📰 3 ARTICLES
A Lesson on Top Tasks from Hurricane Beryl
- UX Specialist Evan Sunwall uses Hurricane Beryl’s impact on the city of Houston as a case study for how CenterPoint Energy failed to consider the importance of top tasks in the design of their site, leaving users confused and frustrated while trying to navigate through an emergency situation.
- Issues such as unclear outage maps, challenges with how or when to report a loss of power, and inconsistent alerts which often failed to provide pivotal information or assurance all added to the negative user experience.
- “Apps and websites can be designed to enable many user activities. Identifying a short list of top tasks serves as a guiding light for the organization. Top tasks are activities that users must be able to do with a product. If users cannot do these things, then the experience has failed.”
The Apple Search Bar Experiment
- Product designer Barsha Maharjan takes an inquisitive look into Apple’s decision to relocate Safari’s search bar to the bottom of the screen, a UX choice that in theory creates a more intuitive experience with better ease of use, but in practice received quite a bit of user backlash.
- The reaction can be linked to a psychological preference for use-case consistency, which Maharjan coins as “UX Reflex Theory”: because most search functionality is commonly found at the top of an app, users will look for this reflexively and respond negatively when it fails to meet previously set expectations.
- “Do we need to design components the traditional way forever? The answer is no; conditioned reflexes are adaptable, and with enough repetition, old muscle reflexes can be overridden with new ones. However, there will be reluctance until users become accustomed to the new patterns that eventually develop into reflexes.”
Crafting Config: Creating a Visual Identity
- Design leaders at Figma break down how they went about creating the visual identity of this year’s config, detailing how the experience needed to feel immersive and exciting while still being a functional and purposeful part of the event and remaining true to Figma’s brand.
- The design process touched every element, from physical structures and decor at the conference to digital and interactive experiences for attendees, and considered how they would work together holistically in various settings.
- “Much like in the world of UX design, conference design isn’t just about aesthetics. With over 12 thousand in-person attendees and 65 thousand virtual participants, we had to tackle complex UX considerations.”
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
Mel Richardson, a UX Academy graduate, showcases an eye for detail in her redesign of a responsive website for an educational nonprofit, creating better-optimized user flows to support the organization’s growth while maintaining their visual identity and communicating their mission. She continues with a thread of community support with an end-to-end design for app Local Shelf, where avid readers can easily and accessibly buy and sell used books.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- Must-Read Design Books for This Summer
- BM Alaric: A Funky New Font
- Creative Career Conundrums
- Listen: A World-Class Reading Companion
Design is where science and art break even. — Robin Mathew (designer)
🧪 FROM THE LAB
⭐️ Prototyping in Figma Webinar Next Week
Join us for our first webinar for Prototyping in Figma, being held this coming Thursday, August 1st, at 12PM EST. Led by our Admissions team, you’ll learn about the course content and curriculum, how weekly information sessions and peer groups will work, the benefits of our dynamic community, and more.
If you’re looking to create more realistic and implementable prototypes, reduce the development time of your designs, and create a shared design language across teams, then Prototyping in Figma is for you. Sign up for the webinar to learn more.
Ready to enroll? Do so here and claim your $100 discount for our inaugural cohort.
🎤 Upcoming Design Events
August 1st 1PM EST: Navigating Your Roadmap to a Fulfilling UX Career
August 5th 4PM EST: How to Use Gemini for UX Writing Tasks
August 13th 1PM EST: Turn In-Depth Interviews Into Your UX Superpower
🚀 UX Academy Foundations Launch: Don’t Miss Out
Our upcoming cohort of UX Academy Foundations launches in just over a week, on Monday, August 5th.
Start your journey to a fulfilling UX career with this flexible and beginner-friendly fully online course. In less than 10 hours a week, you’ll learn the fundamentals of visual and UI design and gain proficiency in Figma.
Work through hands-on projects with 1:1 feedback and guidance from an industry expert mentor and join our supportive community.
Spaces are limited: secure your spot now and jumpstart your UX journey.
