not be an issue for every project a designer undertakes, but it is something that should be kept in mind.

Choosing a Great Typeface for Design Work

When designing for a particular brand, choosing an appropriate professional typeface is a critical job for any designer, especially when considering that licenses for some typeface families can exceed $1,000.

Choosing a typeface family that includes a large variety of weights, widths, and even both serif and sans-serif variations is a smart idea for many projects. This gives designers a lot of options for any project that may come down the pipeline for a particular brand and even allows updates to marketing collateral using “different” fonts that aren’t really that different (and therefore less likely to incense consumers and brand loyalists, as has happened in many large redesigns from major brands). A deep font family can be paired with itself easily and carry a variety of personalities.

When looking for a typeface to pair with an existing type library for more general use in projects, focus on choosing fonts with similar characteristics. This means considering all of the qualities of the caps and lower cases, x-heights, and formal geometry. Sites like Typewolf can be invaluable for finding fonts to pair with existing options already available (as well as great alternatives for those times a client says they want something “like” Helvetica but definitely not Helvetica).

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Leveraging Mental Models in UX Design

This post was written by Scott Benson, Designer for Toptal.

Whether it’s innovating a new product or optimizing an existing one, UX and UI designers should leverage their product users’ knowledge of familiar products and interfaces. The payoff is smoother interactions, faster adoption rates, and better overall usability.

Users know how your product works and how to use it even before you design it. At least, they should. Designers want to be exciting and original, but users will always approach new products and features based on what they’ve used before (it’s called a “mental model”) and for this reason, designers should work with user expectations.

Through repeated use, users form mental models of how apps and devices should work.

What Is a Mental Model?

“A mental model is based on belief, not facts: that is, it’s a model of what users know (or think they know) about a system such as your website.” – Nielsen Norman Group

Through the habitual use of the multitude of products that exist today, a user’s brain develops mental models for how products function. These mental models are formed through the regular use of a system (such as a website, app, or even a more tactile user interface as in the car seat example above), and knowledge of how a system works.

Users will transfer expectations they have built around one familiar product to another that appears similar.

These days, it’s not uncommon to see small children who have likely spent more time interacting with touchscreen devices than books or regular televisions try to swipe flat screen TVs (or even books), and being surprised when swiping doesn’t work. Based on their exposure to touchscreen devices, the touchscreen generation have built up the expectation (the mental model) that swiping is how every box-like object should respond.

Even if they are confused by a book, these children probably have no trouble picking up an unfamiliar touchscreen device. This isn’t because they’ve spent time learning to use every individual device but because they got to know a particular one and how it works. Their brain stored a mental model for an operation, and they’re able to successfully apply that to other devices utilizing the same or similar patterns and sequences.

“Individual users each have their own mental models, and different users may construct different models of the same user interface. Further, one of usability’s big dilemmas is the common gap between the designers’ and users’ mental models.” – Jakob Nielsen, Nielsen Norman Group.

The car seat setting in a Mercedes is a great example of an interaction design that uses a mental model. A car seat shape for controls makes it intuitively easy to understand and operate.

Designers are immersed in design projects and regularly form mental models of their own. They also acquire them from common interaction design patterns utilized by other designers. In a way, this can create a “designer bubble.” It’s easy to fall into the trap of designing something that makes sense to other designers, but which nevertheless may confuse the average user.

People have unique mental models generally formed by education, experience, age, and culture. The average user is not as well-versed in the subtle UI patterns familiar to designers living in the aforementioned “designer bubble.” In order to empathize with users and design for maximum usability, designers need to shrink the gap that exists between the designer and user mental models.

In order to align with users’ existing mental models, the design process should incorporate an understanding of users’ expectations around the way a product is going to work. This is especially important as part of UX research methods used to uncover user needs and pain points.

Misaligned User Mental Models

Misalignment of mental models occurs when there is a discrepancy between a user’s mental model and how a design actually works. This kind of disconnect creates usability problems, as the product doesn’t align with the user’s expectations and existing knowledge. The window for capturing a user’s attention and confidence is small, so misalignment can spell disaster.

For example, most people have used enough eCommerce systems that they have developed expectations for how the experience flows. Surprising users with an unexpected flow could potentially mean a drop in conversions and sales.

Today, most shoppers have an expectation of optional registration based on previous experiences and prefer not to spend their time filling out forms but check out as a guest. According to a survey by Econsultancy, 25% of shoppers abandon their purchases when forced to create an account before going through the checkout process.

In a case study by User Interface Engineering, when a “Register” button was replaced with a “Continue” button in a checkout flow, that minor adjustment created a $300 million boost in revenue. Based on previous experiences, shoppers had a mental model of the process that would follow after clicking the “Register” button—typically a time-consuming registration process that would be necessary before purchasing the product. These negative expectations caused shoppers to abandon their cart.

In another example, Snapchat recently got significant pushback after making major changes to their UI. Users wanted Snapchat to look and operate like the previous version to which they’d grown accustomed, and existing mental models didn’t align with the new release.

The result? Users were confused, made to feel inept, and the change led to a mass exodus from which the company may not recover.

To recap—people have expectations and mental models that are based on previous experiences using a specific product. Unexpected surprises in the UX or UI can lead to confusion and frustration and companies pay the price.

Mental models mismatch in action: The recently redesigned Skype UI confuses users and slows them down due to its use of non-standard dialogs where options don’t look like dialog buttons.

Improving Misaligned Mental Models

Usability testing and other UX research methods help reveal discordance between the designed experience and users’ mental models. Furthermore, gaps between mental models can be improved with interactive tours, careful onboarding, real-time feedback, and/or signifiers to assist in learning new product features and a new UI.

Updates and design changes don’t have to cause chaos for users. Instead of forcing a change, it’s advantageous to give users the opportunity to to update software when they are ready. When a user is able to consciously choose when an interface may change and potentially challenge their existing model of a familiar product, they are more aware of as well as empowered by the new design.

Google made 

sweeping changes to the UI and behavior

 of Google Calendar, a product which had not changed much in many years. By warning and allowing them to opt in over several months, Google empowered its users to decide when to change their mental models of how the product should work.

Google recently overhauled their Google Calendar. The redesign brings some of the most significant design changes in a decade to a product used by millions worldwide. Rather than foisting it upon its users, for whom a drastic change in something so essential could add friction and frustration, they alerted users to the imminent changes. Google allowed users to switch between the old version and the update for several months before finally replacing the old version completely.

Making older versions of a product compatible and available, and allowing users to continue using a familiar version for a limited time, can maintain trust. Allowing and empowering users to decide when to learn the new interface will help them feel as if they’re still in control of the experience.

Slack uses interactive tours to help new users learn the interface and efficiently improves any contradictory mental models users may have.

Making sweeping, large-scale changes to existing designs that users have become familiar with could violate users’ existing mental models. To minimize the risk of upsetting users, companies may consider letting out minor adjustments through several updates or testing changes with smaller groups.

Facebook has been quite successful in its use of this strategy. “Reactions,” for example, were implemented and tested extensively in specific territories before they were released worldwide. Although minor adjustments happen frequently, Facebook is careful about rolling out major updates that can disrupt users’ mental models. Launching changes through multiple releases can minimize the number of mental models that need to be improved.

Designing on a Foundation of Mental Models

Jakob’s Law of the Internet User Experience states that “users spend most of their time on websites other than yours. Thus, a big part of customers’ mental models of your site will be influenced by information gleaned from other sites.”

Simply put, the goal of UX designers is to create a process that allows users to accomplish their goals quickly and easily. People are creatures of habit, and leveraging user mental models means that users will know how to use a product before they’ve ever used it.

Mental Model Research

It’s common for UX designers to create journey maps and empathy maps, and to use data to help identify user pain points when creating a new product (or improving one). When it comes to mental models, the same UX research methods and processes can be applied to the study of existing competitor or peer products.

When designing a new product, studying an existing system can potentially save designers a lot of time and money since it can eliminate the need to create new prototypes from scratch in order to test new concepts. Watch how users interact with existing designs to find out what they may expect from something similar.

Designers can attempt to improve on solutions that already exist. Additionally, as long as the target demographic is the same, mirroring well-known systems means that little testing has to be done to verify the usability of core functionalities.

Users of competing and/or related systems can be studied to find out how they are working currently, their current mental models, and what their pain points are.

Mirroring Existing UX

The world’s most popular apps are directly influenced by one another, and they regularly implement designs based on existing mental models. For example, Facebook introduced the interaction pattern of “Likes,” which were then copied by LinkedIn and Instagram.

Twitter introduced hashtags, which were then copied by Facebook and Instagram. Tagging was introduced by Twitter and then copied by Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and others. Instagram introduced stories, and then Facebook implemented those. Snapchat introduced photo filters and manipulation, and then Facebook copied those.

In almost all of these instances, there is very little variation in the adoption of these features. Facebook and Twitter are very competitive, and they’re always looking to capitalize on each other’s success. Facebook is methodical at mirroring a competitor’s product experience, and when a new, successful app emerges, if they’re unable to acquire it, that is exactly what they will do.

Facebook Messenger’s UI mirrors Snapchat, capitalizing on existing mental models. Users of one popular app will have no trouble using and enjoying the other.

Recent statistics show that Facebook has over 2.2 billion monthly active users. The application is so popular that it has influenced many designs today because users have expectations around the paradigms that familiar products like Facebook have established.

For example, due to Facebook’s design influence today, it’s pretty standard to find the notification icon in the top right corner near the login area on many different desktop applications. Status updates, news feeds, and likes are also increasingly common patterns in other applications.

LinkedIn could have designed personal updates, news feeds, or notifications any way they wanted. However, capitalizing on their success, large user base, and users’ existing mental models, they chose to create an experience that directly mirrors Facebook.

Unless there is a specific reason to circumvent what the user has come to expect, referencing familiar patterns allows the designer to focus users on more important, unique features of the product. Even if someone has never used LinkedIn, their knowledge of Facebook will mean that everything is familiar.

Mental Models and Skeuomorphism

Skeuomorphism is a term that is used to describe interface objects that mirror real-world counterparts in how they appear and/or how the user can interact with them. This design concept capitalizes on users’ existing knowledge and mental models of an actual object so they don’t need to learn a new interface.

Many digital UI elements reflect real-world counterparts. This isn’t because designers lack imagination, but they realize a UI element detached from any analogs in the physical world means more effort on the user’s part in order to interpret what they are seeing. Incorporating a switch in a digital UI that looks and acts like a light switch that someone may find in their home dramatically cuts the cognitive load for that user. The visual metaphor is there, and they immediately know what it’s for.

Even completely abstracted, the average user will likely know that what they are looking at is a set of switches to turn on and off as desired. 

Google’s Material Design system

 uses very flat visual design and iconography but leverages common UI patterns based on physical metaphors to ensure optimal usability.

This principle should be used in moderation, but can be quite effective for usability if applied properly. Skeuomorphism implies that the UI both looks and functions like its real-world counterpart. However, designers need to be careful with this mental model theory, as discrepancies in functionality or appearance can actually detract from a design’s usability.

Skeuomorphic design is common in professional audio production applications. Digital plugins often emulate analog gear, such as compressors, equalizers, and reverb units. In the image below, the digital plugin on the bottom left utilizes skeuomorphic design to emulate the top unit.

