Category: Web

Ten bites of UX wisdom every designer should know

Posted on | by Ken | Leave a Comment on Ten bites of UX wisdom every designer should know

I recently ran across an article on Twitter that I thought would be a good read for KC’s Art & Technology. It was from The Maze Blog and because of copyright issues I don’t think that it would be a good idea to post the whole article here. Nevertheless, I think the author, or maybe the interview, is relevant to most web designers so I wanted to try to draw some attention to it. I decided to only show the top three suggestions to what a designer should be aware of. You can read the rest of the article and even more great suggestions at https://blog.maze.design/things-ux-designer-should-know/

“What are ten bites of UX wisdom you think every designer should know?

1. Ask as many questions as possible. Talk with users to understand them and don’t be afraid to ask even the most obvious questions. You might be surprised by the unexpected answers you’ll receive.

2. Don’t build on assumptions. Making assumptions means believing things are a certain way with little to no evidence. You should avoid this mentality if you want to become a good UX designer.

3. Test and validate your ideas. Many of us have had moments when we come up with what we think is a great idea, and we’re ready to jump in and start building. Ideas are great but are they answering a real problem people have? You need to test and validate (or invalidate) ideas before you start working on them.”

In the ever changing landscape that we as web designers must navigate it’s nice to read an article that clearly defines the role that we should play with our clients. We all have ideas and maybe believe that we’ve been able to work out the bugs of UX or UI freelancing, but if I’m being truthful, it sometimes feels like there is no a answer that will solve the current problem. Having a resource that is clear and concise always helps.

Again, take a few moments to give the article a read, it could only help. Read it.

 

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wire framing image

All this talk about wireframing…

Posted on | by Ken | Leave a Comment on All this talk about wireframing…

wire framing imageSo lately I’ve been trying to get into wireframing as the first step in the process of creating an web site. I’ve gone into detail about why I think it’s important in a few articles. If you’re interested in the subject I suggest that you search for wireframing. The main idea is to remove some of the waste of designing a site with expected elements. The truth is, is that many times you don’t know what those elements are going to be, so jumping into Illustrator or Photoshop to layout your design can waste a lot of time.

I just read an article, “12 Practical Tips for Creating Better Wireframes” that seemed to Continue reading →

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robot

The all powerful Google has spoken

Posted on | by Ken | Leave a Comment on The all powerful Google has spoken

robotSo the title is a little bit incendiary in my opinion mainly because of my attitude toward Google lately. When Google first appeared on the WWW stage it was a breath of fresh air. Finally there was a site that seemed to want to provide a quality service that didn’t just care about money unlike many of the search engines of the time. My pre-google favorite was Alta Vista and without any hesitation I dumped AV and ran to Google. Besides having a clean interface, accurate results, and of course who could forget the, “I feel lucky” button made me want Google to succeed. This was all back in about 1999, if my memory serves me correctly. In a very short period of time Google was the most popular search engine and in my opinion the quality of their search warranted it.

That seems so long ago now. The once playful attitude and quality search has, in my opinion been replaced with a huge corporation that feels that it has the duty to police the web. Continue reading →

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Balsamiq Wireframe

Learning Balsamiq: The Brief

Posted on | by Ken | Leave a Comment on Learning Balsamiq: The Brief

Alright, so I mentioned in a previous article that I decided to blog as I learned Balsamiq Wireframing. I’m not going to go into why I am just now learning wireframing, you can read the article when you get the chance.

The first step in any project is that we have a goal and a means to meet that goal. This project was given to me by a friend who wants a web site that will allow him to monitor his art project. Pretty simple, right? Well, not really. When I questioned him further it turns out that it could end up being beyond my web capabilities, but I wanted to give it a try. So here is the brief.

What I was told

The idea behind his art project is to create many (unknown the exact number, but probably about 100) small sculptures that would be cheap to make and would last a while. They would probably be made out of some tough resin so each one will last. I don’t know the exact size, my assumption is that they are about 12″ tall. Each sculpture would be placed around the US by people that he knows. An example would be that person A would place it at the corner of a street in Chicago, person B could leave it at a metro station Dallas, Texas. You get the idea, a hundred of these scattered around the US.

