100 Days of UX
Day 0
It's Jan 1st and ya girl is committing to another 100 Days Challenge 💀🥳
Join us in Atlantis for 100 Days of User Experience! We learn together. 🥰
Anyone doing a 100 Days challenge, or daily venture stand-ups are welcome, too. 🔥
https://t.co/Sf3YtPuhq9
Day 1
'Technologists are not noted for learning from the errors of the past. They look forward, not behind, so they repeat the same problems over and over again.'
- Donald Norman
I wonder how many hard pills to swallow there will be throughout this journey. 🥰
1/100 Days of UX
Day 2
It's refreshing considering user needs from a people-first design perspective (no dark patterns). Value propositions and business needs can suck it for a while.
I can't decide whether this diagram is enlightening or confusing or both, though💀
2/100 Days of UX https://t.co/YUpbKpbTeX
Day 3
Moved to an updated version of the same course and hot damn, are there differences. Kinda like it tho??
Like now it's prefacing everything with 'We think it’s counterproductive to try to find the authoritative definition -
3/100 Days of UX
Day 4
Well, that didn't last long. Business needs are already back, dammit! 🤣💀
Was hoping for a bit more about the impact of UX on people regardless of what their non-design roles are, but I'll write about that myself later :3
4/100 Days of UX https://t.co/b5SHDGY6mZ https://t.co/fAOyJ25uph
Day 5
I thought 'Mind the gap' (haha, can you hear it?) was just a general London Underground warning, but it started because the gaps between trains and platforms could be especially large when the platforms were curved 💀
But why were they curved??
5/100 Days of UX
Day 6
Different types of empathy include:
- Cognitive
- Affective/emotional
- Somatic
Cognitive is the one we generally employ in design, used to understand other perspectives. It's quite different from affective empathy, which is about responding with emotion.
6/100 Days of UX
Day 7
Intentionally good usability feels like an extension of being kind to people through design.
7/100 Days of UX
Day 8
Dehumanising users is a scary thought, tbh. But apparently it happens.
Gonna have to do more digging.
8/100 Days of UX
Day 9
People forget User Experience isn't limited to technology. It's all-encompassing and affects every part of our lives.
UX doesn't start and stop with the products we use.
9/100 Days of UX
Day 10
The idea that having a poor solution means the problem's been poorly defined resonates with me as a design concept.
It's applied heavily to the way I learnt entrepreneurship and I love how design's informed a lot of perspectives in different disciplines.
10/100 Days of UX
Day 11
@alegarciy HAHAHAHAHA.
I put 100 days of code instead of UX oops :P
Day 12
Apparently a ton of projects are poorly prepared for because the user needs and business objectives aren't specified properly in the first place - and that affects all the other planes of user experience as a result.
gg no re
12/100 Days of UX
Day 13
And we thought the last diagram was a clusterfuck.
Not a wonder it can be difficult to identify the root cause(s) of some UX problems xD But can get there.
13/100 Days of UX https://t.co/b5SHDHgfB7 https://t.co/ijRr2oluo3
Day 14
Turns out my general research process (honed mostly through experience) for the strategy stage of UX is something I already do for my projects and ventures. This was more validating than I thought it'd be :')
14/100 Days of UX
Day 15
Initial stakeholder q's include: what the product accomplishes, the userbase, how the project fits within the business strategy, how it's differentiated, tech decisions made, value prop for this product, and value props for competitors, user complaints
15/100 Days of UX
Day 16
Learnt a bit more about B2B user research q's. Honestly, it's not that different to my standard questions for *anyone*.
The context in which a user uses a product is important regardless of whether you're selling to the business or not.
16/100 Days of UX
Day 17
Talking to everyone is paramount. We must do so in order to align everyone to what's worth doing, what we're creating, and the value it provides.
I don't see devs weighing feasibility/viablity against importance as much as they should.
17/100 Days of UX
Day 18
It's interesting hearing critique about agile/lean models, with dislike for little/poor documentation; this is likely more about management rather than methodology, and can be rectified.
Documentation should still align and scope appropriately. It must exist.
18/100 Days of UX
Day 19
I have a special appreciation for continuous delivery being considered during the scoping state. A lot of people treat it as an expectation, particularly with software in the early stages, but don't plan how it'll be accommodated before starting to build.
