Episode 17 – Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics: Part 2

It’s part 2 of our 5 part series on UX fundamentals laid out by Jakob Nielson.

If you missed part 1, you can find it here.

User control and freedom

Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked “emergency exit” to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

Consistency and standards

Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design by Jakob Nielson

The apps are:

Webflow

Carousel by Dropbox

 

Chris’ Project: Designers and Shoes

Jonathan’s Book: Tragic Design 

 

As always, we want to hear from you so leave your comments below! You can also reach us on Twitter:

Chris: @machinehuman

Jon: @DesignUXUI

So let us know what you think!

 

 

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Episode 16 – Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics: Part 1

This episode, Chris and Jon start a series of shows devoted to everyone’s favorite usability heuristics! If you never heard of these before, or if you heard of them and forgot about them, have a listen and refresh your brain! These principles in interaction design are critical to helping make your product successful. Later in the show, we talk about how different apps utilize these principles and whether or not they did them well.

The principles we are discussing:

10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design by Jakob Nielson

The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman

Google Analytics In Real Life

 

You can find Part 2 right here.

 

The apps are:

Jawbone Up https://appsto.re/us/8LlN2.i

Chris was less enthusiastic about this app as the poor onboarding (as of this post) made it really difficult to figure out what the app does. Needless to say, they didn’t apply Nielsen’s heuristics very well.

Breeze by FitnessKeeper https://appsto.re/us/TuMrX.i

As we were running out of time, Chris didn’t get too much of a chance to talk about this app. But it’s worth looking at simply because the language they use in the app matches the real world really well. The language is informal (not necessarily casual) but effective, and even works in concepts from the last show on playfulness!

MailChimp

 

As always, we want to hear from you so leave your comments below! You can also reach us on Twitter:

Chris: @machinehuman

Jon: @DesignUXUI

So let us know what you think!

 

Jawbone

 

Breeze

 

Enjoying the podcast? Don’t miss part 2 of out study on Nielsen’s Usability Heuristics! Sign up to get notified of new episodes.

 

 

Episode 15 – Designing Playfulness into your UX

This week, Chris and Jon talk about how playfulness can help improve your UX. As an example of playfulness, we look at an app called Carrot; an app to help you track calories. It’s a fun episode, so listen in and stop being so serious!

Try Carrot out for yourself and tell us what you think.

Episode 14 – Acorns app with David Keegan, Director of Design at Acorns

This week, Chris and Jon take a look at a new app for investing, Acorns! We also bring on David Keegan, Director of Design at Acorns, and talk about the highs and lows of using the app plus interview him on working at Acorns. Stick around! You won’t want to miss this show!

Try Acorns yourself, download here

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Episode 13: Affinity Designer

We are back from the holiday break to review another design tool everyone has been talking about. Chris dives in and gives us a review of its design, from the good UX to what could be improved.

Affinity Designer is a tool similar to Adobe’s illustrator, a vector based graphic creation software.

This we we are trying something totally new! We are including a video of the app, so you have the option to follow along and see all the sweet details, animations, etc. that are part of the apps we review. We will still include an audio only version and if you subscribe via our podcast feed, nothing will change for you.

At the time of this post, Affinity Designer is 20% off! Get it now while you can!

 

 

 

Episode 12: Workflow – Automate (almost) anything in ios

Workflow is a new app, recently named an Editor’s Choice! Chris and Jon take a look at this new programmable automation tool for iOS and chat about onboarding and the user experience. Can this app improve on IFTTT? Listen and find out!

Also, a quick note to all our listeners:
Thank you everyone for listening to the show. Thanks to everyone who’s written to us, written comments, upvoted us, and shared the show with their friends! Once again, we need your help! We are always looking for ways to improve the show and make it more valuable (and entertaining!) to listen to each week. We want your feedback on the show, specifically the following:

  1. What do you like about the show?
  2. What do you dislike about the show?
  3. What is one thing you wish we would discuss that we haven’t yet?

Send in your feedback using the contact form on our site and we’ll be sure to answer you personally!

Get Workflow from the App Store!

Get IFTTT from the App Store!

Listen to this show on Soundcloud

Episode 11 – Sketch

This week, Chris and Jon try out Sketch by Bohemian Coding. It’s a tool that many designers are already using, but can it really replace Photoshop? Listen and find out!

Download Sketch Here!

 

As mentioned on the show, we are now in iTunes! Yay! Please rate and review the show!

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Upvote and discuss on Designer News

 

 

Episode 10 – The Recap Show!

We made it to episode 10!

This week Chris and Jon take a look at the past 10 weeks of shows and talk about what we learned from all the apps we’ve reviewed so far. Plus we briefly chat about a few of our personal favorites we didn’t get to cover!

 

Bonus: Personal favorite apps we didn’t get to cover

 

Chris:

1. Peak Brain Training

2. Duolingo

3. Unstuck

 

Jon:

1.  Couple

2. Waze

3. Goat Simulator

 

Episode 9 – Webflow

Webflow is a front-end design tool that allows you build custom websites visually.

Jon and Chris consider if a “WYSIWYG” tool is good enough to be a viable alternative to coding, and prototyping. They also debate if such tools are the future of design.

 

Note: Webflow has offered Design Review listeners a special 2 month’s free offer ( or 20$ off for 2 months if you want the bigger plans)

Just sign up, and enter the code when you upgrade: fanimals202 (Limted to the first 100 people)

Correction: Chris recorded the promo at the end of the show without realizing the promo code had changed. So make sure you use fanimals202 when you sign up.

Also, please vote on a t-shirt design!

(If you don’t see the survey below, click here)

 

Episode 8 – Layervault

This week Chris and Jonathan take a look at Layervault, a new cloud storage solution for designers! And if that wasn’t cool enough, later in the show, Kelly Sutton, cofounder and CEO of Layervault, joins us for an amazing interview!

Check out Layervault

or Sign up for an account and try it out for yourself

 

Show Notes:
00:00:00 – Start!
00:00:53 – Show announcements, podcast business
00:02:12 – Show format
00:02:36 – Our expectations
00:06:50 – Onboarding
00:11:47 – The user experience
00:22:56 – How would we improve the UX?
00:27:58 – The presentation and aesthetics
00:29:47 – Animations in the product
00:33:16 – Did it align with our expectations?
00:35:54 – Keep or Delete?
00:38:34 – Wrapping up part 1
00:38:59 – Start of the interview with Kelly Sutton, cofounder and CEO of Layervault
00:39:17 – Kelly introduces himself
00:40:58 – Jon talks about reducing and minimalism in design
00:42:00 – Why did they make Layervault?
00:43:22 – How much collaboration was there in the beginning of Layervault?
00:44:55 – Was there any market research involved with initially creating Layervault?
00:49:29 – What part of the app are they most proud of from a design standpoint?
00:51:06 – What is the design process like at Layervault?
00:56:25 – How does Layervault decide when and how to remove features?
00:59:02 – Is it hard to tell the difference between a feature that people don’t like vs. one that needs more work?
01:00:04 – Our feedback
01:07:14 – When did they decide to create Designer News?
01:09:55 – What are the future plans for Designer News?
01:12:52 – What is coming out next for Layervault or Designer News?
01:13:58 – Wrapping it up!

Once again, huge thanks to Kelly Sutton at Layervault for coming on the show and talking with us about design!

 

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