Here’s our round up of the most useful user experience (UX) design resources we’ve come across recently. Get actionable advice you can start implementing today by clicking on the “continue reading” link.
Form Usability: Getting ‘Address Line 2’ Right (Baymard Institute)
It’s amazing how one seemingly simple field can cause bewilderment and uncertainty for users. Enter ‘Address Line 2’ which numerous checkout usability and mobile e-commerce research studies have highlighted repeatedly proves an issue for end-users. This article details 5 simple tips on how to capture this information in an unambiguous way.
Link to article: Form Usability: Getting ‘Address Line 2’ Right
Progress Indicators Make a Slow System Less Insufferable (Nielsen Norman Group)
This article reiterates the importance of one of the original 10 heuristics for web usability, visibility of system status. It showcases a number of examples of how to successfully inform users of where they are in a process and how to make this more tolerable by reducing uncertainty.
“By being forthcoming and transparent about wait times, designers can reduce uncertainty for users and increase the time they are willing to wait. Ultimately, good progress indicators can make users stick around to finish the task and generally have a more positive impression of your website or application.”
Link to article: Progress Indicators Make a Slow System Less Insufferable
How to Improve Your Customers’ Checkout Experience Today (KissMetrics)
Continuing this weeks’ focus on checkouts, this article from KissMetrics summarises a webinar with Kath Pay, Marketing Director at cloud.IQ.
In it she summarises how consumers are increasingly being conditioned by brands like Amazon to have certain expectations, especially in their checkout experience. She then shares a number of tips on how to improve your customers’ checkout experience.
Link to article: How to Improve Your Customers’ Checkout Experience Today
Ten Ways to Transcend Culture: Making Users’ Choices Easier (UXPA Magazine)
There’s no doubt as people we’re all faced with more choices and opportunities than ever before. However, this leads to a substantial cost; the burden of choice. Many decisions entail long commitments and/or high stakes. Even seemingly trivial or enjoyable decisions can entail risks, from wasted time and money to hidden dangers. Against this backdrop it’s no wonder that we’re increasingly looking for reasons to say no, as opposed to yes.
As the conclusion of this article states, “human brains are too small to trade off everything. By supporting systematic, ad hoc, and impulsive choices with personalized experiences, you increase cross cultural willingness and ability to consider the evidence for action that you provide.”
Link to article: Ten Ways to Transcend Culture: Making Users’ Choices Easier
Got time for more?
Other business and strategy articles worth a read:
- Best Practices for Medical App Development Go Beyond Standard UX (UX Magazine)
- UX Conversations with Silvina Couto (Screen Interaction)
- Smart Watches, Wearables, and That Nasty Data Rash (Global Moxie)
- Attention Span Test
Next week’s links
Next week we’ll be sharing some of the user research resources we’ve come across and bookmarked lately.
Get our weekly roundups delivered straight to your inbox
Sign-up for our email newsletter and get all our posts by email as soon as they’re published.