Writing of the week
Most of the times when we are surfing, whether on websites or in the street, a shopping centre, a park... we don't start from the very beginning, but from an adjacent street, a secondary door to the park or, a URL that passes us over a super interesting article.
When we enter through this back door, we ask ourselves, "OK, where am I? where am I going?", and if we are lucky, we will see the physical component par excellence, a mupi with a map and a pin that shows us where we are, managing to situate ourselves within the ecosystem, but what about a website? how do I know where I am?
It is one of our tasks to indicate to the person who is interacting on our platform where they are, how? A breadcrumb is not bad, but a user not only detects this crumb to know where he is, but the choreography of several components.
Which components tell us where we are? They would be hierarchically the logo that tells us which website we are in, the state of the navigation link reflecting the active page where we are and the title of the section of the page. It seems obvious but it is not.
Other useful cues that we can provide when it comes to knowing the location are the capable URLs that can be read (example: /page1/subpage1/article1), the title of the page in the browser tab, labels/badges or other active elements that show us that we do not see 100% of the elements but that they are filtered out, or the steps of a stepper.
Finally, you can always do the exercise of visiting your own website and ask yourself the question "where am I?" to find out if you have a good implementation of the "You are here" component.
Articles & Idea
Version Management for Design Systems
How does your design system team notify subscribers that new features are being released, bugs are being fixed, or security holes are being patched?Patrick Fulton
The Psychology of Misinformation during the 2020 U.S. election
A case study of the misinformation parameters and characteristics related to Facebook interactionGrowth.design
Always Use Thumbnails to Represent Additional Product Images (76% of Mobile Sites Don’t)
Interestingly, our desktop and mobile UX benchmarks show widely divergent strategies for displaying additional gallery images — while 100% of desktop benchmark sites use thumbnails for optimal visibility, only 24% of mobile sites do so.Kathryn Totz
Research Repositories for Tracking UX Research and Growing Your ResearchOps
Organize user research in a research repository to communicate and track insights across teams and over time for success and to grow ResearchOps.Kara Pernice
UX Research for Brand Colour
Because I deeply love both UX research and colours, I set out to understand what would be the best choice for This Too Shall Grow.Clo S
Hands-Free Coding
Earlier this year, I developed Cubital Tunnel Syndrome, a repetitive-strain injury, in both of my elbows. As a result, I pretty much can't use a mouse or keyboard; after a few minutes, I get a burning pain shooting down my arms.Josh Comeau
State-Switch Controls: The Infamous Case of the "Mute" Button
On–off controls that switch between two different system states need to clearly communicate to users both the current state and the state the system will move to, should the user press that control.Raluca Budiu
Products
Uxcel
The easiest way to learn UX/UI design.Available on any device anywhere in the world, Uxcel is the best way to improve and learn UX/UI design online in just 5 minutes per day.
UXArchive (retired)
The world's largest library of mobile user flows. UXArchive is the leading destination to find mobile UX trends from the world’s top mobile apps.
iOS Design Kit
The biggest free collection of iOS 14 screens and components.
ClipDrop
Capture and transfer anything around you. ClipDrop (AR Copy Paste) is now available on Android, iOS, macOS and Windows.
PatternPad
PatternPad offers unlimited unique pattern designs that fit your style. Ideal for branding, presentations, social media posts or customising products.
Jam Beta (retired)
Collaboratively improve your website.Jam transforms your site into a collaborative doc. Comment, discuss, create tasks, and even use your existing tools like Jira and Asana right from your website.
Pitch
The new face. of presentations. Uncompromisingly good presentation software. Purpose-built for teams.
Remote Jobs
All remote jobs links have been removed, as the positions were fulfilled.