Design is inherently human. It has always been for humans in traditional setups and will always be for humans in futuristic environments across the globe. And what makes humans the center of all experiences are emotions in design....
In an evolving world of software design and development, Agile UX has emerged as a crucial methodology for creating user-centric digital products. By integrating user experience design principles into agile processes, teams can ensure that the end product is not only functional but also meets the expectations of users and is an innovative product that becomes a new benchmark for companies across the industry....
First impressions are everything—especially in today’s digital age. But it’s more than just looks that have users staying loyal to a product or organization. The user experiences across touchpoints and the impact you make as a product often equate to lasting impressions. Thus, the role of UI/UX design in business success cannot be overstated....
The success of a product in this digital era is marked by critical aspects that ultimately boil down to how accessible it is. It hinges not only on its functionality but also on how it feels and looks to the user. A well-rounded design team is essential for creating products that are not only usable but also delightful and efficiently solve all user pain points. This team typically includes a variety of specialized UX roles, each contributing unique skills and perspectives. From User Research to User Experience (UX) and Visual Design and everything in between, these roles work together to ensure a seamless and engaging user experience....
In the increasingly competitive landscape of digital products and services, user experience (UX) has emerged as a critical factor that determines the success of digital products or services. While traditional market-oriented performance indicators such as revenue, market share, and overall profit remain important to gauge the business and its success, KPIs that help us monitor user experience offer a more nuanced understanding of how users interact with and perceive a product. These KPIs focus on the user’s journey, overall consumer satisfaction, and engagement, providing stakeholders, designers, developers, and writers with actionable insights for continuous improvement....
In today’s fast-paced digital age, the importance of creating products that resonate with users at a global scale has never been more crucial for businesses of all scales. With the quicker adoption of technology and the ever-growing need for the same across industries, users are spending a lot more time interacting with digital mediums. To keep up with this requirement, products and services need to be not only functional but also fulfill user requirements intuitively, ensuring effective communication and interaction at every step of their product journey. And this is where human-centered design (HCD) comes into play....
This digital era is marked by the consistent need to simplify digital interactions and processes across industries for users globally. Hence, we’re moving towards an era where digital systems are completely encapsulated, ensuring clean and efficient user experiences. And this journey begins with artificial intelligence in the form of virtual assistants....
In the realm of design, where every pixel and element helps tell the designer a story through visual communication, the role of white space in your design cannot be overstated....
In the dynamic world of user experience design and communication, designers and developers have been witnessing trends ranging from busy interfaces of the 90s to minimalistic design in the late 2000s. The clean, neat design is powered by a silent force that shapes perceptions and elevates the entire visual experience—white space....
Wearable technology has been on the rise, with users turning to gadgets that double as accessories. In this dynamic intersection of fashion and technology, wearables have, thus, emerged as transformative companions in our daily lives, offering a seamless integration of style and function....
In the rapidly evolving landscape of technology, wearable devices have emerged as a significant player, seamlessly integrating into our daily lives. Among these, smartwatches stand out, blending aesthetics with function. As we move toward highly personalized and integrated experiences, understanding key principles to design for wearable technology is essential....
In today’s fast-paced digital era, mobile devices have transformed the way we interact, work, and entertain ourselves. People across the globe, of all ages, find themselves glued to their phones for at least some part of the day as their daily routine. And with a mobile application designed to cater to every need of a diverse population, their routine becomes a necessity....
As digital interfaces become increasingly complex to design and develop, creators find themselves leaning towards design systems to provide structure to their design processes. Enter atomic design! The atomic design methodology can be used to create design systems that are organized, structured, and scalable....
With user experiences rapidly evolving to meet the pace of the dynamic industry and keep up with the ever-growing needs of users, user centered design UCD has become the cornerstone of successful design. Even more so, now that mobile-first experiences have taken precedence over traditional user experiences....
In an era dominated by mobile devices and smartphones, the importance of a mobile-first design strategy cannot be overstated. With the majority of internet users accessing content through their smartphones, designers must prioritize creating seamless mobile user experiences....
