Design thinking needs to challenge conventional thought process. That’s when innovation happens

Information Architecture — Navigation Navigation is the way in which a user will cruise through the information provided in the product to achieve his end goal. This is a crucial component because if the navigation does not guide the users properly, it can lead to frustration and eventually the product will end up losing the users. Information can be organized in many ways to make it available to the users in an efficient way. The different navigation patterns are: 1. Single page pattern: This is a very simple pattern meant for small websites where all information is fit into one single page 2. The flat pattern: This is meant for simple websites where the topics available are few and they all are arranged as peers, that is, no hierarchy. 3. The index pattern: This is a simple pattern with one single index page that points to different pages. 4. The hub and spoke model: This is where the users can access several workflows that start at a single poin

Information Architecture — Labeling Labeling Labels represent bigger chunks of information. You can say it gives a visual representation of the structure of the information. Labels can be textual or iconographic. Types of labels Textual labels : These are texts which are hyperlinked to another page of information. It ideally tells in a word, what the user can expect if he clicks on it. The different kinds of textual labels are: 1. Contextual links: These are texts within a content which is hyperlinked to further information or to another page. 2. Headings: These are used to describe chunks of information. It has to be obvious and inform the sequence of the hierarchy. 3. Navigation systems: These are the labels used for navigation system. For instance, Main page, home page, search, FAQ, Contact us, About us etc. These labels should be consistent. 4. Index terms Iconic labels: These are labels that are pictorial and represent the information it can lead to or cont

What is information Architecture? Imagine a national library where a person walks into find a book for reference. But upon reaching, he sees that the entire lot of books is piled up on the floor. He now has to pour through each pile to check where the book he wants is. Chances are that he eventually gets frustrated and walks out grumbling. That is, if he had not given up just upon seeing the pile of books in the first place. Would it have not been easier had each book been arranged in a certain sequence to make the task of selecting a book easier? The primary task of Information Architecture is to take the information (read it as an overload of information) in our hand and arrange and structure them to make it usable for the users. What is information Architecture? A kitchen is a place of everyday use. Most of the activity that happens in the kitchen is complex and between it all a few things are taken for granted because it is never thought about in any other way- the wa

Difference between Interaction Designer, Visual Designer and Usability Expert — Continued Difference between Interaction Designer, Visual Designer and Usability Expert — Continued UX Design is a relatively new field which has rapidly gained importance and popularity for the development of digital products. Given its recent rise to the top as one of the most important aspects of digitalization there is still quite a bit of confusion regarding the different roles in the field of UX design. In this article, we will try to illustrate the difference between UX vs UI vs Research & Usability hopefully clearing some of the myths on the way. 1. UX/UI designer — UX and UI are not synonymous and there is nothing called a UX/UI designer. What is referred to as a UX/UI designer in the industry is often a generalist UX designer who can manage the end-to-end design process. Now, while this may work for a startup that is trying to save cost or smaller organizations still building the U

Difference between Interaction Designer, Visual Designer and Usability Expert Difference between Interaction Designer, Visual Designer and Usability Expert The UX process is not a single element or activity, but a process where a series of activities are conducted to ensure that the product delivers a good user experience. It begins by understanding the business requirement, researching to know the users, then collating all these information to develop a wireframe which is later aesthetically prepared and developed. It all does not stop there. The product is further tested to make sure that it functions well and is taken well by the users. Now between all these activities, the lines or distinction between each process is blurred. Since a UX designer ends up performing more than just one part of the process, it is not surprising that such blurring occurs. Yet, there are some core processes which can be clearly demarked. UX Designers can become experts in these core processe

Security and privacy will influence UX Design Security and privacy will influence UX Design Matt one of the writers of Buzzfeed lost his iPhone in 2014. It was the last that he heard of it when he was sipping beer in a New York bar. One year later, he started seeing strange photographs in his new iPhone photo stream, photographs that he had not taken. These were photographs of a strange Chinese man in an orange orchard. Later on, it was realized that the stolen iPhone landed up in China, and the man was still logged in through Matt’s iCloud. After the Facebook/Mark Zuckerberg privacy issues got highlighted, privacy, security has come to the forefront again. and with it, there are aspects of User Experience Design that UX designers need to keep in mind. I am highlighting a few things below: — What is security and privacy influenced user experience? Think of when you go to your internet banking home page. While entering the username and password, you also have options of

User Experience in Retail Industry User Experience in Retail Industry Today the customer expectations are changing with the changing times. From fashion to retail to automobile, customers are expecting better shopping experience. Due to the ripple effect, if a customer has a great experience with a banking app, all of a sudden, he expects every retailer to offer something similar in terms of a digital wallet. If we look back at the evolution of retail the experience of shopping for the customers have been changing on a regular basis. From a normal retail store to brand store to online shopping and now the experience stores. The Next Big thing in retail: Experience Stores  — Retailers looking to cement customer loyalty in today’s digitized economy must create customer-centric shopping experiences. This requires a holistic strategy that uses emerging technologies to curate personalized customer experience journeys. In an age where players like Flipkart, Amazon etc. are

Designing Digital Experiences to delight your users Designing digital experiences to delight your users In this day and age, when consumers are literally spoilt for choices for every need that they have, it is imperative for brands to delight their users. Even more so in the digital space where users spend most of their time today and reach out to for all their needs and information. So how does a brand create those great moments of customer delight that keeps a user hooked on and engaged with your experience? One of the tools that user experience designers use for creating moments of delight in product experiences is a customer journey map. A customer journey map defines all the interaction points that a customer or user has with your product across all stages of the journey. For example, the stages of a customer journey for the purchase of an FMCG product would be something like — need identification, consideration, decision to buy, buy, unbox, use and throw. In a custo

