Articles about User-centered design
Inclusive Design (Book Review)
Inclusive Design for a Digital World includes practical advice and strategies for designing inclusive and accessible products that take into consideration best practices used around the world. These strategies also ensure that people who have auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, visual disabilities, or situational challenges with access are fully able to use products we design. [Read More]
Driver Assistance Systems: UX from a Safety Perspective
Driver assistance systems aim to enhance the convenience and safety of driving. This can be achieved through good UX design and considering cultural differences. [Read More]
UX in Southeast Asia: Examples Across Current UX Maturity Levels
The article explores the current state of UX in Southeast Asia and provides three examples from across the UX maturity spectrum. [Read More]
Cultural Dimensions of Chinese-American Websites
This article highlights the current state of UX in Southeast Asia and provides examples from across the UX maturity spectrum. [Read More]
Creating and Implementing a Scorecard System to Increase Organizational User Experience Maturity
In this article, the author walks through the process they used to build and roll out a user-centric scorecard to help teams increase UX maturity. [Read More]
Can Voice-Driven Virtual Assistants Help Eliminate Physician Burnout?
Cumbersome medical software is a leading cause in physician dissatisfaction and burnout. But that story could change if physicians had a voice-driven virtual medical assistant. [Read More]
Human-to-Human Interaction Style in Voice User Interface Design
Voice-enabled devices are gaining the ability to mimic human-to-human interactions fairly well. This article outlines some general guidelines to consider when designing voice user interfaces. [Read More]
Designing Great Voice User Interfaces—More than Creating Good Conversations
Interactive voice responses (IVR) have been becoming ubiquitous in customer support call centers since the early 2000s. But designing for these conversational experiences presents unique challenges compared to traditional graphical user interfaces. To help readers navigate this emerging space, the authors share a case study in researching and designing for the IBM Technical Support Phone System. [Read More]
Empathy on a Many-to-One Basis: Navigating Empathy When You Cannot Agree with Everyone
In this article, Angela Madsen breaks apart the construct of empathy as a one-to-one or one-to-many ratio, and she proposes a paradigm shift that incorporates many-to-one thinking. [Read More]
The UX of AR: Toward a Human-Centered Definition of Augmented Reality
With augmented reality, the tech is typically put ahead of the user experience. We need to bring UX more prominently into the AR conversation. [Read More]
Design Thinking and SAFe® Agile: HCD at USAA
USAA is infusing its traditionally IT-driven Agile methodology with Design Thinking principles to provide better digital experiences for its members. [Read More]
Boozeability: The Rise of Drunk User Testing
Conducting user research in a party atmosphere setting is growing in popularity but comes with ethical risks and methodology concerns. [Read More]
Playful Interfaces: Designing Interactive Experiences for Children
Learning how cognitive and physical traits of children affect their interaction with touchscreens helps designers create delightful experiences for all audiences, regardless of age and literacy [Read More]
Navigating the Cloud: A Usability Framework
As usage of cloud-based applications grows, usability professionals must define a framework that incorporates user needs into the cloud implementation process. [Read More]
Is That Product Idea Really Good? (Book Review)
A review of Validating Product Ideas Through Lean User Research by Tomer Sharon. Guidance for why, when and how to conduct user research for product design. [Read More]
Turning User Research on Its Head (Book Review)
A review of “Presumptive Design: Design Provocations for Innovation” by Leo Frishberg and Charles Lambdin. [Read More]
Innovation and UX: Towards an Adaptive and Motive-Based Approach
Product design often focuses on incremental innovation—new features and standard metrics. To create products with a deep emotional connection, we must consider not only functionality, but also symbolic meaning. [Read More]
Story First for Engaging Experiences (Book Review)
A review of “The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products that People Love” by Donna Lichaw, which provides an accessible framework to help designers create engaging experiences. [Read More]
Meeting Your Mission: A User-Centered Approach to Content Strategy
A well planned content strategy serves as both a guide for content development and delivery and as a device to hold organizations accountable to broader goals. [Read More]
Thinking Thoroughly, Widely, and Deeply: Developing User Experience Designers in China
A user experience designer must have three key abilities to create ethical and human products: to think thoroughly, think widely, and think deeply. [Read More]
Scarcity: Focusing on Limitations to Explore Design Opportunities
Looking at the concept of scarcity can lead to new ways of understanding users, designing for their needs, and making the best use of their resources. [Read More]
Online Banking for Everyone: Designing for the Aging Brain
Designing for the aging brain or for those with little computer experience requires strictly defining the website functionality, clear workflows, and minimal page distractions. [Read More]
With Safety in Mind: Building Online Experiences for Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence
Designing websites for an Intimate Partner Violence nonprofit organizations comes with many special considerations that need to keep the safety of survivors at the forefront. [Read More]
UX Strategy: Fad or New World Order?
Company executives increasingly agree that good design is good business. Has UX finally been recognized as strategic? How do we take advantage of this? [Read More]
Users as Co-creators: Player-centric Game Design
How a game design process suitable for Agile can be made user-centered and incorporate player feedback and real user input. [Read More]
Designing Nonprofit Experiences: Building a UX Toolkit
Nonprofit UX differs from for-profit design, but the two worlds can benefit from a mutual exchange of techniques. A glimpse at what the “other side” is doing can provide new tricks for our toolkit. [Read More]
Future Proofing Tomorrow’s Technology: UX for an Aging Population
Based on an analysis of current research, the framework presented can be used as a benchmarking or scoping tool in thinking about the design of assistive technologies that particularly consider older people’s needs. [Read More]
The New Voice of YOU: Communicating Through the Digital Interface
Understanding our user's needs, inspiring positivity, being forgiving, respectful, and even humorous can help provide users with a more effective and satisfying interaction. [Read More]
The Largest Intranet in Poland: Design Challenges and Solutions
A UCD process was used to create an intranet for the largest energy producer in Poland. User research and content prioritization were key to success. [Read More]
Rewards and Pains: User Research in Brazil
User-centered design can be a challenge in Brazil where the organizational UX maturity level is low. Teams have to overcome management objections to user-centered design and navigate cultural considerations. (Full article available in English and Español) [Read More]
A Design Workshop in Lima, Peru: Teaching a Creative Process
In April 2014, UX researchers from MIT led a UX design workshop for participants from local creative industries in Lima, Peru. They introduced key techniques for research, ideation, concept development, and refinement. [Read More]
Website Localization: 3 Basic Principles
Learn how to design your website for users from any language, any culture, anywhere. You can “localize” a website using just three principles of web design. (Full article available in English and Español) [Read More]
Usability in Healthcare: A ‘Wicked’ Problem
For UX design in healthcare, context is critical. Too many electronic health records have poor usability because they are designed without considering the user experience appropriately. [Read More]
Wayfinding in a Hospital: Electronic Kiosks Point the Way
Designing a hospital is a human factors challenge. Good information signs help patients find their way around a large campus. [Read More]
Usability Maturity Models: Making your Company User-Centered
A well-documented and researched usability maturity assessment, addressing different organizational viewpoints, is a good first step in improving usability capability. [Read More]
The Classy Classic: Designing the User Interface (Book Review)
This updated edition of a text about designing user-interfaces is testament to the evolution of these and other related topics the past two decades. [Read More]
Forms Management: What Forms Managers Think About
To create really good electronic forms, as with paper forms, you need to consult with all parties to assess fully their needs. [Read More]
Designing Spaces for Dementia: An Interview with Terry Carson
An interview with Terry Carson, the owner of residential facilities for people with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. [Read More]
Lost in Space: Holistic wayfinding design in public spaces
Wayfinding design, a combination of signage with spatial structures, must be a collaboration between urban planners, urban/architectural designers, and visual communication designers. [Read More]
Resuscitating the User Experience: A Touchscreen Systemfor EMS and Fire Rescue Professionals
When updating a touchscreen medical record program, a user-centered design process fixed a number of critical usability issues and resulted in a user experience and financial success. [Read More]
