What is a tool?

“A tool addresses human needs by amplifying human capabilities. That is, a tool converts what we can do into what we want to do. A great tool is designed to fit both sides.”

Bret Victor: A brief rant on The Future of Interaction Design

Responsive Web Design

Responsive Web design is a combination of fluid grids and images with media queries to change layout based on the size of a device viewport. It uses feature detection (mostly on the client) to determine available device capabilities and adapt accordingly. With responsive Web design one code-base, deployment, and URL provides you with access to many devices including future ones you haven’t encountered yet. But optimizing images, video, third party widgets and more using client-only solutions can be challenging.

Luke Wroblewski

Hierarchy of needs

In his 1943 paper, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” American psychologist Abraham Maslow proposed the idea of a psychological hierarchy of needs in human beings. This hierarchy of need principles specifies that a design must serve the low-level needs (i.e., it must function), before the higher level needs, such as desirability, can begin to be addressed.

• Physiological needs are the requirements for human survival. They include breathing, food, water, shelter, sex, clothing, sleep and comfort.
• Safety needs can be seen as a way to meet tomorrow’s physiological needs. They include personal and financial security, health, order, law and protection from elements.
• Love and belonging needs are about social interactions. We don’t want to go through life alone. Social needs include friendship, love, intimacy, family, community, belonging and relationships.
• Esteem needs include self-esteem as well as recognition from others. Esteem can come in the form of achievement, status, prestige, recognition, mastery, independence and responsibility.
• Self-actualization needs relate to becoming more than what we are, and they can come from peace, knowledge, self-fulfillment, realization of personal potential, personal growth and peak experiences.

Hierearchy of User Experience

• Functionality needs focus on meeting the most basic design requirements. For example, NFC in a customer’s mobile device must provide the capability to make a connection with another NFC object.
• Usability needs have to do with how easy and forgiving a design is to use. For example, configuring your mobile payment preferences to facilitate types of payments and choice of merchants, the interface should be tolerant of errors and mistakes.
• Reliability needs are about establishing stable and consistent performance. For example, if lack of interoperability between mobile payment partners results in a service that behaves erratically or is subject to frequent failure, reliability needs will not be satisfied.
• Confidence needs address security, customer support, contact methods, policies, and giving users control. For example, a mobile payment service must ensure privacy and security of customer’s personal and financial information. A breach in this will result in lack of trust and result in non-adoption.
• Desirability needs focus on personalization, community, flexibility, and customization. For example, if a mobile payment service allows customers to personalize and control their payment experience, and creates a seamless experience across product, services, and channels, desirability needs will be satisfied.

From: Perry Chan and Steven Bradley

Capabilities

Capabilities can be defined as combinations of people, process and technology

Interaction cost

The amount of cognitive and physical effort that a user needs to put into a task in order to achieve a meaningful outcome.

Interface chrome

“Chrome” is the user interface overhead that surrounds user data and web page content. Although chrome obesity can eat half of the available pixels, a reasonable amount enhances usability.

J.Nielsen’s Alertbox

Drone music

‘Drone music is a minimalist musical style that emphasizes the use of sustained or repeated sounds, notes, or tone-clusters – called drones.’

Wikipedia

Luv it …

To use any software, some understanding of how to use both the software and hardware is required. Many users lack this knowledge, which, when we break it down, is why the UX field exists.

Mike Madaio: 5 iOS Behaviours Your Users Probably Don’t Know

Responsive Web Design

At its core, Responsive Web Design is about serving the same HTML to every device and adapting its presentation (mostly through CSS) based on the specific capabilities of the device being used to access it.

Luke Wroblewski: Why Separate Mobile & Desktop Web Pages?

Cardinal, Ordinal, or Nominal Numbers?

A cardinal (or counting) number shows the quantity of something, e.g. 3 apples or 1200 search results

An ordinal number expresses the rank or position of an item in an ordered list or a comparison of items, e.g. 1st in line, 3rd repetition, or 22nd row

A nominal number is used to identify something, similar to a calling name, e.g. a post code or a phone number.