This question came to me one day when I was in the shower and I have been thinking about this for several weeks now. But before we answer this question, we need to take a step back and think about what makes science and art. 

Science is logic, reasoning, induction, and deduction. 

While Art is all about expressing yourself. You kind of just let the brain do its job. It's Art if the artist calls it Art!

But design is a little bit of Both! There are lots of rules to follow. Usability, accessibility, quantitative and qualitative user research. But at the same time, you would also learn to improvise. It’s like playing the piano. You can play different chords and melodies but it is always confined to certain rules of music. It takes years of experience to have that intuition and learn the drill. I think that’s what it took for me, to be here. The mind to learn and the hand to do!

I hope this was helpful.

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Is Design More Like Science Or Art

The Hawthorn effect is a very typical psychological effect in organization management. The workers in this experiment were exposed to different lighting environments to test their work productivity. 

The results have shown that the boost in productivity lies not in the lighting itself, but in the attention that workers received in the experiment.

This is one typical effect in play in the field of user testing. As the testing environment is rarely natural, it is common to have some discrepancies between the users’ performance and the actual outcome. 

Thus it got me thinking about how we could better mimic the actual use scenario where users would feel more comfortable with less spotlight to perform more naturally. Please comment and let me know what your thoughts are on this. 

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Hawthorn Effect in User Test

I’ve met many professionals who would call themselves UI/UX designers. But in fact, they are just UI designers. They DO create visually stunning interfaces but if you look closely, you would find they are not following the principles of usability at all. 

Here are four questions you can ask yourself to perform a quick usability test of your digital product:

Learnability: How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? 

Efficiency: Once users have learned the design, how quickly can they perform tasks? 

Memorability: When users return to the design after a period of not using it, how easily can they reestablish proficiency?

Errors: How many errors do users make, how severe are these errors, and how easily can they recover from the errors? 

At lastly, Satisfaction: How pleasant is it to use the design?

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Usability

There are times when we might have trouble deciding where to put the buttons. The space is huge and the options are unlimited! But here is one rule you might not know to make your users’ life much easier! It’s called The Prime Pixel in Fitts’ Law. 

The prime pixel, so as its name says, is a superpixel that determines your users’ next move. It’s not in any corner or the middle of the screen. It sits right at the center of the users’ sight. It’s the pixel of the cursor. When they are navigating among your system, they always start from where they left off in the previous step. 

So consider putting the action button closer to the previous action button, and that it is the prime pixel, so it would be much easier for them to target what they look for and those tiny details are the ones that decide the overall experience of your system.

I hope this was helpful.

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The Prime Pixel

Sometimes it’s difficult for designers to believe that people, think in different ways. What we have in mind for our product might turn out completely of different use for our users. When we thought we have everything covered right in one place, chances are, they might not still be unable to find them. I know, they just don’t get it. But trust me, the frustration is not just on the designers. It’s on the users as well. One thing we have to understand one thing when designing a user interface is that, no one, would read everything on the page. We just scam them. As always. That’s why we need to follow the rules of information hierarchy, about prioritising things and put the most important ones in the most evident position. The user interfaces would need to be self-evident or self-explanatory so that users would have to take efforts and look for the information they need. Think about what’s most important for the users. Think about the action they need to take each step. Think about the organisation of information. If we think hard enough, then our users won’t have to think hard. 

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Information Hierarchy

There has been a long debate about the number of clicks in interface design. There used to be a very famous 3-step myth that said no page should take more than three clicks to reach, otherwise, users might get exhausted.

Well, a word from an expert, that is absolutely NOT TURE. First of all, according to the Nelson Norman research report about this myth, there has been no solid evidence or studies at all to support this argument, and it was only an opinion made in a design book.

I personally also heard about this rule long ago, and for quite a while, I was really trying to minimize the steps users take to get to each page. However, as I tried to cut the steps, sometimes it caused more confusion for users, as they might have to spend more time thinking about the next step to take. And that is definitely not what I wanted for the interfaces I design. 

So my advice is to abandon the three-step rule once and for all. Do not focus on giving them fewer choices; focus on making every choice easier. It doesn’t matter that much if they are using 4 or 5 steps to get to their desired page. As long as you can make the entire journal effortless enough that they just need to click and go on the top of their head without thinking long and hard, "Where do I go next?"

I hope this was helpful.

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Don’t believe everything you see on Dribbble

Did you know that people who can read, write, hear and see without problem only account for 50% of the human population?

