Happy Friday! There was a lot of good articles this week so lets not waste any time…
Articles
Design Explosions: Mapping on iOS
Jon Bell and William Van Hecke of UX Launchpad wrote a comprehensive, deeply informative and insightful design lesson about Google Maps and Apple Maps. Medium estimates this as a 43 minute read so save it for when you have some time.
The More You Fail, The Greater Your Success: A User-Centered Design Case Study
An inspiring article by Matt Reamer as he puts user-centered design truly into practice when designing for his autistic brother.
The 5 Most Common Mistakes in Design
Are you guilty of these 5 common design mistakes? Julie Zhuo, Product Design Director at Facebook, writes about over-constraining the design exploration, refining too early, mistaking a good execution for a good product, overvaluing simplicity and style at the cost of clarity, and undervaluing the experience outside of the container.
The Utopian UI Architect
I remember seeing Bret Victor’s portfollio many years ago. This is a good article of his big picture thinking – how we use computers to represent our ideas but how they limit the ideas we can have.
UXMas
UXmas is a user experience digital advent calendar with UX related articles each day through December from some of the world’s leading UX specialists.
Chinese Mobile App UI Trends
It’s important to know who you are developing for. Dan Grover, Product Manager at WeChat, writes about differences between apps in China and those he’s accustomed to using in the US.
Top prototyping tools for interaction designers
A great comparison of 5 prototyping tools by Brittany Mederos based on animation/transitions, learning curve, real-world applications, shareable, and workload.
What is micro UX? 14 joyful examples
Lots of good micro interactions here but the examples would have been better as animated GIFs.
Sponsored Link
Get videos of real people using your site or app, while speaking their thoughts aloud!
UserTesting is the fastest way to get feedback. With easy test creation, access to a panel of over a million users, and results usually within the hour, you’ll give your users an experience they’ll love. Sign up for a free UserTesting account today.
Interested in sponsoring a future issue? Contact me.
Tools & Resources
Motion experiments by Michael Villar
A reader of UX Design Weekly sent this in as his 2015 UX resolution. Michael Villar, User Interface Developer for Stripe experiments with animation in a variety of ways.
iOS 8 GUI for Sketch (iPhone 6)
If you’re a Sketch user, the folks over at teehan+lax released their iOS 8 GUI for Sketch. They had previously released the Photoshop version.
UI Tiles
A system for building quick visual flowcharts and site maps for web projects with a free download of 72 miniature wireframes in Photoshop, Sketch, and Illustrator.
Portfolios
Ivo Mynttinen
Ivo has a very nice looking portfolio site that highlights his work. My only complaint is that he only shows the end product and not the process that got him there.
Robby Leonardi – Interactive Resume
Although not really a UX portfolio, I really enjoyed this experience. Another great one with animation is from Sam Markiewicz.
Jobs
UX/UI and Visual Designer at CallMiner (Fort Myers, FL)
CallMiner, one of the leading vendors of speech and voice of customer analytics solutions, is looking for a multifaceted designer to create great intuitive user interfaces in Sunny Southwest Florida.
Last But Not Least
Discover Design
A fun and effective way to learn modern design trends on your phone.
“There’s a big difference between making a simple product & making a product simple.”
— Des Traynor, Warmgum 2014
Do you have a UX resolution for 2015? Tell me about it and you might win a free book from Rosenfeld Media.
— Kenny
