On productivity environments, one of the key points that interaction designers need to manage is the balance between ease of use and efficiency. As a general rule, facilitating the learning curve of a system tends to impair the efficiency of advanced users and vice versa. Explanations, guidelines and assistive items are a must, but occupy a [...]
If you are a designer, this situation will be familiar to you: a colleague in the office gets up for coffee and when he passes behind your chair, he stands behind you and stares at your monitor. “Oh, I'm sorry to bother you, but it just seems like magic to me what you're doing”. Magic (from the Latin magia, derived from [...]
The default options and decision architecture influence our choices; designing them with transparency improves the experience and respects the user.
Design critique is not a test or a collection of personal tastes: it is a tool for uncovering opportunities, detecting flaws and growing ideas.