Hints and tips
UX learnings from Base38
Collective #132
uiGradients * Attribute Modules for CSS * Nice Portfolio * Instacam * React Components * CommonMark * Regular
Collective #132 was written by Mary Lou and published on Codrops.
NUX3 – UX & Design Conference – 10th Nov 2014
Royal Northern Collage of Music, Manchester ~ 10th Nov 2014 ~ 9.00am-5.30pm NUX3 is an all-day event in Manchester focussed on how an understanding of people can help you define, design, and build better experiences, on the web and beyond. With international speakers from some of the biggest digital brands, the day will provide a […]
Making UX Work with Agile Scrum Teams – Our September 18 Virtual Seminar
Where does UX design fit into sprints? How do companies let go of Waterfall methodology? If you’re struggling to confidently and clearly answer either of these questions, then it’s time to register for Aviva Rosenstein’s seminar. You’ll learn how to clarify roles and responsibilities, and more effectively track and estimate UX work. You’ll also hear […]
Bruce McCarthy – Product Management Meets UX
Product roadmaps are a useful tool for managers and the development they oversee. Usability testing and research informs user experience decisions. Both of these goals, in the end, benefit the users. So why can’t your process contribute to both of these goals?
What a Difference a Lab Day Makes
Can a single day really make a difference? If it’s a day designed specifically to increase innovation, foster creativity, and bring together projects that might otherwise never see the light of day, it can make all the difference in the world. This week, author T.J. Cook tells us about the one-day “labs” his company CauseLabs organizes, and shares advice for how we can incorporate innovation days into our own companies.
Ben Callahan – Responsive Workflows: There’s No Perfect Process
The web is everywhere. It’s on our desks, in our pockets, and on screens of all sizes. The complexity involved with building a website grows with each new device it must support. This cross-platform consistency requirement makes a concrete, static design process unsustainable. As flexible and responsive as the sites we’re building have to be, so too does our process for building them.
The Ethics of UX Research
In the wake of the Facebook “manipulation” controversy, author and researcher Nicholas Bowman asks (and answers) how can we ensure our user research is ethical and socially responsible.
UIEtips: UX Strategy Blueprint
In this week’s UIEtips, Jim Kalbach defines and discusses how to consistently create a UX strategy. Here he shares a tool with you for doing so at your organization—the UX Strategy Blueprint. If your strategy discussions feel more like political battles than progressive team-building, pay attention to Jim Kalbach. His virtual seminar on Thursday, August 28 […]
The Next UX Revolution: Transforming Stodgy Enterprise Applications Into Engaging Experiences
August 20, 2014

Three clicks instead of ten. Two steps instead of five. White space. Intuitive icons. Drag and drop. As consumer UX underwent a renaissance over the last decade, enterprise software stagnated with a design sensibility from the dial-up era.
Usability—much less beauty—was never a priority for business software. All that mattered was that large and complex applications worked. What’s the point of tweaking and beautifying when basic functionality is challenging enough and all of your competitors are equally sub par?
The point is users. Not yesterday’s users who eventually adapted to whatever complex software product you put in front of them. Those users are retiring. I’m talking about millennial workers who know better than to settle for unwieldy, confusing applications that only make their jobs harder.
Back…read more
By Marc Scibelli
Sarah Horton and Steve Faulkner – HTML5 Accessibility
Web accessibility takes place on a foundation of technologies, the most common of which are developed and maintained by the Worldwide Web Consortium, or W3C. Its success is dependent on how well these underlying technologies support accessible user experiences. Fortunately for us, people like Steve Faulkner devote much of their time to ensure technology specifications, such as HTML5, include the hooks that make it possible to build an accessible and enjoyable user experience for everyone.
Making SVGs Responsive with CSS
An article on how to make embedded SVGs cross-browser responsive. We’re going to cover embedding techniques, how to apply the “Padding Hack” and how to use inline media queries to make SVGs adaptive.
Making SVGs Responsive with CSS was written by Sara Soueidan and published on Codrops.
An Interview with Paul Bryan on UX Strategy, UX STRAT 2014, and the UX STRAT Masterclasses
By Pabini Gabriel-Petit
Published: August 18, 2014
“More and more leaders in the UX community have become convinced that it’s important to focus on UX strategy as a way to deliver greater business value to the organizations for which they work, advance the role of User Experience within their organizations, and get a seat at the C-level table.”
