UX Analysis

The goal of user-centered design is to meet the users’ needs.

Data is used to guide design decisions. Data can help you map out your personas, user flows, interfaces and other elements in your UX design work.

But what metrics should you be considering?

• Website metrics
• Device metrics
• Conversion related metrics
• User metrics
• Competitors
• SEO metrics

Let’s look at it all briefly.

Monitoring website metrics and device metrics is vital to see how much traffic your webshop receives, what device your webpage visits, and what elements generate the most leads. Find out if you need to optimize for mobile or desktops. You can also find out which items and subpages need to be improved.

This is closely related to the conversion-related metrics that denote actual user interactions. For example, you can find out which is your most popular product and how many people have subscribed to your newsletter. If you have few subscriptions, you may have to optimize your CTA for newsletter sign-ups.

User data refers primarily to demographic data. How old, what gender, where do people live, or even what interests do your typical users have? You’ll need this information to tailor your website to your visitors.

But how does SEO get here? It has an interesting but prominent role here as well. Consider one of the most significant on-site SEO metrics: the loading time. If your webshop loads slowly, you will have a high dropout rate, significantly degrading the user experience.

Hopefully, if you’ve gotten this far by reading the article, you’re sure to think about how much work you will have to do. But how about we say that a tool automatically collects most of the data listed above for you? Enter heatmaps. Here’s a closer look at these tools and how you can use them in UX optimization.

Heatmaps

Heatmaps are more of an analytical tool for measuring the efficiency of your website. It allows you to track the number of visitors to each subpage, the performance of your products, the source of your visitors, and even the performance of your buttons and CTAs.

A heatmap gives you a complete view of how visitors engage with your website and the compelling parts of your site. As a result, you can improve the user experience with the help of heatmaps.

Different forms of heatmaps include:

• Click heatmaps
• Segment heatmaps
• Scroll heatmaps

Each of the tools will help you track various metrics and prove valuable for UX optimization.

Click Heatmaps

Click heatmaps track of how many times each button is pressed. Warm colors are used to highlight areas with the most clicks, whereas cold colors highlight areas with the fewest clicks.

With this knowledge, you can determine which CTAs and button types are most effective on your website. If you want to make your website more user-friendly, it is valuable information.

Click heatmaps are also used to determine where to optimize. We also encourage you to review each of your subpages and see which subpages are rarely visited by your users. 

You may want to make UX upgrades on these subpages to increase their popularity and thus your conversion rate.

But what does it looks like in practice?

Assume that the analysis suggests that the orange buttons and the “Let’s do it” CTA wording are the most successful on your website. You can consider using that color and specific language more often to improve readability and enhance conversions.

Your website will be significantly more transparent if you employ CTAs and text that heatmaps reveal to be effective. Signing up for a newsletter or purchasing a product doesn’t have to take a long time for your visitors anymore.

Segment heatmaps

Segment heatmaps provide a much more complex analysis than click heatmaps. It not only informs you which region of your website was the most popular, but it also tells you where that specific click came from. The software maintains track of the visitor’s origins and assesses the data accordingly.

The visitor may have arrived at your page after clicking on a link in one of your social media ads, they may have arrived at your website after clicking on your PPC ad, or they just come organically. With segment heatmaps, you can see this.

When it comes to optimizing the UX, you can observe which platform brings in the most visitors and how they interact with your site. As a result, you can tailor your website to each segment. You can also find out the demographics of your visitors.

Scroll heatmaps

The function of these heatmaps is to determine how many visitors are scrolling down your page.

Scroll heatmaps are mostly found on content-heavy interfaces, where it’s used to figure out how long articles are read on average. It is important data because you’ll be able to tell which parts of the article you should place a link to, and you can determine where you should write important information.

With this information in mind, you can place links to your product and indicate the most helpful information in the most popular places. This will make your blog posts much more valuable to your visitors, which will, in turn, enhance the user experience.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are more connections between web analytics and UX than you might think. We recommend that you use heatmaps to optimize the user experience. You can use all the methods listed above together. You can combine other methods, such as split testing (a.k.a. A/B testing), to further leverage data in your design decisions.

The post Heatmap Analysis To Improve Your Website UX appeared first on UX Mastery.

Before we dive into why you should become a UX designer, let’s look at what UX design is. Here’s a quick overview:

1. Make an Impact

As a UX designer, you get to solve real-world problems, as well as the tiny, day-to-day, seemingly insignificant problems (that actually add up to a lot!). It’s all in the name, User Experience design—the user and their needs are at the forefront of the design process, whether it’s an app, a website, financial services, or the layout of a shop. When we hear “UX design”, we tend to think of customers, designing and selling products. But in reality, a user can be a patient at a hospital, a pedestrian, your grandmother, or you in many, many contexts. The world is filled with good and bad design, but imagine that good design reigned—imagine how much better our experiences and lives would be. There would be greater inclusivity and accessibility, two important aspects of UX design. 

Don Norman is the grandfather of UX design and author of The Design of Everyday Things, essentially the book of user-friendly design. After 60 years in the field, he is appalled by the absence of consideration for elderly people. In a Fast Company article, the IxDF Board Member and former Apple Vice President argues that the world seems to be designed against the elderly. People are living longer, with average life expectancies increasing worldwide. While elderly people may have diminished senses and physical abilities, many are still healthy and active. From tiny text on important labels and instruction manuals to regular household objects that need a knife or set of pliers to be opened, life is harder to navigate when you get older. Even when products are designed specifically for older people, they tend to be ugly and demeaning. In 2017 the London’s Royal College of Art put on an exhibition at London’s Design Museum called “New Old”, which was later described as “Why you should be designing for your 73-year-old self” in another Fast Company article that Don Norman references. The exhibition explored how good design has the potential to enhance the experience of our later lives. It included The Scooter for Life, designed by PriestmanGoode which has three wheels for stability and a stylish pouch at the front for storing groceries—a far cry from the bulky and clumsy “mobility scooters” you see around.

The same principles apply to digital design too. When designing an app or website for seniors, there are a few factors to consider; the font should be on the larger size, the navigation should be clear and uncomplicated, and the user should be able to understand its purpose immediately. Get to the point—your grandmother doesn’t want to spend hours fiddling around.

Ageist, a lifestyle website aimed at people over the age of 50, regularly updates their website to improve user experience. They use bright colors, have a simple navigation with menu items clearly displayed at the top of the homepage, and have a large search icon. Also, it only takes a couple of scrolls to reach the “end” of the site. 

UX Design is deeply rewarding—you will discover infinite opportunities to improve and reinvent products that will enhance millions of lives.