The use of skeuomorphic design elements enables users to apply mental models that exist from operating a real-world sound compressor. The image on the bottom right uses a unique design that isn’t based on any existing piece of gear. Because of this, even if they had used a real-world physical counterpart, users would have no foundational knowledge of the interface and would need to spend additional time and effort to learn it.

Digital audio plugins often emulate analog gear, such as compressors, equalizers, and reverb units. Utilizing skeuomorphic design capitalizes on existing mental models. The bottom left plugin uses skeuomorphic design, while the bottom right plugin does not.

Foundational Creativity and Innovation

In order to maximize usability, it’s important to design on a foundation of mental models. Creating and innovating within existing mental models and standards can bring about new and exciting products that still align with user expectations. Violating those mental models should be done strategically and only when necessary.

For example, most people have developed a mental model of volume sliders. In the example below, the slider on the left represents the mental model that most people would have for a volume slider. The middle slider was designed as a joke, but it illustrates an important point.

The slider completely contradicts mental models and user expectations, as it appears like a vertical slider, but instead, it operates horizontally. The slider on the right is taken from Apple’s iOS. Apple used creativity and innovation to design something new and original, but it still respects the latticework of mental models that forms the shared expectation of how a volume slider operates.

From left to right: Volume slider representing the common mental model, volume slider contradicting the common mental model, and volume slider from Apple’s iOS, utilizing the common mental model in a new design

Final Thoughts

Conducting UX research on established designs will help clarify existing mental models and enable designers to leverage those of their product users’. The findings, in turn, will help designers optimize the usability of any digital product.

Designers who ignore mental models do so at their peril. Leveraging existing mental models as a foundation for creativity and innovation could enable designers to improve existing products as well as help them design exciting new ones.

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UI Design Best Practices and Common Mistakes

This post  was written by Micah Bowers, Designer for Toptal.

Although the title UI designer suggests a departure from the traditional graphic designer, UI design is still a part of the historical tradition of the visual design discipline.

With each movement or medium, the discipline has introduced new graphic languages, layouts, and design processes. Between generations, the designer has straddled the transition from press to Xerox, or paper to pixel. Across these generations, graphic design has carried out the responsibility of representing the visual language of each era.

As UI design transitions out of its infancy, what sort of graphic world can we expect to develop? Based on the current trajectory, the future looks bleak. Much of UI design today has become standardized and repeatable. Design discussions online fixate on learning rules to get designs to work safely rather than pushing the envelope or imagining new things.

The tendency for UI designers to resort to patterns and trends has not only created a bland visual environment, but it has also diminished the value of the designer as processes become more and more formulaic.

As we review UI best practices and common mistakes, the most pressing concern is not technical proficiency but avoiding an onslaught of repetitive and visually boring designs.

The top five most common UI design mistakes are:

UI designers have become rule-obsessed.

The grid is restricting the creative process of UI designers.

UI design has been standardized with patterns.

Typefaces are tragically misunderstood.

Contrast is not a design cure-all.

Understand principles and be creative within their properties. Following rules will only take you where others have been.

Common Mistake #1: UI Designers Have Become Rule-obsessed

The world of graphic design has always followed sets of rules and standards. Within design disciplines, common mistakes closely coincide with a standard rule that has been broken. From this perspective, design rules appear to be trustworthy guides.

However, in every design discipline, new movements and creative innovation have resulted from consciously breaking rules. This is possible because design is conditional and requires designer discretion. Design is not a process with finite answers. Therefore, design rules should be considered as guidelines rather than cold, hard facts. The experienced designer knows and respects the rule book just enough to be able to break out of the box.

The way design is discussed online often revolves around lists of do’s and don’ts. Master the 10 Easy Steps to Design Perfection! Unfortunately, design requires a much more robust understanding of principles and tendencies. The path to good design does not run through systematic adherence to checklists.

Interestingly, if designers stop breaking rules, then no creative breakthroughs can be made. If UI designers only develop the ability to follow guidelines rather than honing their decision-making abilities, they may quickly become irrelevant. How else will we argue that our work adds greater value than off-the-shelf templates?

Be Wary of “Top 10” Design Rules

The issue with design rules in today’s world of UI design is their abundance. If designers need to solve problems, they can simply look to the existing UI community and their set of solutions. However, the plentitude of these guides and rules undermine their credibility.

A Google search for “Top UI Design Mistakes” yields a half million results. What are the odds that most, if any, of these authors agree with one another? What is the likelihood that each design tip offered accurately coincides with the design problems of a reader?

Often, online educational articles discuss acute problems rather than the guiding design principles behind an issue. The result is that new designers never learn why design works the way it does. Instead, they become dependent on what has come before. Isn’t it a concern that so few of these articles encourage design experimentation or play?

Designers should draw on a toolkit of guiding principles rather than a book of predetermined rules and design templates. “Press x for parallax scrolling and y for carousels. Before choosing, refer to the most recent blog post on which navigational tool is trending.” B-o-r-i-n-g-!

Tips and “Top 10” Lists Follow Predictable Trends

Trends are like junk food for designers. Following them produces cheap solutions that offer some initial payback but little value over the long haul. Trend-following designers date themselves quickly. The reward for following someone else’s design path? A gnawing sense of professional emptiness.

It’s true that working to invent your own styles and systems is hard work, but it’s absolutely worth the effort. The daily gains and breakthroughs are all your own. There’s something about copying that never seems to feed the designer’s soul.

Common Mistake #2: The Grid Is Restricting the Creative Process of UI Designers

Despite my rant against rules, here’s one: It’s impossible for a UI designer to work without a grid. Web and mobile interfaces are fundamentally based on pixel-by-pixel organization—there’s no way around it.

However, this does not mean that UI designers should only strive for grid-centric appearances. Likewise, there’s no reason for all design-related decisions to be based on a grid.

Avoid Using the Grid as a Trendy Tool

Generally, designing in response to trends results in poor design. At best, trends lead to satisfactory outcomes, but the overall impact is almost certain to be underwhelming. To be trendy is to be ordinary.

Therefore, when employing a grid in a design, understand what the grid has to offer as a tool and what it might convey. Grids generally represent neutrality as everything within the constraints of a grid appears equal.

Grids also allow for an unbiased navigational experience. Users can jump from item to item without any interference from the designer’s curatorial hand. With other navigational structures, the designer may be able to group content and establish desired sequences more intentionally.

Although a useful tool, the grid can be very limiting to designers.

Don’t Default to the Grid as a Workflow

Dylan Fracareta, faculty at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and director of PIN-UP Magazine, points out that “most people start off with a 12-column grid…because you can get 3 and 4 off of that.” The danger here is that designers immediately predetermine their work.

To prevent this, Fracareta only uses the move tool with set quantities, as opposed to physically placing things against a grid line. This has the double effect of establishing order and opening up the potential for unexpected outcomes.

Designing for the browser used to mean that we would input code and wait to see what happened. Nowadays, web design is similar to traditional layout design, where the process is “more like adjusting two sheets of transparent paper.” How can we, as designers, benefit from this process?

Although grids can be restrictive, they are one of our most traditional forms of organization. The grid is intuitive. The grid is neutral and unassuming. Grids allow content to speak for itself and users to easily navigate an interface. Despite my warnings towards the restrictiveness of grids, different arrays allow for varying levels of guidance or freedom.

Common Mistake #3: UI Design Has Been Standardized with Patterns

The concept of standardized design elements predates UI design. Architectural details have been repeated and applied to similar design circumstances for centuries. This practice makes sense for parts of a building that people rarely perceive.

However, once architects standardized common elements like furniture dimensions and handrail heights, people began to express disinterest in the beige physical environments that resulted.

Once considered best practice in the field of architecture, we now realize that row after row of standardized office furniture made for an agonizing work environment.

Not only this, but standardized dimensions were proven to be ineffective. Based on statistical averages, they often failed to serve large segments of the population. Repeatable details have their place, but they should not be used uncritically.

Designers Shouldn’t Use Patterns as Products

Many UI designers view patterns as something greater than a simple time-saving tool. They see them as off-the-shelf solutions to complicated design problems. Patterns are intended to standardize recurring tasks and artifacts in order to make the designer’s job easier. Regrettably, certain patterns like carousels, pagination, and F-patterns have become the entire structure of many of our interfaces.

Is Pattern Use Justifiable?

Designers tell themselves that the F-pattern exists as a result of the way that people read on the web. Espen Brunborg points out that perhaps people read this way as a result of our F-pattern overuse. “What’s the point of having web designers if all they do is follow the recipe?” Brunborg asks.

Common Mistake #4: Typefaces Are Tragically Misunderstood

Many “Quick Tips” design lists suggest hard and fast rules for fonts. Each rule is shouted religiously, “One font family only! Monospaced fonts are dead! Avoid thin fonts at all costs!” This is nothing more than hot air.

The only legitimate rules on type, text, and fonts center on enforcing legibility and conveying appropriate meaning. As long as the text is legible, there may be opportunities to employ a variety of typefaces. The UI designer must take on the responsibility of knowing the history, uses, and design intentions for each font implemented in an interface.

Typeface Legibility Reigns Supreme

Typefaces convey meaning and affect legibility. With all of the discussion surrounding rules for legibility on devices, designers are forgetting that type is designed to imbue a body of text with an aesthetic sensibility. Legibility is critical—this isn’t to be disputed—but it really should be an obvious goal. Otherwise, why would we have a need for anything beyond Helvetica or Highway Gothic?

The important thing to remember is that fonts are not just designed for different contexts of legibility. They are also essential for conveying meaning and giving bodies of text nuanced moods.

Each typeface is designed with its own use case in mind. Don’t allow narrow rules to restrict an exploration of the world of type. Like what you’re reading? Get the latest updates first.

Avoiding Thin Fonts at All Costs Is Unwise

Now that the trend has come and gone, a common design criticism advocates avoiding thin fonts entirely. But do we need more regulations? Shouldn’t the goal be a deeper understanding of the design principles supporting typefaces?

Some designers are convinced that thin fonts are impossible to read or untrustworthy between devices. Legitimate points. Yet, this represents a condition in the current discussion of UI design where typefaces are only understood as a technical choice relating to legibility. If legibility is the only design concern, why not banish thin fonts altogether?

A more holistic approach begins with understanding why a thin font might be advantageous, and within what contexts. Bold, thick text is actually much more difficult to read at length than thinner text. Yet, as bold fonts carry more visual weight, they’re more appropriate for headings or content with little text.

Thin fonts often employ serifs, making them suitable for body text. How so? Serif characters flow together when viewed in rapid succession, making them more comfortable for long periods of reading.

Additionally, thin fonts are often chosen because they convey elegance. If a designer is hired to create an interface for a client whose mandate is visual sophistication, it would be difficult to find a heavier typeface to do the job.

Fonts Require Variation to Establish Hierarchy

A common UI design mistake is failing to provide adequate variation between fonts. Changing fonts is a good navigational tool that helps to establish a visual hierarchy within an interface. In general, the largest items (or boldest fonts) are most important and carry the most visual weight. Visual significance helps users identify content headings and frequently used functions.

Too Much Variation Undermines Hierarchy

The issue with making every font choice unique, especially when an interface contains many typefaces, is that nothing really stands out. If every font is different, it becomes difficult for users to recognize important content or establish a sense of visual order.

Common Mistake #5: Contrast Is Not a Design Cure-all

A common thread that appears on many “Top Mistakes” lists encourages UI designers to avoid low-contrast interfaces. It’s true that there are many instances in which low-contrast designs are illegible and ineffective. However, my worry, similar to my points on thin fonts, is that the use of absolute language leads to a homogenous, high-contrast design culture.