19/100 Days of UX
Day 20
There are things people:
🗨️ say they need
✨ actually need
🧠 don't know they need
These may be wildly different, and don't make into functional specs due to false predictions, addressing symptoms instead of a root problem, and minimal problem exploration.
20/100 Days of UX
Day 21
Framing functional specs positively and specifically can impact implementation and the subsequent UX.
i.e. The system will...
...deny the user purchasing a side without a main meal ☠️
vs
...suggest main meals if the user tries to purchase a side solo✨
21/100 Days of UX
Day 22
Content strategy and scoping often gets ignored in many project discussions I've participated in. Validating content against a project's strategic objectives, what?
At least I'll be armed with a better set of q's and prep for planning now.
22/100 Days of UX
Day 23
Defining the scope ahead of time (content, functional specs, reqs, etc) forces everyone to acknowledge and address potential conflicts and rough spots before building.
That thing about good planning saving time + effort coding needlessly? Same deal.
23/100 Days of UX
Day 24
Intuitive [access to content] means 'single trial learning'. It doesn't mean automatic recognition and understanding of how to use what's on a screen.
It means we do it once and we remember it forever.
Single trial learning.
24/100 Days of UX
Day 25
Intuitive interfaces are intuitive because they leverage a user's previous experience - at present, with a current product/situation, and with other products elsewhere.
25/100 Days of UX
Day 26
Apparently we're still in the infancy of using touch screens; gestures are all over the place as a result.
And both designers and devs regularly fuck up by including way too many.
26/100 Days of UX
Day 27
It's not information overload. It's filter failure' - Clay Shirky
The amount of information we've access to is ever-increasing. Our filters have to get smarter to keep in line with our capacity to process, as that's not changing any time soon.
27/100 Days of UX
Day 28
If there's one thing I'd appreciate some people taking on board, it's the concept of economising when it comes to surface-level visual elements; the most important should be easily perceived, and the rest de-emphasised.
There's often too much cramming :')
28/100 Days of UX
Day 29
The most important basic principles to organise visual information are:
> Alignment
> Proximity
> Repetition
> Contrast
Unsure if I fully agree with this list, but more on that later.
29/100 Days of UX
Day 30
TURNS OUT those eye-tracking heat maps cover foveal vision and not peripheral; apparently that's a 2%/98% split respectively. Soooo they shouldn't be relied upon too much, if at all.
I'll be back if I can find relevant studies. xD
30/100 Days of UX
Day 31
The same products can have the best usability and worst at the same time depending on the users they're built for.
Audience matters.
31/100 Days of UX
Day 32
There's just so much in common between entrepreneurship and design that *good* designers are likely capable of being better at it than a lot of people - particularly at the ideation/founding stage. 💀
32/100 Days of UX
Day 33
6 rules of usability:
- The design is based on an explicit understanding of users, tasks, and environments
- Users are involved throughout design and development
- The design is driven and refined by user-centred evaluation
- The process..
33/100 Days of UX
Day 34
The first rule of finding out what people want is:
Don't ask people what they want.
🤣 It's true though. I've said it plenty. Starting off interviews this way is absolutely *terrible*.
34/100 Days of UX
Day 35
Users don't care about your product - or any, really.
They care about getting the job done.
35/100 Days of UX
Day 36
On contextual inquiry - the best observations are things we see/hear - not interpretations; things people say, a goal, an action, struggle, etc.
36/100 Days of UX
Day 37
I didn't realise there are people who actually speak with non-users of a system (e.g. managers about other employees, when the product is not for them) and ignore the target audience COMPLETELY like what xD
37/100 Days of UX
Day 38
Do you have any favourite affinity diagrams? Such as:
- User journey maps
- Empathy maps
- Storyboards
- Personas
- Red routes
- Others?
Why? Is there a frequented context for you?
38/100 Days of UX
Day 39
Myths about field visits:
1. Finding out user needs through surveys and focus groups; focus on actual behaviour instead of responses.
2. A user researcher's job is to learn about users. Not quite. They're meant to help the team learn about users.
3. ...
39/100 Days of UX
Day 40
The average person doesn't exist. Nor does the average user/customer. Combined stats pointing to 'average' don't make up any kind of actual person.
Personas can be useful, but apparently many people do them improperly so a lot of the time they're useless 🙃
40/100 Days of UX
Day 41
Market research confirms users want something.
User research determines how users want that something to work.
^ As a result, the final user groups from the two can have differences.
41/100 Days of UX
Day 42
The real value of personas is in the process -not the persona documents we're left with.
