Five Steps to Storytelling with Data In the pre-digital era, data was a subject for mathematicians and scientists. Now, one way or another, we can’t escape it. Our constant use of online services not only relies on data, we are also a continuous source of data, generating information about all aspects of our lives. Whether it’s data about the human body—thanks to the rise of wearables—our energy consumption at home, or data tied to our personal finance: we’re creating mountains of data, and now we need to find ways to make sense of it. The rise of personalized data is poised to be a hot topic as companies seek to deliver real benefits from the information gathered on consumers. Data has to be accessible to the average person. Data visualization has come a long way since its formative days as the basic pie chart invented over 200 years ago. 1. Make sure you know the data you’re working with. 2. Good data visualization is so much more than a beautiful picture, it tells a story that can be understood by anyone. tweet this 4. 5.
5 things to know when converting your app design to iOS 7 Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Rob Palmer, the UK-based head of design for Fueled, a mobile design and development company based in London and New York. Apple is set to release iOS 7 this fall, an experience the company promises will be simpler, more useful and more enjoyable — while building on the things people love about the current iOS. For developers, the rules of the game are about to shift with iOS 7’s new UI, new design and fresh take on the user and device relationship. 1. Stay simple If you’ve seen teasers for the iOS7 (or used the current developer version that’s out) you know Apple has upped the ante on its passion for simplicity. 2. Apple has embraced a more compact experience in terms of layering its native apps. 3. Apple has placed an emphasis on reducing app independence in order to increase interactivity between native apps. 4. Acting iOS 7-relevant doesn’t mean sacrificing your application’s personality. 5. Image credits: Shutterstock and Apple
How Much UX have You Put into Your UX Portfolio? This isn’t news that will surprise you: the UX job market is hot right now. New opportunities are popping up in every major (and minor) market. No matter what your UX stripe, you are most likely getting contacted nearly every week with some new enticing role. And, although the demand for UX talent far exceeds the supply, the competition for top roles at the most interesting companies is pretty fierce. Hiring managers have high standards, and in order to respond quickly and effectively to the dream roles that cross your path, its critical to maintain a solid portfolio that you can share at a moment’s notice. As a company that works every day with UX folks who are looking for a new opportunity, at Didus we are continuously surprised by the number of bad portfolios that cross our desks. So, What Makes For A Solid Portfolio? Your portfolio should ably demonstrate the relationship between your process and your deliverables. Get All UX on Your Portfolio 1. 2. 3. 4. Shaping the Beast Introduction
14 Fantastic Free Tools for Design Collaboration For designers, collaborating and sharing design concepts can be frustrating. The process is often initiated over email, while we wait for feedback and sort through comments and revision notes. However, there's a wealth of excellent collaboration tools to make it easier to get feedback and approve artwork in a timely, professional manner. For freelancers or small agencies on a tight budget, these free tools can make sharing design concepts in real time a breeze, without breaking the bank. We've gathered 14 of the best free online tools to help you collaborate faster and more efficiently. Are there any free design collaboration tools that you would recommend? 1. Image: Red Pen Red Pen is a fantastic way to get fast feedback, and lets you upload your design, share a short URL and get live, annotated feedback. Once uploaded, just click anywhere on your design to add a note. 2. Image: Bounce 3. Image: Flatsies It's also mobile-ready, allows batch uploads and features logo customization. 4. 5.
User Experience Design – Knowing the Ins & Outs Does Matter | Articles Does this website give me value?What about the usability factor? Is it easy to use? Is it appealing to the eyes and pleasant to use? The essence of user experience design is all about striving to ensure that you get them answer “Yes” to all of those questions. It does matter to know the ins and outs of User Experience Design and here in this article, we are trying to make an honest endeavor to acquaint you with the professional aspect of UX design in the context of Web-based systems such as websites and applications. UX design refers to any facet of a user’s experience when interfacing with a system that could either be a website, a web application or desktop software. User experience design is not to be considered with the concept of ‘one size fits all’; since every situation is difference when it comes to human (user) experience. Although user experience and usability may sound to be synonymous, they are in fact evidently distinct. UX Design Process
Seeing with geometry: inside the mind of Andy Gilmore Jump To up down Close Andy Gilmore is practically unrivaled in his field. A master of geometry, his work has been commissioned by Nike, Fast Company, Wired Magazine, and others. To coincide with the sale of a selection of Gilmore's works, the design house / online store Ghostly International has released a video looking into the artist's creative process. Previously, Gilmore has collaborated with Ghostly, creating album covers for artists releasing music through the brand's record label. The scope of Gilmore's compositions is very broad, ranging from soothing, almost-kaleidoscopic geometric patterns to bold, fractal-inspired loops. When he started out, Gilmore used to draw exclusively in pencil, but found the ability to erase paralyzing; "I could draw a hand and it would take me three days," he explains. Curiously, when moving from traditional techniques to computer software to create art, Gilmore found the opposite to be true. All images copyright Andy Gilmore.
3 ⚙ Top 10 Iconic Data Graphics ⚙ Co Photographers have created many iconic images, but Biostatistics professor Roger Peng recently asked “What are the iconic data graphs of the past 10 years?” FastCoLabs called in Andy Kirk of Visualising Data, Robert Kosara of Eager Eyes, and Matt Stiles, the data editor of NPR, to help answer that question. You can see their selections in the slideshow above. The first three data graphics--WindMap, GapMinder, and the Ebb and Flow Streamgraph--were selected by multiple members of our panel. Reflecting the controversial nature of such a list, each of the remaining graphics were chosen as iconic by a single panelist. Wind Map Wind Map is an art project created by Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg. “A wonderfully elegant and transfixing portrayal of wind,” says Kirk. You can zoom in on particular regions of the country, find the wind velocity at at a precise latitude and longitude, and browse wind patterns from the past such as when Hurricane Sandy made landfall. GapMinder Death and Taxes
Should You Build a Responsive Site or a Native Mobile App? You know your business needs a mobile presence, but how to best offer that experience — without breaking the bank — is something tons of companies, both big and small, continue to struggle with. Carl asks: Is it worth it for me to have a mobile app (or should I just have a responsive site)? How do I know whether I'm getting bang for my buck? If Carl had asked this question back in 2009 or 2010, it would have been phrased, "Do I need a native app or is a mobile-optimized website enough?" As a result, it's an increasingly popular option for companies that are looking to move into mobile, but that lack the budgets to support separate apps for each mobile platform and without the needs of something more complex such as a mobile web app. The first thing you need to do is forget about buzzwords and lingo and focus on the actual needs of your business. The first thing you need to do is forget about buzzwords and lingo and focus on the actual needs of your business. App or Website I wrote then:
Usability & User Experience