Embracing the fragility of the web empowers us to build UIs capable of adapting to the functionality they can offer, whilst still providing value to users. The User Experience (UX) doesn’t need to be all or nothing — just what is usable. This premise, known as graceful degradation allows a system to continue working when parts of it are dysfunctional — much like an electric bike becomes a regular bike when its battery dies. This article explores how graceful degradation, defensive coding, observability, and a healthy attitude towards failures better equips us before, during, and after an error occurs.
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Too often the filtering experience on the web is broken and frustrating, making it just unnecessarily difficult for customers to get to that shiny comfortable range of relevant results. When designing the next filter, take a look at some of the common issues that you might want to avoid, and hopefully avoid all the frustration that comes from broken and inaccessible implementations.
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In the dynamic and unpredictable environments in which we work, even the most carefully crafted solutions can have a short shelf life. When we accept that our work is impermanent and our problem-solving abilities are limited, our goal can shift from delivering full solutions to developing tools that empower our users to adaptively design for themselves.
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With such a complex multi-level navigation, showing the breadth of options requires quite a bit of space. Think of large eCommerce retailers and large corporate sites, catering to many audiences and having plenty of entry points. Do we need mega-dropdown hover menus in 2021? Probably not. Let’s explore things to keep in mind when designing and building a mega-dropdown, alternatives to hover menus and fine details for designing a better UX.
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They are everywhere. Confusing and frustrating design patterns that seem to be chasing you everywhere you go, from one website to another. Perhaps it’s a disabled submit button that never communicates what’s actually wrong, or tooltips that — once opened — cover the input field just when you need to correct a mistake. In this new series of articles on UX, we take a closer look at some frustrating design patterns and explore better alternatives, along with plenty of examples to keep in mind when building or designing one. Don’t miss the next ones: subscribe to our newsletter to get updates.
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UX practitioners can play an important role in growing the UX maturity of the organizations and product teams they work with. This final article in a three-part series presents two additional tactics that are critical for achieving and maintaining higher levels of UX maturity: education of UX staff and education of non-UX staff on UX principles and processes.
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Quick, constant change is a given on the web. It is often one of its greatest strengths. As ever, though, there is a balance to find. Although longevity takes a different form online, its value is immeasurable.
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UX practitioners can play an important role in growing the UX maturity of the organizations and products they work with. This article, the second in a three-part series, presents two additional tactics that can be helpful for those working in organizations that have started engaging in UX, but are still at the lower to middle stages of maturity: knowledge sharing and mentorship. You can use these tactics stand alone, together, or in tandem with the ones covered previously.
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How do we know which patterns are good, better, best when it comes to accessibility? Is it better to use an established pattern/library or create new ones? With the myriad of choices available, we can quickly become caught up in a web of confusion on this topic. In this article, Carie Fisher will attempt to untangle the complex world of accessible patterns — one step at a time. She will kick things off by reviewing current accessible patterns and libraries, then you will consider your general pattern needs and potential restrictions, and lastly, she will walk you through a series of critical thinking exercises to learn how to better evaluate patterns for accessibility.
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We all benefit when we work to increase the overall UX maturity of our organizations. If we wish to meaningfully improve our UX practice, it is critical we look for opportunities to help grow the maturity of UX across our organization. We face a larger challenge when it comes to growing UX in a way that has impact across an organization than we do with growing our own UX skills. In this article, Victor Yocco explores the concept of UX maturity, and focuses on finding and utilizing UX champions, and demonstrating the return on investment or value of UX.
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