2. It’s Creative and Logical

One of the most appealing and unique aspects of the UX design field is the synergy between creativity and logic. Let’s say you’re an enthusiastic DIY-er (upcycling and crafts) and even have your own DIY blog (you enjoy writing too!). You’re naturally creative but don’t have technical expertise; just the term “coding” frightens you—no problem! You don’t need to be technical to get into UX design. Similarly, if your strengths lie in mathematics or coding, UX design gives you the opportunity to use those abilities, while harnessing your innate creativity (yes, you too are creative!). In your UX design career, you will use your logical side to create practical solutions for users’ needs. Practicality is not enough, however; the solutions also have to be creative and not just in terms of aesthetics, but in terms of functionality and usability also. Think of your smartphone; it serves many practical purposes, chiefly communication. But that alone can’t make a successful product. How does it make a user feel? Is it pleasing to look at? What makes it special enough for someone to choose it over another smartphone? Think about the Apple iPhone. It expertly balances aesthetics with functionality. While some smartphones have unintuitive start-ups, where you find yourself paging frantically through an instruction manual, the iPhone works straight out of the box, pleasantly guiding you through the set-up process. The solutions you create shouldn’t compromise usability over aesthetics and vice versa—it’s all about balance.

3. Become an In-Demand Professional in a Growing, Multidisciplinary Industry with Low Barriers to Entry

In 2020 there was a 289% increase in employers’ interest in UX design in the United Kingdom. The report by Hired.com, Mind The Gap, also found that UX design was one of the skills with the biggest gap in supply and demand. LinkedIn listed UX design as number 5 on their list of 15 skills that will get you hired in 2020. In CNN Money’s Best Jobs in America 2015 report, they estimated that UX design will grow by 18% between 2015 and 2025. You will find thousands of job listings on Indeed and LinkedIn, particularly in the US, UK and Canada with countless remote options too. As more organizations embrace the importance of UX design, job opportunities and job security is set to grow even more in 2022.

We know that UX design is both creative and analytical, but it stretches even further than that. The field encompasses numerous other disciplines, such as psychology, technology, visual design and sociology. In fact, it is the definition of multidisciplinary. This makes the nature of the work more exciting, rewarding, and challenging, but also lowers the barriers to entry. Whether you’re a psychologist in training or have practiced for many years, you can apply your expertise to UX design. You already have a big head start when it comes to understanding users’ behavior. Even if the field you’re currently in isn’t directly related to UX design or the disciplines mentioned above, the skills and abilities you already possess will benefit your UX career journey. 

4. It’s Relatively Easy to Switch to a Career in UX Design 

It’s never too late to change careers. As society evolves, new exciting professions come up. In fact, it wasn’t until 1995 that Don Norman coined the term user experience (UX) and it wasn’t until the early 2000s that UX designer became a real job. There are many reasons why becoming a UX designer is an exciting prospect, and there are many paths you can follow to become one. Therefore, don’t let your background hold you back in your journey towards becoming a UX designer, instead use it to stand out and learn what you need to take the first step. Many of the skills a UX designer needs to succeed are, in fact, transferable from other professions. Your previous experience will always be an asset.

Let’s look at specific examples of how you can change your career to UX design:

• If you’re a graphic designer you’re in luck since your skills in emotional design, creative thinking and prototyping will serve you well. You will need to focus on building a user-centric mindset and learn how to work with iterative processes and multidisciplinary teams. Find out more about how to change your career from graphic design to UX design here.    
• If you’re a marketing professional and you would like to become a UX designer you can harness your research and customer—user—psychology skills. Your previous experience in how to make a product desirable and appealing for your customer will benefit you. You will need to change your conversion-focus mindset to a user experience one, also you will need to learn about individual behaviors. If you’re thinking about taking your first steps towards UX design, find out for information here.
• If you’re a web designer you’re already used to working in multi-disciplinary teams and you’ll fit right in. In addition, you have a lot of experience solving different types of problems and this is a skill that will transfer smoothly. You will need to shift your focus from technology to user experience. You’ll need to pay attention to how the user feels when using a product besides focusing on whether the technology works well or not. If becoming a UX designer sounds like an enticing prospect for you, find out more practical information here.
• If you’re a business manager you can definitely take advantage of your “big picture thinking”, and this will help you make better judgment calls for your users. You’ll have to learn how to build a user-centric mindset and familiarise yourself with the design processes. Find out more about how to switch from a business management career to UX design here.
• If you’re a software developer you’re already experienced in creative problem solving and testing, and you have a constant-learning mindset. These skills will help you become an outstanding UX designer. You’ll have to shift your focus from the technology itself to how your users feel when using it. If you can build a user-centric mindset you will be able to have a successful career as a UX designer. If you’d like to know more about this particular career change, read this piece. 

If you want to change your career and become a UX designer, but your background doesn’t match any of the previous examples don’t worry. Think about what your current career has in common with UX design and use that as a starting point. Once you’re more familiar with UX design you’ll be able to bring your unique point of view and stand out to build a successful career. There are plenty of options to gain the knowledge you need that are compatible with your current career and schedule. Be assured that you can make the first step towards becoming a UX designer in a smooth and smart way.           

5. You Don’t Have to Master Tools 

Believe it or not, UX tools are less important than you might think. While they’re loved by professionals in the field, with new ones released every year, it can be difficult to stay on top of them. UX tools (like Sketch, InVision and Adobe XD) are constantly evolving (with monthly or more frequent updates), so keeping up with them can be overwhelming and pull focus from your actual work. Happily, though, what you do, your knowledge, skills and how you apply them are far more significant. Tools come and go, but UX principles and processes remain. Moreover, there’s no guarantee that the tools you’re currently using, or will use in a future role, will be the same in your next job or company. Lastly, there are many principal UX techniques that don’t require tools, such as usability testing, user interviews and card sorting. 

One of the most common misconceptions amongst newcomers is that UX designers should know how to code. While it is helpful for designers to understand how the underlying technology works to be able to design for it, this is not essential. The extent to and you can pick up the additional skills. Here’s an in-depth look at the role of code in a UX designer’s skill set.

6. Opportunities for Career Growth, Skills Development and Specialization

UX design embraces both soft and hard skills. Here are some of the skills you can expect to develop in your UX design career, both through a UX certification and on-the-job learning (this is not an exhaustive list; there are many more UX-related skills to learn!):

• Empathy
• Critical thinking
• Research 
• Visual communication
• Writing
• Coding and development

Just as your skillset can be applied to a career in UX design, the skills that you learn in a UX design career are things you can transfer to a specialization or a different field altogether! 

The range of different UX roles and specializations within the field include these: 

• UX designer
• Product designer
• Information architect 
• Visual designer
• Customer experience designer
• UX researcher
• Content strategist
• Service designer

UX design is a broad, innovative field that presents endless possibilities for learning, growth and development.

7. Accessible and Affordable UX Certifications

There’s more good news; you don’t have to go to university or get a degree to get into UX design. You can start to teach yourself with the help of online resources. Begin with a browse through the IxDF’s library of open-source, open-access UX literature. 

A UX certification can aid greatly in your quest to become a UX designer. A comprehensive portfolio and practical expertise are essential to secure your dream UX job. IxDF courses and Bootcamps offer portfolio exercises and practical project experience so that you can build your portfolio while you learn. 

Choosing the right UX certification can be challenging. There’s a lot of choices out there, and conflicting reviews and information don’t help matters. Ultimately it is crucial to do your research and ask questions to ensure that your specific goals and requirements are met. 

