By Jake Johnson Common Dreams And colleague says “global warming” no longer strong enough term. “Global heating is technically more correct because we are talking about changes in the energy balance of the planet.” Declaring that after three decades of … Continue reading →

By Jessica Corbett Common Dreams Far-reaching global assessment details how humanity is undermining the very foundations of the natural world     On the heels of an Earth Day that featured calls for radical action to address the current “age … Continue reading →

By Jake Johnson Common Dreams Rapidly falling insect populations, said Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson, “will make it even more difficult than today to get enough food for the human population of the planet, to get good health and freshwater for everybody.” A … Continue reading →

By Harriet Gross Courtesy of Aeon What’s not to like about gardening? It’s a great way to get outdoors, away from everyday routines, and to exercise your creativity. It’s good for your health, whatever your age, and gardeners tend to be … Continue reading →

Some of the problems we work on as UX researchers are simple and are easily solved by getting users in front of our product. But other problems can be complex and it's hard to know how to start solving them. In situations like that, a simple 2x2 diagram can cut through the 'what ifs', the 'how abouts' and the edge cases and provide a simple way of looking at the problem. Here are 10 examples of 2x2 diagrams to simplify UX research discussions.

Everyday consumer products continue to frustrate people. The failure of companies to fully embrace UX is partly to blame, but there is also another reason -- one that is seldom discussed. Consumer product companies pay too much heed to their retail customers and, in so doing, they prevent the development team from getting first-hand knowledge of end users.

Researchers sometimes ask participants which of two alternative designs they prefer. The data from these studies comprise opinions that have little predictive value. In contrast, multivariate A/B testing involves target users doing real tasks. The data from these studies comprise behavioural observations that predict real-world behaviour.

We're familiar with awarding prizes for excellence, from the Oscars to The International Design Awards. But what if we started giving prizes to shame bad examples of design? Enter the Procrustes Awards.

If you compare the UX research methods we use today with the methods we used 16 years ago, something interesting emerges. We see that UX research is becoming increasingly remote and increasingly unmoderated. In other words, we're moving to a world where UX research is becoming automated. We can learn a lot from automated research. But it comes at the price of understanding our users.

When carried out in a lab, user experience research is gear heavy. You need technology to record audio, video and the screen of the device under test. In contrast, when carried out in the field, user experience research is more lightweight. Even so, there are a few non-obvious items of kit that I find essential on a field visit.

Doing UX research in a university is very different to doing UX research in a business setting. If you're an academic making the leap, what are the main differences you need to keep in mind?

Whether you call it a field visit, a contextual inquiry or a customer discovery interview, the goal of early stage research is the same: to uncover users' needs. Here are 5 mistakes I've seen crop up time and again in this kind of research.

Usability tests are unique. We ask people to do real tasks with the system and watch. As the person completes the task, we watch their behaviour and listen to their stream-of-consciousness narrative. But what makes a good usability task scenario?

Successful design manages cognitive load. Cognitive load is a technical term for “mental effort,” more specifically it’s the total amount of mental effort required for a given task. Completing any task requires some level of mental effort. This includes learning new information, analyzing stimuli, and working with short and long-term memory. Mental energy which has […]

The post What is cognitive load and why does it matter in web and interface design? appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

To design positive emotional experiences you must understand human emotion. The subject of emotions is complex largely because everything we do is either influenced by, or directly caused by, emotion. Factor in the range and capacity different individuals have for emotion, add in the fact most emotions occur subconsciously, and round this out with the […]

The post The Three Levels of Emotional Design appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

If you’re not familiar with cognitive load and how it impacts interface design, it’s worth reviewing our previous blog post. If you’re already convinced cognitive load is important, the next step is addressing it. Reducing cognitive load is accomplished by reducing or offloading mental effort (which are similar but different concepts.) Reducing mental effort is […]

The post 10 Design Principles to Reduce Cognitive Load appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

An overwhelming majority of websites incorporate the “hero image” design pattern. This is where a large, visually impactful image is used at the top of the page along with key messaging to emotionally engage the target audience. As one of the first elements one sees, the actual imagery used is often subject of attention during […]

The post Does the hero image matter? appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

Are you a logical individual? Do you carefully consider all options before making a decision? Are opinions shaped primarily through facts and reasoning? If you answered yes to these questions, you’d be wrong. We are all emotional beings, and our emotions are the root cause of our thoughts and behaviors. Our logical, conscious thoughts simply […]

