It is better to show users what they will get, rather than tell them.
The design is like salesman’s face to face talk, you try to convince clients that they need your product. The first thing users do when they browse is trying to imagine and visualize the use case of your product. Users get tired and give up so soon that presenting ideas, no matter its forms, must be quick and effective like a whip attack.
User motivation is a thousand times more valuable than beauty or usability—for the company—but how much time do you spend talking about it at work?
The user motivation comes first in the UX pipeline and is always intimate with the business itself. It is independent of design and usability, or those tech things. Whether the business is online or not, the motivation always comes first.
A good design communicates three things:
- What is this?
- What is the benefit for the user?
- What should they do next?
There is always a “next” step.
“Back” is a bad idea. Even you need a “Back”, don’t put it on top left, use it as one of the “next steps”.
In UX, the more you understand what you can’t do and what you must do, the better your final designs will be.
Quote from Knuth: The real problem is that programmers have spent far too much time worrying about efficiency in the wrong places and at the wrong times; premature optimization is the root of all evil (or at least most of it) in programming. Avoid mistakes is the most important things in the first version of your design.
Always have a discussion with each of the “stakeholders” (important people), from each department that is affected by the design.
Seems easy, actually it takes lots of time and requires communication skill. Talking without intention doesn’t work and people don’t say what they really mean.
our conscious mind is like “a supporting character who believes herself to be the lead actor and often has little idea of what’s going on.”
We, users, are indulged in beautiful designs and excellent usability. You know the quality of the product the moment you see it, instantly, that’s subconscious mind. When I see a bad design, usually I’m not able to list what exactly is bad instantly, is it the font? copywriting? images? That’s conscious mind. Design is certainly a conscious process. But it is used by people’s subconscious mind.
porn sites are actually some of the most active businesses when it comes to A/B testing and optimizing their designs, advertising, and search experience. It’s an incredibly competitive industry, and they even have to consider one-handed navigation. Seriously!
one-handed navigation, huh, hmm…
Create a way to measure users’ actions so they can compare themselves to others—like points on a high score list, followers on Instagram, or being The Mayor in Foursquare.
Comparison makes figures understood. Comparison makes motivation.
Users will choose something they understand over something they don’t, if you give them a choice. It doesn’t matter which one is actually better.
Curiosity is a little bit more than what users understand, and users give up when they confuse.
It’s easier for a user do nothing than to do something. In a nutshell: countries that made people choose to be an organ donor got very few people to do it. Countries that made people choose not to be an organ donor had more than 90% organ donors.
Always try to design default options, according to your intentions, or the users’ data.
Hyperbolic Discounting: Whatever is happening to you now (or soon) seems more important than what will happen to you later (or in the future).
Usability is basically the idea of getting people to the things they want as close to “now” or with as little effort as possible.
Shortsignted, foolish mankind, always want it NOW, RIGHT NOW.
Types of Information Architecture include:
- Categories
- Tasks
- Search
- Time
- People
Categorize contents into one of these, and apply models and best practice of that type.
heuristics:
- detect user’s information instead of asking for it
- remove unnecessary questions
- format content properly, like phone numbers 123-456-789
- list options instead of letting users type
- add super clear instructions for every question
- break complex questions into more steps so each is easier
- save address and autocomplete next time
- choose popular defaults so that most people don’t have to change anything
- make shortcuts
These are all invisible to users if done right.
When you ask questions on forums like Reddit:
Instead of asking for help or examples directly, ask for examples of greatness. Or create an environment where horrible failure is desired by all.
People love and understand stories. Specific names, events, locations. Stories spread.
1% of People Will Do Anything
Marsh’s Law: “Every feature will eventually be abused to its maximum abusability.”
two things:
Ignore those 1% users when you decide to remove a feature.
Keep in mind that your design will always be abused to its maximum abusability by those 1%.