Since launching early in 2021, the Google UX Design Professional Certificate presented by Coursera has seen over 300,000 enrollments. Have you considered it as an option? It provides a firm foundation in UX design, so it’s a great starting point if you’re new to the field. However, if you’re looking for something more hands-on with constructive feedback, Google’s peer-reviewed approach may not be for you. Discover its benefits and how it compares with IxDF in this article. 

CareerFoundry’s UX designer Bootcamps offer 1:1 mentoring and a job guarantee, so it’s another great option to consider. However, the Bootcamps are only available if you’re located in the USA, UK, Canada, the EU, Australia and New Zealand.

Udemy has a wealth of courses in countless disciplines, including UX, and you pay per course so it’s worth investigating if you want to dip your toes in. But what they make up for in sheer course volume they lose in quality as courses are managed by separate entities and not audited by Udemy. 

The Nielsen Norman Group is a leading consultancy in UX design and offers a great range of classroom-based training for aspiring UX professionals. Their courses are offered on an international basis, so you will likely have to wait a while before there’s one in your area.

Ready to start your UX career journey right now? Check out the IxDF’s range of self-paced, industry-recognized courses, Master Classes and mentor-led Bootcamps. Take advantage of the IxDF end-of-year special and get 25% off an annual membership and $200 off on Bootcamps!

With the IxDF, you can choose from a range of educational materials, structured in different ways to suit your learning style. With their industry-recognized courses that cover the entire spectrum of UX design, you can dive deep into each concept at your own pace and get an industry-recognized certificate. If time is a constraint, IxDF’s Master Classes, at an average length of 1 hour, are a great way to dip your feet in the UX waters with a low time commitment.  

If you’re interested in participating in a live cohort and do not have the capacity to join an intensive Bootcamp, then the part-time, remote offering from the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) might be in your comfort zone. With personalized mentor sessions and a peer-based global cohort, IxDF Bootcamps cater to different specializations: choose from the introductory UX Fundamentals to the more specialized User Research and User Interface and the 100% practical UX Portfolio and Careers.

8. Join a Thriving Community 

The UX design community is expanding. You will be able to connect with like-minded people around the world, find inspiration, offer support and discover new opportunities. The Interaction Design Foundation has Local Groups so you can meet people in your area, form friendships or even meet your future employer (there are over 400 groups in 99 countries!). And you don’t need to be a UX designer to join—the only requirement is that you want to learn!  

IxDF Bootcamps are also cohort-based, so you will learn together with other students from across the planet, interact with them and strengthen your network.

9. Work Remotely

The COVID-19 pandemic forced so many of us into the remote working lifestyle. Economic ramifications of the pandemic and the absolute necessity to work remotely have encouraged countless organizations to reduce overheads and save precious time and resources by fully embracing the world of virtual working. Often going so far as to get rid of their physical offices entirely. Sites and applications like Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Teams and more have made remote work more straightforward and sophisticated than ever. There is no need for UX design work to be physically bound, essentially you just need a computer, internet connection, pen, paper and an internet connection to design, communicate with colleagues and or clients and perform any other related task. While it is not guaranteed that your future UX employer will work remotely, the reality is that in 2022 it’s more likely than ever. And if you freelance, well, the way you work is completely up to you! 

10. Salary Satisfaction

Meaningful work is one—if not the main—factor in job satisfaction. However, salary satisfaction is also important. If you feel your hard work isn’t being adequately rewarded, even though you enjoy it, you may start to seek out other opportunities. As UX designers are in high demand, but skills are in short supply, the average UX designer salary continues to rise. Naturally, salaries will vary depending on the country, company, experience level and other factors, but the average annual UX designer salary according to Glassdoor is 105,122 USD in the United States, 48,755 GBP in the United Kingdom, 77,090 CAD in Canada and 1,389,256 INR in India. In each case, and in other countries across the world, the average UX designer salary is well over the national average salary. As demand for UX designers increases globally in 2022, so will UX designer salaries. 

Like most other industries, the UX industry recognizes experience with higher pay; so, as you advance in your career, you can expect your salary to grow along with the rest of your career.

The Take Away

A UX design career is filled with possibilities, meaning and growth, and it’s all within arm’s reach. With a global UX skills shortage, high salaries and low barriers to entry, and the freedom to work anywhere, there is no better time than 2022 to explore this career path. Don’t worry if you don’t have a design background or a degree in information systems; you can find free resources online and industry-recognized courses and Bootcamps to kick-start your UX career today. What’s more, with a legion of modern problems to address—and likely many more new ones coming up ahead—this is a trade tailor-made for the 21st century, and far beyond. Choose 2022 as your year to make a difference with UX design. 

References and Where to Learn More

Find more information on User Experience Design, take the course:
https://www.interaction-design.org/courses/user-experience-the-beginner-s-guide

Explore poor user experience for the elderly as told by Don Norman:
https://www.fastcompany.com/90338379/i-wrote-the-book-on-user-friendly-design-what-i-see-today-horrifies-me 

Read more about London’s Design Museum exhibition called “New Old”:
https://www.fastcompany.com/3067220/why-you-should-be-designing-for-your-73-year-old-self 

Take a deeper dive into various UX roles and specializations:
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-ultimate-guide-to-understanding-ux-roles-and-which-one-you-should-go-for 

UX software tools aren’t quite as important as they might appear. Read why, here:
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/ux-tools-matter-less-than-you-think 

Check out the demand for UX designers, what employers are looking for and UX designer salaries:
https://uxplanet.org/heres-what-hiring-managers-look-for-in-ux-design-candidates-90a144d21c2e 

Here’s Hired.com’s Mind the Gap report on the UK’s technology skills gap:
https://hired.com/whitepapers/skills-gap-report-download 

UX design is one of the most sought-after skills by employers. Read the report here:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/linkedin-online-elearning-skills-jobs-hiring/ 

This article was originally published on the Interaction Design Foundation, reproduced here with permission and minor edits

The post 10 Reasons To Become A UX Designer in 2022 appeared first on UX Mastery.

What Is a Wireframe?

Before digging deep into this subject, let me try to simplify what a wireframe is. A wireframe is a skeleton for the digital product design. You can imagine it to be the blueprint for any product. It consists of lines and shapes, and each represents some element/hierarchy/structure.

The main three elements of a wireframe are:

1. The Line

This element could represent a frame, a border, or a separator.

2. The Image

This element could represent either an image, or an icon, or any graphics.

3. The Solid

This element represents either a block or a line of text.

Using all these elements in a design can produce something like this:

Now remove these hints from the design and give them to a user asking them to use it. Can you imagine that?

Why Are Wireframes Bad?

I remember one time I was working on a mobile app product for weekly/monthly healthy food ordering subscriptions. The app allowed a user to subscribe and get healthy meals delivered daily. It allowed the user to choose the daily meals and the delivery time. And it also provided health tips and some workout exercises to keep living a healthy life. Here’s a concept that we tried testing out.

