Coby Chapple (cobyism) from GitHub announced two days ago a new feature being unveiled for GitHub’s services: Zen Writing Mode. This new feature strips away all the clutter of an edit window making it full screen–no buttons, no formatting, nothing. Continue reading “GitHub’s New Zen Writing Mode: Simple UI for Uncluttered UX” »
Thinking of copying a few more colleagues in a reply to another’s message? Take a moment and make sure that you are adding more to the conversation for the right reasons. Continue reading “The Carbon Copy (cc): Best Practices for Professionals” »
Let’s face it. Upgrading and managing systems in an IT environment is a routine experience. Systems get updated. Software becomes patched. Servers are patched. Sometimes, though, the changes in a system require substantial differences in how the users interact with the system. The differences may even change the roles of its users. In any of these cases, it is important to plan for change and communicate it effectively. Continue reading “Managing Systems: Communicating Change” »
More and more, mobile devices are a major point of contact with Web sites. Phones and tablets are viewing Web sites more and more on a smaller screen without the aid of mouse. A mobile version of a Web site cannot be ignored now. As Web designers, we must accommodate those users as well or lose potential customers. Continue reading “Designing for Mobile Devices: Goals, Audience, and Platform” »
Come one and all to the new, fresh Tumblr-like site! This site combines my previous two sites: my blog and my portfolio site. Take a tour and let me know what you think. I will be adding much of my old writing to this site as time permits, so be sure to check the archives periodically.
To take a look at what my previous two sites looked like, check out the screenshots below.
If you’re tired of using Photoshop, Illustrator, or any other graphics editing program to create wireframes and prototypes of Web sites and applications, I highly recommend you check out Pidoco–an online drag-and-drop prototyping service. Continue reading “Pidoco: A Great, Easy-to-Use, and Inexpensive Prototyping Tool for Web Design” »
“Great branding is a visual expression of great thinking. And whenever it comes to the digital landscape, that great thinking comes from UX.”
Stephen Gates, the Senior Creative Director for Global Brand Design at Starwood Hotels & Resorts, offers a quick preview of his planned 45-minute tutorial on June 8 at the UPA International 21st Annual Conference.
In Janko Jovanovic’s article “10 UI Design Patterns You Should Pay Attention To,” he reviews ten UI design patterns that we commonly see on all the major Web sites today. Continue reading “10 UI Design Patterns and 2 Problem Areas to Watch” »
User testing is vital to UX design for a mobile Web site or app. Functional prototypes for a mobile app are difficult to produce because it requires creating the end product, compiling, and either using software to emulate the mobile device or installing the app on some test mobile devices. One way around this resource-intensive method is to create paper prototypes. Continue reading “Paper Prototyping for Mobile Web App Design” »
In design arenas, one can often hear the mantra “less is more.” If we look around us, we experience it every day in design. The best example of the less-is-more philosophy is whitespace, the planned and balanced negative or empty space in a design. In some cases, it is not planned for and the end result is a hole that does not harmonize with the rest of a design. When it is used effectively, the work as a whole feels cohesive and complete. Continue reading “Breathing Room: Whitespace is the New Whitespace” »