In recent years, more and more leaders in the UX community have become convinced that it’s important to focus on UX strategy as a way to deliver greater business value to the organizations for which they work, advance the role of User Experience within their organizations, and get a seat at the C-level table.
Paul Bryan, who is shown in Figure 1, has been instrumental in promoting the profession of UX strategy—through his UX Strategy column on UXmatters, by establishing the UX Strategy and Planning group on LinkedIn, and by organizing the UX STRAT conference—which covers the full spectrum of experience strategy, including UX strategy, customer experience (CX) strategy, and product and service design strategy—and his UX STRAT Masterclasses.
Defining a UX Design Strategy – Our August 28 Virtual Seminar
Establishing a realistic strategy is a creative endeavor based on analysis and results in a practical plan. Of course, it also can be a frustrating, ambiguous process fueled by pipe dreams and personal opinions. So what characteristics lead to concrete elements that will actually work for your team? In our August 28 virtual seminar, Defining […]
Leah Buley – UX as a Team Sport
User experience is rarely something you do completely alone. Even if people on the team don’t necessarily focus on UX, they could be indirectly acting in favor of it. Sometimes it comes from a lack of understanding exactly what user experience is or means. People with different approaches and skillsets can be valuable assets when incorporated into the larger human centered design focus.
UX Week 2014 Keynote Josh Clark on the Future of Digital Product Design
Josh Clark’s particular mix of practical realism and thoughtful reflection is an ideal match for UX Week. Josh is the author of the book Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps, and frequently gives workshops and talks at conferences around the world. In this interview, Josh and I talk about the current trends in digital product design, […]
Page Preloading Effect
A tutorial on how to re-create the page preloading effect seen on the website of Fontface Ninja. We are going to use CSS animations, 3D transforms and SVGs.
Page Preloading Effect was written by Mary Lou and published on Codrops.
UX Design Practice Verticals
By Nathaniel Davis
Published: August 4, 2014
“The UX Design Practice Verticals [offer] a snapshot of the activities that are necessary to architect and design human-computer interactions….”
Have you ever wondered how you’ll ever wrap your head around what seems to be a never-ending list of UX design skills? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. All information architects and UX designers question this once or twice in their career.
In this column, I’ll describe a powerful model that I’ve developed as part of my research for the DSIA Research Initiative: the UX Design Practice Verticals. This has been a useful model for me and thousands of other UX professionals because it offers a snapshot of the activities that are necessary to architect and design human-computer interactions (HCI). Since their creation in 2011, the UX Design Practice Verticals have rendered many valuable insights—I’ll summarize a few of them here—and provided an indispensable reference guide.
What Is the Relationship Between HCI Research and UX Practice?
By Stuart Reeves
Published: August 4, 2014
“Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a rapidly expanding academic research domain. Academic institutions conduct most HCI research….”
Human-computer interaction (HCI) is a rapidly expanding academic research domain. Academic institutions conduct most HCI research—in the US, UK, Europe, Australasia, and Japan, with growth in Southeast Asia and China. HCI research often occurs in Computer Science departments, but retains its historically strong relationship to Psychology and Human Factors. Plus, there are several large, prominent corporations that both conduct HCI research themselves and engage with the academic research community—for example, Microsoft Research, PARC, and Google.
Dan Saffer – Big Considerations from Microinteractions
User Experience is really all about delighting your users. You want them to accomplish tasks with ease and not encounter any roadblocks that are a direct result of your design. Many of the delightful things about an app or interface go unnoticed because they are the tiniest of features. These microinteractions can set the tone for your users and dictate the feel and performance of your design.
Designing E.T.’s Experience: Interview with UX Week Speaker Doug Vakoch of SETI Institute
Better experiences come about from building empathy for our users, but what happens when that user is an extraterrestrial? At UX Week this September we’ll talk to the person who can answer this question and help us consider how solving this far-out problem can help us design and communicate better with our users here on […]
Progressive Content for Progressive Reduction
A key element of creating a usable content strategy is identifying what information users need, and when. This week, author Ben Barone-Nugent digs deep into what information users need, as he presents the idea of progressive reduction, and explains how the concept can impact the way we build our content strategies.