When I tested this concept as a wireframe with the first group of users, I asked each one this question “Suppose your daily meals will be delivered daily at 2 PM and you want to change this time to be at 3 PM, how can you do this?”

I was shocked by the result. 4 out of 5 users tapped on icon no.2, which was supposed to be for the health tips, while just one user tapped on icon no. 1, which was for the menu and settings. This meant that 80% of users expected to change delivery times using the middle button at the bottom. However, I didn’t rely on that result.

To make this clear enough, I created a simple test and iterated the same scenario after applying the UI and providing a finished prototype to another group of users. This time, 5 out of 5 users didn’t like the changing delivery time feature to be placed in position no. 2. The common reason was that they wouldn’t need to perform that daily, and instead, they might need the health tips to be placed at this position since they might need to use this feature more than once a day.

Wireframes come in two forms, digital and paper sketches. The main reason why wireframes were invented was that they were cheap and fast to create, but this doesn’t come free. There’s a hidden cost to that.

1. Cost of Educating

Although wireframes are fast to create and they seem to be a time-saver, they take up too much time in educating, especially in user testing. The time you save in producing them, you pay the double in educating users about them.

2. Misunderstood

What’s the difference between these two elements? Are they both images? Are they both icons? Are they clickable? What should they represent? Too many questions to process in the user’s head may lead to either making wrong decisions or driving them away from the central value.

3. Miss the Whole Experience

Making the user assume that a specific element may serve a particular purpose will not lead to correct research results. When you test with many users, the findings will not be accurate because each one will interpret the shapes in their own way, which will lead you to correct their understanding and guide them back to the right path, which is wrong in research and testing. You should not lead the user.

Feeling and living the whole experience is way better. Making the user live within a semi-real product, feel the interactions, sense the animations, and deal with colors and typography will lead to better and more accurate results.

So, Are Wireframes Useless?

Wireframes are plain, too neutral to be usable by actual users, but this doesn’t mean they are useless. Here is how and when to use wireframes:

1. Guiding You in Your Process.

Design wireframes for yourself to make it easy for you to structure the product you are designing. By creating wireframes, you pour all the imaginations in your head on a canvas or paper faster, organize your thoughts, clearly see where you are heading, and most importantly, iterate more quickly. Know where to place the right elements in the right place, either here or there.

2. Brainstorming and Generating Ideas With Your Peers.

Product owners, UI designers, UX designers, product managers, and developers—all of them can understand wireframes well; they may even add to it, generate ideas, and make a clear direction for the best structure.

3. Flow Design

Because wireframes are plain, you can use them as flow demonstrations with techies and developers. In this way, it will work better than the traditional user flow’s symbols and shapes.

4. Business Owners (Carefully)

Business owners are like users: they can easily misunderstand the wireframe and are time-consuming to educate. But the difference here is that the business owner is just one person, the time cost won’t be as much as educating many users, and in the end, they’re the business owner—you have to keep them involved and in the loop throughout the design process.

Conclusion

Actual users are ordinary human beings. They are not as deep into the technology or the product as you. You must do your best to talk to them in their language, not yours, so it’s better to do your research and usability testing using realistic prototypes instead of wireframes.

Lastly, creating and using wireframes is beneficial if created for people like you within your production environment.

The post Wireframes Are Bad… Don’t Use Them appeared first on UX Mastery.

However, handoffs are full of potential pitfalls that even the most experienced teams are prone to. In today’s article, we’ll take a closer look at the most important things to take care of when handing your design off. 

Let’s dive right in, shall we?

What Is a Design Handoff?

The design handoff is a point in the product development process where developers implement the finished design. In order for a handoff to be successful, a good designer-developer collaboration is vital.

But more often than not, this phase doesn’t go as smoothly as it should. Part of the problem is the designer’s perception of the process—many of us tend to think that this is where we reach the finish line, rest on our laurels, and let the developers “do their thing.”This perspective is conducive to a siloed and inefficient collaboration between the two tribes. So, let’s take a look at the things we should do to ensure a more productive designer-developer interaction.

Use a Library

Establishing a sense of continuity in your designs is imperative for a successful handoff. Fragmented design hand-off files and components here in there are a recipe for major headaches and confusion. 

As opposed to sharing individual assets directly with the developers or attaching files to the user stories/tickets/Jira or similar products, have them in a shared library or folder and use the links inside tickets. This will make finding assets significantly easier for developers.

An asset library, which is a part of the design system, should be the single source of reference. In Figma, for example, you can copy a link to a specific asset within the library. This is the link you should share in tickets. Not to mention there’s a plethora of plugins or native integrations among Figma, Sketch, and Adobe Products with project management tools like Jira.

Involve Developers Early

A common issue among teams is the assumption that designers should just drop their designs off to developers and let them figure the rest of it out. A better way of approaching this would be to involve developers as early as possible to provide them with insight into the various behaviors and states you’re working on. Otherwise, you might design something that’s not feasible to code, which is synonymous with wasting time.

Here are a few recommendations to ensure a smoother and more seamless handoff:

• If possible, include developers in calls with clients and stakeholders if they’ll be able to gather some essential insight about the product; 
• Communicate with developers to learn how design elements would end up being transferred to the end-product;
• Consult with developers during early prototyping to avoid any potential code-related issues later on; 

However, sometimes, if developers have a pre-established framework, it’s best to give them the freedom they need and take a look at the implemented version first, rather than insisting on your particular design decisions that may be complicated to implement.

It should also be noted that involving developers too much can also be an issue. In my experience, you can easily overwhelm developers at the ideation stage, since there are a lot of different concepts and changes, all of which might have their own technical caveats. 

That said, you should seek to strike a balance between keeping developers engaged and overwhelming them with concepts. 

Static vs. Dynamic Handoffs

There’s a case for both static and dynamic handoffs. The former implies that you’ll present your design ideas via basic illustrations. On the other hand, the latter comes with more specific requirements for interactions and overall user experience. 

Making the right decision in this regard is relatively simple—make sure to have an open and transparent interaction with the developer team.

Static handoffs are useful when the developers aren’t versed in Figma, Zeplin, or similar products. As a result, they might not intuit what information or specs they need to grab. What static handoffs provide is the ability to explicitly highlight essential information such as margins, paddings, font sizes, etc.

That said, static handoffs sometimes create more problems than they solve. The primary issue is the fact that this type of handoff requires a lot more time, since you have to do manually what Figma, for example, does for you automatically, which is marking distances among elements. Another challenge that is otherwise avoidable is the hassle with marking versions and changes, introducing layers of taxonomy, etc. As such, before committing to a static handoff, make sure the pros outweigh the cons.

When using dynamic handoffs, date the iterations and don’t change already shared designs, at least not without explicit communication with developers and a project manager or product owner. It’s very tempting to just update the same shared design and file, but that leads to confusion, especially when those links and files are in a user story. You, as a designer, can’t be certain that developers know what’s been changed and where. For all you know, they might be midway into the implementation.

SVG Is King

SVG is a vital format for defining vector-based graphics. It’s very handy when looking to increase development speed when working on projects that deal with a fair share of animation and design. Furthermore, SVG graphics use up less space, which is very useful in the long run. 

