Platforms & Pixels

A blog about big ideas, tiny instances and how they fit together

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Human-computer interaction is about paying attention to people and their relationship with computing.

Information architecture is about making things findable.

Interaction design is about making things usable.

Content strategy is about making things meaningful.

Experience design is about making things seamless.

Persuasive design is about making things influential.

Keys to using persuasive design:

* Leverage psychology and behavior economics

* Understand triggers (design elements that cause change)

* Consider timing (knowing when to trigger event)

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Great crowdsourced list of web and mobile revenue models

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Force a Start, Flow to Finish

Read Quote of Oliver Emberton's answer to Life Advice: How do I get over my bad habit of procrastinating? on Quora

Starting something, anything, is often the most difficult part. Staring at a blank page, a blinking cursor, an empty canvas. It feels impossible to overcome inertia, which is apparently due to our reptilian brain. But the same primitive force that makes it hard to start may make it difficult to stop, allowing you to judo-flip the force in your favor.

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via 99U

Consider the following statements:

(1) You can do anything you want, or

(2) You can do anything you want with this box of colored pencils

You are actually likely to be more creative working within constraints, which leads to the idea of 'Technology First'.

Technology First starts by selecting a very specific medium for communication, then creatively exploits its full potential.

TIPS

Enable creative thinking by embracing arbitrary constraints (i.e. your app only works certain times per day, or you only have 1 screen to show everything)

Put emotional adjectives in front of specific technologies (i.e. what does a sad-tweet or ecstatic-check-in look like)

Pick an everyday interaction and internet-enable it (what if the door knob to your conference room had a Tumblr)

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via The Accelerators - WSJ

Four types:

Existing - Customer Discovery, quant research, adwords, prototypes

Resegmented - Customer Discovery, quant research, adwords, prototypes

New - triangulate via users, benchmarks or figure out minimum necessary

Clone (copy existing market in new territory) - benchmark existing model and apply scenarios for new territory

[platformsandpixels]

Nice list of pitfalls, although no mention of designing (or not designing) against Principles. To me that is perhaps the largest UX research pitfall.

Principles are essentially design directives: they are rooted in research, encapsulate an insight, and offer direction on how to solve UX challenges. They help you put a stake in the ground and align the team around what you know, believe, or how you envision the product.

A huge pitfall in the design + development process is miscommunication + misalignment. Establishing Principles early should help everyone get on the same page, and when in doubt down the road, you can refer back to them as a mirror against your options.

Lastly, following the 'UX is really strategy' notion, Principles can form the pillars of your strategy by expressing what is special about your product in a way that's easy to share and remember.

You may still fall into certain traps along the way, as that is part of the process, but try using your Principles to help dig you out.

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Exploring the solution space

(via Criticism and Two Way Streets | The Intercom Blog)

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iPhone app that makes it easy to transfer paper sketches into interactive prototypes

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Founders – an artist and prizefighter – rolled into one.

Vision, Passion and Resilience - The Accelerators - WSJ

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If you have to call attention to your punch line, to explain it, it’s no longer a punch line.

The Story Behind The Famous FedEx Logo, And Why It Works | Co.Design: business innovation design

Same could be said for the a-ha moments in pitching, the 'punch lines of pitches'. If you have to tell them the a-ha, it's no longer an a-ha.

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In any ONE investment, an angel investor is more likely than not to lose their money... [though] making near 50 investments approximates the overall return at the 95th percentile

Angel Investors Do Make Money, Data Shows 2.5x Returns Overall | TechCrunch

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Nice ux model of touchpoints in a journey

(via 5 | A Concept Airline Eases The Pain Of Traveling With Toddlers | Co.Design: business innovation design)

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"You never get a second chance to launch. Unlike a lot of other startup activities, PR is not one where you can try it, iterate, learn, and try again. It's a one-way event, so you'd better get it right"