I’m sure many of you have come across errors like the one above when you are surfing the internet or using an app. Your first reaction might be, “Who tested that?” You know your site and app would never have an error like this in production!
Or would it? Here are a few reasons why this bug might have made into it production. Read more on “Who Tested That?” Probably Someone Like You…
Most people call them “exceptions.” We call them “Last Thursdays.” I’ve mentioned this term in a couple of my previous blog posts, and I think it’s important to touch on it one more time, to better explain what it means, and to discuss how changing the name has helped us communicate more effectively with our clients. Read more on Using “Last Thursdays” to Discuss Exceptions with Users…
Creating thoughtful, handcrafted animations is not something we get to do on our projects very often. When faced with tight deadlines and budgets, building out the core feature base has to be our top priority, so there’s not much time to devote to simply delighting users.
However, animations add a lot of value. A little movement on the page can go a long way. If only they weren’t so time-consuming to implement. That’s why I was so excited to find a new tool that quickly combines illustrations and animation. Read more on A Simple Way To Quickly Animate SVGs with Vivus.js…
Hoping to turn problems into opportunities for design? Look no further than How Might We (HMW). This is a classic Design Thinking activity—and simple, to boot. Begin with a problem area that is challenging for a person/organization/system/environment/etc., and add HMW, reformatting the problem to suggest that a solution is possible. Read more on Design Thinking Toolkit, Activity 16 – How Might We…?…
Wireframes are not just for designers! As a software maker, you can and should be using them to eliminate risk and validate concepts.
These tools benefit the entire team, and they can be created by any member of the team. This crash course will teach you why wireframes are important, when you should utilize them, and how to best present them to your stakeholders. Read more on Wireframing for Non-Designers – A Crash Course…
Asking clients to explain how nuanced and complex systems work can be a daunting task. Add to that the fact that each participant may have a unique approach to explaining a process, and you might just be left with a confusing workflow that’s missing key information.
“How to Make Toast” can help prepare your group for a larger activity like journey mapping or systems diagramming. It offers everyone the chance to agree on what is and isn’t helpful when it comes to describing a process. Read more on Design Thinking Toolkit, Activity 15 – How to Make Toast…
My last post referenced some issues I’d found when planning a vacation. After taking that vacation, I discovered some more issues. Read more on More Ways to Test – Vacation Bugs…
It’s not often that design is completed before implementation begins. With multiple to-do lists taking place at the same time, finding a way to keep track of everything that needs to be done is crucial to staying on top of a project.
There are two great tools to help make this happen—Pivotal Tracker and InVision. Together, they’ve given us a powerful combination to keep us and our clients apprised of progress. Read more on Pivotal + Invision – Our Two-Tool Solution for Managing Design & Software Implementation…
If you’ve watched as many YouTube videos as I have, you’ve inevitably seen some ads for Master Classes. These are online classes taught by some of the most renowned names in their respective industries—Ron Howard on directing, Gordon Ramsey on cooking, Steph Curry on dribbling and shooting, etc.
In the ad for Malcom Gladwell’s class about writing, he offers this bit of advice: Don’t start your story at the beginning. Start it at the end, because when you have the end figured out, you know what you have to do in order to get there.
This same idea can be used for writing context scenarios: With the end goal in mind, work backward, step-by-step. Read more on Writing Context Scenarios? Start at the End…
There are countless design collaboration tools out there today. It can be overwhelming to know which ones are worth the time (and cost) investment, and which ones will turn into another item you need to maintain. I’ve recently started using Zeplin on a few of my projects, and I can confidently say it has improved my teams’ workflows. Read more on The Many Pros of Using Zeplin for Design Collaboration…
