Howdy! Welcome to this week’s Whiteboard Roundup.
Big week for tech fans as Apple announced a slew of updates to iOS, including the ability to - wait for it - move your icons to where you really want them on your home screen.
Well over 12 years after Android introduced the same functionality.
Proof, if you ever needed it, that feature parity with your competition is simply not needed to build a viable, valuable business.
Cheers.
Tom Haczewski
The User Story
News
Different ≠ better
In UX, different rarely equals better.
Jakob’s Law, for example, reminds us that if you are constantly making the user guess rather than understand, it inhibits their ability to feel confident in an interface and increases cognitive load and potential dropout.
Users spend most of their time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work the same way as all the other sites they already know.
Jakob’s Law
Luke Wroblewski, one of my favourite designers to follow, wrote a great article on this with some excellent research on making things different even within the same interface and that making things ‘stand out’ by changing the colour or size, might actually have the opposite effect.
It’s fascinating, and demonstrates the need for good, frequent user research.
Have a read, and find out the answer to which of those designs performed better.
Why designers are unhappy
It’s no secret that design is having a bad year, but it also happens that designers quit of their own volition too. Once they’ve finally landed a job, they’re overworked and have diminishing opportunities for growth and learning.
This report from Matej Latin is excellent reading, and if you’re in a position of product or design leadership, it’s worth having a look to see if you’re falling into these traps and if your teams are fulfilled and given the tools they need to excel. Otherwise, you might find people jumping ship for better opportunities.
Most interesting is the main reason why designers quit: the limited ability to conduct research. An absolutely bonkers sentiment when the average improvement in projects when usability research is part of the process mostly exceeds 100%.
Slow your design process down. Give designers time to research, think, and create the right things.
A hotline for quitting
I stumbled upon this website while looking for design inspiration this week, and had to share it.
855-how-to-quit.org created a series of telephone number extensions that relate to the imprint codes on the pills that you’re trying to kick. So if you’re addicted to acetaminophen, you can call 855-469-86-7848 plus the extension 3601 (which happens to be printed on those tablets) to get specific help for that drug.
It’s an excellent way to get the help to the right person, by eliminating the boundaries around self-help.
The website is fabulous too, and it’s worth taking the time to listen to some of the stories there.
Thanks for reading.
A slightly different quote for you this week because it made me laugh.
“I think my thighs are too powerful for my jeans.”
- My wife, Laura, just now
See you next time, friends!