In times when everything is generic, how do we stand out without spending too much time and resources on elaborate art direction? Let’s explore a strategic guide for bringing back personality to the web, in regular real-life projects.
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From campfires to books to advertisements to film, stories have a power over us that no other human invention can wield. They calm us, thrill us, enthrall us and send us running back to the box office for another hit. If we consider story structure as we look at user interactions, there are lots of ways we can put ourselves in the user’s shoes and optimize their experience, providing support exactly when they need it. In this article, John Rhea brings you some techniques.
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Search engines have evolved in leaps and bounds these past few years. This year, there are a number of things that need to be kept in mind with regard to SEO. There are some key SEO concepts that experts in the field struggle to communicate clearly to designers. This can create friction and the impression that most well-designed websites are very poorly optimized for SEO. In this article, Myriam Jessier aims to provide all the information you need to know.
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Have you ever wondered whether it’s possible to do anything on the web without JavaScript? How many sites use progressive enhancement in practice? In this article Chris Ashton will try to use the web under various constraints, representing a given demographic of user. A good core experience is indicative of a well-structured web page, which, in turn, is usually a good sign for SEO and for accessibility. It’s usually a well designed web page, as the designer and developer have spent time and effort thinking about what’s truly core to the experience.
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Macular degeneration is the leading cause of legal blindness in the United States. Bud Kraus shares his story of lessons learned from his disability as a tool to help him communicate and teach WordPress to others. Everyone works with WordPress differently, and Bud has discovered that for most people technology makes things easier. And for him, it makes things possible.
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There are many different kinds of disabilities, however, there is a general agreement to categorize people with disability into four general categories: visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive. Including more diversity into your usability testing is vital for any product. In this article, Peter McNally provides lessons learned or tips to consider in planning and executing usability testing with participants with disabilities.
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(This article is kindly sponsored by Adobe.) When designing your user interface, it helps to have a system in place. Spend some time to establish a considered design system. Not only does this ensure that your design is consistent, but it also helps keep your team on the same page and provides any freelancers working on the project with all the guidance they need in one central location. With this guide, Christopher Murphy will help you find a solid UI approach that will stand the test of time by exploring how we design interfaces that are consistent and scalable.
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In experience design, friction is the newsletter signup overlay covering the actual content, the difficult wording on a landing page, or the needless optional questions in a checkout flow. It’s usually the opposite of being intuitive or effortless. However, that doesn’t mean that it’s always bad for the users. In this article, Zoltan Kollin will show you when and how friction can be an efficient tool to actually design better experiences.
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Though we have a good understanding of the types of button design rules that universally work, there will be times when you’re surprised by a rogue element that performs well. Like ghost buttons. They aren’t much of a mystery, despite their eerie-sounding name. They’re call-to-action (CTA) buttons for your website, like any other. The key difference is in how they look. Logic would dictate that ghost buttons are not good for web design. Yet, research shows us that visitors don’t necessarily see them that way.
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Links make the Internet what it is. A robust visual design is essential to making the user journey joyful. While underlining has its downsides, it remains one of the most explicit ways to indicate the presence of a link. Underlining text makes links both easy to find and easy to understand for visitors. In this article, Nick Babich will explain the concept of underlining and provide a few tips on how to use it to improve the web experience, and help you find out when and why underlines should be used in our digital products.
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