Day 86 - Ten Typography Tips

1. Don't be trendy.
2. Don't use too many fonts.
3. Choose different typefaces that work together.
4. Don't forget about serifs.
5. Be consistent.
6. Create a hierarchy.
7. Legibility is important across all devices, sizes, and experiences.
8. Don't crowd the typography.
9. Create equal 'Perceived' space between letters.
10. Less is more.

Day 85 - White Space

Five ways white space affects the user experience:

1. White space makes your content stand out.
2. White space helps the user focus on what's critical.
3. White space simplifies your designs.
4. White space makes your designs elegant.
5. White space allows for scannability.

Day 61 - 10 Content Strategy Tips of the Day

1. Put yourself in the user's shoes and always keep them top of mind.
2. Speak in the customer's voice and language.
3. Don't use jargon your customers won't understand.
4. Segment your audiences for targeted messaging.
5. Focus on helping people.
6. Look for examples of effective microcopy. Microcopy is instructional text such as field labels, button names, error messaging, and confirmations.
7. Plan a content audit.
8. Use metadata for SEO, taxonomy, and accessibility.
9. Have calls to action.
10. Be goal oriented in your copy.

Day 7 - Improve Your Content Strategy

1)  Put yourself into your user's mindset and create your users personas.  Creating user-focused content that's based on your customer's personas will prevent you from making great content that doesn't resonate with your users.

2)  Ask these questions about your content:

• Will it answer all their questions on the topic?
• Will any of the content frustrate your users?
• What do I expect my users to get out of this content?
• What will the call to action be as a result of this content?

3)  People quickly scan and make snap judgements.  Don't clutter.

4)  Content is not only text. It's also video, imagery, social interactions, and the metadata that underlies it all.

5)  Your content should be valuable, useful, desirable, accessible, credible, findable, and usable.

Day 2 - Interaction Design iOS Principles - Clarity, Deference, and Depth

When designing an app for Apple's iOS keep their 3 core principles in mind and ask these questions.

1)  Clarity - Ensure that content is easy to read and interact with.  Ask yourself,
 * Am I using words and content that are easy for people to understand?
 * Will users immediately know what the app does when they look at it?
 * Is the app intuitive and can it be used with minimal hand holding?

2)  Deference - The application's interface should not compete with nor overshadow the content.
 * Is the user interface competing with the content?
 * Is the UI overwhelmingly noisy and distracting from the content or functionality?

3)  Depth - Subtle motion and multiple layers create a holistic, compelling experience.
 * Do people get confused or lost in the app?
 * How are things arranged and do screens relate to each other?
 * Is usability diminished?