Defaulting to High Contrast Is Careless

High contrast visuals are undeniably stimulating and exciting. However, there are many more states within the human emotional range worth conveying. To be visually stimulating may also be visually safe.

Take, for instance, the entire industry of contemporary sci-fi film. It seems as though every production has resorted to black and neon blue visuals as a way of tricking viewers into excitement. Would it not be more effective to interweave narratives with both high and low contrast images that provoke a broader scope of emotional responses?

Functionally, if every element in an interface is in high contrast to another, then nothing stands out. This defeats the potential value of contrast as a hierarchical tool. Considering different design moves as tools, rather than rules, is essential to avoiding stagnant, trendy design.

Conclusion

At best, design rules are guides. They provide decision-making safety and warn designers of the dangers of thoughtless choices.

Conversely, design rules are not laws. They are not unbreakable, and they are certainly not deserving of our undisputed surrender. In fact, design rules, when followed recklessly, can become serious crutches that weaken our ability to solve problems creatively.

Designers are not scientists. We are not bound to provide empirical evidence for every aesthetic decision we make. It’s true that our profession is one of process and deliberate judgments, but there is room for instinct and ingenuity. In fact, our ability to help our clients stand out in a cluttered world of trendy content depends on our willingness to imagine new possibilities.

We must experiment. We must play.

Design rules exist to be leveraged for visual advantage. They may be bent, even broken, but they are never to be blindly followed.

[dubacreative]

Who Knew Adobe CC Could Wireframe?

This post was written by Ivana Milicic, Designer for Toptal.

Wireframing is a major step in designing any user interface, whether a website, application, or software product. Without distraction in the form of visuals, colors, typography, styles, and effects, you can be more focused on defining content hierarchy and user experience.

Doing low-fidelity wireframes and prototypes will help you test and iterate earlier and more often in the process. Low-fidelity wireframes allow designers to work faster and develop products that users will love.

There are a lot of different wireframing tools to choose from in the wild. Which one you choose will depend on your personal preferences and workflow style.

Just like a lot of designers who have moved to digital design from the print world, I’m an expert in Adobe applications such as Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop. I can use them efficiently and intuitively from anywhere and at any time (even if someone wakes me up in the middle of the night and refuses to give me a cup of coffee).

Not surprisingly, these versatile applications have also become the tools I use to do web and application visual design. So, for my workflow to be the most efficient, I use them for wireframing as well.

Adobe CC’s suite of design applications can be used to efficiently create wireframes.

With each project, I usually start designing by doing very rough sketches on paper, or on my iPad or smartphone screen if I am not near my office desk. These sketches are there to focus my thoughts regarding the chosen concept; the client will probably never see any of them. When I feel confident that my idea works, I move into wireframing. I usually use Adobe Illustrator and InDesign combined: Illustrator for creating most of the UI kit elements and InDesign for the wireframing itself.

I’ll explain a step-by-step process of how to also incorporate those tools into your wireframing workflow later in the article, but before I go into details, let me show you the strengths and weaknesses of using InDesign as a primary wireframing tool.

The Pros and Cons of Using Adobe InDesign as a Wireframe and Prototyping Tool

For some time now, Adobe InDesign has been not only a desktop publishing application but also widely used for digital publishing and EPUB creation. There are also several reasons why it is a suitable tool for wireframing as well:

Master pages – You can quickly and consistently apply global design elements like navigation, headers, footers, and so on using master pages. You can create as many master pages as you need, and on top of that, one master can be based on another.

Solid grid support – Allows you to easily create and apply different kinds of grids, complementing columns, horizontal and vertical guides to create modules, and subgrids for greater complexity and precision.

Alternate layouts – Enables wireframes for multiple devices and orientations in the same file.

CC Libraries – Generates a library of different reusable assets like commonly used objects, colors, characters, and paragraph styles. Create assets in InDesign, Illustrator, or Photoshop, or with the Adobe Capture mobile app—whichever you prefer.

Layers – Provides the ability to organize, group, show/hide, and lock/unlock objects and content selectively in the wireframe. Every page of a multi-page InDesign document has the same number and order of layers. All of the changes you make to layers are reflected on all pages, like visibility, stacking order, or deletion.

Styles and tables – Gives complete control over the look of your text, objects, and tables through the use of InDesign styles. Styles can inherit from each other providing the ability to cascade desired formatting easily throughout the document. Creating and formatting tables to be used as wireframe content elements or even helpers for layout purposes is very simple.

Typekit integration – In high-fidelity mockups, you can use any of the Typekit fonts that sync to the desktop.

Interactivity and animations – You can use Adobe InDesign’s built-in interactivity and animation features to create different states of web or application design elements for interaction prototyping. Most people use these features while creating magazines for digital publishing solution and fixed-layout EPUB export, but they are suitable for prototyping as well.

Export options – InDesign can export the wireframes and prototypes you create in a variety of formats. Interactive PDFs will probably be your format of choice in the majority of cases, but you can also use the Publish Online feature to convert your document to interactive HTML, which can be viewed in modern desktop and mobile browsers. Unfortunately, you don’t have much control over the export using Publish Online, and exported files are hosted on Adobe servers. You can share the prototype URL to your client or embed it into your site. For more control and direct export to HTML5, you can use the in5 extension from Ajar Productions.

Adobe InDesign has many pros to be used as a wireframe and prototyping tool, but it also has some disadvantages:

Lack of predefined wireframe templates and elements – Since InDesign is not meant to be a wireframing tool, you have to create and prepare templates and object assets by yourself. (I’ll show you how to handle this step later in the article.) The good news is that most of this work will be done only once, and after a few hours of work, you’ll be ready to jump start your InDesign wireframing. Also, there are a lot of assets and wireframe kits that you can download from the internet, so there is no need to draw everything yourself.

Interactivity and animation features are limited – Although you can easily connect pages and add some interactivity and animations, the process can sometimes take a long time. Some of the simple interaction tools are not very intuitive. If you haven’t used InDesign interactivity features, you’ll need to overcome a slight learning curve before you’ll be able to apply them efficiently.

InDesign documents can’t export directly as layered PSD files – If you do your visual design in Adobe Photoshop and want to have separated wireframe elements for building your design, then you will have to export your wireframes to PDF first. Then you will need to open the PDF in Illustrator and export it again as a layered PSD. People working on the Mac can also use a free script written by Rob Day to save InDesign files as a layered PSD.

Good Wireframe Preparation Is Half of the Work

Start by fine-tuning your working environment. If you do not already have a saved workspace in Illustrator and InDesign for this kind of work, create one. In Illustrator, start with the predefined Web workspace and adapt it to your liking: Close panels you don’t often use, be sure to open the ones you will use, and then arrange them to suit your work style.

When done, save the workspace by choosing Window > Workspace > New Workspace… Do the same thing in InDesign using the Digital Publishing workspace as a starter.

Assembling Wireframe/Mockup/Prototype Kits

An efficient wireframing workflow using Illustrator and InDesign requires that you invest some time in making your user interface assets kit first. Since the introduction of Adobe Creative Cloud, CC Libraries are the best way for storing all your UI kit components.

You can create one or more libraries for wireframing and prototyping purposes. For example, you can create one library for website wireframing, another for iOS applications, a third for Android applications, and so on.

To create an Adobe CC Library, open the Libraries panel and choose Create New Library from the hamburger menu in the panel. Assets you put in libraries can be made and used in different Adobe desktop or mobile apps on all devices you log into with your Adobe ID. That means you can start with the project on your iPad or iPhone, continue on your desktop computer in the office, and make last-minute changes on your home laptop with the same assets available on all devices.

Use Adobe CC libraries to build wireframe kits and house common assets.

If you work as a part of a larger team, library assets can be shared between team members. Libraries can contain colors, graphics, layer styles (Photoshop only), and paragraph and character styles. You add assets in libraries by clicking on the corresponding button at the bottom of the CC Library panel with the respective element selected. You can also add graphic assets by dragging them directly from your artboard to the Libraries panel.

Assets in libraries are organized by categories. Stick with good practices and rename each asset with a meaningful name. Libraries are searchable, and finding an asset by typing the beginning of its name will save you tons of time later, especially when you have many different items in your libraries. To change an asset’s name, double click on it and type in a new one.

Creating Wireframe Kit Components

Although Adobe InDesign has some basic drawing tools that are pretty similar to Illustrator’s, Illustrator is a much better choice for drawing various elements in your wireframe. As a rule of thumb, create all kit elements that require some drawing more complex than basic geometric shapes in Illustrator. Create simpler elements that contain text that you will need to change in the layout, such as simple buttons, in InDesign.

For starters, make a list of all the elements you’ll need in the wireframe, such as navigation elements, page elements including images, video frames, and text boxes, icons, avatars, form elements, and all other interface elements. After your list is completed, you can head to Illustrator and InDesign to create those elements.

Start by creating a new document for wireframe or mockup kit components. Double-check that you choose either Web/Devices Profile in Illustrator or Web/Digital Publishing Intent from the New Document dialog box. This ensures that pixels are used as units and the color mode is set to RGB.

Make wireframe kit assets as simple as possible because they need to give fast visual cues for what they represent without being too detailed. You should use very limited color palettes of preferably a few shades of grey. Visually accentuate elements that are more important by coloring them with darker shades or by giving them higher contrast.

For higher-fidelity mockups or prototypes, create UI kits with more detailed elements that use each project’s respective color palette. For easy access to color palettes, add them to CC libraries.

Create an Adobe wireframe kit.

Adobe Illustrator Assets in CC Libraries

Assets you add to libraries from Illustrator are linked by default (since Adobe CC 2015). That means when you modify a library asset in Illustrator, changes are reflected in all instances used. If you want to add an unlinked asset to the document, press the option/alt key while dragging it from the panel.

Adobe CC wireframe asset library in Adobe Illustrator

When you use linked Illustrator assets in InDesign, they will have a little cloud icon in the upper left corner when the document is viewed in Normal mode. They are all also listed in the Links panel. If you modify a library asset in Illustrator, changes in the InDesign document won’t be done automatically. The cloud icon will be replaced with a modified link exclamation mark icon, and you’ll have to update these links.

InDesign assets that you place in an InDesign document are not linked. This means that you can edit instances independently of the original, and when the original asset is modified, those changes are not reflected on assets that have already been placed into the layout.

A style guide and asset library in Adobe InDesign

Consider those properties when creating wireframes: Add assets to the Library from Illustrator when you assume they’ll need to be modified and updated globally, or add them from InDesign when you know you’ll want to modify them individually. Note that you can also create graphics in Illustrator, copy/paste them to InDesign, and then modify if needed before adding it to the library as an InDesign asset.

If you happen to forget which graphic asset is created by which application, look at the right side of each item in the Library panel while using Show Items as a list.

Adobe InDesign Flexibility with Content and Copy

To ensure that you can easily change copy and typography in your wireframes, create text containers in InDesign. InDesign has a nice feature for filling text boxes with placeholder text. When you draw a text box, right-click on it and choose Fill With Placeholder Text.

Add text boxes to the Adobe library like any other graphic element by dragging them. When you use those text assets later as a part of your wireframes layout, you can modify the text box as well as its content in your wireframe.

