Day 20 - Don't Be Evil in Your Designs

Persuasive techniques in UI, marketing, design patterns, & experience that are created to benefit companies more than their customers are evil.  Don't create user experiences at the expense of your customers. Don't spam, link bait, or trick your customers.

Here are just a few examples of what NOT to do. So be a good design citizen!

1. Implementing dark patterns is bad. A dark pattern is a type of UI that appears to be carefully crafted to trick users. Don't be deceptive in your designs.
2. Do not bury or intentionally hide your contact info (including your phone number) on your product or site so as to avoid speaking directly with customers.
3. Don't use fear tactics in your value proposition to get people to buy your product. "You need this because if you don't 'X' will happen..".
4. Don't hide disclaimers away from the "happy path" flow of product purchase i.e. tell your customer something is one price to get them to purchase then charge the customer with other hidden fees or hidden commitments.
5. Do not disguise ads as links to content.
6. Don't constantly bombard users with ads.
7. Don't require users to opt-out of a service or feature they didn't want, after you've automatically opted them in without their consent. Be clear up front before they sign up for your service.
8. Refusing to cancel or refund a user's money after having not delivered the service you promised them is bad.  Don't do that.
9. Don't sell people on products or services you cannot deliver.

Day 19 - Timeboxing, Simplification, and Constraints

Here are 3 strategies for getting things done - timeboxing, simplification, and constraints.

In time management, timeboxing allocates a fixed time period called a timebox to work on a task.  Sharpen your focus and overcome procrastination by putting it in a scheduled time box that you must complete. Time boxes can help you focus on the task at hand, so don't work on anything else (or surf the web) while completing your scheduled task.  When you make your to-do list for the day, make sure you schedule blocks of time for each item on the list.  With out the time component a list is just a list and not a plan.  Parkinson's law states that work expands so as to fill time available for it's completion. So try timeboxing it!

Simplify the tasks of the day and keep the list short. This will help you focus on the present too. Better to have a few things done well and complete them rather than work on a bunch of things and get nothing done. Simplify where you can. So many of us waste time lost in email.  Need to speak to someone about a task your working on? Turn off the email program and pick up the phone instead.  If you need to spend time in email for a written record schedule it as a task. Don't use email as an excuse not to complete your task at hand.

Constraints force you to be more creative and focus on solutions. Some may see constraints as a bad thing, but limiting choices in design enables you to concentrate on the purpose and design mission. Imposed restrictions will help you eliminate distractions, not waste time on things that don't apply, and help you think more creatively about how to push the design confines.

Day 18 - Heuristic Methods for Reviewing Websites and Applications

In psychology, a heuristic is a mental shortcut or rule of thumb that allows you to quickly solve a problem or make a decision.  Review a website or app and rate each of these elements from on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = poor and 5 = excellent).

1. Homepage
2. Task orientation and website functionality
3. Navigation and information architecture
4. Forms and data entry
5. Trust and credibility
6. Quality of writing and content
7. Search
8. Help, feedback and error tolerance
9. Page layout and visual/aesthetic design
10. Accessibility and technical design

Day 17 - Users Don't Like ...

1. Nobody wants to work.  Make tasks easy with the least amount of work possible.
2. People don't initially read web pages and screens they scan them. Less is more.  Don't clutter your screen real estate and make the content easy to scan. It only take a couple seconds for a user to hit the back button so get their attention quick.
3. People don't want to think too much. Simplify and automate. Automate repeatable tasks, combine similar tasks, and break complexity down into simpler, digestible chunks.
4. People love to share cool things they discover or create.  Your products and services should be social and shareable by default.
5. People get bored easily.  Keep them engaged and interested by getting them to that "Aha" moment quickly and show them the value.

Day 16 - Customer Journey Map Tips

A customer journey map is a diagram that shows the steps a customer goes through to complete a task/s.

1. It's important to understand the end points (start and finish) of a customer journey. What is the customer's clear goal.  Where does the journey start and end, i.e. "gets on the train in Chicago and gets off in New York".
2. The point of a customer journey is to figure out the touch points a customer goes through to accomplish their task.
3. Find invisible touch points. Often, all of the touch points aren't clear. For example "waiting on the train platform for a trip from Chicago to New York" might not be apparent as part of the journey.  But this is an opportunity to engage your customer in some way.
4. Understand your customers' mindset before and after the customer journey for a more holistic, empathic account of their experience.
5. Use a persona for your journey map.  Find the most relevant, valuable persona you can and discuss it with your client.

Day 15 - Card Sorting

Card sorting is a technique to find and organize the information architecture of a site or application. The information architecture is the "what goes where" like the heirarchical structure of a menu system.  A test participant in a card sorting study would be given a sets of 3 x 5 note cards with content on them. They would then review the cards so they can group them into logical orders and categories.

Card sorting sessions can help define a structure that reflects your user's desired workflow which will increase their productivity and satisfaction.

1. Get the cards ready. List each content or information type on a separate card and limit to about 100 cards.
2. Use data and comments to find patterns.
3. Create a heirarchy that works for everyone.
4. Combine cluster analysis, dendograms, and comments (what participants said in the sort) to create first pass of information architecture.
5. To inform your analysis, also use:
1. Usability studies
2. Support data
3. Search logs
4. Web logs

Day 14 - Quick Tips User Interface Design

Remember these are guidelines, not rules. Try these:

1. Try a single column layout instead of multiple columns to narrow distractions. Include a call to action at the end.
2. Try consolidating similar or duplicate functions into one in order to reduce fragmentation and confusion.
3. Reduce choices.  Too many choices may cause indecision on the part of the user.
4. Be direct in your content. If you're copy is using words like "maybe", "probably", or "perhaps" then this is an opportunity for you to be more authoritative.
5. Try fewer form fields and engage your users quickly.  Every form field you add makes the experience more labor intensive, increases friction, and makes it more likely that your user will drop off.

Day 13 - Be Prepared for Usability Testing

1. Know what you're testing for when you design your tests
2. Recruit participants
1. Define recruitment criteria
2. Recruit on Craigslist
3. Paid recruitment https://ethn.io/pricing 
4. Create Google Forms to screen and qualify candidates
5. Survey Monkey
3. Have all testing materials ready and practice before your testing dates
1. Prototype/s
2. Location
3. Questions
4. Schedule
5. Participants
4. Schedule the selected participants
5. Conducting usability interviews
1. Set proper expectations
2. Shut up and listen.
3. Avoid bias.  If UX designers conduct interviews on their own designs bias is very likely.
4. Record the interviews.
5. Follow up answers. Make participants feel comfortable, be genuinely inquisitive and probe deep to gain insight.
6. Provide a reward upon conclusion - gift card, voucher, or cash.

Day 12 - Understand the User's Goals, Needs, and Tasks - Model the Solution

1. Task Modeling - understanding what people want and how to design for them.
2. Find out the steps people go through and the decisions they need to make. Then base your designs around that.
3. UX is often stuck in academia. Talk to real users.
4. With the task model, you're aligning design experiences that fit with how people expect things to work in practice.
5. Think from the user's perspective first, but utilize systems thinking, holistic thinking about the overall experience.
6. Empathy - understand and share your user's experience and emotion.
7. Constantly check in with your users to make sure the UI is on point. But the goal is to be able to tell the story without showing the interface.
8. All the details in every page and component of your product should contribute to the overall experience.

Day 11 - Characteristics of Good Interaction Design

Here are a few characteristics of good interaction design:

1. Understanding.
2. Meaning.
3. Value.
4. Engagement.
5. Responsiveness.
6. Speed.