Here are a few essential benefits that should motivate you to choose SVG over any other format:

• When it comes to handoffs, size matters. Since SVG is pretty much XML code, files in this format are extremely lightweight. There was even a report suggesting that you can save up to 80% of bandwidth by switching from PNG to SVG. As a result, your products will load faster, which is conducive to a satisfying experience;
• SVG files can scale with no distortion. Respectively, these files can be used for anything from watches to giant outdoor banners without compromising quality during the resolution scaling;
• Given that these files have the styling information incorporated, this allows developers to create pixel-perfect prototypes without needing a stylesheet;
• Lastly, because an SVG is basically code, they’re fairly easy to edit or animate for developers, which eliminates the need for a designer to create multiple versions or states of the same element.

Avoid Doing the Work Twice

Creating a sense of continuity and consistency in your design library will benefit both you and the developer team substantially. Products like Storybooks, Figma, and Sketch are valuable tools that allow achieving this. What these products do is enable us to break the barriers between designers and developers by linking code to design elements.

Storybook, for instance, allows developers to access all the components in an organized manner. As a result, they’ll be able to use, share, and test all the elements in your design. Taking the time to merge your design with code via storybooks will save both you and the developers a lot of time.

The same goes for Figma, Sketch, and Adobe XD. All of these tools allow creating a design system, which, in practical terms, is either a separate page or a separate file with symbols (in Sketch) or components (in Figma). What components and symbols do is allow you to make global changes in all instances of a certain element. Say, you want to make all calls to actions green instead of blue—it’s as simple as a few clicks.

Conclusion

Great products rely on a great handoff. While this may often seem like a very technical process that enters waters that we don’t necessarily understand (front-end development), it’s essential that we take the time to learn how to do it. Furthermore, some of the facets of this process have nothing to do with code. They revolve around communication and productive collaboration.

The post How to Make Developers Love You as a Designer appeared first on UX Mastery.

Creating a smooth and frictionless experience that requires little effort to get things done is the key to success for apps and online platforms. In shaping this UX design, even small and often overlooked design attributes matter a lot. The little animation that shows when something is loading or the small icons to express your reactions to content or similar interactive elements can be small. Still, together, they make a massive impact on the user experience (UX) design.

When you develop your website from scratch, you need to focus on every tiny detail to ensure ease of use and smooth user interactions. Microinteractions are one of the small but highly impactful design decisions. 

Let us see how micro-interactions work and how they can optimise the UX design. 

What Are Microinteractions?

Small design elements that improve user experience with natural interactions are called microinteractions. The “likes” and reaction symbols we tap on to express our emotion for content is the perfect example of a microinteraction. The little fingerprint button that appears on the screen to put your thumb on is another example. 

These small interactive design elements help connect the user interface with the user experience of a website or app. They can be found everywhere, constantly delivering meaningful gestures and interactive ways to help users engage with a digital platform. 

Why Is Optimising Microinteractions So Important?

When an increasing number of business brands are trying to establish strong connections with their customers, these small design elements in an interactive manner can positively improve their experience and help them feel at ease. 

They are so subtle and non-descript in appearance that users are often not able to recall them particularly. But they work like small bridges to make transitions from one screen to the other smooth and seamless. Today’s digital space is unthinkable without these microinteractions. 

No wonder every app or website now focuses on effective ways to improve and enhance microinteractions for delivering a superior user experience. Yes, the dull buttons and screen animation referring to specific actions can be enhanced to make users feel more at ease, most often without their knowledge.

Some of the key benefits of improving microinteractions are:

• Helping users engage with a product in a more intuitive and frictionless manner.
• Providing users instant feedback corresponding to all the actions undertaken by them.
• Improving user engagement through delight.
• Providing users more sense of control and autonomy. 
• Offering a detailed visualisation of background operations to help them take corrective actions. 

How Is Microinteraction Constructed? What Are the Key Parts? 

Microinteractions consist of four different parts as Triggers, Rules, Feedback and Loops and Modes.

• Triggers are the particular contexts for initiating a microinteraction. Now they can be initiated by the users or the systems. By detecting certain contextual clues, users can initiate an action, or the system can decide to initiate an action based on a set of qualifications. 
• The Rules determine the things that take place following the triggering of microinteraction.
• Feedback is the part to allow people to get an idea of what’s happening in the background of a microinteraction. All the on-screen visuals or sounds that make users know about the undergoing microinteraction is called feedback.
• Loops and Modes are the conditional rules that determine how microinteractions will work in a changed condition. 

Most Time-Tested Principles to Make Use of Microinteractions

Over the years, microinteractions are have been utilised by digital apps for helping users experience a smooth transition from one activity to the other. These small design elements over time evolved and accommodated more effective ways to engage users. Some principles of microinteraction design stood out as most effective. Let’s have a look at them. 

Prioritising User Satisfaction 

The principal aim of any design is to put users at ease and make them easily engaged. The same principle should be followed for microinteraction design as well. It is not just the smart look and feel that matters, the more important is how the microinteraction ensures enhanced ease of use. This is why it is essential to put every microinteraction under A/B testing. 

Design It Simple

Microinteractions are subtle, and they don’t attract user attention. They remain inconspicuous while subtly enhancing the ease of use for the audience. This is why you should design them simple and do away with all complications.

Let It Not Distract Attention From the Content

Just as good typefaces enhance our readability while not grabbing any particular attention to the font type and size, microinteractions in UX design help users with optimum ease of use while not driving any attention to these interactive design elements. Any microinteraction that distracts user attention from the content undermines this principle.

Give Utmost Priority to Relevance

Any microinteraction which is not fully functional is not necessary. Just ask yourself how much relevant the microinteraction is for optimising the ease of use. Don’t incorporate microinteractions just for the sake of design. Microinteractions are functional design elements and not ornamental ones. 

Balance Familiarity and Innovation

Since most users are familiar with different microinteractions, you can easily achieve the desired results by incorporating them into your app. But there is still room for innovative ways to tweak such interactions and make users feel delighted with them.

The way Twitter uses microinteractions is an excellent example of innovative tweaks in microinteractions. But in all circumstances, you need to keep your focus fixed on optimising the ease of use more than anything else.

Testing Small Animations

Despite appearing small, subtle and insignificant, microinteractions have a far-reaching impact on any digital interface. If you incorporate a new microinteraction in your web interface, it can instantly impact the user experience. Sometimes, new microinteractions can only add to the confusion of your audience.

As with every design decision, test these small design elements. Test the small animations and make sure they give users the right feel as you have intended. Create a prototype of the microinteraction and test them thoroughly to ensure effective output. Remember, the users will not comment on these small animations; they only enhance the overall ease of use.

Microinteractions Should Be Devoid of Cognitive Load

Microinteractions focus on a single and particular action or a specific task, and they use just one animated character to create the visual feedback. So, additional graphic elements and more animated characters will only cause unnecessary cognitive load and distractions, negatively affecting the effectiveness of the microinteraction.