Consider making button UI elements in InDesign, too. To create a button, make a text frame, type in the text, and then use Object > Text Frame Options to define Inset spacing. Adjust the vertical justification of text inside a box by choosing the desired option from the Align drop-down menu.

Switch to the Auto-Size tab and choose appropriate auto-sizing (that would probably be Width Only) and a convenient reference point. If you do not want to let InDesign break your text into more than one line, check the No Line Breaks option.

Use Existing Resources

There are lot of Adobe Illustrator wireframing and prototyping UI kits available on the internet that you can buy or even download for free if you want a ready-made solution. Maybe you already have elements that you can dig up from your completed projects. Open those documents, tweak any previously created elements as necessary, and put them into their respective libraries.

If you are designing for a particular platform—for example, an iOS or Android application—be sure that you carefully read their human interface guidelines and use appropriate assets. It may be convenient to have UI elements that are specific to various platforms in your kit.

Don’t focus too much on trying to account for every future asset or state in your libraries before you start with the actual wireframing process. You can add assets to your libraries later and build on it as you go.

Creating InDesign Wireframe Templates

There is one more important preparation step left: Create InDesign templates that you’ll use for making wireframes. Start by creating a new document with Web or Digital Publishing intent and define appropriate page sizes for the screens you are designing for.

Wireframe templates in InDesign

Since it is recommended that you use some kind of a grid for laying out your wireframe elements, set up the margins and create a column grid by setting the desired number of columns and the gutter space. You can change those settings later from Layout > Margins and Columns with its respective master page (or pages) selected in the Pages panel.

If you need horizontal guides and complementary vertical guides, create them manually or make an additional grid by using Layout > Create Guides. When creating a grid, it’s helpful to use one of the online grid calculator tools like the Gridulator.

You can also create additional templates for presentation purposes with device mockups as a frame for your wireframes. Since one InDesign document can be linked to another, you can create wireframes in one InDesign document and then place it into another one for presentations.

Although it might seem complicated at first, this is actually a very simple and effective workflow. Keeping actual wireframes in a separate document makes it easier to continue building from approved wireframes to a polished visual design.

It is also simple to create presentation-ready templates in which to place wireframes, add labels and comments, and be able to show your best solution to the client. When you make modifications on a wireframe file, just update it like any other link in a presentation document, and ta-daaa! All changes are in your presentation as well.

In the Layers panel, you can prepare separate layers for different kinds of content: user interface elements, interactive features, gestures, labels, and notes. If you need more layers for a specific project, you’ll be able to easily add them anytime during the wireframing process.

When you are done with creating, save your templates as InDesign.indt template files. After all the templates you need are saved, you are finally ready to start wireframing efficiently.

Building Wireframes

First things first—start with the master page. Drag all global elements that will be the same across all screens of your project from the library. If you are designing a website, these are usually headers with a logo, navigation, and footer. Since you can create more than one master page and they can inherit from each other, you can take advantage of nesting master pages.

For example, depending on the project, you can create a master page for one UI element, such as a modal or dialog popup, then make new masters based on the first master, altering only the elements that need to be different.

Using Master templates in Adobe InDesign

You can’t select, change, or delete master elements on regular document pages unless you click on them while holding Command/Control + Shift to override the master. Once your element is overridden, you can change any of its parameters or completely delete it from the layout.

Keep in mind that even when you override the element, parameters that you haven’t changed will still be inherited from the master. For example, if you override an element by changing its color, its size will not change as it is still connected to the master. Further, if you change it on the master page, it will also be modified on the element you previously overrode.

When inserting additional pages into your wireframing document, remember to base them on their respective master. If you need to change the master for pages already in the layout, select them in the Pages panel, right click and choose Apply Master to Pages. Use the library assets and arrange them using the Smart Guides and Align options to create the final UI wireframe layouts.

If you are creating designs for more than one screen size, make alternate layouts from Layouts > Create Alternate Layout or the Pages panel. You can use liquid layout rules when creating alternate layouts to automatically adopt page elements from one size and orientation to another, or you can manually control them. For applying and testing Liquid Layout Rules, use the Page tool or open the panel Window > Interactive > Liquid Layout.

Liquid layouts for Adobe wireframing in InDesign

Adding Interactivity

Adobe InDesign has a bunch of interactivity features that you can take advantage of when creating wireframes or prototypes. Which features you’ll include will depend on the final format you will need for your wireframes, prototypes, or presentations.

If you are exporting as PDF, interactivity will be limited, but you can at least make links between screens work using the hyperlinks panel to create them. Select the element you want to behave as a link and click on the New Hyperlink icon. From the Link To drop-down menu, choose Page and enter the desired page number. Repeat that action on all the items you want to behave as links between the screens.

You can also add hyperlinks to objects residing on the master pages, which can be a real time saver. Create links on the master page once and they will work on all the screens of your document.

You can create buttons from any graphic, text, image, or group of elements. To create a button from a selected object, use the Window > Interactive > Buttons and Forms panel and click on the Convert to Button icon.

Buttons can have different states created for normal, rollover, and click appearances. To add rollover or click states to buttons, click on them in the Buttons panel and edit the button appearance for each state. To add an action to a button, click on a plus sign and choose it from the list. Take into account that actions under SWF/EPUB will not work in interactive PDFs.

To create popup elements, choose Show/Hide Buttons and Forms. To hide buttons until triggered check Hidden Until Triggered option. You can include multi-state objects in an interactive PDF, but only if you export them as a SWF first and then place them back into the InDesign layout for PDF export. This workflow is tedious and the PDFs cannot be seen properly in all PDF readers, so try to avoid doing this unless really necessary.

If you want to convert your document to an HTML prototype using InDesign CC 2015 Publish Online feature, you can use many more interactive options like animations, multi-state objects, and multiple button actions, including all those intended for SWF/EPUB export.

You can add simple animations using the Animation panel and choosing one of the built-in presets from the drop-down menu and setting its properties. One object can have only one animation applied, but if you need to add more of them, group your object with an empty box and use the new animation on that newly created object.

For UI elements that require showing different states, create a multi-state object. Create a separate object for each state. Objects can be a single element (picture, text box, graphic) or a group of different elements. Open the Window > Interactive > Object States panel, select all the objects you created for the multi-state object, and click on the New button at the bottom of the panel.

After your multi-state object is made, you’ll need to create buttons to move from one object state to another. Go To Next State or Go To Previous State actions reveal the specific object state with the Go To State action.

If you want to have a scrollable frame in your wireframe/prototype, the easiest way to create one is by using the Universal Scrolling Frames extension from Ajar Productions. After you download and install the extension, you can use it as an InDesign panel. For a scrollable frame, you’ll need to create content as well as one frame for a container.

The scrollable content can be a text frame, picture, or several elements grouped together. When you are finished with creating the content and container box, select the content and Edit > Cut. Then select the container and paste the content inside by using Edit > Paste Into. Select the container and using Universal Scrolling Frames, adjust the desired scroll direction.

By combining buttons, multi-state objects, animations, and scrollable frames you can achieve a rich interactive experience. To test interactivity in InDesign, use the EPUB Interactivity Preview panel. You can preview a single page or the whole document. Enlarge the preview panel as you need.

If you haven’t used the Adobe InDesign interactive features, be prepared as, at first, there is a bit of a learning curve. But with a little practice and some trial and error, you’ll quickly master them.

Exporting Finished Documents

When you are done creating the wireframes and presentation files, all that is left is to show your great ideas to the client in best way possible. For that purpose, you’ll need to export your wireframes in a format your client can preview. Although InDesign files can be exported in a variety of formats, you are probably going to use Interactive PDF or the Publish Online feature if testing functional low- or high-fidelity prototypes. To save as an interactive PDF, choose Adobe PDF (Interactive) from the Format drop-down menu in the Export dialog box and adjust the properties as needed. Do not forget to tick Forms and Media if there are interactive elements that you want to include. Clients can view PDF wireframes in the free Adobe Reader and write all their comments in that same file.

You can also use a PDF document exported from InDesign to create an InVision (or some other tool that supports PDFs) prototype. If your standard prototyping tool, perhaps Marvel, can’t import a PDF, export your InDesign wireframe pages as JPEG or PNG images.

To export interactive an HTML prototype that can be seen in modern browsers on different devices, go to File > Publish Online, or click on the Publish Online button from the Application Bar. After the document is prepared for publication online and uploaded, you can copy a document URL to share with stakeholders and start the reviewing process. You can also embed the published prototype on your site.

A downside of the Publish Online feature is that it doesn’t have any additional control over the export, and files are always stored on Adobe’s servers. Also, it’s still a preview feature and you can’t be sure in which direction Adobe is going to develop it, or even if it will be discontinued.

Once your wireframe/prototype is exported, it’s time for the testing, reviewing, and iterating process to start.

[dubacreative]

UI vs. UX - The Vital Guide to UI Design

This post  was written by Scott Anderson, Designer for Toptal.

User interface (UI) design is one of several overlapping disciplines responsible for creating the interfaces where users interact with digital products. UI design is found on a spectrum with user experience (UX) design, interaction design (ID), and visual or graphic design.

What Is UI Design?

In its broadest definition, the user interface is the space where people and machines interact. People give instructions to machines and machines start a process, respond with information, and provide feedback that informs human decisions and enables further interactions. The field of human-computer interaction (HCI) is more specifically concerned with digital interfaces, which have evolved from punch cards and command-line text entry to today’s sophisticated graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Xerox 8010 Information System in 1981 (

DigiBarn

, used under 

CC BY

; cropped from original)

User interface design for digital products is primarily concerned with the layout, the hierarchy of information, and the appearance of interface elements on individual screens for software programs, websites, and mobile apps, but can also include video games or TV interfaces.

By following the principles of user-centered design (UCD), UI designers create interfaces that are structured and oriented to meet user needs rather than simply facilitating technical solutions. This often requires an element of compromise, with the UI designer balancing functional requirements with user needs and aesthetics (dictated by branding and visual design).

B2B dashboard UI design, by 

Miklos Philips

Good user interface design supports usability with clear, consistent visual layouts and content structuring as well as providing clues (signifiers) to help users complete tasks while minimizing interference caused by unnecessary content or design elements.

Well-designed digital user interfaces leverage common signifiers and visual metaphors that have real-world counterparts—for example, buttons, volume sliders, calculators, disc icons for “save” actions, etc.

User interfaces are made up of different types of elements, including:

Input controls, which are interactive components in a UI and range from checkboxes and radio buttons to dropdown lists and text fields: These enable users to make selections from one of the displayed options and enter text.

Navigation controls, where users choose a destination or change the data displayed on their screen. UI elements include dropdown menus, sliders and scrollbars, breadcrumbs, tabs, and pagination controls.

Information elements, which provide feedback to the user. UI elements can include icons, text and visual content, progress bars, and other notifications.

iOS app UI design, by 

Thrive

Effective UI designers follow best practices, conventions, standards, and basic usability principles to ensure that the user interfaces they create correspond with user needs. Among the most important principles are:

Consistency in the use and reuse of common interface elements, so that users are familiar and comfortable with the interface.

Page or screen structure with a clear hierarchy of elements, so that the highest priority items are most prominent for users.

Use of color and typography to emphasize higher priority elements, providing clarity to users.

Good communication and feedback to inform the user of state changes, errors, or confirmation of user actions, so that the user is able to see how the system reacts to input and make decisions more easily.

