Application Design Articles & Videos

  • 6 Types of Useful Smartwatch Interactions

    Smartwatches are for more than just receiving notifications and tracking steps. They afford at least 6 different types of interactions that users find useful.

  • An Error Messages Scoring Rubric

    Identify UX problems with error messages consistently and effectively using a scoring rubric based on established usability best practices for error messages.

  • Error-Message Guidelines

    Design effective error messages by ensuring they are highly visible, provide constructive communication, and respect user effort.

  • Onboarding Tutorials vs. Contextual Help

    Tutorials interrupt users, don’t necessarily improve task performance, and are quickly forgotten. Contextual help signals can avoid these pitfalls but require unintrusive ways to activate.

  • CASTLE Framework for Productivity/Workplace Applications

    The HEART framework is great for B2C products but is lacking for workplace applications where users cannot choose the product. CASTLE offers a complementary assessment framework for UX that focuses on the needs of internal product teams.

  • It’s Time We Addressed Time-Zone Selectors

    Users often struggle to find their time zone from a time-zone selector. Where possible, locate users’ time zones for them, organize time zones alphabetically in a dropdown, and allow users to search by city and country.

  • 3 Strategies for Managing Visual Complexity in Applications and Websites

    In application design, prevent users from being overwhelmed by putting things in predictable places, using a clear visual hierarchy, and taking advantage of progressive disclosure.

  • Empty States in Application Design: 3 Guidelines

    Well-designed empty states in applications can help increase user confidence, improve system learnability, and help users get started with key tasks quickly.

  • Fitts's Law and Its Applications in UX

    The movement time to a target depends on the size of the target and the distance to the target.

  • Progressive Disclosure

    To reduce complexity in a user interface, employ progressive disclosure to defer secondary options to a subsidiary screen. This focuses users' attention on the primary options, which are the only ones shown by default.

  • Designing for Long Waits in Applications: 3 Guidelines

    3 guidelines help mitigate the frustrations users often feel during long waits experienced in complex applications.

  • Data Tables: Four Major User Tasks

    Table design should support four common user tasks: find records that fit specific criteria, compare data, view/edit/add a single row’s data, and take actions on records.

  • Making Design Improvements vs. Upsetting Established Users

    Even if a design change improves the overall user experience, it can frustrate existing users who are used to things working a certain way.

  • 3 Ways to Level Up Your Visual Design Skills

    Designers, researchers, and generalists alike can improve their visual design skills through creative exercises focused on identification, replication, or exploration.

  • The Aesthetic Usability Effect and Prioritizing Appearance vs. Functionality

    Users believe that designs that look good also work well, and UX should take advantage of this. But don't make aesthetic usability lead you astray as a designer, because the UI must actually work well for long-term success.

  • Short-Term Memory Limitations Impact User Interface Design

    People can only hold a small amount of information in their short-term memory, which fades fast. These facts impact most aspects of screen design and dictate many usability guidelines.

  • Designing for Long Waits and Interruptions: Mitigating Breaks in Workflow in Complex Application Design

    5 guidelines help users tolerate the long waits and frequent interruptions that are typical of complex workflows.

  • Using Fitts's Law to Make Links and Buttons Easier to Click

    Fitts's Law describes how long time it takes to click a target, based on the distance to the target and its size. Use this information to make buttons and links faster to click.

  • 3 Ways to Onboard New Users

    How to familiarize users with new user interfaces? Onboarding techniques include feature promotion, customization, and instructions. All must be kept simple.

  • Feature Checklists Are Not Enough: How to Avoid Making Bad Software

    A good design relies on a thorough task analysis of the steps required to complete a task, as well as determining what information users need at each step.