To get clear of the cognitive load, follow the UI design principle consistently across microinteractions as well. Do not allow the microinteraction to stand apart from the overall design aesthetics and flow. To help users actively with something beneficial and relevant, you can incorporate small animated tooltips providing visual clues on completing specific tasks.

Conclusion 

Employ microinteractions judiciously to enhance the user’s experience. Microinteractions can evolve further to incorporate new design elements, but they cannot do away with the grounding principle of prioritising ease of use.

Image Credits

Hero image created with the help of the fine folks contributing at the Noun Project under the Creative Commons License: BomSymbols, Valeriy and Knockout Prezo.

The post Key Principles for Creating Microinteractions for High-fidelity UX design appeared first on UX Mastery.

It is part of our series of community member reviews critiquing UX books. Read some of our other reviews or see the full list of recommended books.

The Book 

Title: Figure it Out: Getting from Information to Understanding
Authors: Stephen P. Anderson & Karl Fast
Publisher: Two Waves Books (An imprint of Rosenfeld Media)
Price at time of review: Paperback + Ebook bundle USD$32.00; Ebook only USD$13.00 (prices from Rosenfeld Media website)

Book Summary

In this book, Anderson & Fast remind us that information is only understandable in relation to people and their needs. They follow that we must strive to make information understandable, perhaps involving testing “with the intended audience”, evaluating the understandability, and iterating “until it reaches an acceptable level of understanding” (p.13). In the introduction they explicitly pose the question; how might we help others make sense of confusing information?

Based on this, I was expecting a ‘how to’ book to help us present information in a way that aids understanding — to help designers do the heavy lifting of sense-making, and to provide users with understanding and not just information. 

This would have been useful given the wide range of industries that need to make information understandable in our modern world — from creators of content to anyone writing a complex privacy policy or ToS agreement. Communicating complex information that needs to be understood by the masses is always important, but especially now amongst the current COVID-19 pandemic. The authors themselves remind us that we, as consumers of information, should expect more — especially when it is coming from experts and professionals. State health and public safety information should be unambiguous. 

Instead, Anderson & Fast’s ‘Figure it Out’ is a book about the ways in which we think and how humans understand information. This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, or that it isn’t a useful book. It is a theory-heavy look at perception that is perhaps suited to more junior (or trained on the job) UX and UI designers who want to learn how users understand and perceive. I make this distinction because any designer coming from a psychology- or Human-Computer Interaction– (HCI) focused background will likely already have a grasp of these concepts. Still, it is a helpful refresher to inspire new ideas in even seasoned designers. 

Structure

The book is broken in 6 parts with a total of 15 Chapters; 

Part 1 focuses on where cognition happens. Parts 2 through 4 focus on how we understand – through associations, external representations and interactions. Then, part 5 describes systems of understanding in small and large groups, and part 6 looks at current, and possible future, tools that help us understand information. 

Key Takeaways 

From this book, you’ll learn about the ways we humans think and how we understand. 

There are several different ways that we ‘make knowledge’, and these are often intertwined. Information is a resource, not a finished product, and needs to be transformed to aid understanding. I’ve summarised the book in 5 key takeaways and represented them in a sketch note. 

1. Information does not equal understanding

For complex situations where there aren’t simple answers, Anderson & Fast remind us that understanding requires more than just access to information. We are only doing half of our job when we put the onus back on the user to make sense of information.

We are only doing half of our job when we put the onus back on the user to make sense of information.  

2. Knowledge is influenced by prior associations

Prior associations impact how individuals interpret information, and these interpretations differ between people. Anderson & Fast explain that we ‘know’ things based on associations activated in our minds; we make sense of new information by linking it to a familiar concept. 

Prior associations also come from narratives; we learn through stories (including fictional ones) and transfer meaning from them when we come across new information. In Chapter 3, the authors take a “short dystopian journey” (p.50) to a future where we have “permanent, updatable implants” in our brains that allow corporations and governments to “peer into our minds and access our most intimate thoughts”. The use of implants is the focus of my own PhD dissertation, and a large part of the misperceptions and fear that surround the topic are based on fictional claims such as these. Given the book emphasises how we use stories to make associations and learn, I think it is pertinent to remind a reader that this is a speculative future.

We also understand by identifying patterns; our minds are good at seeing patterns which are influenced by prior associations. What we see is based on what we already know. Meaning comes from associations whether they are intended or not. 

The lesson that designers can take away from Anderson & Fast’s explanation of how associations influence thinking is that we need to carefully choose frames, words and visuals to ensure we are not invoking the wrong association that could result in misperception. 

We need to carefully choose frames, words and visuals to ensure we are not invoking the wrong association that could result in misperception. 

3. Knowledge influences external representations

We create external representations as a way to extend our thinking into the world using tools, models, drawings and more. This is an integral part of sense-making, not just a means of presenting information. 

The authors explain how representations help create meaning by extending our thinking into the external environment. Visual representations make abstract ideas concrete by holding information. The way that information is arranged in space aids memory and recall, influences understanding, and conveys meaning. The arrangement (grouping, sequencing, ordering etc.) exposes abstract relationships between information. Presenting the same exact information in different ways (called isomorphic representation) can provide different perspectives in understanding and interpreting information. 

4. Understanding is not simply ‘brain bound’

Thinking is not just confined to the brain – it’s spread across the body and the world. We extend our minds, and memory, by offsetting information into the external world. Our ability to understand is limited when we have to do all of the work in our heads. 

Anderson & Fast explain that by representing information outside of our minds we can manipulate the information – allowing for new meaning to be created. Doing the thinking in the world rather than in our heads can be faster and more accurate. Furthermore, bringing thinking into the physical (or digital) world can be easier than imagining inside our heads. Another reason this is easier is because not everyone has the ability to do mental visualisation. 

Doing the thinking ‘in the world‘ rather than ‘in our heads’ can be faster and more accurate.

5. Information is a resource to be interacted with

Anderson & Fast describe interaction as a part of the thinking process, not just a way to view information. It’s necessary to create understanding because interaction helps us see things in a new light. We make meaning by doing. When we manipulate information (physically or digitally) we make new connections which change our perception, therefore allowing us to see new meaning. It’s like how arranging scrabble tiles helps us see more potential combinations than with thinking alone.

Information itself is like pieces of a puzzle. It needs to be transformed, (the pieces put together) so we can understand what it means. We synthesise and transform information so that we can understand it. This book will teach you a myriad of ways that we think; by sorting, chunking, annotating and a myriad of other ways you will learn in this book. Specifically, Anderson & Fast teach readers 15 interactions used to understand information (grouped into 4 themes: foraging, turning, externalising and construction). 

For designers, this means we should arrange information as an external representation in order to support perception and create understanding. We should also consider how we can allow users to perform these manipulations themselves to create understanding. 

The Review

The good 

• This book is educational. If you have your expectations set correctly up front (that it is not a ‘how-to’ guide) this book can give you new perspectives to bring to your work.
  
• It covers a breadth of topics. The book goes wide with the theory, covering many aspects with one book – from cognition to Gestalt principles. 