Understanding of user preferences and priorities, so that the most common tasks or goals are accomplished easily, with default behavior tailored to simplify common tasks.

Reduction of the cognitive load on users by designing interfaces that make effective use of whitespaceand are as simple and intuitive as possible.

UI design for a plant watering advice mobile app, by 

Tubik

The Difference Between UI and UX

User interface design is often confused with user experience design. While there can be considerable overlap, they are distinct fields with different skills required for each role. A user experience designer is focused on the overall structure and function of a website or application and on how a product feels and works for the user.

UX designers work with (or as) information architects to organize content; they reference user research and perform detailed task and business analysis to determine the optimum workflow for complex operations such as an eCommerce checkout and account creation process. UX designers then create user flows, customer journey maps, lower-fidelity wireframe diagrams, and interactive prototypes to test, validate, and refine their concepts via user testing.

Apple Watch wireframe animation (UX design by 

Alex Dovhyi

) Like what you’re reading? Get the latest updates first.

UI vs. UX

The interface is not the solution. UI design generally plays an important role in the work of a UX designer, but it is not the only part. Think of it this way: UX design is the consumable and the UI is the tool (with which to consume it).

UX design is a multi-step strategic design process that aims to create a product or site that customers/users are drawn to, find easy to use, and quickly understand. And through the UX design process, we arrive at the right user interface solution.

The difference between UI and UX (Illustration by 

Shane Rounce

)

What Do UI Designers Do?

User interface designers build on the framework provided by UX design to bring digital products closer to their final form. They follow UX wireframes for the hierarchy and priority of elements on each screen, then apply visual design guidelines along with interaction design best practices to ensure consistency throughout the entire experience.

eCommerce UI design store concept, by 

Remco Bakker

UI designers are responsible for the visual hierarchy, layout, spacing and alignment on the screen, visual weight of headers and typography, correct use of standardized interface elements such as buttons and form fields, and adherence to brand guidelines for color treatments and logos.

Given that modern user interfaces are not simply static screens but interactive experiences with dynamic behaviors and animated transitions, UI designers will also work with motion designers or interaction designers, refining the basic interaction concepts developed by UX designers.

User interface design can also include data visualization and information design work, which helps users make sense of highly complex data through simplified display of this information on the “presentation layer.”

Jewelry store eCommerce UI design concept, by 

Tubik

User interface designers deliver the final visual mock-ups of each web page or application screen from which developers will produce the finished product. Just as UI design sometimes overlaps with UX design, so too can UI design overlap with the actual front-end development of a digital product, particularly when working with well-defined screen templates and component libraries.

In order to serve efficiency and the user experience, methods of interaction continue to become more and more sophisticated. In today’s world, user interface design takes on primary importance as the world around us becomes increasingly more digital. In the coming decades, UI design will progress toward moving off two-dimensional screens and into the 3D world of VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), and MR (mixed reality).

Regardless of the technology, screens, spaces, or environments, UI design will continue to stay focused on facilitating the user’s interaction and experience between “man and machine” in the most efficient way possible.

[dubacreative]

Usability Testing for Conversion: Stop Following Trends, Start Using Data

This post  was written by Joel Lopez, Designer for Toptal.

When it comes to designing a product, designers are looking for the best solution to ensure a product meets the needs of the user as well as the needs of the business. Making a conversion is an important business goal when convincing a potential customer to buy a product or use your service. But what role does good user experience design play—including usability testing—in ensuring the highest conversion optimization rate possible (i.e., of leads to sales)?

There are a lot of articles out there that claim to hold the ultimate key to conversion. There are always new trends or fads promising that, by changing a button to one particular color, using this specific picture or icon, or employing that certain layout, a product’s conversion rates will skyrocket.

However, there is no one size fits all “magic bullet” to conversion optimization. The needs and behaviors of every user demographic is different. It is essential to use data of the specific targeted audience in order to create designs that convert.

While UX best practices established by common behavior patterns are a good starting point, quick fixes reveal nothing about measuring the user experience of a product. If there is one single piece of advice designers should listen to, it’s to focus on usability testing to collect actionable data.

It’s best not to follow trends such as “better converting colors” trying to achieve better conversion optimization.

Imagine your client has just launched a new website or product, but initial data is showing conversionproblems. To illustrate an example, the site conversion rate appears to be 0.3%—that’s only 3 out of every 1000 leads converting into customers. Presumably, such a dramatically low rate is not what the client is looking for.

A quick Google search on ways to convert more users will likely result in a list of results that make some confident “magic bullet” claims. “Red converts better than green!” “Orange beats any color!” “Add cat pictures! Everybody loves kittens!” “Pictures of people convert better!” “Pictures of products convert better!” Each one claims to have nailed the secret to high website conversion once and for all.

While each of these approaches may have in fact been successful in one or more scenarios, the likelihood that these quick-fix design tweaks are right for every site or product is slim. There’s no data behind claims that making the button orange over every site will help each one of them convert better. There is data to support, however, that what users really care about is that the website makes it easy for them to find what they want—in other words, it has to be usable.

Conversion optimization doesn’t simply boil down to using trendy colors in CTA buttons. The site ultimately needs to be “usable,” which means meeting the user’s specific needs effectively and with minimal friction. Leveraging usability analysis to better understand users and improving customer experience will make a larger, more lasting impact on conversion than whatever the most popular CTA button color is this month.

Analyzing user behavior data for better conversion optimization (source: 

Frog Design

)

Conversion Optimization Through Usability

There are a couple of important questions to answer before starting the process of conversion optimization:

Understand the Audience – What is the target audience? Collect demographic data and ask whether the website is tailored to them.

Define Measurable Goals – Is the site meant to capture more emails, get people to sign up for a service, or have them buy a product? Focus on the main goal and define success metrics to test.

Analyze Usability Scores – How usable is the website or product? Look at ux testing tools and usability metrics to find opportunities for improvement.

Optimize Content – Is the site’s content easy to read? Consider whether the content is geared to the personality and education level of the targeted audience and whether it clearly communicates a message/goal.

Check for Fallout – Are there obvious drop-off points? Look at the site’s bounce rate, time on page, and performance by page or area of site.

Answering these questions are fundamental to improving customer experience—and therefore, increasing conversions. Only once these questions are answered can designers begin defining usability goals and optimizing website conversion.

Look at the usability testing data for measuring user experience, not just what’s trendy.

Understanding the Target Audience

Formulate a precise definition of who the target is. If the product is intended for people around the age of 18 - 24, the corresponding content, design, and usability metrics should reflect that. One common way to begin understanding the target audience is by creating personas.

Personas are models of fictitious or real people that describe members of the target audience, detailing their age, demographic information, occupation, tech-savviness, and what they’re looking to accomplish. UX researchers synthesize this kind of ux research to help designers establish empathy and guide design decisions for their target audience. Personas can be formed from data gathered through user interviews, focus groups, and other usability testing tools.

Personas are representative users of your product which help with improving customer experience (by 

Miklos Philips

).

Data platforms like Google Analytics are also great places to look for in-depth information about your users—such as where they’re located, what devices they’re using, and what content sparks their interest. In addition, heat map trackers like Crazy Egg will help explain what users are looking at and doing when they visit the site. Include these insights when building a profile of who the users are, and what they’re interested in.

Consider whether the existing site or product aligns with the qualities defined in the personas. Analyzing the connections as well as the snags between the solution and personas will help more clearly understand—and thereby target—specific user needs.

Defining Usability Data

Understanding the core characteristics of the target audience is part of user centered design (UCD), but that data only tells part of the story. By measuring the user experience and conducting usability analysis, UX designers can get a better picture of potential conversion problems or areas of friction in the existing solution, and identify opportunities to improve customer experience.

What is meant by usability? According to Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group, “usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.” That usability is further defined by five key components: learnability, efficiency, memorability, user error and recovery, and user satisfaction.

A website or product that delivers great user experience and usability is more likely to convert users and have them coming back for more, as opposed to one that is flashy but unusable.

Run usability tests to see how your site measures up.

Look at the existing product and current analytics data. Decide on what usability metrics to analyze and compare with data for measuring conversion. Use that information to define some usability goals that will translate into improved conversion stats and start testing!

There are many types of usability testing methods that can provide actionable data to meet the site’s usability goals. Running usability testing with actual customers can provide great insight into what is working and what isn’t on the site.

Look at the user experience holistically when measuring the user experience.

Usability tests like these don’t need to break the bank or explode project deadlines when done carefully and systematically with a usability test plan. Whether in person or set up using a remote usability testing tool like usertesting.com, watching an actual user navigate a site or product will reveal invaluable insights into a site’s usability.

Conducting quantified usability analysis is another one of many usability testing tools to help bring clarity to usability issues that might be costing conversions. When running a usability analysis on a website, look at several usability metrics and tabulate the data.

For example, dividing 100 users attempting a task with only 32 completing the task would mean a success rate of 32%. Tabulate the results with the existing solution to see which usability metrics are in need of improvement and by how much. When iterating design improvements, compare how those changes improve the usability score in those critical metrics.

In most cases, making changes that improve user experience will result in improved conversion rates. Better usability means that users will not only enjoy a website or product, but will have better reason to trust it. A user or customer that feels confidence that their needs are going to be met are more likely to complete a sign-up form, subscribe to a newsletter, or purchase a product.

Improving User Experience Through Design

A website’s usability as well as its presentation, colors, branding, content—everything creates an impact on the user and, in just a matter of seconds, their confidence is either won or lost.

Map out pain points in the user experience for better conversion optimization.

Take a look at the quantitative data gathered from site analytics and usability analysis and compare it to the qualitative findings from usability testing, customer interviews, and observation. Look for patterns where a drop-off in conversions can be explained by something in the usability metrics. These insights should be the foundation to improve user experience, engender user trust and confidence, and boost conversions.

Once critical flaws are identified through usability analysis and usability goals have been defined, it’s time to make design decisions to improve the key components of usability. Optimize learnability so that users can immediately understand why they’ve arrived at the site and how it can help meet their needs.

Make the central message clearly stand out through good visual hierarchy of information. Immediately let the user know that they’ve arrived in the right place, and break down dense information into digestible pieces that are easy to remember.

Reduce the complexity of the actions users must take to complete tasks efficiently. Make sign up forms simple by removing unnecessary fields. Guide the user through the process by providing clear error messaging every step of the way. Something as simple as explaining a password character requirement within a sign-up form can mean the difference between a seamless experience and an abandoned task.

As part of conversion optimization, user onboarding done well increases customer conversion rates (source 

Johan Adam Horn

).

Of course, the most important aim in user-centered design is to satisfy the user goal. Satisfaction is one of the key components of usability and, arguably the most essential to conversion. By guiding users to find what they need and make a decision with ease, you are not only delivering a great user experience, but improving the chances of a successful conversion.

Measuring UX Improvements

After making improvements to the design, it’s time to compare the new design to the previous solution. So how does one measure the success of new designs? Compare the usability data from one design to another alongside conversion metrics. If the design decisions were made with usability in mind, the impact on the rate of conversion should outshine and outlast any knee-jerk fad-inspired design decisions.

Good design requires a team to test and test often. Always be specific on what needs to be tested and define the success metrics in advance. The more specific the test, the better the data that can be collected to keep improving.

When testing for usability, one is by definition looking at things from the user’s perspective and not just focusing on making a quick sale. Empathy informs designs that help the user get what they need and in turn builds their trust.