Inclusive design is gaining momentum in the design community, giving those who are physically challenged an equal voice in the digital world. An inclusive user interface should be accessible and empathetic. 

When designing for an accessible user interface, we need to think about colour. Using #00000 for an interface makes it difficult for visually impaired individuals to read the screen, so always go for grey colour when highlighting contrast. 

Also, you may not want to use colours to convey information when designing for accessibility because it affects those suffering from colour blindness. For fonts and letters, avoid using complex fonts as much as possible and opt for simple and readable fonts like Helvetica or Robots. 

Next, the British Dyslexia Associate advises against the inclusion of italicised texts in an interface as they appear sharp and may be hard to read. 16px is considered the most inclusive font size because most people can read it with or without wearing an eyeglass, and you may not want to use texts smaller than 14px for readability reasons. 

I hope this was helpful.
This is San, you were watching UX Tips at Void.

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Design for Accessibility

CTA or a Call-to-action button is a button used on a digital interface that encourages users to perform a specific action on a digital interface, thus improving the conversion rate of your product.

By its definition, the CTA button stands out among all other buttons and functions, so users are consciously or subconsciously drawn to it. Hence, the design of CTA buttons must appeal to the psychological aspect of humanity that we all feel the urge the press a button when we see one in our daily lives. 

The CTA button must look like an actual button with carefully thought shadows and gradients. The size of the CTA button should stay in line with the rule of thumb: to make your button at least 44px high so your users can touch it with ease and comfort. In addition to the graphics, you can also use text to urge your users to push this button. 

Using words like “Buy now” or “Press here” creates a sense of rush and excitement. For some CTA buttons, your choice of text should indicate to your users what will happen when they click it.

For example, you may want to use a sentence like “Pay $9 now” to represent the imminent payment actions should the user choose to proceed.

Finally, it would help if you had clear interaction indicators to tell your users that the app has registered their input. You will need to design the CTA button and its variants: Not pushed, hover, and pushed.

I hope this was helpful.

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Call To Action Design Tips

According to passwordresearch.com, 80% of data breaches are linked to weak or reused login credentials, and 61% of people use the same password for multiple online accounts. 

The UX design in login has become increasingly relevant as companies work hard to protect their customers' security of online assets. You can use several tips to improve the user experience for password security. 

When users register for an account, you should encourage them to use complicated passwords by telling them why secure passwords are essential. You can use real-world cyber breach stats and warning phrases to discourage reusing passwords. 

Once your users are aware of the risk of weak passwords, try to guide them through the process. Have clear and indicative new password rules such as character counts, upper and lower cases, a number, and the requirement for special characters. 

Alternatively, you should also consider other ways that users can log in without the hassle of remembering a lot of passwords. Many universities and organizations now use Single Sign On (SSO) to verify user identities. Sign-in by Google is a good example. Users can use their Google account to access multiple third-party services without the need for a password. 

Also, you may use fingerprints and facial recognition technologies to identify users. Sign In with Apple is a good feature that combines SSO and biometric identification. The mechanism utilizes FaceID or 

Touch ID to securely verify users and help them log in with one push. 
Finally, encourage and guide your users to enable two-factor authentication (2FA) as an extra layer of security. 

In addition to an existing pair of login credentials, users need to provide the random number generated on a third-party app (like Microsoft Authenticator) before they are granted access.

I hope this was helpful.

UX For Login And Password

There are times when companies need to have their branding undergo a complete makeover. Rebranding happens when a business sees the need for transformation or needs to shake off an unpleasant past.

Here are a few things to consider when completing a rebranding assignment as a designer.

First, modernize the logo. The graphic design reflects the aesthetics of a particular era. Let’s use Samsung as an example. In the beginning, the Samsung logo contains three stars since the company name means three stars in its Korean transliteration. In the 2000s, the company adopted a new logo design—the capital SAMSUNG letters with an oval shape on the back. Entering the 2020s, Samsung removed the oval shape and adjusted the typeface to give the brand a much more modern look to appeal to a younger user group.

Second, choose an appropriate typeface. Sans-Serif is the latest trend for typeface design. Many companies like Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Spotify abandoned their legacy Serif logo and embraced a modern typeface.

Third, you need to give your brand a friendly voice. Brand voice refers to the overall design guidelines that the brand adopts. It provides the brand with a personality. Uber’s brand voice is bold, direct, and passionate. Customers need some getting-used-to when they first see the rebranded company, and the new brand voice can help them embrace the transformation faster and easier.

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