The post Progressive Content for Progressive Reduction appeared first on UX Booth.
Facebook, Sentiment Analysis, and Emotional Contagion
Sentiment analysis and emotional contagion are nothing new, but Facebook’s recent research study, dubbed by the media the “emotion manipulation” study has launched heated debates regarding the accuracy of the research and the ethics of performing experiments on people without their knowledge or consent. This week, Kim Morrow brings us through some of the recent articles looking at the different sides of the Facebook “manipulation.”
The post Facebook, Sentiment Analysis, and Emotional Contagion appeared first on UX Booth.
UX STRAT 2014: Focusing on UX Strategy
By Paul Bryan
Published: July 21, 2014
“Early-bird registration ends on July 31, 2014, so register now to save.”
The field of UX strategy has been growing rapidly over the past couple of years, as a specialty within the broader field of user experience. In the past year, postings of jobs that specify UX strategy as a key competency and specialized UX Strategist roles have become increasingly frequent. Events, workshops, and classes whose focus is the topic of UX strategy have been springing up to meet the growing need for education and professional growth in this area.
In just a few short years, the UX Strategy and Planning group on LinkedIn has grown to over 12,000 members, providing an active forum for discussions about UX strategy and, more broadly, experience strategy. UX design and management professionals around the world are participating in the dialogue. UXmatters has dedicated a significant amount of space to publishing articles about UX strategy—including my column UX Strategy, which I began in January 2012, as well as UX STRAT 2013–speaker Ronnie Battista’s new Strategy Matters column—altogether, 190 articles on UX strategy topics by many thought leaders within the realm of UX strategy.
UX Week Keynote Speaker Denise Jacobs on Making Creativity Happen
Denise Jacobs calls herself a “creativity evangelist”, helping people cultivate the tools and skills necessary for leading a creative life. These skills are important for everyone, but especially for creative professionals such as designers and developers, for whom the creative challenges never really stop. In this interview, I talk with Denise about how her own […]
Trainee UX Consultant (Bristol or London)
We’re looking for a Trainee UX Consultant in Bristol or London
Realizing Empathy, Part 2: Praxis
Empathy is a curious, human capacity that pervades the worlds of both art and design. In part two of Seung Chan Lim (Slim)’s three-part series, we explore how we, as designers, can realize empathy.
The post Realizing Empathy, Part 2: Praxis appeared first on UX Booth.
NUX Manchester – 4th August – UX is everyone’s responsibility
The next NUX Manchester event is taking place on Monday 4th August and will be in the usual place at the Code Computerlove office in City Centre Manchester. Start time is 7pm. UX IS EVERYONE’S RESPONSIBILITY with Tom Bradley (BBC Future Media) Tom is interested in helping teams solve problems or try new things using […]
UX Week 2014 Twitter Contest!
Hello UX Week attendees, friends, and community! We are thrilled to announce the first ever UX Week 2014 Twitter Contest! Four UX Week attendees will be selected to have dinner on Thursday, September 11, 2014 at 7pm with Jesse James Garrett and UX Week keynote Josh Clark of Global Moxie! You can enter by following […]
UX Week Keynote Speaker Amanda Dameron on Making Design More Human
If you’re a fan of Dwell magazine, you’re familiar with its unique take on modern architecture and design in the home. Dwell editor-in-chief Amanda Dameron is a passionate advocate for the philosophy of design exemplified by the homes, decor, and furnishings showcased in Dwell. In this interview, I talk with Amanda about that philosophy, the […]
Four Things I Learned about UX at Universal Studios
July 9, 2014

From the moment you walk into a theme park, everything is meticulously designed to deliver you an immersive experience unlike any other. Universal Studios, where I once worked as a VIP tour guide, is no exception. When you get ready to fight bad guys in the streets of New York with Spider-Man, the queue you stand in is lined with monochromatic rooms as a throwback to the style of early comics. The story of the ride begins in line—the ride itself is only the cinematic conclusion.
Working as a tour guide here was a fun experience, and I realize that I still help deliver immersive experiences to people as a marketer and design enthusiast in the Bay Area. Looking back to my days at Universal, however, I sometimes wish that I had the vocabulary then to articulate my understanding of good…read more
By Tony Albanese