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Issue 14

We had a lot of new subscribers this week so welcome if this is your first issue! If you’ve been getting these weekly newsletters for awhile, I hope you’ve found it useful. For Christmas, I’m just asking for one favor. Do you have a friend, colleague or teammates you think would enjoy this newsletter? I would be grateful if you invited them to sign up (click to email) or send a Tweet about it. Happy Holidays!

— Kenny

Articles

Becoming a More Thoughtful User Experience Designer
As UX designers, we’re good at making things usable and functional, but what about making them thoughtful? By remaining thoughtful and aware throughout the entire design process, we can create amazing user experiences.

7 Things I Wish Everyone Knew About Interaction Design
Part of the UXMas series, Chris Noessel writes about the most common gaping holes in the knowledge of the interaction design.

28 Awesome Holiday Gifts for Designers
Christmas is right around the corner and since I’m sure a lot of you still have some shopping to do this weekend, here are a few suggestions on what to add to your wishlist or get that design loving person in your life.

Five Ways to Animate Responsibly
You’re seeing more and more animation nowadays but you shouldn’t do if it doesn’t make sense. Here are some tips on the right way to animate.

7 Predictions for 2015: How Design Will Impact Your Life
As we head into the new year, there are design trends bubbling up that could have a big impact in your life going forward.

10 must-read UX design books
A list of some useful and practical UX design books that are definitely worth a read. I have a lot of them listed in my own favorite UX books section.

Tools & Resources

UX Project Checklist
Has your project gone through the UX design process? Use this handy checklist by Andrea Soverini to make sure you’ve got everything from research to delight covered.

Material Palette
If you’re curious how your material design is going to look, check out this tool. Just pick 2 colors and get a preview of the palette.

Marvel for Android
Marvel, the app that lets you turn your sketches, images and mockups into realistic prototypes, released their app for Android this week. It was previously only available for iOS devices.

Media

Warm Gun 2014
UIE has 12 videos from Warm Gun 2014 that you can watch for free as designers tell all about the challenges of design in the startup world.

Designing Time
With the Apple Watch releasing early next year and the rise of smart watchers, designers have a chance to re-imagine the watch face. See how ustwo, the studio behind Monument Valley, created some of the first official watch faces for Google Android Wear.

UX Design Patterns for Augmented Reality (AR) apps & games
A review of the various design patterns to consider when designing an AR app with the current technology. I thought this was an interesting slideshow just because I’m not very unfamiliar with the augmented reality space.

UX Portfolios

Jessica Petersen
Jessica Petersen, Product Manager & User Strategist, Associate VP ,for J.P. Morgan Chase, shows that you don’t have to always show actual work in a portfolio. Her site explains her process, a little about herself, and includes a resume.

Erica Firment
Erica Firment, Senior Information Architect at Move, Inc., shows example deliverables in her portfolio but also includes a more detailed portfolio and resume as a PDF.

Last But Not Least

Meet the Ipsums
Next time you need to put some placeholder text in your wireframes or mockups, pick one from this curated list where all ipsums come together.

“At the end of the day is how the user remembers the experience. Focus on key experiences.”
— Shawn Borsky


Do you have a UX resolution for 2015? Tell me about it and you might win a free book from Rosenfeld Media.

Thanks to this issue’s sponsors: