Is chatting actually good for bots? Early user reviews of chatbots suggest not. How “chatty” your chatbot should be will depend on your users’ mental models of chatbots and the goals and needs your chatbot fulfills for them. Problems occur when designers do not decide up front who their audience is, how the chatbot fits into their business or brand strategy, what domains the chatbot will and will not cover, and what a successful experience should look like. Gizmodo writer Darren Orf describes Facebook’s chatbot user experiences as “frustrating and useless” and compares using them to “trying to talk politics with a toddler.” His criticisms are not unfair.
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In order to improve your workflow, in this article Edric Lapniramai provides a checklist to refer throughout the UX designer’s wireframing process. Divided in three sections — decisions to consider before wireframing, detailing the design elements, and annotations —, this guideline can help you perfect your wireframes and be practical with your time.
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Front-end fatigue is very real. Technology is evolving so rapidly, that it can be overwhelming. The worst thing you can do is reach the edge and become fully burnt out because once you are, it’s very hard to regain that passion you had for what you do and why you started doing it in the first place. In this article, David Berner shares advice on how to avoid fatigue and stop your head from exploding. Once you’re fully burnt out, it’s very hard to regain that passion you had for what you do and why you started doing it in the first place.
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Adobe Experience Design CC (Beta), has introduced the Repeat Grid feature to address the tedious aspect of a designer’s workflow. In this article, Elaine Chao will dig deep to uncover the true power of this time-saving feature. She’ll create and adjust a Repeat Grid, add content to it, and wire it up in Adobe XD’s simple and powerful Prototype Mode. If you’d like to follow along, you can download and test Adobe XD for free.
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After being surprised to see how little the topic of optimistic UI design is addressed in the community, Denys Mishunov brings you this article, where you will find out what concepts it is based on, and he will look at some examples as well as review its psychological background. After that, Denys will review the concerns and main points regarding how to maintain control over this UX technique.
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Depending on your browser, you may not be able to see all emoji featured in this article (especially the Tifinagh characters). Also, different platforms vary in how they display emoji as well. That’s why, in this article, Rob Reed always provides textual alternatives. Don’t let it discourage you from reading though!
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Buttons are a vital element in creating a smooth user experience, so it’s worth paying attention to the best essential practices for them. In this article, Nick Babich will show you the essential items you need to know in order to create effective controls that improve user experience, such as making buttons look like buttons, making the most important button clearly identifiable, or labeling buttons with what they do for users.
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Navigation is generally the vehicle that takes users where they want to go. When you examine the most successful interaction navigation designs of recent years, the clear winners are those who execute fundamentals flawlessly. While thinking outside the box is usually a good idea, there are some rules that you just can’t break. In this post, Nick Babich will help you better understand the principles of good navigation for mobile apps, then show you how it’s done using two popular patterns. The easier your product is for them to use, the more likely they are to use it.
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It’s not enough to simply design something and meet a goal. Finding your principles will help you find the right place to work and to do your best work. Giving your products a soul will make them better, more engaging products. The next time you’re designing, ask yourself what would make someone find your product useful, and what would make them care about it more than another product? In this article, Joshua Mauldin would like to share how he found his principles and regained a sense of fulfillment.
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Iconography lies at the heart of UI design. It can make or break the usability of an interface. Every icon should serve a purpose. When done correctly, they communicate the core idea and intent of a product or action, and they bring a lot of nice benefits to user interfaces, such as saving screen real estate and enhancing aesthetic appeal. In this article Nick Babich will show you how to make that possible. If you want to take a go at creating your own icons, you can download and test Adobe’s Experience Design CC for free and get started right away!
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