Flat Design pitfalls- skip these 5 most common mistakes

By Frank Spillers

on April 23, 2018 - 5:28pm
flat design for ux

Summary: Flat Design has become an industry-standard approach to UI/UX Design with Microsoft, Apple and Google all backing Flat UI styles.  Flat Design's minimalism aims to bring visual breathing room to a design by eliminating visual clutter and chrome (UI extras).  The problem with this approach is it is easier to imagine than to execute with maximum usability intact. In this post we will discuss some of the common pitfalls in designing Flat or Flat 2.0 Design. 

Minimalism needs to balance with function. This is particularly challenging for Visual or Graphic designers who can embrace minimalism at the cost of hiding UI signals, "information scent" or triggers for user action. A few years ago this led to the "Flat 2.0" update to the approach, which seeks to minimize yet allow UI's to be perceived and used. 

50 Reasons Prototyping Saves You Time

By Admin User

on February 9, 2017 - 1:58pm
prototyping saves you meeting time

Summary: Prototyping is a valuable sketching process involved in generating UX/UI. It saves you time, saves you confusion and helps you visualize quickly and cheaply. Here are 50 reasons why prototyping is critical to do. These benefits point to the need to develop a company culture of prototyping.

1. Prototyping saves you meeting time: Without visual sketching, UI's are discussed ad-nauseum without a "shared picture", you end up talking about a UI instead of ideating a new solution.

2. Sketching is easier to socialize. Quick sketches, no matter how crude, are great ways to quickly commuinicate. 

3. Prototypes help imagine new solutions.

4. Ideas are easier to scrap, change or re-consider with "low effort" prototypes. 

5. Prototypes help you plan.

6. Prototypes help you test your design ideas with users.

Did you move your user's cheese? All you need to know about 'Positional Memory'

By Frank Spillers

on February 6, 2014 - 8:24pm
mobile ux

Do you ever move your apps around on your smartphone? Or do you ever move furniture around in your living room? I didn't think so! This post explores why things like to stay in place and why keeping them in place is so important for good user experience.

The Cheese Test

Try moving your apps around on your phone or icons on your desktop (especially if you are comfortable with them in a certain place). If you don't mind, you can handle having your cheese moved (to borrow from that book that was the rage years ago). Most users don't want their cheese moved. Ever. That's why defaults rule in interface design strategy.

Design technique: use containership to shape user experience

By Frank Spillers

on October 27, 2010 - 5:31pm
container- car cup holder example

Summary: Containership is a useful interaction design technique that can help you direct your user's attention and shape their experience by giving them visual boundaries. Containership indicates a separation of controls or navigation in an activity space so users know there is a control and it lives in relationship to that section or sub-section of your site or app.

The deliberate use of containership can improve your user experience. It can give users intuitive cues either visually or through proximity and hierarchy.

What is "containership"?

Containership is a visual grouping technique that shows spatial relationship of similar items or actions. Visually shaded areas contain the icon, information, or action a user is expected to perform. 

Think of containership as the curbside of a road (the curb contains the road) or the edging of a garden (the edging contains the flowers).

Competitor designs: The danger of borrowing across contexts

By Frank Spillers

on February 19, 2009 - 6:43pm

Google calendar
The Internet is great for taking a rapid look at what your competitors might be doing as you design a user interface. While this is a valuable learning opportunity, it can also be dangerous and inappropriate for your design.

The biggest problem I have found, is that user interface approaches or design elements do not carry neatly across contexts. Each design context is unique. By design context I mean a few things:

"Forcing functions"- interaction design technique, used but not widely understood

By Frank Spillers

on April 28, 2008 - 10:05pm

Istock_000001051000smallWhat is a forcing function?

A forcing function is a constraint where the user "is forced" to complete a task based on a limited, paired down set of features or controls.

Forcing functions help streamline, simplify or minimize how a user interacts with a design. Designers benefit from this interaction design technique by reducing navigation redundancy, task effort and the complexity caused by "feature frenzy" (see my previous article on feature creep).

What is Design? (Yes, all 10 definitions!)

By Frank Spillers

on October 30, 2007 - 9:08pm
Designers sitting at a computer

 When the term design is used it can mean many things, depending on who you are and which conversation you are having. Rarely do people stop to compare 'mental maps' and clarify which type of design they are talking about!

I believe this has to do with the multiple definitions of design and the lack of awareness of each specific type of design, its function and timing in a process. The other factor being how familiar you are with "design" based on your past experiences with different design roles.

Here are some examples of conversations I have and hear frequently that cause to stop and ask "What type of design are we talking here?":

Is Google's business model Progressive Disclosure??

By Frank Spillers

on February 19, 2007 - 6:52pm

Googlepd_1Quick Google user, you need to look up a measurement; phone numer; UPS tracking code; address; mathematical formula ..."Didn't you know Google had a tool for that?"

Yes, Google has a tool for everything these days it seems, but it's not a consistent tool kit. Sometimes you get it and oftentimes you don't.

Is that why Google doesn't promote what I call their "world of widgets"
(WoW's)? How is it some people know the secret handshake and many more
don't?

The Politics of Pop-Ups, Pop-Up Blockers and the Pop-Up Error Message

By Frank Spillers

on July 30, 2005 - 1:07pm

We_hate_popups_1

Pop ups are dead- so what?

First of all, let me just get this out in the open: there is nothing wrong with pop-ups per say.

Next, let me qualify what I just said: Pop-ups are ineffective as an advertising tool and are not recommended on the web since pop-up blockers are ubiquitous. E.g. Every browser and search engine tool these days has a pop-up blocker: AOL pop-up blocker, Google Toolbar pop-up blocker, Yahoo Toolbar pop-up blocker, Firefox built in pop-up blocker, third party free pop-up blocker tools...etc.

Google Killed the Pop-Up