Really loved how this article captured why ladder systems in most games don’t work for me. They don’t feel fun, everyone collapses to the same best performing deck (killing creativity), and it just feels bad.
Also, doesn’t hurt that Richard Garfield is the one who wrote it! 😬
This is why traffic never seems to get better even after adding a bunch of roads or lanes. In fact, it usually just gets worse.
It’s important to remember you aren’t your users and you always need to test.
Source: nngroup.com
Great interview with Jim Barksdale from 2014 that I somehow missed. Barksdale is the man who coined this phrase:
“Gentlemen, there’s only two ways I know of to make money: bundling and unbundling.”
(via How to Succeed in Business by Bundling – and Unbundling)
Source: hbr.org
(via Using Swipe to Trigger Contextual Actions)
While I understand the potential usability issues with swipe-to-do-X, I think at this point you should really know your users and know if they are going to be okay with it or not. No real hard and fast rules with UX, like all things UX.
Source: nngroup.com
People remember the bad more than the good. Users’ tendency to identify flaws in designs raises the bar for what they consider acceptable.
Yup.
Source: nngroup.com
So the election is not rigged. In fact, it’s anti-rigged. To rig an election, you would need (1) technological capabilities that exist only in Mission Impossible movies, plus (2) the cooperation of the Republicans and Democrats who are serving as the polling place’s election officials, plus (3) the blind eyes of the partisan pollwatchers who are standing over their shoulders, plus (4) the cooperation of another set of Republicans and Democrats — the officials at the post-elections canvass, plus (5) the blind eyes of the canvass watchers, too. Then you’d still have to jedi-mind trick lawyers, political operatives and state election administrators, all of whom scrub precinct-level returns for aberrant election results, and scrutinize any polling place result that is not in line with what they would have expected, based on current political dynamics and historical election results.
Source: extranewsfeed.com
Really good article from Norman Nielsen Group about the good and bad of WeChat. Super insightful.
Source: nngroup.com
This reads like a description of my personal hell. So glad I got out of there whilst I could.
Your mind briefly drifts off and you think — “is this all really worth it? should I move to Seattle, Austin, or maybe even Florida?” After all there is no state tax and you could live a great quality of life there with an actual house with your beautiful family.
Source: medium.com
Summary: Mobile-navigation patterns make navigation unusable on the desktop and decrease the use of this important UI element. Porting an unchanged UI to a different platform hurts UX.
Source: nngroup.com
Summary: Getting back to the homepage is about 6 times harder when the logo is placed in the center of a page compared to when it’s in the top left corner.
Source: nngroup.com
Ugh, these are gross design patterns. They could be effective but man do they cheapen the brand.
(via Needy Design Patterns: Please-Don’t-Go Popups & Get-Back-to-Me Tabs)
Source: nngroup.com
As a UX afficianado and someone who loves exporing apps and interations, I love so many things in this article:
So much to love in this article.
Summary: Selecting an option inside a menu depends on how far away that option is from the menu icon. Drop-down menus, megamenus, pie or radial menus, and marking menus arrange items in different patterns to optimize the reach time.
Source: nngroup.com
Be cool, man, be cool.
Summary: Websites must establish trust and present themselves as credible to turn visitors into customers. The methods that people use to determine trustworthiness on the web have remained stable throughout the years, even with changing design trends.
Source: nngroup.com
…rather than screwing around with bots, I want the tech industry to focus on solving these major annoyances and handling some of the common use cases I described that my phone ought to do better with by now.
(via Dan Grover | Bots won’t replace apps. Better apps will replace apps.)
Johan Lieu. Passionate product manager, UI/UX/IA devotee, enthusiastic gamer, fan of sci-fi epics and lover of all things internets.
Previously Product at SurveyMonkey (Audience, Contribute, Rewards), Wufoo, JibJab, Evite, Sulake Oy (Habbo Hotel).
Founded Pigskin Picker, and Dinner Party Smarty.
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