• There’s still a lot of ‘figuring out’ to do yourself, but the examples throughout the book will likely spur your own thinking in how you can apply these concepts to your own work.

The ‘it depends’ 

• It’s theory informed. This can be both good and bad depending on your personal preference. Personally, I’m a big geek so I liked this. It may help you understand the why behind some things you are already doing as a designer and help you explain the theory to the business to get buy in.
  
• It’s cognitive science heavy. Similarly, this could be good or bad depending on your personal preferences (for me, it’s good). The authors spend a considerable amount of time explaining theories of mind, but then tell us that how the mind really works doesn’t matter for our purpose – and then go back to exploring cognition and where thinking happens. Confusing? 

The bad 

• Some of the theory feels repetitive. If you have read Daniel Kahneman’s ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ any time in recent memory, many of the examples around perception and biases will be familiar and feel repetitive to you.
  
• The authors are good at pointing out that some examples are for Western cultures, but for other examples accessibility and diversity appears to be an afterthought. Vision is mentioned as powerful and important with little attention paid to blind or low vision individuals (although colour blindness, sign language and braille are mentioned briefly). The book also assumes that everyone can visualise in their mind, forgetting people with aphantasia. I raise this to remind you of other aspects we need to keep in mind when thinking about how people understand.
  
• Better proof-reading and copy editing was required. I make this comment based on three factors:
  • First, issues with referencing, there are direct quotes without proper attribution (e.g. p.71). I’m not accusing the authors of plagiarism, but this is an annoyance for the reader. Another is that the referencing style changes throughout. This seems like a glaring oversight for a theory-heavy book about understanding.
  • Secondly, some examples took me out of the narrative as I spent time trying to find answers that were either not included or involved flipping pages searching for answers. If you’re anything like me, and can’t leave things unsolved, this will lead you down a rabbit hole. Information that is difficult to navigate is ironic in a book about understanding!
  • Finally, not all acronyms or models are explained in detail. 

The TL;DR 

‘Figure it Out: Getting from Information to Understanding’ leaves a lot for the reader to figure out themselves. But if you enjoy a theory-heavy volume (I know I do) there is a lot to learn from Anderson & Fast’s book.

Overall, I found it useful and it sparked some ideas for my own work. I took notes for my thesis dissertation, scribbled some diagrams for work, and discussed the concepts with a colleague. However, it is worth noting that the onus is on the reader to figure out exactly how to apply the theories and knowledge learnt, in order to then create understanding for our users. 

The post Review: ‘Figure it Out: Getting from Information to Understanding’ appeared first on UX Mastery.

Role playing is a great way for teams to visualise a solution they have designed.

In a role play, team members act out a situation. For example, one team member may act as the user of a website, one as the website itself, one as an external system the website has to communicate with and one as the delivery process. The team works through a whole scenario end-to-end.

It can be surprising just what comes out of a role play. Things that looked straightforward on paper sometimes aren’t as easy when played out. And the act of working in physical space and talking a process through shows up issues that may not have been easy to see on paper. Role plays are also particularly good for exploring the linkages between systems or processes.

Role plays can be done anywhere in a design process. They can be very powerful when a team is discussing an initial idea, but may not all have the same thing in mind. They can also be useful when a design is detailed, to visualise how it will really work.

How to

Prepare

The amount of preparation is entirely dependent on the individual design situation. A role play early in a process may not need any preparation. A role play on a detailed design may need detailed screenshots, props and even costumes.

Run

At the beginning of the role play, describe the background and any other detail that is needed to understand the context. Assign roles to the team and ensure everyone understands their role.

If needed, outline the scenario you’ll be role playing.

Role play the scenario. Make it as realistic as possible – with real data, real questions and real actions. Don’t skip over anything or rush through a part – you may miss something important.

Remember to act up – playing it up a bit will make it more fun and help highlight the high and low points. Don’t break out of role to discuss anything that comes up – continue to play right to the end of the scenario (stopping breaks the flow).

If needed, swap roles and/or run through another scenario.

Analyse

At the end of the game, discuss things that worked well, went badly or surprised you.

Game at a glance

• Group structure: Small teams
• Duration: Up to 1 hr
• Outcome: Visualise a design solution
• Preparation needed?: Maybe
• Who to involve: Design team

The post Design Games — <em>Role Plays</em> appeared first on UX Mastery.

And with good reason. Bootcamps are a big commitment of both time and money. With so many options – online, in person, part-time, full-time… it’s a big decision to find the course that suits your circumstances.

We turned to our community for a little course advice. Four generous folks share their experiences with UX design bootcamps from General Assembly, Trydesignlab, Interaction Design Foundation and CareerFoundry.

User Experience Design Immersive by General Assembly

Bootcamp essentials

• Course location: Washington, D.C. (available in multiple locations)
• Length: 16 weeks
• Intended audience: Anyone looking to get into the UX field
• What you’ll learn: All things UX – from interaction design to user research and more
• Assumed knowledge: No prior experience necessary
• Price at time of review: USD $12,000
• Find out more: generalassemb.ly/education/user-experience-design-immersive

Aygyun’s Review

The course delivers what it promises – in just three months you learn everything you need to become a junior level UX designer.

I liked the course’s approach, which reinforced design thinking throughout. This helps to create holistic view of the UX discipline, rather than limiting it to tools and tasks. Our team of three instructors were seasoned UX professionals who were clearly passionate about the field. There were plenty of field trips to see start-ups and corporate design studios – not only it was great for networking but also added more excitement into the daily studying routine.

As it’s an immersive program we’d spend 9am – 5pm in the classroom, then complete homework on top of that. I completed 5 projects – 3 individual and 2 team ones, where the capstone project was real client work.

Completing the first project in the very first week of studies was amazing! With some basic research, paper wireframes and Marvel I had created a travel health advice app; it was very gratifying to see the prototype. The client project we did at the end was an eye-opening experience: balancing one’s newly gained UX knowledge with the client’s expectations is something to be mastered.

These projects formed my portfolio, which I’ve continued to build on after the program. The General Assembly program also helps you prepare to find a job through a portfolio review, resume review, guidance on personal branding and so on.

The pros

• Gaining broad UX knowledge – tools, methodologies and best practices within the discipline
• Networking opportunities – field trips, happy hours, meet and hire as well as portfolio reviews
• Portfolio material – 5 complete projects under your belt
• Emphasis on presentation and public speaking – by the time you finish the program you will be able to sell your UX approach in less than 5 minutes

The cons

• Although the course description says no assumed knowledge, I’d recommend familiarising yourself with some tools and methodologies before you start
• The outcomes team can be rigid at times – you need to report weekly on your job search status and keep attending their weekly after program sessions until you land a job
• “Get comfortable being uncomfortable” was one of the course mottos – this was especially true for the retrospective sessions where critique could get personal

In summary

• Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 9/10
• Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10
• Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 8/10
• User interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 9/10

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Reviewed by Aygyun Gyul

A budding UX Designer, happily crafting user-centered experiences @Publicis.Sapient. A native of Uzbekistan and a former international expat, currently based in the Washington, D. C. area. My frustration with not-so-friendly websites from all over the world played an important role in my selecting UX as a career.