Also, it seems that assumption vs realistic personas is very much a thing and likely where the 'uselessness' of personas stems from. Demographics are rarely important.
42/100 Days of UX
Day 43
Red routes are critical paths users take to execute their tasks and accomplish their goals. They need to be frequented, critical, a series of actions, drive business/product metrics, built for scale, and consist of the majority of product traffic.
43/100 Days of UX
Day 44
Information is more than the sum of its parts; the way it's organised tells us something.
44/100 Days of UX
Day 45
Something I don't see devs do much is have users organise the content. Card sorting is fairly useful for this and can be done with a handful of people simultaneously.
It's good to understand directly from their perspective sometimes.
45/100 Days of UX
Day 46
Trigger words affect the success rate of completing goals. They need to be words familiar to users. Often things are presented in an organisation-centred manner i.e. 'Support this [org]' vs 'Buy some bird food'.
Research. Consider appropriately.
46/100 Days of UX
Day 47
A note, as they often get mixed up -
Affordances: properties of an object that suggest how an object can be interacted with.
Signifiers: indicate how something is designed to be interacted with to get an intended result.
If you wanna sound highly accurate -
47/100 Days of UX
Day 48
Ngl, a design pattern called 'wizards and tunnels' makes me feel like I'm playing some fantasy game. TTRPG probs.
Design patterns are fucking great when they fit a user's mental model; mine might be a tad warped though. 💀
48/100 Days of UX
Day 49
I have a strange affinity towards the progressive disclosure design pattern on a personal level. Maybe I just like reduction of clutter but still having access to things :3
49/100 Days of UX
Day 50
Drop down menus: incredibly flexible and used in all sorts of ways
Also drop down menus: use as a last resort 💀
50/100 Days of UX
Day 51
So there's this when looking at the aesthetic usability effect -
[C]ontrast
[A]lignment
[R]epetition
[P]roximity
and my brain is just like... Why didn't ya just bite the bullet and call it CRAP 💀
51/100 Days of UX
Day 52
'In most projects, the first system build is barely usable. The only question is whether to plan in advance to build a throwaway or promise to deliver the throwaway to customers.' - Frederick Brooks
Evolutionary prototypes are a thing but lol 💀💀💀
52/100 Days of UX
Day 53
Wireframing is not the same as paper prototypes. Nope, not even if you're using sketch-styled UI elements 🤣
They should be quick, rough, and highly interactive.
And no, you don't have to make it super fucking neat no matter what your professor says 💀
53/100 Days of UX
Day 54
Ultimately small bets allow you to fail fast so you can win bigger.
- on paper prototyping and testing them with users
54/100 Days of UX
Day 55
No matter how much people try to differentiate themselves, usability evaluations will still fall under one of two distinct types:
> Usability inspection
or
> Usability test
Have to test with our users.
55/100 Days of UX https://t.co/PKoI78pS7F
Day 56
'This might make sense if you're an engineer. It doesn't really make sense to a human being'.
Fucking laughed out loud at that one xD
Apparently testing with 5 people early on highlights the majority of big issues.
56/100 Days of UX
Day 57
I was gonna write some stuff about heuristics... But y'know what. I'm just going to acknowledge and celebrate that I finished my second UX course on Udemy and completed sections 1 and 2 of 16 in a third :3
Once I've finished it I can focus on heavy theory.
57/100 Days of UX
Day 58
Looking at the UX Value Loop and I see this:
What are primary differences between your business model and theirs (competitors)?
Such fucking huge overlaps between UX and entrepreneurship 🙃HCI and S. Eng as well.
58/100 Days of UX
Day 59
Information architecture navigational models:
> Hierarchy
> Hub and spoke
> Bento box/dashboard
> Nested list
> Filtered view
> Combo
Is that it? 🙃 Certainly feels like there's at least double that with the volume out on the net, tbh.
59/100 Days of UX
Day 60
One common assumption orgs/clients make is that people start their journey on a website's homepage. Rarely true, especially with the way Google works.
I mention that because we had data to show this at work too :D
60/100 Days of UX
Day 61
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise.
Seek what they sought.
- Matsuo Basho
I wish more people understood this. Success stories teach little about the journey to success; they rarely centre that pathway in context of nuanced struggle.
61/100 Days of UX
Day 62
'Our habitual reflexive associations are stronger than any clever design device will ever be.'