The post Fight or Flight: Which Emotion Does Your Website Evoke? appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

In early 2014 I had just gotten married and recently moved into a new home. With two major life events out of the way, I decided I was ready to lead a WordCamp. I originally planned to organize WordCamp Detroit. I was an organizer twice before and the event had missed a year and I […]

The post 5 Critical Lessons Learned Organizing WordCamp Ann Arbor for the Third Time appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

When I first started designing websites in the 1990s, I focused most of my attention on creating striking visuals. In my defense, I was typically designing gaming website with only the occasional local business… but my goal was always to design a site that looked “cool.” In the early 2000s I stumbled across a website […]

The post Does your website need to be beautiful? appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

You’re homepage is beautifully designed. It’s clear all the ways you can help. You’ve articulated why someone should hire you. You’ve validated your claims through case studies and testimonials, yet… You’re not getting the volume of leads you need. Sure they trickle in every month, but it’s not enough to grow your business. What are […]

The post Why Your Website Doesn’t Generate Leads (and how to fix it) appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

You have less than one second to make the right impression. Almost immediately after landing on your website users will make an uninformed, mostly subconscious judgment about what type of organization they’re interacting with. This initial judgment will largely be influenced by layout, design, and visual tone. It will not only influence the rest of […]

The post Hooked: How to engage your website audience in one second or less appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

You’re hiring a web designer or providing web design services, what’s included in a normal project? In other words, what are the deliverables, and the use of a membership website builder could be essential for this. Let’s start by defining what a deliverable is. Wikipedia defines a deliverable as: …a tangible or intangible good or […]

The post Modern Website Deliverables appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

While most known for automotive, Michigan has a rich history in design. As a designer myself, I wanted to learn more about Michigan’s design roots. Not knowing what to expect, I found Michigan is home to many historic designers, several innovative design-forward companies, and top design schools. Automotive is a source of Michigan pride, but […]

The post History of Design in Michigan appeared first on Psychology of Web Design | 3.7 Blog.

NATGEO KIDS Branding Redesign Proposal

It’s A Living Mural for X-Games China & Innersect

Intercellar - Accidental Anomalies of Particle Wallpapers

Designer Spotlight: Burnt Toast

Branding and Visual Identity for Potency Design

Jesse Chehak
Near Big Water, Utah, 2010
Website - JesseChehak.com

Born in Tarzana, California, Jesse Chehak studied photography and Art History at Sarah Lawrence College and is currently pursuing a MFA at the University of Arizona. Chehak has exhibited his large format prints in galleries and project spaces including Bruce Silverstein (New York), Danese (New York) and the Durham Art Guild (Durham, North Carolina.) He is currently seeking funding to publish his first monograph, Fool's Gold, and a gallery to exhibit and distribute the completed print edition. In 2005, Chehak joined M.A.P. and began executing commercial campaigns and editorial features for clients, including The New York Times, Wallpaper*, Newsweek, GQ, Ogilvy & Mather, Saatchi & Saatchi, Digitas, and others. Chehak has received notable attention for his work, including PDN30 in 2005, The Magenta Foundation's Flash Forward in 2007, a Baum Nomination in 2008, and AP25. He lives in Tucson and Los Angeles.

David Wolf
Oranges and Stones, , 2012
Website - DavidWolfPhotographs.com

David Wolf is a devoted film photographer, making both color and black and white prints by hand in the traditional darkroom. His work has been exhibited internationally at such venues as Aperture, The Griffin Museum of Photography, the Photographic Center Northwest, the Lishui International Photography Festival in China, and the Salon de la Photo during Paris Photo. David’s photographs have been acquired by a variety of private and institutional collections, including the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris; the Prentice and Paul Sack Photographic Trust of the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco; the Santa Barbara Museum of Art; and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA. He recently won top honors in both the International Photography Awards and the Grand Prix de la Decouverte, International Fine Art Photography Competition. His work has appeared in such publications as Harper’s, aCurator, and Fraction Magazine. A Boston native and Brown University graduate, David now calls San Francisco home, where his work is represented by Corden|Potts Gallery.

