Design

The UX Files: Making the Most of User Research

Everybody. It’s happening. The world of technology is becoming more user-centered, and we at The Nerdery do our part to enable that transformation whenever we can. For us, this means every UX project that comes through the door starts with some element of user research. To design the right thing, we need to learn about the actual people whose lives will be impacted by what we’re designing. Clear cut.

This simple, quixotic idea serves as the basis for much of what we do as UX Designers, and it quickly becomes rife with complication when applied in the wild of actual projects. These complications come in many flavors but ultimately relate to one or more of these themes:

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How Games Can Engage Users and Impact Real Business Objectives

At The Nerdery, we are technology agnostic, meaning that we do not advocate for a particular platform or technology.  Instead, we begin by researching and defining user goals and business goals and then determine the platform or technology solution.  If the goals are to track user performance or change behaviors, consider using games as a vehicle for change.

Some may ask, “Don’t games just waste time?  How do games actually help with my business objectives?”  Consider the engagement users experience with challenges, achieving goals, advancing to higher levels, and learning new skills. These are all desirable objectives for business.

Gallup reported that 70% of workers are not engaged in their jobs, which costs businesses billions of dollars every year, so finding new ways to engage people is even more important than ever. Read more

User Experience Design Apprenticeship

Demand for user experience design talent is exploding. More and more people are asking UX designers how they can become UX designers, too. UX-related degree programs are proliferating. While this seems fantastic on the surface, if you dig just a little deeper you’ll find that the demand is for experienced UX designers, the supply of which is extremely limited. This experience gap is a threat to the health of the UX profession. If we don’t close it, we risk losing relevance to business (they’ll find some other way) and becoming unattractive to potential new designers (why struggle to get into a field so hard to get into?). So, how can we close the experience gap? At The Nerdery, we’re building an apprenticeship program to take people with the raw materials required to be great UX designers and help them build the skills that will make them so.
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Tips & Tricks: Creating Efficiencies For Your Development Projects

As referenced in Episode #7 of the NerdCast, “Launching Successful Agency-Partner Projects Under Pressure”, our guests discussed a lot of things that can be done when partnering with a development company to help projects go a lot smoother. These are efficiencies that can directly impact projects on tight deadlines. Below are tips and tricks that can be employed by anybody that is engaging a development partner like The Nerdery.

Highlight Reel:

• Developing a partnership versus a vendor-client relationship. This allows for building new process and workflow dynamics. Partnerships are built on trust and working around one another’s processes. Vendor-client relationships have a tendency to suffer from a lack of communication or a lack of understanding of the creative and development process on both sides of the fence.

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Windows 8 UI Design and Apple Skeuomorphism

First, a disclaimer: I’m an Apple Fanboy. I own iThis and iThat. Perhaps because like many designers, I’ve learned to use my tools of trade mostly within the Mac OS environment. Of course I use Windows too — mainly for testing though. It’s not that I dislike Windows, it’s just that as a UI designer, I’ve always looked at Windows as another Mac with a slightly inferior UI. Then Windows 8 came along.

My first brush with Microsoft’s formerly-called “Metro UI” experience came when I played with my sister’s Windows phone, more than a year before Windows 8 launched. For some reason the designer in me got a bit giddy playing around with this toy (something that didn’t quite strike me the same way when I first played with Android UI). It’s a refreshing departure from Apple’s skeuomorphic design philosophy. It lacks metaphors to the physical world that for decades have perpetuated the belief that in order for users to understand a device interface and operate it smoothly, there has to be comparison to non-digital real-world objects or ideas. Read more

Tech Tips: Style Guides For The Win

Written by: Susan Robertson

When I started my job about 2 months ago I went through [The Nerdery's] standard Front End Developer training. In it we talked a whole bunch about modular CSS and reusable patterns, it was super awesome. But in the course of it we also talked about style guides. At the beginning of each project they’ve been trying to get started on a style guide first. This is done by building out resusable patterns so that it is all in one place when it comes time to do builds of pages, etc. Read more

If the World Doesn’t End Tomorrow, we have LEGO Back to the Future to look forward to

From LEGO’s CUUSOO blog.

A Mathematical Examination of Paper Snowflakes

Now you can create the most mathematically & scientifically accurate snowflakes ever! (Found on The Mary Sue)

What Apple’s win over Samsung means

The Atlantic has a nice, succinct round-up of reactions to the Apple v. Samsung verdict that came out last week.

In the post they distill all the reactions and supply the pertinent quotes about what the verdict means to you, design, technology, Android, Microsoft, and a few others. With hundreds of thousands of pixels spilled about this case, The Atlantic’s piece might be the only one you need to read.

Submitted for Your Panel Picking Approval

Okay, we fully realize many people have SXSW Panel Picker fatigue. We get that, and if you have it we’re sorry. However, other people love Panel Picking and if you’re one of them we’d like to humbly submit these presentations by our Nerds for your thumbs up.

Visual Design Toolbox within UX by Mary Ann Tackett & Tiffany Draper

Developers vs. Designers by Michael Woods

Becoming a Unicorn: Going From Visual to UX Design by Fred Beecher & Laura Heuring

User Research Methodologies in the Field by Dave Jones & Zack Naylor

The Science of UX by Zack Naylor