Everyday Experience Design

Critique and tips on experience design I see everyday

[mikkster-ux]

Instagram invites the users to “go live” by indicating the number of people it may reach to if you go live now, and also by notifying the user what will happen if they were to go live (“we will notify your followers”)

[mikkster-ux]

This is a strong example of how a single sticker/ hashtag can create a social norm; in this case this sticker encouraged people to stay home by having more and more users add this sticker to their story, and thus creating a social phenomenon.

This is not merely a sticker, but the fact that the user’s stories with this sticker can be featured in the #stayhome highlight gave the users the incentive to be using the sticker.

[mikkster-ux]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ux Bites (@uxbites) on Aug 26, 2019 at 6:51am PDT

[mikkster-ux]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by UI/UX (@ui__ux) on Aug 15, 2019 at 2:04pm PDT

[mikkster-ux]

Things I've learned about designing game app

Successful tutorials/ teaching apps breaks down difficult concepts into step-by-step. Avoid users from feeling overwhelmed.

Users feel more attached to a product when they feel that they are making impact through their action, as opposed to remaining passive. Hands-on learning is effective, as it encourages the users to actively participate in the process of learning.

Don't forget to give reinforcing/encouraging comments to motivate the users  ex) "you've practiced a lot this week. You receive an armor!"

Do occasional recaps; it's easy to forget what you've been learning as you make progress. Help users remember the basic concepts later on in the game by giving them the option to do a review of the previous steps.

It's important to reinforce positive behaviors instead of punishing undesired behavior. Using "streaks"(ex: congrats, you've been practicing for 5 days in a row! ), as seen in apps like Dueling or Insight Timer is a great way to do so.

pay attention to the wording: the tone of the wording can affect the overall impression of the app as much as the visuals can

[mikkster-ux]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ux Bites (@uxbites) on Aug 12, 2019 at 7:07am PDT

[mikkster-ux]

I sometimes question the value of UX being so customer-driven. Customers don’t always know what’s best, and to base design off of their preference is like designing toys for kids without envisioning how we want to get the kids to get out by playing with the toy. I think ux should focus more on envisioning how we want the world to be, and use UX as tools to make that happen, not merely as tools to serve the customers. It should be used for a higher cause, like solving environmental/ social problems.

[mikkster-ux]

Strand uses icons to show where different genres are. The use of icons allows visitors to instantly locate their genre of interest without overcrowding the map with texts. Also this use of icons on map provides much more intuitive experience than the commonly used numbering on map.

[mikkster-ux]

After the user modifies the sample sentence for a single font, Google Font anticipates the user’s desire to compare the same sentence with different fonts and gives the user the option to apply the change to all fonts. A great example of anticipatory design.

[mikkster-ux]

Cute micro interaction makes even a simple gesture of refreshing a notification page more fun. Seen on Yelp.

[mikkster-ux]

By hovering over the handle name, a popup appears to give users the option to follow the account without directing being directed to another account's page. This allows users to easily follow accounts without disrupting their current action of browsing through the list

[mikkster-ux]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by UX/UI Zander Whitehurst (@zanderwhitehurst) on Jul 20, 2019 at 2:25am PDT

[mikkster-ux]

Defining Design Generalists

Exploring the skill set of an underrated superpower

“Designers should always be looking for opportunities to align the needs of the user and the needs of the business.”

“At Airbnb, we practice being “evidence-driven,” which is about balancing quantitative and qualitative techniques”

[mikkster-ux]

Shazam’s lyrics feature

Shazam successfully enhances the experience of listening to music/ discovering new songs in public place by adding the lyrics feature that displays part of the lyrics in sync with the music that’s playing in the background.

By doing so, the feature helps users instantly become more immersed in the music that they are currently listing to. It also adds another value to the app rather than being used just to look up the name of the song: now users can use the app to look up the lyrics and follow along the words in real time while listening to the songs.

[mikkster-ux]

“Needs are goals translated into features”

[mikkster-ux]

Anticipatory design

When trying to make a GIF on tumblr for the first time, I made an attempt to zoom out of the video to include the entire video into the frame instead of getting cropped. Noticing my interaction, (trying to zoom out) tumblr anticipated my needs (wanting to fit the entire video into the screen) and gave me an accurate feedback(that I can do so in the next step). Bonus points for adding humor into its feedback message.

This is a great example of anticipating user’s needs based on their interaction and providing a feedback to guide them through the process.

[mikkster-ux]

Instagram story = the new Illustrator

Footage of how Instagram story allows people to design visuals intuitively with zero learning curve. In the end, what’s done the easiest is what gets used the most.