In this ever-evolving landscape of technology, voice user interfaces (VUIs) have emerged as a powerful and intuitive way for users to interact with applications and devices. The evidence of this has been apparent over the last decade with the increasing popularity and demands for virtual voice assistants, such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant....
Website design has come a long way. From basic, text-based web pages with minimal interactivity to the dynamic pages that we see today, the evolution of web design has been a fascinating journey. Marked by technological advances, changing design trends, and the complex demands of users globally, we’ve witnessed a drastic change in the way website experiences are crafted across industries. After all, you wouldn’t wish to fall back in today’s digitally driven world!...
Digital accessibility is all about creating websites, apps, and internet technologies – that is, digital experiences, accessible to anyone, regardless of the impairment they face. The purpose of designing with accessibility in mind is to provide a more unbiased internet experience for all; one where the experience, perception, accessibility, understanding, interaction, and participation with fellow web surfers is possibly for persons with physical or cognitive disabilities as it is for able bodied people....
With an ever-evolving and rapidly growing digital world, a greater number of users have shortened attention spans. The window to dissipate information has narrowed to a short section on any web page the users land on. Studies have shown that 57% of users’ viewing time on a web page is dictated by above-the-fold content. With better content and user experience, you are destined to receive higher traffic to your website. Even though above-the-fold design and content recommendations have grown more complex with each passing year, it is a critical part of your web page....
Usability testing, also known as product testing, design testing, or design validation, stands as a critical process in refining designs by subjecting real users to real-world scenarios. This helps you clearly understand your user concerns and usability issues, making it easy for you to work on them....
Do we even realize the number of AI-driven experiences we encounter in our daily lives? Getting a movie recommendation from Netflix based on our viewing history is effortless and AI-driven, helping us feel accustomed quickly. Alternatively, chatbots on websites such as e-commerce that assist with questions about our orders’ delivery or payment issues are another example of AI-powered CX....
Biases penetrate AI (Artificial Intelligence) through learning models; understanding them is as crucial as knowing about AI biases. As a result, through this blog, we will gain a better understanding of AI learning models, what they are, and a few types of learning models....
A variety of factors influence the operation of a well-designed AI (artificial intelligence) system, but these factors can sometimes carry biases that affect the results produced. To ensure the effects don’t pose a threat to the outcomes or performance of the system, it is important to arm ourselves with the capability to accurately identify them.
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As humans, we are prone to making mistakes, but when an AI (artificial intelligence) system stumbles upon an error, is it forgiven or forgotten? As it turns out, they are definitely not forgotten. AI systems generate solutions based on the training data they are given, but if the training data contains biased human decisions or reflects historical or social inequities, the produced results will be inaccurate and biased. Sometimes, even when sensitive variables like gender or race are removed, AI can still have biases....
Disguised ads are adverts, advertorials, or sponsored content that resemble the look and feel of other content on a webpage and that are designed to get users to click on them....
Hidden costs are charges that surface when one reaches the last step of the checkout process only to realize that there are additional costs to the base price of a product or service that was visible upfront on a website....
Misdirection is when the user is purposefully led toward one thing to distract them from another....
Price comparison prevention makes it difficult to compare the price of offers or products with other offers or products leading to an uninformed decision....
Privacy Zuckering is a dark pattern that tricks users to disclose more personal information than the users had intended to....
Roach Motel, dark pattern makes it very easy for users to sign up but very difficult to opt out....
Trick Questions are questions that when read quickly seem to ask one thing but when read carefully seem to ask something else altogether....
Sneak into Basket dark pattern sneakily adds offers or items into the basket which the user ends up paying extra for....
Bait and switch is a dark pattern where the user sets out to do one thing but a completely different undesirable thing happens instead....
Forced continuity is when your credit card continues to get billed and charged for a subscription service past the initial subscription duration. ...
