Google’s new look does not care for the user

“Google, this is bad marketing. You have changed the way we search the web and we had to get used to the new layout again and again. And now again. Please do not change the layout just for the sake of it.” – a person

Today, Google has yet again changed their design. I can see the smiles on the faces of the management: we did it, we again improved the user experience.

Let us go through what sort of user experience Google has improved. Read more…

Humane UX

A more humane User Experience design:

Persona: Complex Speech Bubble Persona

Sitemap: Commented Sitemap

User Journey/User Flow: Speech Bubble User Flow

Prototype/Wireframe: Big Brother Prototype

Big Brother Prototype/Wireframe

My idea for a new wireframe originated in the frustration of having created great personas and user journeys and not applying them on the prototype. It was so helpful for me to see these newly styled user flows and personas because they helped me visualise my users. However, I quickly forgot about them when I started creating the prototypes. The prototype got simply detached from what I’ve learnt from my personas and user journeys. I thought to myself that there had to be a better way. Read more…

Complex Speech Bubble Persona

The way personas were made has frustrated me for quite some time. To me it seemed they didn’t give enough insight into the persona’s life. Some of them looked like long essays, others looked like CIA database profiles. Simply put I wasn’t happy the way personas were made. I thought there had to be a better way. Read more…

Speech Bubble User Flow

I have never liked the way user flows were done. This is speaking about my personality quite much – always in search of something better and looking for opportunities to innovate. Anyway, most user flows seemed to me too clunky or they just simply freaked me out. I thought to myself there had to be a better way. Read more…

Commented Sitemap

One of the first things that frustrated me when I started working as a UX designer was sitemaps. Sitemaps used to be done in Microsoft Word with bullet points. I wondered how clients will understand sitemaps that were merely a list of pages in a hierarchical order. I would have thought there has to be a better way. Read more…

And yet the earth moves – can you hack it?

Can you hack it? An awesome film about hackers and outside of the box thinkers, innovators, people who love to help. In a world that embraces the status quo there is a little chance to make a change. It’s sad but true. Galileo Galiei just escaped the life sentence by complying but then he added “yet the earth moves”.

Read more…