7 min
Articles
4 min
A Recipe for Effective User Interviews
The ingredients are simple: two people, a quiet place to sit and talk, and a video camera to record the session. Still, getting the most out of an interview requires careful planning and a thoughtful technique. Here I share some insights that guide my own approach to interviewing.
5 min
Eye Tracking Usability Studies
To determine what usability study participants look at and take in while viewing online media, we used to watch their mouse cursors, interactions with links and controls, and body language. We also listened carefully to their think-aloud narratives and comments. These traditional testing techniques, however, could never tell us definitively what users notice and what they don’t. Eye tracking usability studies open up a new frontier.
5 min
Understanding Older Users: Is Your Website Senior-Friendly?
Seniors are increasingly using the web to shop, find news and information, and connect with friends and family. But many websites are not designed with seniors in mind. You can make your website more senior-friendly by following a few simple rules of thumb… and the end result is often improved usability for users of all ages.
6 min
Real-World User-Centered Design
A couple of months ago, I was part of a panel discussion on “Real-World User-Centered Design.” The topic was the outgrowth of questions from a more introductory forum on user-centered design (UCD) principles. After the introductory forum there were still many burning questions—specifically, how do you adopt and adapt UCD principles to real-world organizational constraints?
5 min
Minimizing Usability Risks in Web Applications
In the year 2000, there were two neatly divided user experience worlds: the world of the web and the world of desktop applications.
3 min
The Art of the Conceptual Prototype
If you’re not familiar with mind mapping, it’s a handy way to visualize ideas and the connections between them for all sorts of contexts.
6 min
Making Design Collaboration Work
At Blink, we feel one of the greatest strengths we bring to clients is the extent to which we leverage our internal expertise—and work with clients—in a collaborative way. But effective collaboration is not a slam-dunk. The key is to tap into individual competencies and perspectives in a way that improves the outcome rather than hinders it.
3 min
Aesthetics and Usability
A common question Interface Designers face is, how does one present a lot of information without making the interface seem too busy or overwhelming?
3 min
Objects and Actions Analysis
Objects and actions analysis is a method of documenting what data (objects) need to be manipulated and what functions (actions) can be performed on the objects. A key benefit of the analysis is representing system functionality without consideration of how the interface needs to look or behave.
2 min
Matching Prototypes to Research Goals
One of the most important parts of planning for any type of user research or usability testing is a clear set of research questions: what do you want to find out as a result of the study? It seems like an obvious step, yet sometimes this is overlooked.
5 min
Characterizing Users and Usage
At Blink we create behavioral profiles, along with key scenarios, to characterize users and usage.