This dark pattern works on the idea of scarcity and how a user’s decision making is impacted under the pretext of scarce resources. False urgency works on the basis of loss aversion which is the notion that users prefer to avoid losses over acquiring gains....
This dark pattern uses manipulative language and emotionally-charged design tactics to shame or guilt users from cancelling or unsubscribing a service. ...
Friend spam or contact harvesting is when a company manipulates a user to give access to their private information, especially their contact list making it seem to the user that it would be beneficial for them but which the company later uses for its own benefit. It gets worse when the user finds out that their contact list has been spammed by the company in the user’s name. ...
We all know that when users visit a website or download an app, they do so with an intent in mind. The design community designs on the premise that every user has a certain goal in mind when they interact with a user interface, and the role of the designer is to devise a user experience that will steer them towards achieving that goal. This would be an example of a great user experience. ...
Being data-driven has become a synonym for being new-age. The best thing about data and its analytics is that it can show us what people do on their own. But what it doesn’t tell us much about is the context, motivations, and intent behind the data to make it useful enough. We explore how design can inform the process of collecting and creating data that can help in finding insights about user behavior, and how product designers can leverage this phenomenal dynamic between data and design to create compelling experiences....
Big shifts and rejigs are in process across the entire entertainment value chain. While the closure of public entertainment options is largely increasing the bargaining power for streaming sites, it is also creating a longer-term shift in consumer behavior and sentiments. Opportunities abound in a time of crisis – how the industry aggregates user attention through high engagement experiences will determine what the future of entertainment will hold....
Covid-19 has changed the way we live. It is now prompting us to rethink how we learn. How learning can be enabled for individuals and how learning institutions need to redesign their models of engagement and delivery. This transition from physical to digital is accelerating inquiries into what learning needs to be imparted, how learning is universally accessed, delivered, and assessed which leads to true shifts in thinking and behaviors. ...
Many businesses are experiencing devastating financial consequences from the pandemic. Past recessions show that controlling costs by improving operational efficiency—a task for which digital solutions are perfectly suited—is more effective in sustaining businesses through financial turbulence than traditional cost-cutting measures alone. ...
The future of user experience isn’t constrained to a screen. Ubiquitous computing would become the next frontier with the pervasive incorporation of computing into human habitats — cars, home appliances, furniture, clothing, and so forth. We explore the possibilities of interaction design for the future....
Interactive digital products respond to human input and change their own content/behavior based on that input. The most fundamental principles of interaction design can be traced back to 4000 BC to the prehistoric Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui. Feng Shui is about spatially arranging objects in relation to the energy flow. Practically, being about arrangement of your surroundings in the most harmonious, optimal, and user-friendly way and covering everything from layout and colors to materials and framework. The end goal remains the same as about creating a user-friendly intuitive experience. We explore the history of interaction design across the decades....
Too many digital products are hard to use. In a world with a pandemic, where most of our interactions and engagements with others are going to be digital, what does it take to make these digital interactions seamless, meaningful, and engaging? We get into a sneak-peak into the history of interaction design and how it stands to evolve and shape the future of our experiences....
What image comes to your mind when you think ‘Luxury’? If you are thinking about your last luxury good purchases or luxury vacation experience, you might associate luxury with timelessness, grandeur, aesthetics, personalization, exclusivity etc. Now, for a moment consider experiencing the same in your next digital purchase, as you maneuver through your next digital application. Does this even qualify to exist?...
Icons have always been found highly useful in limited digital environments and in diagrams, maps and other forms of visual communication. As a visual shorthand, it can label, inform, and aid navigation quickly and effectively in minimal space. At Think Design, we stepped back to discover how icons have been used from the earliest desktop days – in a pursuit to build on our current understanding, looking to appreciate and learn from the past, and look at the future informed by a lens of insights....
Icons have always been found highly useful in limited digital environments and in diagrams, maps and other forms of visual communication. As a visual shorthand, it can label, inform, and aid navigation quickly and effectively in minimal space. At Think Design, we stepped back to discover how icons have been used from the earliest desktop days – in a pursuit to build on our current understanding, looking to appreciate and learn from the past, and look at the future informed by a lens of insights....