Hard to defeat them. Usually.
62/100 Days of UX
Day 63
Contrast creates information hierarchy and so should always be considered before colour.
Huh. Didn't think there'd have been an order to it.
63/100 Days of UX
Day 64
Turns out you can turn visual paths into wireframes.
I already did this but for some reason didn't frame it this explicitly? Guess it's good I'm going over the same thing multiple times from different sources!
64/100 Days of UX
Day 65
People 👏 don't 👏 read 👏they 👏 scan👏
We all need reminders of that from time to time - not just the people we work for or cater to.
Also: I rarely emphasise with clapping and thought this was appropriate. 💀
65/100 Days of UX
Day 66
5 Principles of Interaction Design:
> Consistency
> Visibility
> Learnability
> Predictability
> Feedback
There are many but most can be boiled down to those five. Or so they say. :3
66/100 Days of UX
Day 67
'A problem well stated is a problem half solved'
- Charles Kettering
And if it can't be, then it's either not a problem, or poorly understood. One of the few simple but significant concepts I find common to core disciplines I work within.
67/100 Days of UX
Day 68
Damn. This whole selling UX/UCD to companies and orgs seems to be a highly common thing.
Sucks that so many people are still against integrating all the good that can come from design into their products.
68/100 Days of UX
Day 69 nice
So there was a figure for it - 83% is the average improvement in KPIs when it comes to ROI as a result of improving UX (particularly usability). That was 2008, so perhaps less now...?
The figure used to be 135%. Hot damn 😆
69 (nice)/100 Days of UX https://t.co/Iv2j4FJ8D0
Day 70
'Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.'
- Tim Brown
Not just design, tbh. Tech broadly could do with more empathy, and for one another in general - not just users.
70/100 Days of UX
Day 71
User research is important to:
> Create designs that are truly relevant to users
> Create designs that are easy and pleasurable to use
> Understand the return on investment (ROI) of your UX design
Basic. But yes.
71/100 Days of UX
Day 72
Déformation professionnelle - the tendency to look at something from the perspective of one's own expertise or profession.
That's the cognitive bias hindering us from seeing things the way most people would.
72/100 Days of UX
Day 73
The meaning of messaging behind design is... Mind-blowing.
Literally everything we touch and use is telling us what is/isn't okay; what's acceptable, discouraged, enticing, self-sabotaging - how to *BE*.
I already knew. But the significance just sunk in.
73/100 Days of UX
Day 74
'You need to find ways of... enabling people in industry and academia to use methods they didn't *learn* ... make it *easier* ... to get the crucial aspects into the experience design'
- Marc Hassenzahl
This resonated with me so hard, for two reasons:
74/100 Days of UX
Day 75
Onto the three levels of emotional design - visceral, behavioural, and reflective design.
Theory is so fucking interesting. Kinda glad I got the practical courses out of the way!
I think I really want to pursue deeper study/work in design. 💀
75/100 Days of Design
Day 76
Focusing on what a user generally *feels* is preferable when it comes to UX; it's apparently more common to see a focus on usability.
Glad I gravitated towards the former from the beginning. Feel like I have more tools to understand how to do it, too ❤️
76/100 Days of UX
Day 77
'Without emotion, in many ways we don't exist fully'
- Alan Dix
And yet we still continually underrate, curtail, and try to minimise that part of being human.
It can be powerful - if you know how.
77/100 Days of UX
Day 78
Emotion in systems:
> Eliciting emotion: create a feeling
> Affective computing: detect and respond to emotion; modify and adapt the system to user
> Conduit for emotion: record/transmit users' emotions
78/100 Days of UX
Day 79
'Peak experience' is borrowed from psychology, right? The term seems to apply loosely. Many of the experiences we're designing for are *not* 'peak' - particularly if they involve high-level self-actualisation.
Rather mundane in comparison, at times, really🙃
79/100 Days of UX
Day 80
The more I learn about design thinking the more I want to suggest it as my default lazy-version response to super noob entrepreneurs asking for advice validating their ideas 😆
Anyway: finished my fourth course. Onto my fifth. 🥳
80/100 Days of UX
Day 81
'I try not to think out of the box anymore, but on its edge, its corner, its fla, and under its bar code'
- Clint Runge
Design thinking is both an art and a science. There's plenty of rationalisation and research going on.
81/100 Days of UX
Day 82
Thought I'd find the history of design thinking a tad boring but of course, it's still interesting af.
