The Minute UX™ series: one-minute reads about website problems I’ve discovered in numerous UX audits. I suspect that website owners, designers, and developers view their sites more often on desktop screens than on phones and therefore mobile problems go unseen. Every … Read more
The Minute UX™ series: one-minute reads about website problems I’ve discovered in numerous UX audits. Improper link handling can disrupt user experience and fail at accessibility compliance. I often see these three problems with internal and external text links and buttons … Read more
Over the past year I made my way through much of the 13 seasons of Room to Improve , an Irish TV series featuring architect Dermot Bannon. He tackles a home revamp project in each episode and his clients are … Read more
Wireframes are a critical step in the web design process that helps ensure a successful project outcome by aligning stakeholders and avoiding misunderstandings before development begins. This article explores the purposes wireframes serve, what they are not for, their benefits, and the … Read more
Accessibility means making things usable for people with disabilities. Beyond the physical world, it applies to digital products like websites, apps, smart TVs, computer user interfaces — anything with a screen that humans interact with should be accessible to people … Read more
According to Smart Insights, the average click-through rate (CTR) for online display ads is about 0.1% (one click for every 1,000 ad impressions). That’s an average and in practice CTRs vary widely depending on the size and type of ad, the … Read more
If you’re involved in the design or development of websites, or if you own or manage a site, I’m going to give you some free advice that is likely to apply to you. I say ‘likely’ because over the past … Read more
Carousels are ubiquitous on websites, but they present unique design challenges. First, most people scroll right past them without seeing anything but the first image in the series. That can leave important content unseen. Second, while they often look great … Read more
I’m often in meetings where people are planning a change to a particular feature or making an enhancement to a website or app. Naturally there are sometimes differences of opinion about the best approach to take. That’s good because exploring … Read more
There’s a well-known story about an experiment conducted by the Washington Post and world-famous violinist Joshua Bell. They decided to have Bell do some busking at the Washington D.C. Metro to see what kind of reaction he got. The story is somewhat … Read more
There’s a reason “don’t reinvent the wheel” is truth. Despite many centuries of science, technology and innovation, mankind just hasn’t come up with anything that works better than a wheel. In web design there are also things that shouldn’t be … Read more
The headline for this post is drawn from my favorite UX book: Don’t Make Me Think, A Common Sense Approach to Web and Mobile Usability, by Steve Krug. He writes, “Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid … Read more
At a recent business lunch, someone was complaining about the Kansas City airport (MCI). I’ve heard this many times before. Fortunately, Kansas City knows that the airport is a problem which is why they are nearly finished building a brand new … Read more
I’ve done quite a bit of website usability testing with “ordinary” website users. By design, testing is done with people who are representative of a client’s audience and not the people who design the sites. Of course, that’s the point. The value … Read more
In real estate, it’s location, location, location. In UX, the location is mobile, mobile, mobile. Mobile devices account for over half of all visits to most websites. Chances are you are reading this post on your phone. Various sources now put web … Read more
In the infamous words of Donald Rumsfeld, there are known unknowns and unknown unknowns. When it comes to website or app design, testing with representative users (a.k.a. usability testing) can uncover both. Having conducted many, many user testing sessions over the past 10+ years I can … Read more
We all have our go-to tools. Websites, platforms and applications we use to solve problems, perform tasks, acquire assets, streamline workflow and generally make our jobs easier. When I come across a helpful new tool, I’m always grateful. I thought … Read more
We spend a lot of time on our screens. Because of that, making text as readable as possible is extremely important for optimal user experience. This article gives easy-to-implement fixes for five common typographic problems seen on many websites: Line … Read more
While I believe it’s important for everyone in an agency or corporate marketing/communications department to understand user experience fundamentals, there’s a critical place for UX specialists in the equation. Just like in the medical profession, it’s important for primary care … Read more
User testing (sometimes called usability testing) is simply having real people test drive your website or app for the purpose of identifying problems and opportunities for improvement. It is not difficult, but it does require effort. And based on my … Read more