Designs that are obviously created to “trick” the user into clicking on or buying something, end up damaging the relationship with that user and subverting the effort to convert them.

Better usability that improves customer experience will foster confidence from your customers.

Build trust and relationships through user centered design. By building trust with your users, you keep them coming back, and even promote your business indirectly by word of mouth. Positive reviews and a good reputation will turn into better leads.

Another great reason to focus on usability is SEO. Usability will not only create a great user experience, but it can help a website or product stand out from competitors in search results. Google puts a great deal of focus on giving the user what they need, just by searching. Sites that demonstrate the capability to provide the users with that information get ahead from others who are just trying to beat or game the system.

Trendy button colors and stylistic trends come and go. Focus on usability testing, the data, not the noise. Create designs that garner trust and convert customers.

[dubacreative]

Usability Testing for Conversion: Stop Following Trends, Start Using Data

When it comes to designing a product, designers are looking for the best solution to ensure a product meets the needs of the user as well as the needs of the business. Making a conversion is an important business goal when convincing a potential customer to buy a product or use your service. But what role does good user experience design play—including usability testing—in ensuring the highest conversion optimization rate possible (i.e., of leads to sales)?

There are a lot of articles out there that claim to hold the ultimate key to conversion. There are always new trends or fads promising that, by changing a button to one particular color, using this specific picture or icon, or employing that certain layout, a product’s conversion rates will skyrocket.

However, there is no one size fits all “magic bullet” to conversion optimization. The needs and behaviors of every user demographic is different. It is essential to use data of the specific targeted audience in order to create designs that convert.

While UX best practices established by common behavior patterns are a good starting point, quick fixes reveal nothing about measuring the user experience of a product. If there is one single piece of advice designers should listen to, it’s to focus on usability testing to collect actionable data.

It’s best not to follow trends such as “better converting colors” trying to achieve better conversion optimization.

Imagine your client has just launched a new website or product, but initial data is showing conversionproblems. To illustrate an example, the site conversion rate appears to be 0.3%—that’s only 3 out of every 1000 leads converting into customers. Presumably, such a dramatically low rate is not what the client is looking for.

A quick Google search on ways to convert more users will likely result in a list of results that make some confident “magic bullet” claims. “Red converts better than green!” “Orange beats any color!” “Add cat pictures! Everybody loves kittens!” “Pictures of people convert better!” “Pictures of products convert better!” Each one claims to have nailed the secret to high website conversion once and for all.

While each of these approaches may have in fact been successful in one or more scenarios, the likelihood that these quick-fix design tweaks are right for every site or product is slim. There’s no data behind claims that making the button orange over every site will help each one of them convert better. There is data to support, however, that what users really care about is that the website makes it easy for them to find what they want—in other words, it has to be usable.

Conversion optimization doesn’t simply boil down to using trendy colors in CTA buttons. The site ultimately needs to be “usable,” which means meeting the user’s specific needs effectively and with minimal friction. Leveraging usability analysis to better understand users and improving customer experience will make a larger, more lasting impact on conversion than whatever the most popular CTA button color is this month.

Analyzing user behavior data for better conversion optimization (source: 

Frog Design

)

Conversion Optimization Through Usability

There are a couple of important questions to answer before starting the process of conversion optimization:

Understand the Audience – What is the target audience? Collect demographic data and ask whether the website is tailored to them.

Define Measurable Goals – Is the site meant to capture more emails, get people to sign up for a service, or have them buy a product? Focus on the main goal and define success metrics to test.

Analyze Usability Scores – How usable is the website or product? Look at ux testing tools and usability metrics to find opportunities for improvement.

Optimize Content – Is the site’s content easy to read? Consider whether the content is geared to the personality and education level of the targeted audience and whether it clearly communicates a message/goal.

Check for Fallout – Are there obvious drop-off points? Look at the site’s bounce rate, time on page, and performance by page or area of site.

Answering these questions are fundamental to improving customer experience—and therefore, increasing conversions. Only once these questions are answered can designers begin defining usability goals and optimizing website conversion.

Look at the usability testing data for measuring user experience, not just what’s trendy.

Understanding the Target Audience

Formulate a precise definition of who the target is. If the product is intended for people around the age of 18 - 24, the corresponding content, design, and usability metrics should reflect that. One common way to begin understanding the target audience is by creating personas.

Personas are models of fictitious or real people that describe members of the target audience, detailing their age, demographic information, occupation, tech-savviness, and what they’re looking to accomplish. UX researchers synthesize this kind of ux research to help designers establish empathy and guide design decisions for their target audience. Personas can be formed from data gathered through user interviews, focus groups, and other usability testing tools.

Personas are representative users of your product which help with improving customer experience (by 

Miklos Philips

).

Data platforms like Google Analytics are also great places to look for in-depth information about your users—such as where they’re located, what devices they’re using, and what content sparks their interest. In addition, heat map trackers like Crazy Egg will help explain what users are looking at and doing when they visit the site. Include these insights when building a profile of who the users are, and what they’re interested in.

Consider whether the existing site or product aligns with the qualities defined in the personas. Analyzing the connections as well as the snags between the solution and personas will help more clearly understand—and thereby target—specific user needs.

Defining Usability Data

Understanding the core characteristics of the target audience is part of user centered design (UCD), but that data only tells part of the story. By measuring the user experience and conducting usability analysis, UX designers can get a better picture of potential conversion problems or areas of friction in the existing solution, and identify opportunities to improve customer experience.

What is meant by usability? According to Jakob Nielsen of Nielsen Norman Group, “usability is a quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use.” That usability is further defined by five key components: learnability, efficiency, memorability, user error and recovery, and user satisfaction.

A website or product that delivers great user experience and usability is more likely to convert users and have them coming back for more, as opposed to one that is flashy but unusable.

Run usability tests to see how your site measures up.

Look at the existing product and current analytics data. Decide on what usability metrics to analyze and compare with data for measuring conversion. Use that information to define some usability goals that will translate into improved conversion stats and start testing!

There are many types of usability testing methods that can provide actionable data to meet the site’s usability goals. Running usability testing with actual customers can provide great insight into what is working and what isn’t on the site.

Look at the user experience holistically when measuring the user experience.

Usability tests like these don’t need to break the bank or explode project deadlines when done carefully and systematically with a usability test plan. Whether in person or set up using a remote usability testing tool like usertesting.com, watching an actual user navigate a site or product will reveal invaluable insights into a site’s usability.

Conducting quantified usability analysis is another one of many usability testing tools to help bring clarity to usability issues that might be costing conversions. When running a usability analysis on a website, look at several usability metrics and tabulate the data.

For example, dividing 100 users attempting a task with only 32 completing the task would mean a success rate of 32%. Tabulate the results with the existing solution to see which usability metrics are in need of improvement and by how much. When iterating design improvements, compare how those changes improve the usability score in those critical metrics.

In most cases, making changes that improve user experience will result in improved conversion rates. Better usability means that users will not only enjoy a website or product, but will have better reason to trust it. A user or customer that feels confidence that their needs are going to be met are more likely to complete a sign-up form, subscribe to a newsletter, or purchase a product.

Improving User Experience Through Design

A website’s usability as well as its presentation, colors, branding, content—everything creates an impact on the user and, in just a matter of seconds, their confidence is either won or lost.

Map out pain points in the user experience for better conversion optimization.

Take a look at the quantitative data gathered from site analytics and usability analysis and compare it to the qualitative findings from usability testing, customer interviews, and observation. Look for patterns where a drop-off in conversions can be explained by something in the usability metrics. These insights should be the foundation to improve user experience, engender user trust and confidence, and boost conversions.

Once critical flaws are identified through usability analysis and usability goals have been defined, it’s time to make design decisions to improve the key components of usability. Optimize learnability so that users can immediately understand why they’ve arrived at the site and how it can help meet their needs.

Make the central message clearly stand out through good visual hierarchy of information. Immediately let the user know that they’ve arrived in the right place, and break down dense information into digestible pieces that are easy to remember.

Reduce the complexity of the actions users must take to complete tasks efficiently. Make sign up forms simple by removing unnecessary fields. Guide the user through the process by providing clear error messaging every step of the way. Something as simple as explaining a password character requirement within a sign-up form can mean the difference between a seamless experience and an abandoned task.

As part of conversion optimization, user onboarding done well increases customer conversion rates (source 

Johan Adam Horn

).

Of course, the most important aim in user-centered design is to satisfy the user goal. Satisfaction is one of the key components of usability and, arguably the most essential to conversion. By guiding users to find what they need and make a decision with ease, you are not only delivering a great user experience, but improving the chances of a successful conversion.

Measuring UX Improvements

After making improvements to the design, it’s time to compare the new design to the previous solution. So how does one measure the success of new designs? Compare the usability data from one design to another alongside conversion metrics. If the design decisions were made with usability in mind, the impact on the rate of conversion should outshine and outlast any knee-jerk fad-inspired design decisions.

Good design requires a team to test and test often. Always be specific on what needs to be tested and define the success metrics in advance. The more specific the test, the better the data that can be collected to keep improving.

When testing for usability, one is by definition looking at things from the user’s perspective and not just focusing on making a quick sale. Empathy informs designs that help the user get what they need and in turn builds their trust.

Designs that are obviously created to “trick” the user into clicking on or buying something, end up damaging the relationship with that user and subverting the effort to convert them.

Better usability that improves customer experience will foster confidence from your customers.

Build trust and relationships through user centered design. By building trust with your users, you keep them coming back, and even promote your business indirectly by word of mouth. Positive reviews and a good reputation will turn into better leads.

Another great reason to focus on usability is SEO. Usability will not only create a great user experience, but it can help a website or product stand out from competitors in search results. Google puts a great deal of focus on giving the user what they need, just by searching. Sites that demonstrate the capability to provide the users with that information get ahead from others who are just trying to beat or game the system.

Trendy button colors and stylistic trends come and go. Focus on usability testing, the data, not the noise. Create designs that garner trust and convert customers.

This post was written by Joel Lopez, Designer for Toptal.

[dubacreative]

Never Call Yourself a UI Designer: UI is UX

UI and UX are two very common design terms; however, these terms often get thrown around in the wrong context.

Meanwhile, traditional job titles such as “website designer” and “app designer” are far less common nowadays, despite being perfect descriptions of the design services that a designer might offer. What is this fascination with the word “UI” all about? And why do some designers call themselves “UI designers” or “UX/UI designers”?

Isn’t the UI a part of the UX?

Why has “UI” become such a buzzword?

UX vs. UI

We, as designers (and as human beings), are obsessed with how things look. We know that it’s “what’s on the inside that counts,” but we still parade ourselves in front of the mirror every morning, trying to look nice for the random strangers we’ll never see again.

UI design is no different. We want our user interfaces to be aesthetically pleasing, and whether we admit it or not, we like our work to be admired and validated. Since things that are visually appealing turn more heads, this can lead some designers to dedicate more time to how an interface looks, rather than how it works. The key difference between UI and UX is that the UI is how it looks, and the UX is how it works.

By definition from the Nielsen Norman Group, “‘User experience’ encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

Calling yourself a UI designer is pretty much the same as saying, “I’m more focused on how it looks.” In reality, the user interface is only one contribution to the user experience. There are many other factors beyond the UI that contribute to the overall user experience.

To name a few:

Does the user flow help the user achieve their objective quickly?

Can any user, regardless of age or physical capability, access the UI?

