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8 min

Visual design tips for non-designers: using color

In an effort to do my part and help increase the world’s number of well-designed presentations, I’m starting a series called “Design Tips For Non-Designers.” These tips aren’t intended to make designers out of non-designers. They are simply to help folks who don’t have design training become better at visual communications. This is for all the project managers, researchers, and marketing folks out there who want to improve their deliverables. You know who you are.
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7 min

Tips for Success in Complex Field Research Projects

We user researchers often find ourselves in unusual places doing unusual things: in homes watching strangers set up media equipment, in passenger seats noting how drivers use in-car technology, in manufacturing settings observing CAD/CAM fabrication, in hospitals interviewing medical staff, just to name a few.
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2 min

Three Essential Components of Persuasive Design

In the projects we work on here at Blink, our clients have specific actions that they would like their users to take on their website or app. For example, one goal might be for a user to download software from a website, while another might be to complete a registration form.
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1 min

What's Next for YOU in UX?

Close to 250 people from around the world gathered together for the third-annual ConveyUX conference. Visitors arrived from Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Korea, Mexico, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the USA. More than 30 presenters shared their knowledge and ideas in over 40 sessions throughout the three days
2014 A Big Year For Seattles Seahawks Blink UX

4 min

2014: A Big Year For Seattle’s Seahawks & Blink UX!

I’m so proud of so many things that it’s hard to know where to start. Mostly I am proud of every single Blink employee for really taking ownership of our company this year. Below are some of the fruits of our labor…
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3 min

Fundamental Dimensions of Contrast

Designers know that using contrast is an effective way to direct attention to a specific design element. But what makes it so effective?
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5 min

Path-Finding in Software: User Assistance in Mobile Apps

How do people find their way through applications? Generally, words and images carry much of the weight when it comes to path-finding in software. It doesn’t matter whether it is an enterprise-level desktop application, a consumer web site, or a mobile app — text and graphics play an important role in directing the user in performing tasks.
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5 min

Sweat the Details: Animation and Microinteractions in Mobile Apps

Crafting a useful, usable, and beautiful app takes a lot of work and a willingness to throw your designs out the window again and again until you get things right. Even if you get that far, there are usually at least five other apps out there that already do what yours does. Why is yours better? What sets it apart?
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3 min

How Blink UX Inspires Corporate Social Responsibility In the Workplace

A recent NPR campaign asked Millennials to define themselves using single words — words like adventurer, optimist, eco-conscious, and activist were among the most popular ways we describe ourselves. These really resonate with me, and I can say without a doubt there is one thing Millennials care a lot about: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
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4 min

On the Fringe of UX

A friend of mine recently called me up and asked if she should go to ConveyUX. She’s a Project Manager, but she does just enough user experience (UX) work to be dangerous. She feels she should hone her UX sword rather than chopping with it like a machete.
01 The fine art of creating experience maps

7 min

The fine art of creating experience maps 

Here are more details about how we think about target users and their engagement with products to inform experience maps.
Dear Digital Diary A Powerful Tool in User Research

5 min

Dear (Digital) Diary: A Powerful Tool in User Research

These days, diary studies can be much richer and more flexible by taking advantage of digital, connected technologies. At Blink we’re developing a suite of internal digital tools that help researchers and designers be more effective; one of these tools is our Digital Diary.
01 ux and seo a love story

7 min

UX and SEO — A love story

If you want to design the best experience for your users, you need to know their stories. Here at Blink we recently wrapped up a project that demonstrated how the “qualitative story” of user research and the “quantitative story” of SEO and analytics can be paired to produce powerful insights that provide the evidence you need to craft the right experience.
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3 min

Creativity, Collaboration & Confidentiality

So how do we get together and collaborate on ideas when a project is top secret? When only one person at Blink knows what the client is working on, and only a handful of employees at the client’s company even know what it is?
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2 min

Designing for Disengagement: The Art of Disappearing Technology

Increasing engagement is a clear way to increased revenue, as well as brand awareness and loyalty. This has resulted in some truly awesome, fun, smart products. Unfortunately we’ve also seen a whole slew of others made in the hope that adding daily reminders and superfluous gamification elements will translate to success.
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6 min

On Being Like a Unicorn: How to Become a UX Designer Extraordinaire

Working in User Experience consulting has been likened to being a Unicorn: You are a unique and rare creature who is empathetic, creative, constructive, fast, and effective. At Blink UX we are very selective regarding who we hire and are always on the lookout for top UX talent.
Which Soft Skills are Essential for UX Pros

2 min

Which Soft Skills are Essential for UX Pros?

Everyone talks about the required hard skills it takes to succeed in the world of user experience. HTML5, a background in ethnographic research, and the ability to create prototypes—these are not trivial skills and are a must for any UX team. But nobody tells you the soft skills required to succeed on that same team. Until now.
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3 min

Choosing the Right Level of Fidelity for Your Wireframes

At their core, wireframes are an efficient, iterative communication tool.
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2 min

Six Evidence-Driven Best Practices for Game Websites

As a user researcher here at Blink UX, I’ve spent some time assessing and testing websites for the game industry. Game websites have a variety of audiences with unique goals, but the most notable ones are these:
Healthcare Web Healthcare

1 min

Improving the User Experience of Healthcare Provider Websites

Blink has worked with a variety of healthcare providers over the last several years to understand the users of their websites. The results of this work have been research-based recommendations and design solutions that address many common challenges. Today, we are publishing a whitepaper that summarizes the challenges providers face online, and how a research-based approach to user experience can help meet the needs of their patients and employees.
Beyond Scope Severity

2 min

Beyond Scope & Severity: A Better Way to Prioritize Usability Issues

A list of usability findings can be difficult to parse: they are long, highlight negative aspects of your design, and no matter how diligently your team works, they never seem to disappear completely. Despite these facts, there is hope.
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0 min

Usability Testing of Fruit

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you did a usability test of fruit? We did. Blink created this fun look at something near and dear to our hearts – usability testing. We hope you enjoy it!
In Home User Research Building Rapport Before After Stepping Through the Door

5 min

How to Build Rapport Before & After Conducting In-Home User Research

I was asked recently what steps we take to make participants feel more comfortable with in-home interviews or observations. This article contains some practical tips about ways to build trust and rapport prior to and while interacting with participants in their homes. Why bother? Because raising comfort levels leads to better research observations, which is why we go out to people’s houses, condos, or apartments in the first place!
Understanding User Expectations

1 min

Understanding User Expectations

Understanding user expectations has enabled us to make detailed recommendations and help clients deliver great user experiences. From our research, here are two examples showing how expectations influence the user experience.
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