Icons have always been found highly useful in limited digital environments and in diagrams, maps and other forms of visual communication. As a visual shorthand, it can label, inform, and aid navigation quickly and effectively in minimal space. At Think Design, we stepped back to discover how icons have been used from the earliest desktop days – in a pursuit to build on our current understanding, looking to appreciate and learn from the past, and look at the future informed by a lens of insights....
Icons have always been found highly useful in limited digital environments and in diagrams, maps and other forms of visual communication. As a visual shorthand, it can label, inform, and aid navigation quickly and effectively in minimal space. At Think Design, we stepped back to discover how icons have been used from the earliest desktop days – in a pursuit to build on our current understanding, looking to appreciate and learn from the past, and look at the future informed by a lens of insights....
As a User Researcher at ekino, I have often started a UX design project with an immersion phase with our clients. This first step allows our teams to fully understand the objectives, the players, the stakes and the constraints underlying their mission. To do this, we take part in stakeholder interviews....
A user-focused approach to design research has always aided the process of product development through creating objective results based on understanding how users think, interact and engage with a product or service....
Data has a lot of untapped potential. However, a dataset that is not classified or grouped does not create meaning for the users. The most important thing to make the data meaningful is to organize the information in a way that the user will easily access and understand. We explore the value of clustering data and how it can unfold patterns that hold a promising key to solving our most complex problems – from the prediction of dangerous earthquake zones to identifying frauds....
As companies continue to bring unique and innovative digital solutions to the market, it’s imperative they take the necessary steps to become WCAG 2.0 compliant. With 1 in 4 adults living with a disability in the US, companies have an opportunity to be proactive in their approach and execution of accessibility as opposed to reactive. The benefits in doing so include; cost savings, avoiding discrimination and lawsuits, targeting a wider audience, and improving SEO (Search Engine Optimization), to name a few....
We use personas to guide the designing of websites, marketing campaigns, mobile apps, and many other contemporary experiences. Once we launch, we gauge the success of our creations for these archetype user groups. And eventually, we create feedback loops that allow us to improve our creations using the perspective of real users. ...
Data visualizations are required to make complex information easier to understand and effectuate intuitive actions as responses ....
All interactions that a person has with a brand, makes for the experience a customer relates to the brand with. In times when a customers’ journey is encompassing several touchpoints and interactions, with an ever-increasing demand for personalization across, customer behavioral data is becoming an asset to form a basis for gaining clear customer knowledge....
Understanding human behavior has been of crucial importance to developmental, organizational and social psychologists to share important insights while we live and work with humans in different social contexts. However behavioral analysis has recently forayed as an advancement into business analytics revealing pertinent business insights regarding consumers and users. ...
An important element of a designer’s life is to constantly think about innovative workarounds to challenges their customers face. Design thinking here is not just a methodology but an entire attitude of shifting our focus from reacting to constructive and collaborative responsiveness. ...
We are at the threshold of a culture where data-driven decision making and data-driven organizations will become a common phenomenon. But how reliable, expedient and impactful are these decisions? As we explore the promise of data storytelling, we also inquire how critical can this be in helping us make decisions, which are both meaningful and actionable....
Workshops remove participants from their everyday contexts and place them in a context that provokes reflection and innovation. But how to promote this evocation in the context where all participants have joined in virtually, separated by physical distances? ...
It is often thought that once a good design is made it needs to be learned by the user. The digital age is posing an opportunity for the existence of a different kind of design – where the design learns about the user behavior and modifies itself....
The last decade saw an emergence of data-management functions and chief data officers (CDOs) finding ground – spelling out a clear urgency of managing and discovering through data, as a vital to any company’s success. Executive data dashboards inundated the market with a promise of providing business intelligence to the C-suite executives. Leaders no longer simply gathered a rearview-mirror look at company data but were also offered a window into the future. ...
