A peek into the brain of Scott Jenson, Google’s UX strategist.

1. Sweat the small stuff.
2. Build ugly prototypes, fast.
   He calls it Assertive Instinct — the state where you are so hyped about your idea you can’t even imagine a world where it could be wrong or insufficient or simply incompatible with what people actually need.
3. Look for ideas in weird places.
4. Don’t criticize. If you do, ask one thing, politely.

1. Make your elements appear more defined
   Use Multiple Drop Shadows, or a very subtle border (just a shade darker than your actual shadow) around certain elements to make those elements appear a little sharper, more defined, and help avoid those muddy shadows.

2. Creating long-form content? Give 20pt, and up a try
   #18pt is sooo last decade.#

3. Your shadows are coming from one light source right?

4. Improve Contrast between Text and Images with a subtle, but simple Overlay
   Depending on where the text may be positioned over your image, you can either opt for a tried, and tested full image overlay, or a more subtle (bottom to top, or top to bottom) gradient overlay to achieve a simple contrast between the two elements.

1. Lighten up your text if it looks a little on the heavy side

2. The smaller the font size, the more generous the line height
   As your font size decreases, increase the line height for better, all-round legibility.

3. Choose a Base Colour, and then use Tints & Shades to add uniformity

4. Always make your ‘Call to Action’ the most prominent item on the screen

5. Add an extra visual aid to your Form Errors
   Adding an Error Message close to the action that the user has just taken can be a simple, but helpful, extra visual aid for when they’re filling out Forms of any kind.

6. Give Prominence to the most frequently used action in a Menu

If you have, dear reader, bookmark the crap out of this page. These are up-to-date (2019) guidelines and best practices for font sizes across all major platforms – iOS 12, Android/Material Design, and responsive web. Here’s a handy table of contents for ya:

• Use Action Verbs (not generic yes/no)
• Use Precise Diction (Remove vs. Delete)
• Use Task-Specific Language (Publish vs Submit)
• Use the Active Imperative Form (Read Details vs Click Here for Details)
• Use Sentence-Style Capitalization (Friendlier than Title Case)

Comment:
If you test people on an app the first time they use it, Title Case will slow you down, just as it probably did just now. However, it is much easier to see the shape of Title Case text in buttons than sentence case buttons.

“[…] never solve the problem I am asked to solve. […] Because, invariably, the problem I am asked to solve is not the real, fundamental, root problem.” — Don Norman in The Design of Everyday Things

When we finally shipped the feature, however, we realized that filters weren’t what users wanted at all. They wanted something much more basic: content that was relevant to their unique situation, with the minimal number of steps required to get it. Giving our users what they wanted taught us this lesson the hard way.

User Experience Design is the study of user behaviour and understanding of user motivations, to design a better digital experience.

What are user flows and why you need to use them. An illustrated guide on going from “WTF, am I looking at”, to a clear design of how your app works.
All together now!
Let’s say you’re a billionaire and want to use your massive marketing and PR team to come across as a bored polymath who funds his crazy ideas with novel products like roofing torches. WTF!? Say it with me: what’s the flows?

I want to clarify my priorities
by defining my goals and the path to reach them.

The DIY Toolkit has been especially designed for development practitioners to invent, adopt or adapt ideas that can deliver better results.

"User experience is the net sum of every interaction a person has with a company, be it marketing collateral, a customer service call, or the product or service itself. It is affected by the company’s vision and the beliefs it holds and its practices, as well as the service or product’s purpose and the value it holds in a person’s life."

"Every detail of a company and its product says something about it. User experience strategy and design ensures that these messages are put forth with intention and purpose. Design extends into each and every detail, and each and every detail can indeed be designed."

"The job of a designer, just like that of a writer, is to twist and stretch and shape a conceptualized piece of work over and over again until it becomes the masterpiece the world needs it to be."

"A user's experience belongs to the user. An experience cannot be designed. It can, however, be influenced. A designer’s job is to be the influencer."

Shadows And User Interface Discoverability Link
There’s a reason GUI designers incorporate shadows into their designs — they help create visual cues in the interface which tell human brains what user interface elements they’re looking at.

Here are the rules:

Light comes from the sky (see Part 1)
Black and white first (see Part 1)
Double your whitespace (see Part 1)
Learn the methods of overlaying text on images
Make text pop— and un-pop
Only use good fonts
Steal like an artist

The Art of Designing With Heart
How to make useful, friendly software for real people.
One of the things I love about making software is that it’s a deeply mental exercise, chock full of heady processes, abstractions, and interconnected pathways.

YOUR SOFTWARE EXISTS TO HELP PEOPLE!

Why would we limit the effectiveness of body text by minimizing its size to a browser-default that’s now over 20 years old, even on large displays?

1. They’re Smarter Than You Think
2. They Have Other Things To Do
3. They Have a “Doing Mode”
4. They “Satisfice”
5. They Don’t Use Your Software The Way You Intended
6. They Rely On Patterns
7. They See What’s There
8. They Lie
9. They Don’t Know What’s Possible
10. If You Improve Their Lives, They’ll Love You
11. They Blame Themselves for Mistakes When It’s Your Fault
12. Their User “Experience” Is Based On Far More Than Your Website

In user experience design we’re familiar with user research techniques like workshops and interviews. We synthesise our research into user stories and process flows. We communicate our thinking and solutions to our teams with artefacts like personas and wireframes. But somewhere in all of this lies the real people for whom we’re designing. In order to make our product better, we must understand what’s going on in their worlds and how our product can make their lives better. And that’s where storyboards come in.

Create beautiful apps with modular and customizable UI components.

There are two basic questions you need to ask yourself at the start of any UX project. Let’s break it down.

WHAT DOES THE USER WANT?

WHAT DOES THE CLIENT WANT?

DESIGN FOR THE USER
Have you come across designers who seem to design for other designers, but not for the end user? I know I have. I’ve also come across designers who design for the client instead of the end user. And, if we’re going to be completely honest here, I’ve also come across designers who design for their own ego exclusively. It fills me with cringe.

4-Second Rule
If you want users to stay on your app, don’t use spinners for processes that take longer than 4 seconds to load. A research study has found that most users’ tolerable wait time is 4 seconds. This means that their behavioral intentions begin to change after 4 seconds.