Because it's design.
And I'm me (duh).
Way too tired though. Zzz. xD
82/100 Days of UX
Day 83
STEM-types tend to systematically explore possibilities then determine fundamental rules for an optimal solution (problem-focused problem-solvers); designers prototype lots then test to see what fits the rules - 'satisficing' (solution-focused problem-solvers)
83/100 Days of UX
Day 84
There are soooooo many design thinking frameworks; I'm starting to wonder what the pros and cons are, really.
Maybe time to write an article :3
84/100 Days of UX
Day 85
Today's takeaway - p. much just focus on the foundations behind design thinking frameworks instead of analysing them to pick a fav. They can be interpreted differently.
Still gonna write that article though 😆
85/100 Days of UX
Day 86
'The problems that exist in the world today cannot be solved by the level of thinking that created them.'
- Einstein, apparently.
One would have to have incredible self-awareness to realise this and then transcend.
Or we can help each other. 😉
86/100 Days of UX
Day 87
'A wicked problem is a social or cultural problem that’s difficult or impossible to solve because of its complex and interconnected nature.'
Finally doing a deeper dive on these. Excited! :D
87/100 Days of UX
Day 88
Soooo it's pretty much a combination of systems thinking and agile methodology in the context of design thinking that can be used to address wicked problems.
Our favourite. 💀
88/100 Days of UX
Day 89
'You need to gain an understanding of their environment, as well as their roles and interactions within it if you want to truly empathize with them.'
Seeing things through other people's eyes can take a bit more effort than some people are used to. :3
89/100 Days of UX
Day 90
'It’s not enough that the technology exists (i.e. feasibility is present) and that profits or business benefits may be derived (i.e. it is viable). Users need to feel a sense of *desirability* towards a solution.'
That sweet spot is achieved with empathy.
90/100 Days of UX
Day 91
'Empathy is also the only way to thoroughly understand what people mean, rather than just absorb what they say.'
Been reflecting fairly heavily on my ability to read between the lines. Need something far more nuanced than the usual advice to improve tbh.
91/100 Days of UX
Day 92
'The aim of empathic design studies is not to seek solutions for recognized problems, but rather to look for design opportunities as well as develop a holistic understanding of the users.'
- Tuuli Mattelmäki
92/100 Days of UX
Day 93
People who wonder whether the glass is half empty or half full miss the point. The glass is refillable.
- Simon Sinek, apparently.
Didn't *need* add to the proverbial phrase to point out perspective can be everything, but it still resonated with me.
93/100 Days of UX
Day 94
Starting to wonder what the effect of person-positivity bias has on software - to what degree. I see Twitter commentary about personas and 'what we actually do in industry' but without references to the bias and addressing underlying issues 🙃
94/100 Days of UX
Day 95
That was from Don Norman in Rethinking Design Thinking.
95/100 Days of UX
Day 96
Not once have I heard that paper prototypes aren't particularly useful when it comes to familiar user interface patterns and skipping to wireframes or something more hi-fi is fine.
I did that anyway but it's nice to see it in writing 💀
96/100 Days of UX
Day 97
Heuristics are great but they're not a substitute for usability testing 🙅♀️ Don't rely solely on them, especially if you've got a 'good' design on your hands.
Also, finished my last course for this 100 days sesh 🥳🥳
97/100 Days of UX
Day 98
I was gonna read a bunch of articles but two were thought-provoking enough to leave me here just sitting and thinking xD
1. I'll create transcripts of future interviews and focus on the user more
2. Is approaching design with implicit kindness enough? 🙃
98/100 Days of UX
Day 99
The unit bias behind infinite scroll reminds me of the effect of digital currency on some people, who have less control and tracking power than when handling physical money. It's so easy to get lost.
And then we go and combine the two.💀
99/100 Days of UX
Day 100
Honestly, my mind is blown just by the fact that musical scores can be visually designed in such a manner, let alone such a beautiful one.
An enlightening and appropriate segue (heh) to our next challenge. Coming soon™! 😉
https://t.co/4uAqG8E2Vn
100/100 Days of UX
Day 101
I completed five courses in my 100 Days of UX Challenge; three from Udemy! Shocker. 🤣
I did an acting course; I learnt a lot about embodying emotion, so I celebrate that too.
This was as successful as it could've been on low energy mode.
Info tomorrow about the next 100 set! https://t.co/MA3WEmHHQ6