IoT — Users want experience not technology platforms IoT — Users want experience not technology platforms Technology companies in IoT tend to work in a silo. I recently met the CEO of an IoT focused technology company and took more than an hour to prove our point — ‘nobody cares about your hyped-up IoT platform and its amazing cross protocol integration with various robotic devices. What people care about is their experience when interacting with your awesome technology.’ The demo and the discussion kept reminding me of Don Norman’s example of the complicated dashboard of a nuclear power plant, full of strange knobs and controls, all of them potential error points. The user experience in Internet of Things is based on a few simple paradigms 1. The devices that collect data  — These are the sensors and devices that collect loads of data from different ‘dumb’ devices. Users wants to have sleek, beautiful looking devices (think nest) to attach to their existing appliances or

How can anyone become an UX Designer How can anyone become a UX Designer The answer to this question is quite simple, “Anyone”. Yes, you read that right! Anyone can become a UX Designer. It is more about cultivating the right skills and learning the tools. UX Design usually comprises of many skills. But the most important part of it all is that each skill can be learned and polished over time. The ‘UX’ stands for  User Experience.  It is about making the journey of any user using that product as seamless as possible. There are a few key points which need to work on to become a UX Designer. 1. Familiarize yourself with UX methodologies: Get an understanding how the process is done. Every process may it be design or development as a process which needs to be followed. A good understanding of how it is done and to bring those skills into practice will help you be better at designing. 2. Learn the creative process: Design is about creativity, coming up with innovative solut

6 things you should know about UX 6 things you should know about UX User Experience  has become an important aspect of creating digital products — let that be a website or a platform that you are launching. If you go across job sites, you will see a large number of jobs pertaining to  user experience design,  visual design, user researcher and more. The demand of UX designers is not limited to just the IT industry.Even manufacturing, pharmacy, auto, telecom and most other industry segments are looking for UX designers. What is it about the field of UX design that it has become as kill most sought for across all of these different industries? UX Design is about making digital products UX design is about making digital products. It is about understanding the needs ofthe users, creating a product roadmap based on these user needs and thenimplementing the principles of UX design so that you get easy to use, simpleproduct. Today, most companies are using the principles of UX d

The future of healthcare is here – first digital pill approved by FDA The various UX designers that I met over the past six months have kept asking me this question – how will the user experience industry change when Virtual Reality becomes a common phenomenon. The field of User Experience has been expanding for the last decade. Starting as a simple form of human-computer interaction to design machine interface to coming into the limelight in the age of digitalization, the field of UX has expanded to accommodate new experience tech into its fold.  Similar to when the UX designers moved to the digital world and learned the know-how of designing apps for the touch screens, UX designers will need to learn new fields of study to design for the virtual world. 3D objects and constructing of the virtual world will be seen as key skills that a VR UX designer must have. This phenomenon will be a door opener for a large number of 3D animators in the country to join the UX industry.

The future of User Experience with Virtual Reality The future of User Experience with Virtual Reality The various UX designers that I met over the past six months have kept asking me this question — how will the user experience industry change when Virtual Reality becomes a common phenomenon. The field of User Experience has been expanding for the last decade. Starting as a simple form of human-computer interaction to design machine interface to coming into the limelight in the age of digitalization, the field of UX has expanded to accommodate new experience tech into its fold. Similar to when the UX designers moved to the digital world and learned the know-how of designing apps for the touch screens, UX designers will need to learn new fields of study to design for the virtual world. 3D objects and constructing of the virtual world will be seen as key skills that a VR UX designer must have. This phenomenon will be a door opener for a large number of 3D animators in the cou

DESIGN THINKING — Drowned, mutilated and murdered Design Thinking — Drowned, Mutilated and Murdered Design thinking  has died and it went through a slow miserable death. There are various companies that are using Design Thinking as a “sales tool” to sell more of their product. And organizations are lapping it up. There are many customers that have told me over the last 12 months that they got a design thinking workshop as a free package on buying a software. Now I am all in for innovative ways of selling. Don’t get me wrong. And doing design thinking workshops is a great idea to sell software — but it has had an adverse effect on the customer’s mindset.  In this whole process, design thinking has been drowned, mutilated & murdered and because the body is also not found,  a pig is presented with lipstick on it. It is not uncommon that any kind of product workshop or requirement gathering and defining the feature set are labeled as a design thinking workshop.

Design thinking is a team sport. Its like football, you can’t play it alone! Design thinking is a team sport. Its like football, you can’t play it alone! There has been no better tool, no better thought process than Design thinking to adopt to  change . Changing users, changing market, changing competition, changing ecosystem — in business nothing is constant. The  dynamism  has become a nature of the business and many successful leaders have understood it. Those who thrive are the ones that have implemented  Design Thinking  to battle this change. Now design thinking is a thought process. It is an organisation wide culture change. Quite similar to Total Quality Management(TQM) in the 80s or the Six Sigma in the 90s. Both TQM and Six Sigma are methods, processes and collective consciousness of the company in bringing a continuous improvement in production. As TQM and Six Sigma required — first training and then process changes across organisation — that is what design think

Design thinking needs to challenge conventional thought process. That’s when innovation happens Design thinking needs to challenge conventional thought process. That’s when innovation happens Design thinking  is a tool being used by various leaders to challenge the conventional in the organization. The biggest challenge of a new leader is how to change the norm, how to ask basic questions like why are we doing a particular process, simple things that are generally forgotten under protocol and bureaucracy. And this is where a new CEO or a new head of digital uses design thinking to bring the focus back on the major problem — the ones that are faced by the end user. Hence it is advised to do a design thinking workshop at the start of a new team or a new leadership. Design thinking being collaborative needs to have the right set of people in the room to participate. All stakeholders being affected by the digital process should be part of the workshop — irrespective of org char