This spring, I went to Jess Martin‘s excellent Refresh the Triangle presentation at Fragment Labs. From his experience at Relevance in Durham, Jess explained how designers and developers can work together better — but really, it’s advice that applies to anyone who’s interested in creating products that succeed in both form and function.
Intentionally starting with a terribly-designed intro slide, Jess shared seven User Experience (UX) exercises we can use to make things work better. I once learned C++ and VisualBasic but I’m not a developer. I use Photoshop and I know the importance of whitespace but I’m not a designer.
My favorite exercise was the Squint Test. Basically, squint at the design or layout. What stands out? If it’s not the place you want your audience to focus (or click or otherwise act on), you probably need to fix that.
You should follow @JessMartin and go hear Jess speak in the future. He should be selling his valuable handout, but it’s free (for now at least). Get the handout PDF and slides from Jess’ Learn to Speak Interface website.
What’s your favorite “smarter design” tip or trick?
Photo credit: Jess Martin via Twitter
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