Dashboards are a display of essential, actionable information. Dashboard users perform tasks and make decisions based on this information. A dashboard should display the data it contains appropriately in order to support the user in doing the right action at the right time. Oftentimes the space on a dashboard is limited and the data it displays is complex. So how to design a dashboard that allows users to quickly understand all the necessary information? In this article we will list a few best practices to keep in mind when designing dashboards. ...
Over the past years concepts like Customer Experience Design (CX) and User Experience Design (UX) have become increasingly relevant. Oftentimes CX design and UX design are used as interchangeable concepts, which can be confusing and lead to misunderstandings. So what are we talking about when we are talking about UX and CX? Are the two concepts worlds apart or are UX and CX more like synonyms? Tomato tomato? Let’s clarify! ...
We are living in times where we are increasingly surrounded by voice assistants, voice ads, voice notifications, voice search and voice messaging to name a few. But we know that the time for voice has come when we see toddlers and teenagers picking up our phones and saying: ‘OK Google’ what is lego, really? ...
In the last two decades, the power of interconnectivity has spawned many innovations with it. In this article, we explore the concept of interconnectivity as a precursor to connect the world better in the near future. ...
Thinking critically and the approach of reasoning itself, can become a precursor to an innovative solution for the problem proposed at hand. Designers have long employed different methods of reasoning to create the most relevant and innovative solution for their customers....
For centuries, humans have pondered upon the mysteries of time. Philosophers, scientists, artists have postulated theories, designed experiments and created art to explain the eternal conundrum of time. But beyond the various theories that lie before us, have we ever stepped out to understand how to leverage time and its various properties to influence our day to day life and experiences?...
As users are increasingly consuming entertainment on the go, it is of no doubt that designing a good media player ensures a good user experience. In this article, we explore the history of media players over time and our recommendations to design a good media player....
Is there anything called broadcast UX (at all)? I had been meaning to talk about it for a while now; and I got an opportunity to capture comparable images last weekend (while all top 5 news channels were showing exactly the same content)....
Businesses, governments, educational and social institutions alike are asking some common big questions today. How can we navigate the disruptive forces of technology and globalism and create viable solutions which allow us to respond to rapid change? How can these solutions cater to the development of both individuals and societies in general? ...
KPI’s help one measure their progress towards goals and navigate their journey. As an organization, envisioning to drive impact through your work and growing your business, KPI’s can be your ready reckoner to enable the right checks and balances in place. ...
It’s true that you have to keep in mind a wide range of characteristics that impact the design of all educational products, but it is inevitable for companies to have a key focus on the importance of the blend of design and digital trends to create products with an edge....
There is no doubt that gamification is a concept that has quite penetrated the education industry. In this article, you will read why, what and how about gamification in education and some fundamental concepts....
Types of dashboards: Is it possible to classify dashboards into their types?
The turn of the decade has shown a change in how people and institutions are interacting with money. With an advent of rapidly advancing technologies in the fray, an era of the informed consumer has been embarked, with evolving expectations and a changing regulatory landscape, also clawing its way to disrupt the most traditional sector of our economy....
What if you designed a set of KPI’s to track your product’s performance and instead of giving you insights to improve, it turned out to be a mindless chase of numbers without giving a clear understanding of your product’s performance? Read on to discover our 20 Product performance metrics that will help you to assess how your product based business is doing....
At OSRAM’s Berlin plant of manufacturing xenon lamps, more and more employees are sharing about their improved abilities to carry out their tasks faster and more efficiently with greater precision using an app on their mobile devices. The ticket manager (this new-digital application), which gives them their work assignments and keeps them constantly up to date on the status of their machines, is moving the industry towards creating an ecosystem of enhanced communication, collaboration and mobility....
In the last few months, I had travelled extensively and the memories I have are those of my connections with the people I met. I’m very lucky to have met entrepreneurs, executives, designers, thinkers, friends, family and many of those who were part of my journeys. Manifestations of my thoughts on meeting these people would be in the form of several notes, blogs and articles (published and unpublished). This is one such manifestation. ...