What he wants for his site:

He wants a site that would record what happens to each of the sculptures. A way to log the location and any other information that a person would be willing to add. Each piece would have a distinguishing mark or number to identify it and the web site url. The sculptures would not have any aids like a sensor to record where they are. The info must be added by a person.

After that there isn’t too much info about the details. He’s not sure if gps should be used or if just someone using a form to add information is enough. He did mention that there needs to be as little information about the project as possible. In other words he wants to see what happens with the pieces without interference from anyone. If the sculpture get thrown away, that’s fine.

That’s generally what I know about the project. I am leaving some info out because it’s his project and I don’t want to broadcast it without his permission.

What is needed for the site:

These are my initial thoughts and until I change them, the wireframing will be based on them. He may come back and want something different, but for now I’m going to proceed this way.

  1. There must be a way for people to enter information about a sculpture. It must be dynamic and allowed to be modified.
  2. A basic info page about the project, but not too much info.
  3. Browse ability to see where individual sculptures are located and to allow someone to see where the piece has been.
  4. Less info is better, so no explanations or hints.
  5. Allow comments

Resources needed.:

  1. mySQL database
  2. Geolocation ability based on IP (can be over-ridden by person)
  3. Map of the sculpture’s location based on the IP address.
  4. The ability to upload images/selfies with sculpture. He didn’t request this, but I think it would be warranted.

How I’m going to proceed with Balsamiq:

I think four pages are needed, remember that less information is wanted.I think that’s it. It sounds really simple on the surface but the development of the backend may be difficult.

  1. Home page
  2. Browse
  3. Add
  4. Search

Okay now that the basics are complete I hope that you follow along as I create his site in Balsamiq. Remember, this is about learning wireframing and all the other stuff is not important. What I mean by that is that it is entirely possible that WordPress (or some other program) would be able to do what he wants with less hassle.

 

 

 

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Learning Balsamiq Wireframing

Posted on | by Ken | 2 Comments on Learning Balsamiq Wireframing

A few years ago I started hearing about using wireframing to do mockups of web sites and apps. Prior to this I had been the type of person that I just opened up either Fireworks(yes, Fireworks) or Illustrator to start getting an idea of where the site would end up. It was not something that I was taught to do, it just seemed natural to get a cup of coffee, sit down, and start creating. That was, like I said until I started to hear more and more about people using wireframing to mock up a web site or app.

“I tried different software and no matter what I did, it was just too boring. “
My first few goes at trying this method didn’t go very well. I tried different software and no matter what I did it was just too boring. I couldn’t connect to it visually and as an artist I decided that it wasn’t for me.

So what changed? Well, the truth is that I want to stay current with standards and procedures when it comes to my area of study. Eventually I came to the conclusion that this was a skill that was required, and even if I didn’t use it for my own layouts, I needed this tool in my proverbial toolbox.  I also believe that new methods and techniques are usually useful so I decided to give wireframing another try. This time I researched as much as I could about why it’s useful, who benefits, and which application would fit me the best.

I found out that the majority of people, if the web is to be believed, used either Sketch, Adobe XD, or Balsamiq. The other software recommended were too specific to platforms or intended use. What I mean by that is much of the software was specific to mobile app wireframing, or maybe wireframing on mobile. Some were PC apps and some were mostly for a team to work together on. Since I’m working alone on a Mac laptop and am only really concerned about web sites, many of these didn’t seem to interest me right now.

Basalmiq Logo

I ended up choosing Balsamiq Wireframes as my learning platform since it seems fairly intuitive and their documentation looks to be complete. I’m just guessing about the documentation right now and no doubt I will eventually find out.

As I work through the learning curve of wireframing on Balsamiq I thought that it might be interesting to others if I share what I’m doing as I teach myself the ins and outs of the software. I’ve worked with it a few times now and I think I’ve got a fairly good handle on it, but like most software it probably has secrets and hidden gems that I have yet to discover.

If you’re like me and never really spent time wireframing, then I hope that you’ll follow along as I learn. Maybe you will let me know if there was a trick or something that I should have done. The only thing I’m not sure of is if I should write articles or do videos. possibly both are warranted.

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