You know you've made it BIGTIME when you're a face card in a WordPress card game! @angrycreative @Kickstarter https://t.co/tFbB4ROhKS #WordPress #WooCommerce pic.twitter.com/WMPf5sffkM — Magnus Jepson (@mjepson) December 13, 2017

Bikefinder is a startup that I’m and advisor and investor in. They are making an integrated GPS tracker for bikes with a sim card, so you can track it anywhere via web or app. The online store was setup on WooCommerce using the Storefront theme, and I made a new custom design for it. Instead […]

Want to add a food menu to your restaurant website? Publishing your restaurant menu on your website comes in handy especially if you’re providing an online restaurant reservation or online food delivery. That way your users can figure out the available food options without having to walk into your restaurant. In this article, we’ll show […]

The post 10 Best Restaurant Menu Plugins for WordPress (Compared) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Want to send SMS messages to your WordPress users? With automated SMS notification, you can keep your customers updated by sending order notification, shipment delivery status, cancellation notification, and more. In this article, we’ll show you how to send SMS messages to your WordPress users with ease. Sending Automated SMS Messages From WordPress SMS messages […]

The post How to Send SMS Notifications From WordPress (Step by Step) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Want to create a full-screen optin form in WordPress? Love it or hate it… using a welcome mat is one of the easiest ways to capture your users’ attention. Even big brands like Forbes use a welcome mat to promote their campaigns. In this article, we’ll show you how to properly create a welcome mat […]

The post How to Create a Full-Screen Welcome Mat Optin Form in WordPress appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Want to create “Google Forms style” forms for your WordPress website? A lot of publishers choose Google Forms to create a survey because it provides a distraction-free landing page dedicated to the form. If you want to create a distraction-free landing page specifically for your form, but don’t want to use a third-party app, like […]

The post How to Create a “Google Forms Style” Form in WordPress appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Want to create a wholesale order form in WordPress? If you’re a wholesaler looking to get online, but don’t want to manage a full-fledged eCommerce store, then you might want to consider adding a simple wholesale order form to your WordPress site. In this article, we’ll show you how to properly create a simple wholesale […]

The post How to Properly Create a Wholesale Order Form in WordPress appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Are you looking for the best GoDaddy alternative for domain registration and web hosting? Without a doubt, Godaddy is one of the most popular names when it comes to registering domain names and hosting your business online. Over the last 22 years, GoDaddy has managed to establish a stronghold in the market. In this article, […]

The post 12 Best GoDaddy Alternatives for Domain & Web Hosting (2020) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Are you looking for a good staging plugin to test your experiments before it goes live? A staging site is a replica of your website where you can experiment with new features, plugins, and updates before you push them to your live website. That way you can find and fix bugs without having to worry […]

The post 9 Best Staging Plugins for Your WordPress Website (Compared) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Are you looking for some good Divi plugins to extend your site features? While you can certainly use any plugins with the Divi theme and Divi Builder plugin, the Divi community has created some plugins specifically for the Divi users. In this article, we’ll show you some of the best Divi plugins that let you […]

The post 6 Best Divi Plugins That Work on Top of Divi Builder appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Looking to build an online form on your WordPress site? Not sure whether you should use WPForms or Google Forms? Both WPForms and Google Forms are two great options for small and medium scale businesses. But when you dig deeper, you’ll find a few key differences between these 2 form builders. To help you find […]

The post WPForms vs. Google Forms – Which One is Best? (Compared) appeared first on IsItWP - Free WordPress Theme Detector.

Whether taking classes online or finding a seat in a lecture hall that makes you feel safe, Adam shares ideas for vets with TBI and PTSD returning to school.

Returning to school as a veteran — especially with a brain injury — can be difficult. Adam suggests strategies like starting slowly or taking a smaller course load that balances better with work and life.

Adam says that like drill and ceremony and calling cadence, which start with a first step, so does recovery from a brain injury and/or PTSD.

Service members, veterans, and their caregivers are incredibly resilient, says Adam, but learning to connect with whatever community you are in will only strengthen that resiliency.

Adam offers advice to caregivers of a loved one with TBI and/or PTSD — from simply trying to see how that person's life has changed to helping him get involved in confidence-boosting activities.

Transitioning from military to civilian life can take time and can be tricky. Adam talks about how student veteran groups on college campuses can help vets reintegrate socially in their own way and  time.

When it comes to TBI and PTSD, everyone's recovery is different. But Adam shares three key principles that can be crucial for everyone.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but have you ever stopped to think what your Ecommerce images are saying about the products you’re trying to sell online? Are your photos helping your products to jump off the screen and convince shoppers to buy them? Or, are your product images quite simply […]

Original post: 5 Product Image Tips For High Converting Landing Pages

The post 5 Product Image Tips For High Converting Landing Pages appeared first on Daily Blog Tips.