So, you heard about data-driven design somewhere or you’re already practicing it? This too, is a rather newer practice much like UX design itself and has evolved only during the last 5 years. I for one, do not rely totally on it and I rely on many other research methods in addition to this. I’d rather say, I don’t place my bet totally on it because it could be dangerous. Here’s why. ...
What a stupid question! Can there be an objective answer to it?
I was asking myself this question and I went into reflection and introspection modes and there came a few answers. Ofcourse, there can’t be a definite/ specific number that can magically be applied to all projects, but there could be methods to arrive at this number. I went on my quest to find out a framework that could help. Let’s explore that here… ...
Minimum Viable Product: Does it ring a bell? A decade ago, I didn’t hear this as much in my circles… fast forward by a decade and we seem to be living in a MVP world, literally. But before we jump and conclude that MVP is the future of ‘whatever’, let’s understand a bit about the origins and a few fundamental concepts of MVP. ...
In this article, I’ll be speaking about how to run a service design workshop and a few tips and tricks to make it successful. You can read about the concept of service design and why you should practice service design here....
Services have come a long way in the last two decades: From human enabled, personal and intelligent to what we know as services today: self-serviced, cloud hosted and technology powered services. The question I want to raise here is: With the penetration of AI, will those services become bot enabled, personal and intelligent?...
There has been significant change in the way enterprises work in the past decade, while digital technologies that power these enterprises are yet to keep pace with it. Are we now at a point of inflection?...
Once upon a time, life insurance policies were sold only through agents. I bought my first policy eight years ago on 31st March. I needed a tax-saving investment; my trusted advisor sold me insurance. It took me a few years to realize that there were better options. ...
This post is a sequel to an earlier one titled ‘UX in the times of AI: Designing with Bots’. In this post, we will look at a few philosophical aspects of cyber consciousness, collective intelligence or machine intelligence and the design considerations that must be looked at in conjunction with trusting this technology. ...
A friend recently asked me what my most used app was. It was an interesting question to ponder. I use Slack, Google News, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook everyday, but none of them come close to how much time is spent using Spotify. I like to use it in the morning along side my Ultimate Ears (UE) wireless speaker to get the family up and running and somedays we can even squeeze in a mini dance session. If I am not binging on a podcast, it’s very likely I get in my car, tap the Spotify logo and select a band or a playlist I made ( or even my 5yo helped create). I’ve had a premium account ($10/per month) for a few years now and haven’t been disappointed. ...
This is Part 1 of my series on How AI would impact UX and vice versa. This write up covers different facets of chat bots and the resulting experiences. ...
“How can I log into a loan app through Facebook? My friends will know I applied for a loan.” ...
In terms ease of creating digital innovation, Pharma & Life sciences industry would perhaps figure among the last few. The reason for this is the exposure of the industry to regulations, sensitivity of information and its perceived importance to life, among others. That said there is no reason why this industry will be safeguarded from disruptions by new entrants. ...
I came across the concept of failing early a few years back when I understood the several facets of Design Thinking. A decade later, today, this is catching up like wildfire across established technology companies and start-ups alike. Let us get an understanding of why and how. ...
In terms of ease of creating digital innovations, Pharma & Life sciences industry would perhaps figure among the last few. The reason for this is the exposure of the industry to regulations, sensitivity of information and its perceived importance to life, among others. That said there is no reason why this industry will be safeguarded from disruptions by new entrants....
IT powered enterprises have come a long way, from digitizing operations and streamlining processes in the last decade to automation, data intelligence and resource optimization today. In this context; and being at the helm of affairs strategizing enterprise UX work at my company, I have a few insights to share. ...
Hari Nallan, Cofounder and CEO, Think Design Collaborative Pvt Ltd in an interaction with Ekta Srivastava, HealthTechnology magazine. This interview appeared in Health Technology magazine, in May 2016....