Professional Membership at Interaction Design Foundation

Bootcamp essentials

• Location: Online
• Length: Each course is around 1 – 2 Months
• Intended audience: Anyone looking to break into UX Design / HCI as well as entry level people in the field
• What you’ll learn: There are multiple courses on multiple topics. Usability, Interaction Design, Information Visualization, Psychology for UX, getting your first UX job, and Web Communications are some of the most popular
• Assumed knowledge: The assumed knowledge is zero. These courses are made for complete beginners to people in the field
• Price at time of review: $13/Mo for the Professional Membership $150/Mo for the Design League membership which has a mentor, all billed yearly (there are coupon codes floating around to get 20% off which is what I did)
• Find out more: www.interaction-design.org 

Michael’s Review

Interaction Design Foundation is great for anyone getting started in UX and looking for a do-it-yourself online course package with an interactive community and plethora of literature.

Most of the courses are very heavy on HCI and interaction design which are not as commonly found in other UX Design programs, showing a lot of brawn in the theory department while learning UX with them. Generally, each course runs one to two months long and each learning section opens every day or two.

You are accompanied by other people taking the courses in multiple community involvement essay type questions. For support, there’s an open community forum, as well as local IDF chapters across the world. Since it’s course-based learning closer to college courses, there are no project based courses to build your portfolio yet, however, there are nearly 30+ courses. Unfortunately getting a mentor is costly as the Design League Membership is $150 per month billed annually. There is no specific job support, however there are multiple that cover jobs and changing careers.

The pros

• Access to 30+ different courses as well as a UX and HCI library with reading material
• Authentic course certifications upon completing each course that can be used on Linkedin
• Good community and networking interaction via forums and course centred open discussions

The cons

• No direct job support or placement once finished with all the courses
• Material is heavy on HCI and not entirely focused on UX/UI or changing careers 
• Less hands-on projects and more focused on reading than anything (almost feels like college)

In summary

• Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 7/10
• Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10
• Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 9/10
• User interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 9/10

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Reviewed by Michael Gentile

Michael is a UX Evangelist and Designer by night and retail banker by day. With a love for technology and design, Michael just started learning UX a few months ago but is hoping to career change into the field this year. His favourite things to do when not studying are playing video games, outdoor activities, and travelling.

UX Academy by Trydesignlab

Bootcamp essentials

• Course location: Online
• Length: 12 weeks (40 hours/week)
• Intended audience: Anyone
• What you’ll learn: Theories of UX Design, Students finish 2 capstone projects
• Assumed knowledge: Basics of Sketch, Illustrator or other wireframing program
• Price at time of review: $2799 (US Dollars)
• Find out more: trydesignlab.com/ux-academy

Christine’s Review

The UX Academy full-time track really does require 40 hours/week. The overall focus is on “design thinking” and learning the different tools and techniques designers use in the UX process. Phase 1 is broken up into modules consisting of a lesson, readings and usually a video.  I found about half the videos and readings pretty boring, but I understand that UX Academy is working on that.  

At the end of each lesson, students complete and post assignments for mentors to leave feedback, the assignments were excellent and really encouraged the use of newly acquired skills.  Each week, students have two 60 minute Hangout sessions with the mentor. In addition, students are required to attend 6 online Group Critique Hangouts to practice presentation skills.

In Phase 2, students complete 2 capstone projects, going through the entire UX design process for each project. Capstones are the basis for the portfolio creation section, as UX Academy guides students into creating a resume and portfolio. There are a limited number of capstone project choices, and the other issue with the capstones, in my opinion, is they look like “fake” projects when portfolios are reviewed by hiring managers because they are not “live” websites or apps. Students do have the option of creating their own project, but it requires a significant increase in work.

My mentor was excellent at the beginning of the course, he responded within 10-12 hours with detailed feedback. However, in Phase 2, he ran into some personal issues and wasn’t as available. The mentoring system can be a great asset depending on your mentor, but you need to be proactive. Designlab will give you another mentor if you ask.

UX Academy graduates have the post-course support of a career coach for a 60-minute session/week. It’s helpful, but you still have to find a job yourself.

I would recommend UX Academy, although I found the full-time track overwhelming. The part-time course might be a better fit for some.

The pros

• UX Academy is very responsive to student requests and questions
• Well-rounded education in theories and tools
• Mentor feedback can be valuable
• UX Academy is flexible if students want to change track to part-time, or take some time out and come back into the program later

The cons

• Not all mentors are responsive, I notice some do not leave detailed feedback on assignments
• There is no job guarantee
• My job search experience suggests that a background in graphic design or tech is usually a good jumping off point
• Most UX design jobs require at least 2 years’ experience

In summary

• Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 8/10
• Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10
• Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 7/10
• User interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 8/10

Overall rating: 8/10

Reviewed by Christine Offutt

Chris is a writer, artist and broadcast video professional living in Los Angeles.  She recently completed a UX Design program and is in the process of searching for a new career challenge. In her spare time, Chris enjoys walking her little Pekingese dog (Silly Billy), yoga and travelling.

UX Designer by CareerFoundry

Bootcamp essentials

• Course location: online
• Length: 3-6 months
• Intended audience: Aspiring UX Designers
• What you’ll learn: User research, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, visual design, and usability testing
• Assumed knowledge: None
• Price at time of review: $2999

Seyon’s review

This is an intensive course great for those who are currently working in another job and want to transition to UX design. It takes commitment, but you’re supported and mentored by a dedicated team of professionals.

This course is self-paced and takes anywhere from three, six or more months to complete. Expect to put in 20+ hours per week part-time or 40+ hours full-time. I began in March 2016 and barely finished by September. You’re assigned a one-on-one mentor when you start the course and can communicate with them over Skype, though I mostly relied on written feedback for corrections or improvements on my work.

You’re guided through one big project from end-to-end: design a task management app from scratch. You upload your work samples to Behance as you progress through the course, but plan to spend some time building your own portfolio website after the course ends. You’ll need it when applying for jobs.

After completing the course, a small team of job placements specialists continue to work with you to find a “job you love.” They’re friendly and committed, but it takes legwork of your own to build your network and seek out the right opportunities.

The pros

• Self-paced
• Mentored
• Affordable

The cons

• Time intensive
• Single project
• Limited networking opportunities

In summary

• Content (how useful, up to date, practical, and comprehensive): 8/10
• Delivery (presentation style, pace, clarity, authority): 8/10
• Production (video quality, audio quality, editing): 8/10
• User interface (reliable infrastructure, usable interface, convenient): 8/10

Overall rating: 8/10

Reviewed by Seyon Wind

Seyon Wind is an artist, designer, and former middle school teacher passionate about helping others learn and grow. A lifelong learner himself, Seyon uses both technical and creative skills to create high-quality content and engaging experiences, on and off the screen. He also loves hiking, photography, comics, and video games. His favourite Avenger is Iron Man.

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