Interactive Design articles

If you’ve ever moved from one home to another, you know how difficult it can be to get rid of things you’ve owned for years. While digging through your closet, you find an old pair of pants you used to wear all the time despite the growing holes in the knees. But you tell yourself, “Maybe I’ll wear them around the house when it gets warmer” or “I bet the grunge look will come back in style”. It’s easy to make these kinds of justifications...

When Tim Berners-Lee gave us the WorldWideWeb in 1990, it was the first and only web browser. But it didn’t remain alone for long. Even in those early days of the web, there was plenty of competition for web browser market share: Mosaic, MidasWWW, SlipKnot, Arena, Netscape, and Internet Explorer emerged around that time, too, and duked it out for the top spot for the better part of a decade. So, if there’s always been a battle of the browsers,...

Once in a while, every professional comes across a challenge so great, so ridiculous, that they just can’t help themselves. They just have to go for it. It’s like the story of David and Goliath… if David was just bored and Goliath wasn’t threatening his entire nation. As for me, I’m about to argue for putting sounds on a website, and discuss how to do it right. Yeah, I know… I’m one of the “Never Ever Autoplay Sounds on Your Site”...

Because of the sense of value users perceive from micro-interactions, they not only boost engagement, but also inspire positive feelings towards your brand, and ultimately, influence users’ actions. This article will discuss the basics of micro-interactions and how you can utilize them to enhance your UX design. What Are Micro-Interactions? In digital design, micro-interactions are found in most user engagements with products....

It sort of feels like our lives are nothing more than an endless string of decision-making, doesn’t it? You go to the grocery store and half an aisle is dedicated to olive oil. Or cereal. Or yogurt. Then, you go home and your streaming services give you literally hundreds of options for horror movies. Or documentaries. Or TV shows. And it doesn’t get any better online. Decision fatigue happens when you put your consumer in the position to choose...

It seems like magic: you talk to the phone, and it talks back. And if you’re lucky, it says something useful. You type into the chat box, and if the bot is good, you find out what you need to know. [Cue: shocked-looking stock photo models.] The current marketing term for it is “conversational design”, and it’s gaining more and more traction beyond big companies like Apple, Google, and Amazon. Conversational design is actually old, in...

Unfortunately, over half (54%) of the businesses surveyed for the 2018 State of SMB Cybersecurity report believe they’re too small to be a target for hackers. But the data paints a different picture:  67% of small- and medium-sized businesses were attacked in 2018; 82% of those attacked had antivirus software installed on their systems; 72% had intrusion detection systems in place. In reality, businesses aren’t failing to secure...

You’re going to have build your site in such a way that the eye is naturally drawn from one step to the next. My sister used to accomplish controlling my focus by sternly, but calmly, telling me to “Get back to your schoolwork” anywhere from fifteen to forty times in a single day. But your users aren’t going to put on some music and “buckle down” to finish browsing your website, they need to be drawn in. The Call to Action—that “Buy”...

Recently, I was part of a 3-person team of consultants who in 12 weeks built the foundations of a new design system. That design system is now used in multiple products and is contributed to by other developers and designers. In this post you’ll find some of the techniques we used to make the project a success within its short timespan. (While we did deliver code on the project, this article is written from my perspective as a designer.) 1. Invest...

Just imagine it, you walk into your office, and you get a notification: your client has just dropped everything you need into your cloud storage provider of choice. The copy brings tears of joy to your eyes, the images are crisp, clean, and huge. The logo is a work of art, and the client has sent a note saying, “Actually, we don’t need you to finish up for another three months, but why don’t I just pay you double right now?” And then you wake...

Every day, millions of people visit websites all over the world, and are confronted with a simple message: “We use cookies to make our site work, because we have yet to find a viable alternative to this somewhat insecure method of tracking our users, their preferences, their purchases, their mood swings, and the color of their aura. Mmkay? We good?” Okay, you can probably tell there was a little sarcasm, there, but I’m not entirely kidding...

Designing an interactive interface or a website is not an easy feat. You have to analyze everything about your audience, in the first place their behavior, and then implement thorough planning. New technologies are making it easier but they are also making the users more tech savvy and hard to impress. Glossy images and hover effects are no longer impressive to users. Neither are animations or gifs - especially when everyone can make their...

I work out of a small office in a co-working environment. Next to my dedicated space is a hot-desking area used primarily for video conferencing. Thanks to a bank of west-facing windows, an overenthusiastic heating policy, and unseasonably hot weather, meetings are often conducted with the doors open, and it’s then that I overhear some of the most engrossing insights into the minds of both clients and designers, that I’ve ever encountered....

WHO suggests that 1.3 billion people all around the world have some kind of visual impairment – which includes 217 million people with moderate to severe vision impairment; 36 million people are blind worldwide; 15% of the global population have some kind of disability. With the advancements in adaptive technologies, such as screen readers, magnifiers, eye-tracking, joysticks, and sip-and puff technology, visually impaired and disabled...