Is the usability good enough that the user can use the website easily?

Are design decisions being driven by solid data and user research?

Is the application intuitive enough to guess what the user wants?

Visual design still matters. Colors still matter, branding still matters, and how the UI animates when the user interacts with it still matters, but when we begin making design decisions based on how something looks, we’re no longer designing for users.

In fact, we’re not even designing. We’re making art.

User experience vs. user interface (Illustration by 

Shane Rounce

)

As a rule, the UI is how you interact with a product (e.g., clicks, taps, and voice interactions) and the UX is the resulting opinion/emotion felt by the user (e.g., it’s fast/slow, intuitive/confusing, and/or makes the user feel happy/frustrated).

Why You Shouldn’t “Design for Likes”

Social media is addictive. Why it’s addictive is a whole other story—bottom line, it is. People share things on social media for “likes” because, in short, it activates the reward system in our brain. We seek validation from others in the form of likes and followers much as we seek sex or food—it feels nice, and as the feeling starts to fade, we quickly seek it again to fulfil our desires. The average person spends almost 2 hours per day on social media.

Enter Dribbble, or rather, what’s known as “the Dribbble effect.”

Dribbble started off as a “show and tell” website for designers, but it quickly became known as a way to show off design work for likes rather than constructive feedback. This led to designers uploading work specifically for likes, and this fad didn’t end there.

As with all addictions, designers started to find more ways to feed it, including making up fake clients and app concepts just to have something that Dribbblers could “like.”

What’s Wrong with That?

Design is about solving problems that users face. If we’re not designing with a user in mind, then there is no problem to be solved. If there is no problem, then we’re just visualizing UIs for the sake of it. Not only will we end up with something impractical, but designing for imaginary ideals won’t help us improve as a designer.

Let’s take a look at some design disasters on Dribbble.

Even though this first example doesn’t form a real design brief/client, and the over-the-top background somewhat takes away from the design itself, what makes this even more unrealistic is that the visual elements extend beyond the viewport, like a kind of “breaking the fourth” wall effect. While the design aims to be “pretty,” it’s not a design that works.

In 

this example

, the design sacrifices meaning and value for impractical visuals.

In 

this example

, the UI is designed for a device that doesn’t even exist.

This example

 looks stunning as an art piece, but currently no device lets us view UIs in this way.

This example

 is much better, as it showcases a real, viable design without the bells and whistles.

Where Does This Obsession with Visual Design Come From?

Designing for likes is often derived from a love of a specific design trend that’s become mainstream; for example, Apple’s use of flat design and minimalism that effectively saw the end of skeuomorphism. While there is of course nothing wrong with either of those visual aesthetics, designing something purely to implement a trend borders on the job description of an artist, not a designer, and it certainly doesn’t encompass UX.

Instead, first and foremost, UX designers should be looking at how to improve user experiences, and if a visual design trend happens to fill that void, then, and only then should we use it.

As mentioned earlier, collecting “likes” activates the reward system in our brain. More accurately, rewards increase the level of dopamine in our body, and dopamine acts as a neurotransmitter, sending a message to the brain when we reward ourselves. The brain, hugely thankful, makes us feel good in return as reward for our actions.

This causes lazy “designers” to shy away from designing for users and instead implement trends that will result in a high number of likes. This causes misconceptions about what design really is, which causes clients to think the same. This is a huge disservice to the UX design industry and UX designer peers who want to design the best products.

UX Design Principles

It’s impossible to explain the many concepts of UX all at once, but here are the fundamental factors that contribute to an effective user experience, in a nutshell:

Speed

Is the app or website slow (or does it feel slow)?

Is the user required to click/scroll/interact more than necessary?

Are there too many distractions and/or decisions to make?

Is there friction that stops/delays the user from getting what they want?

Intuition

Is it obvious to the user what they have to do next?

Can we determine what the user wants and display content accordingly?

Accessibility

Can the user access the UI, regardless of their age or disability?

Have we thought about the many different types of color blindness?

Usability

On mobile devices, are the tap targets an appropriate size?

Are the targets easily accessible to thumbs?

Is the design responsive? Does it adapt to all devices?

Susan Weinschenk

 and 

Dean Barker

 (Weinschenk and Barker 2000) researched usability guidelines and heuristics from many sources (including 

Nielsen’s

, Apple, and Microsoft) and generated this set of 20 Usability Heuristics to check against.

Visual Design Is Still Important

Visual design plays a huge role in user experience design, hence the reason why we shouldn’t compare UI to UX—UI is a part of the UX. Calling yourself a UI designer only brings attention to the more glamorous aspects of UX design while placing less regard on UX as a whole and how it can be used to meet business objectives.

Here are the UX design principles as listed above, only this time, we’ll mention how visual design factors into things:

Speed

Can the user quickly identify where they need to look and interact, using contrast, color, and spacingas visual cues?

Does the above-the-fold UI/content render immediately, explain what the user needs to do on said screen, and have a clear call to action?

Accessibility

Do the color choices create enough contrast?

Is the UI large enough for those with difficulty seeing?

Usability

Is there a visual hierarchy that illustrates the importance of each element?

Are we visually conveying trust and security when applicable?

Are we implementing micro-interactions that feel natural and clarify the action that’s being taken by the user?

It’s important to think of UI as a tool that can be used to improve UX, rather than a shiny coating that can make UX “look better.” Take Amazon for example: They make over a hundred billion dollars every year, and while their UI and checkout experience is obviously intuitive, it isn’t conventionally appealing in terms of visual aesthetics.

Amazon earned $1.9 billion during the last three months of 2017, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from their UI design. Like what you’re reading? Get the latest updates first. No spam. Just great design posts.

UX/UI Design Should Be Driven by Data

UX design (which includes UI) should be driven by user research (tracking analytics, user interviews, customer surveys), usability testing, a lean UX workflow (that includes prototyping, internal feedback, and regular shipping), and anything else that offers data and insights into how users interact with the interface (or the business as a whole).

If an app or website isn’t performing to expected standards, these qualitative and quantitative user research methods can help UX designers make more effective design decisions, whether that’s a decision relating to the user flow or just the colors. It’s this data-driven approach to design that makes UI and UX one and the same thing.

Conclusion

There’s nothing wrong with being called a web designer or app designer, or even a voice app designer or wearables designer. It describes what you are, and clients will be able to grasp what you do more quickly. Clients don’t care if you have a trendy job title or how many likes a design has on Dribbble. All clients want to know is that you know how to solve user experiences effectively, taking into consideration the business objectives of the company and making design decisions driven by data rather than likes and trends.

On the other hand, there’s not much wrong with the term “UX designer” either—that is, if you consider yourself a designer that designs all types of interfaces. Above all, it’s important that as a designer you choose a job title you truly identify with.

This article is originally published at Toptal.

[dubacreative]

15 Essential UX Interview Questions *

Looking for expert? Check out www.sultangfx.com

.

Describe your design process and what methods you follow.

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Describe a recent project you were particularly challenged by and how you approached the problem.

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What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a UX designer?

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Find top UX designers today. Toptal can match you with the best designers to finish your project.

Please provide some examples of your experience dealing with user research and usability testing.

View the answer →

What are some of the biggest trends in the UX Design industry right now?

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What is your approach to making websites and platforms accessible to all user groups, including users with visual, hearing, and motor disabilities?

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When a client says: “I don’t like this design.” What do you do?

View the answer →

Is UX design UI design? What’s the difference?

View the answer →

What does the term ‘design-thinking’ mean to you?

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Who are your design heroes? What are your favorite apps for UX? Explain why.

View the answer →

Walk me through a design example where you set out to solve a business problem.

View the answer →

What does it mean to be a great UX designer?

View the answer →

What analytics tools and key performance indicators (KPIs) have you used to evaluate your designs?

View the answer →

If tasked to perform a UX evaluation of a product, what would your process look like to accomplish this? Can you tell me about a project you did this for and what the outcome of the evaluation was?

View the answer →

Sell me on the ROI of investing in UX design. How would it improve my bottom line?

View the answer →

* There is more to interviewing than tricky technical questions, so these are intended merely as a guide. Not every “A” candidate worth hiring will be able to answer them all, nor does answering them all guarantee an “A” candidate. At the end of the day, 

hiring remains an art, a science — and a lot of work

. This article is originally published at Toptal.

[dubacreative]

Good to great interaction design UI

Practical suggestions to improve your UI micro-interactions.

Let’s see some examples of UI animations going from good to great. With a little bit of tweaking here and there, you can elevate your UI patterns with animation.

The interactions listed show continuity between states, denote a relationship between shared elements, and call the user’s attention to something they should notice and act upon.

To create these animations, I followed the guidelines from Material Motion, IBM’s Animation Principles, and The UX in Motion Manifesto.

All of the interactions were made using the early-access version of InVision Studio. You can download the source files here.

Make the content in tabs slide

A good animation fades the content in and out from one state to another.

A great animation shows continuity in a transition by making the content move between states.

When you design an interaction like a tab or a fly-out menu, try putting the position of the content relative to the action that opens it. This way you can animate not only the visibility of the content but the position too. Oh, and while you’re at it, add a swipe gesture that takes you from one piece of content to the other.

Connect the shared elements of a card.

A good animation uses transitions like push left or slide up to show the content on a detail screen.

A great animation establishes a connection between two states by animating the shared content.

When animating between different states, see if there are any shared elements between them and connect them. With InVision Studio, components that are repeated between two linked screens are automatically connected when you create a Motion transition. This makes prototyping animations a breeze.

Check out the Motion Manifesto to see the types of animations you can apply. The example above uses a combination of the Masking, Transformation, Parenting, and Easing principles.

Use a cascading effect in your content.

A good animation changes the position and opacity of the material when it enters the screen.

A great animation quickly staggers the appearance of each group or element.

To accomplish the waterfall effect, try applying delays to each piece or group of content. Keep the same easing and duration, so it feels consistent. Don’t cascade each little element, though—animate the groups of content. Keep the animation quick and snappy. Google recommends beginning each element no more than 20ms apart. Check out the choreography principle in Material Motion to see more examples.

Make the content push other elements out of the way.

Good animations move and show elements in context.

Great animations show elements affecting their surroundings when they change.

Make the elements in your content aware of their surroundings. This means making the content attract or repel the elements around it. For more examples check out the Aware motion principle from Material Design.

Make menus appear in context.

Good animated menus show the content appearing from the direction of the button that opened them.

Great animated menus emerge from the action that created them, growing from the point of touch.

Use buttons to show different states.

Good interactions display the events next to the button.

Great interactions use the button itself to show the different states.

Try using the container of a button to provide visual feedback of a status. For example, you could replace the CTA with a spinner or a loading animation; or you could add an animation to the background showing progress. The solution is up to you, the idea is to use the space the user is already interacting with. Bonus points if you use the button color and copy to confirm a success state.

Bring attention to something important.

Good design uses color, size, and position to highlight an important action the user needs to notice or act upon.

Great design uses animation to bring attention to that important action, without being disruptive.

When the user needs to act on something important, try animating the actions to attract their attention. Start with a subtle animation and increase the intensity (change of size, color, and speed) in relation to how important the action is. Use this only for critical actions—the more you use this effect, the less impactful it becomes… and the more annoyed your user gets 😱

Conclusion

I hope these examples help you make better decisions when adding animations to your interactions. With new animation and prototyping tools like InVision’s Studio, I predict we’ll soon start seeing a renaissance of creative interactions. We just need to remember to use this new superpower responsibly.

