I found a great definitive list of design, tech, web and UX podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts on my drive to and from work, so this is going to be a great resource for people like me who like to catch up on their podcasts on their commute. Yes some are in German, but pick the English ones if that’s your cup of tea.
Coming up with great content can be really tough sometimes. It is hard to figure out what you want to say. I know that I struggle with that when I am developing blog posts. Normally I report on things that I am working on. Or I share graphics that I find interesting. This is one of those such graphics.
When testing the Weather Channel App, I discovered a number of usability issues. Clearly, if the UX team had run some basic usability tests, a number of problems would have discovered and corrected.
Some issues I discovered:
• Make clickable items like buttons seem clickable.
• Remove ads within the feed, especially if they look like weather (editorial) content.
• Do not use ads as a background image on home page.
• Put useful information like search functionality in side drawer.
• Put more information, like a few days’ forecast on the home page.
• Use arrow indicator to notify the user to scroll down.
• Do not include every searched location in the favorites list.
• Allow user to just search a location without saving it.
• Allow users to include more than 10 locations in the favorites list.
• Clearly indicate current city with writing the city name, rather than relying on image.
• Give clues on social weather page as to what the icons mean and what will happen before a user clicks the icon.
• Make icons intuitive and less confusing and add a word them to clarify the function.
• Allow user to return to the top of page by tapping on the bar at the top of the screen.
• Move radar closer to top of feed. Or allow users to modify the order of content or remove something that does not interest them.
Make sure that items that are clickable in an app or website are clear to the user
It’s great to get some ideas out of your head and on to some paper. I know it may seem strange. But sketching is a great way to brainstorm and to visualize how things actually fit together on the page or screen. Plus sketching is a great communication tool. Want to have a discussion about some of the ideas you have? Sketch them out and use them as talking points to move the project forward.
I used skating and the first phase to exploring some ideas for a history page I was working on for a website redesign.
Use sketching as a communication tool to get the ideas out of your head and on to paper.
After sketching a few ideas, one can take these rough sketches to the next level with wireframes. This is a great way to explore more ideas, yet not commit yourself to a high-fidelity design. I created this wireframe in Adobe InDesign because that program is quick and easy to use (for me) and has all the functionality one needs to create a wireframe.
Wireframes are a good middle step between touch sketched and a high-fidelity mock up.
Jennifer Blatz explores the world of UX through words and imagery