Let’s apply animation to explain changes in states, draw attention to necessary actions, determine relationships between elements, and add a bit of fun and character to our products. By following these principles, we’ll transform our animations from good to great.

Happy animating!

[dubacreative]

Why Consider a Website Redesign – Tips and Recommendations

It’s 2018. For many of us around the world, the new year signals a new start. New goals, new ideas, and for some businesses, a new website design to replace the old one.

Websites are revamped for all sorts of reasons—sadly, many businesses don’t realize that their website needs refreshing. In an even worse scenario, rival businesses may gain a competitive edge by improving their website, boosting their conversions while yours may be falling behind.

Is your website guilty of any of these? If so, it might be time for a redesign!

The business has an identity, but the website doesn’t reflect it.

Some links are broken, causing the user to drop out of the conversion flow.

Users are trying to communicate with you, but are finding it difficult.

The website overall feels outdated, leaving users unimpressed.

The usability is poor. Users are finding it hard to navigate the website.

The UI is confusing and inconsistent. Users keep making mistakes.

Let’s take a look at what can be done to fix these.

An eCommerce site that hasn’t been refreshed for a long time, showing its age

Website Builders: Fraught with Peril

New businesses tend to start off with simple website builders like Wix, Weebly or Squarespace. These tools simplify the process of designing a website using easy, drag-and-drop WYSIWYG (“what you see is what you get”) editors and free hosting, but these tools are rarely sophisticated enough to make websites stand out from the crowd.

During the early stages of a new business, when funds are scarce, it makes theoretical sense to use a website builder. The “hosting included, no code required” approach helps businesses establish an online presence without spending too much time and money. However, this comes with a bunch of hidden hazards—hazards that tend to reveal themselves at the worst opportunity (e.g., when the website needs to expand its offering).

With website builders, features are limited to whatever the service offers, and as a result of this cut-and-dry approach to setting up a website, any expansion opportunities can be severely restricted later on. Here’s an example trap that businesses fall into when operating a website builder by themselves, in an effort to cut design and development costs:

An eCommerce business uses a website builder (or CMS with a free theme) → The client sets up a one-page website just to say “Hello, we’re [business name] and we’re here!” → Later on, the client wants to add products only to realize that it isn’t possible.

Often enough, businesses don’t think about what might happen should their website needs become more complex, and they find themselves stuck down the road. On top of that, important factors such as search engine optimization (SEO), SSL (which affects ranking and security), and mobile friendliness (which affects ranking and conversions) can end up being neglected.

As an expert, that’s where you come in.

An expert designer shouldn’t overlook these important considerations and should create a website that’s future-proof, saving time and money in the long run.

In short, the best website redesign is one that doesn’t need to happen.

Website Builders vs. Hiring a Designer

Even websites designed by expert designers can start growing weeds if left to languish for too long. Due to a focus on other aspects of the business, sometimes the roadmap for version 2 never comes; for example, sometimes important considerations like SSL weren’t important considerations at the time. Either way, every business should be looking to redesign their website every now and then, especially when there are customer concerns.

Let’s talk about the main reasons why a website may need a redesign and the strategy you should take when revamping websites for those reasons.

A B2B site that hasn’t been refreshed for 10 years, showing its age

Branding (or Rebranding)

Rebranding usually comes with a new website design; however, this should extend way beyond a new logo. Since branding is about communicating with the audience, tone of voice should also be considered (think website copy, FAQ sections, or online customer support).

Branding is how a business wants to be portrayed (e.g., helpful, casual, or trustworthy), so the scope of a website redesign depends on how much the company wants to reimagine themselves. A financial institution whose customers are experiencing trust issues would benefit from a rebrand that looks and sounds trustworthy, for example.

Regardless of whether you’re improving an existing brand or creating a new one from scratch, here’s what you need to consider:

Do the colors make you feel a certain way?

Does the imagery/photography make the user feel something?

Does the overall visual aesthetic satisfy users?

Is the landing page copy compelling?

Is the FAQ copy helpful?

Does the overall tone of voice portray who the business is?

Does the website need any additional functionality, such as live chat?

And more importantly, is there any user/customer research that you can use to build the foundation of your website redesign? If not, then this is your first task.

Mozilla

, before and after their redesign and rebrand

Extending Functionality

A website redesign is usually warranted when there is customer demand for new features. Innovative companies are constantly building new products (both online and offline), requiring new features that help users experience those products better. Smaller businesses, on the other hand, might just be looking to scale their business with content marketing, for which they’ll need a blog, or generate revenue via an eCommerce store. Either way, a redesign often goes beyond small cosmetic changes and rebranding.

Sometimes, the “feature” is unknown—shrouded in mystery. The client knows that something isn’t working (low conversions, customer dissatisfaction, et cetera), but they aren’t sure why. Sometimes the feature is actually just a few UX improvements—the product itself is fine, but fundamentally, the user experience of the website is flawed.

In any case, you should be using website analytics to understand users better.

Redesigning with Data

Like with branding, UX needs to be driven by user research. Website analytics tools like Google Analytics and heatmap tools such as Hotjar and CrazyEgg can help you identify critical areas that may need rethinking or even entire features that might be missing.

Analytics will tell you everything you need to know about your users: how much time they’re spending on certain web pages, whether or not they’re actually converting, where they’re dropping out of the conversion flow, what device they used, where they’re from, user demographics, behavior flow; the sheer amount of data is literally endless.

Not only can this data be used to measure the success of a website redesign, but it can also prove what areas of the website are falling short in terms of UX. If the client doesn’t already know what’s drastically missing, then you can use website analytics to suggest anything from improvements to entire product ideas and then come up with a roadmap for what a redesign might look like together. A website redesign requires planning.

If you’re dealing with a website that isn’t using website analytics, then your first call to action is to install the aforementioned Google Analytics (forever free, incredibly detailed reports). Once you’ve identified areas of concern using Google Analytics, the next step in the design process is usability testing. Tools like Hotjar and CrazyEgg will show you exactly where users are clicking, and you can even watch how users behave on the website with session replays. If you’ve identified any poorly converting web pages with Google Analytics, then these user recordings will show you why.

Any other design decisions are based on educated guesses (at best).

When you’re done with your research, you can create customer journey maps to highlight how the majority of the users are converting. This is a rather interesting asset that can be shared company-wide, informing the entire team of what role they are to play in the conversion flow outside of the website (social media, customer service, etc.).

Better yet, you can help clients become somewhat acquainted with analytics, so they themselves can measure any successes or failures or perform their own user research for future ventures. It’s always a win when the client is able to take the wheel thereafter.

Blog Redesign

As mentioned earlier, early-stage businesses will be looking to initiate a blog in order to expand their reach. In this scenario, the website has started to acquire visitors and the company now feels they’re ready to scale their reach even further with content marketing.

In some cases (or many cases, actually), a blog is the biggest marketing asset a company has. A blog gives businesses a chance to boost their brand, inform users of updates and new products, and engage their target audiences with relevant content.

That being said, in this day and age, it’s really difficult to catch the reader’s attention for a serious amount of time. While some of this is down to the content itself, poor UX is often the culprit, causing users to hit the back button and try a competitor instead.

Sadly, that’s the downside of free content—users will happily abandon a web page if the UX is sub-optimal. A great designer should know how to improve legibility and readability, eliminate visual distractions, and insert CTAs in high-conversion spots.

Designers should also be using website analytics to improve content UX—to find out where users stop reading and why—and then making data-driven design decisions based on that. When approaching a redesign where the new features require a CMS, once again, it’s important to ensure that the client can easily take the wheel afterward.

eCommerce Redesign

eCommerce design is one of the trickiest aspects of UX to master and also requires a designer experienced in data-driven design. Consider this: According to this study, eCommerce stores suffer from a cart abandonment rate of 69.23% (on average). Where $738 billion dollars were spent on eCommerce in the US and Europe, it’s estimated that $260 billion of that was recoverable through a better checkout flow and design. For an eCommerce store, the checkout flow is the most critical aspect, and a designer that can identify where users are dropping out of it is a designer that can improve it.

Here are some things to consider:

Does the website instill trust and security?

Does the website have a valid SSL certificate?

Are the checkout forms well-labeled and easy to use?

Do the input fields display the correct keyboard type?

Is the user able to search, should they not find what they’re looking for?

Are you forcing users to sign up when they’d rather check out as a guest?

eBay, before and after 

their redesign

Handling the Business Side

Some aspects of business (like customer support) can have huge overheads if the process isn’t efficient enough, so upgrading websites with integrated services like Intercom or Kayako can not only provide a better experience for users but also help businesses cut customer support costs and workloads. When approaching a website redesign, ask the client what their biggest challenges are as a team/organization.

Responsive Design and Usability

In short, responsive websites are those that adapt to virtually any screen size, from mobile to desktop. Mobile traffic surpassed desktop traffic way back in 2015, and Google even began to favor mobile-friendly websites in their search results. Although most websites are technically responsive, a fair few aren’t optimized nearly enough.

Since 57% of internet users say that they wouldn’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile website, responsive design is a huge deal, and designers need to be doing a lot more than “making everything fit.” Here’s what you need to consider:

Are the tap targets large enough (at least 44px in height)?

Are the tap targets accessible to thumbs, or are they out of reach?

Is the mobile website “trimmed down” for simplicity?

Does the website load fast on 3G connections?

Overall, how would you rate the mobile usability?

Outdated Copyright Notices and Broken Links

Some may consider this minor (and maybe in relative terms, it is), but outdated copyright notices, broken links, and spelling mistakes indicate that the website has been abandoned, or that only a small amount of care was taken. These tidbits are especially important for SaaS companies because users want to know that the service they’re subscribing to is constantly being improved (it’s normal for users to look at the copyright notice in the website footer to see when it was last updated). Generally speaking, an old-looking website will make users wonder if it’s even active anymore.

It’s fairly easy to fix these things, so consider them a “first and foremost.”

For broken links particularly, you can use a free Chrome extension like Check My Links to locate broken links on a web page, or Grammarly to identify spelling errors.

Technical Requirements

According to HubSpot, 82% of visitors abandon sites that aren’t secure.

Technical requirements are features that are non-user facing; nevertheless, they can affect the user in drastic ways. SSL, for example, a layer of security required for eCommerce stores (but recommended for all websites), tells customers that their sensitive data is safe.

Front-end and back-end code improvements will make the website faster (or at the very least, feel faster), and the simplicity of the design itself plays a huge role in that (simple designs = less code). For websites undergoing a redesign, you won’t want to neglect this.

Conclusion

Design is about solving problems—clients want to know how designers are going to make their lives easier or how they’re going to increase revenue for their business.

A list of skills doesn’t tell the client why they should hire said designer. Designers would do a great service to clients by communicating why a website redesign is necessary for their client’s business, highlighting what the end result will achieve.

Is their brand a little stale?

Is the UI causing confusion amongst users?

Is the UX causing users to drop out of the conversion flow?

Is the usability (mobile or otherwise) causing users to hit the back button?

Does it just look awful by all accounts?

How would the website improvements help said business?

When you know what needs redesigning, and the client knows this also, then the roadmap for the redesign already has a terrific foundation and measurable goals.

This article is originally published at Toptal: 

https://www.toptal.com/designers/web/website-redesign-tips