Nerd Stalker

The Conundrum of Humdrum Innovation If you're making a digital product or service today, our maturing technology infrastructure makes many ideas more immediately feasible.... Now, in contrast, each component of IDEO's Venn diagram of innovation seems to be enlarging, as Figure 2 shows-especially in the technology sector.

Offboarding: How and How Not to End Relationships with Users | UX Booth Most of us have experienced bad offboarding: the process of leaving a site, when we end up wondering "why on earth is it so hard to just cancel or opt out?" Sarah Khan is here to help businesses understand the value of making offboarding a positive experience.

Complete guide for making animated perspective design or story that nobody wanted to tell me Shot on Dribbble Last year many designers noticed a huge trend to animate mobile design and to present it in a nice perspective look. I thought: How do they do that? I knew exactly, that it would be possible if I moved all UI assets to the After Effects and then animated it there.

A Useful Guide to Content Types, Part 1 | UX Booth Content types are the essential building blocks for a brand, a content management system, and a digital ecosystem. In this series, content strategist Carrie Hane helps us understand what they are, and how to use them for better content and a better experience.

GE's Predix Design System - GE Design Our first design system at GE, created in 2012, was similar to many design systems you find on the Internet today. It was designed to appeal to and support a broad audience within GE and contained a large selection of common design patterns (a term I'll be using to encompass both user interface components and interaction patterns) grouped by function.

The Name of the Practice Is Information Architecture In relation to information architecture, the word systems does not imply technology systems. Rather, the use of the word system refers to the underlying ecological nature of an information environment, or space. It's actually the second word in each of those component names that embodies the complexity and essence of information-architecture practice.

The Best Metrics and Tools for Measuring User Engagement If you are reading this blog, there is a pretty good chance you know, at least to some degree, what and how important user engagement is. The real struggle at this point is no longer whether to measure it or not - now it's about properly keeping tabs on it, and optimizing it accordingly.

Design Jargon, Simplified | Cooper We designers tend to like our fancy (and sometimes heady) terminology. The UX industry has gone through many different rounds of trying to define what we do, e.g. UX, service blueprints, journey maps. Describing our work can be exhausting for those who aren't immersed in our world.

Prototype usability testing? Avoid these common mistakes. Testing with wireframes is a fast and easy way of discovering usability issues during the early stages of the design process. Wireframes are a low fidelity version of the real thing, meaning they have lots of limitations that can affect the results of your usability study - or even completely ruin it - if you don't take some precautions.

Checklist for handing off designs to product team With short deadlines and crunch schedules, designs are often handed down to the development team one week before the product/feature's release date, and they are asked to start sprinting. The designs usually consist of Photoshop files (PSDs) or Sketch artboards with a lot of layers and zero specs to accompany them.

Beyond The Conversation: Context-Fluid Experiences and Augmented Cognition Have you ever felt like you were having a one-sided conversation with someone? It feels as if you are exerting much effort with minimal feedback or response in return. When we use an application, we can think of this experience as a conversation between the user and the technology.

UX Leadership Roles: Multiple Paths The UX Principal loves doing the detailed work and coming up with new UX design ideas. UX Principal is a role that very rarely exists within organizations, but when it is does, it is very valuable in keeping senior UX professionals doing what they enjoy and in creating great work.

Practical Content Strategy In Action User Experience (Photo courtesy of Pablo by Buffer) Content strategy is the epitome of easier said than done. Translating the idea of content strategy into meaningful action and results is a struggle, which is why Joseph Phillips has identified a methodical process for devising, carrying out and measuring content strategy projects.

We Believe In Tech, Startups, Design & You The Nerd Stalker Weekend Edition Articles that caught the Nerd Stalker crew's eye from the last week.

Why Steve Jobs Was So Proud to Steal Coming Up With Your Own Ideas is Actually Easier Had he suffered from it, Steve Jobs might never have even considered visiting the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1979.

We Go Inside Bitly's Latest Update Good job bit.ly! In case you didn't know, the bitly UX upgrade has been out for almost a month and we just got ours. Very clean design and simple. We gave it our typical Nerd Stalker unboxing. 

Writing English for Global Audiences: Creating content that's relevant to more users

SF Mobile Entrepreneurs is holding an interesting event tonight at Life360. Evernote's Jamie Hull and Kara Hodecker will share their thoughts on design strategy and creating user-centered mobile products. Jamie Hull is the VP of Mobile Products at Evernote and Kara Hodecker is the senior product designer for Evernote. If you see Jamie tonight ask her how she used Skitch to design her bike . The discussion will be moderated by product communicator  Kate Rutter  who is a co-founder of LUXr  and has her personal creative blog at Intelleto . The event is organized by Stanfy - who offers quality App design and development services. When: October 8, 6-8:30p Where:  Life360 ,  539 Bryant Street, suite 402,   San Francisco ,   CA   94107 Grab your tickets here .

Lynda.com announces the new title, "Migrating from Flash to Edge Animate" by Jake Stroh. In this interview we talk to Jake about the title, working with Lynda, his other work and more.

Picks of the Week: Biometric headset increases game difficulty for angry players bit.ly/1eooxpr ( Stuart Robards | Gizmag ) Amazon Wants to Ship Your Package Before You Buy It on. wsj.com/1cSXD55 via @PSFK ( Greg Besinger / WSJD ) Amazon Considering Online Pay-TV Service http://on.wsj.com/1dSIvcm ( Sharma, Ramachandra and Clark | WSJD ) 13 Things You Can Actually Buy With #Bitcoin feedly.com/k/1kH6MYq  ( Kevin Smith / Complex Tech ) Man Interrogated By FBI For Wearing Prescription Google Glass At The Movies  http://read.bi/1cT56RC ( Jim Edwards | Business Insider ) Twitter Gets Serious About Social Shopping bit.ly/1cP6THl  ( Jennifer Elias / Fast Company Labs ) Speed Round: "70,000 healthcare.gov records hacked" claim turns out to be Google results http://bit.ly/1cSV7Mj ( Rob Beschizza | Boing Boing ) Motorola lowers price of bamboo Moto X, more natural finishes coming January 21st bit.ly/1dtZKQ5 viA ( Chris Welsh | TheVerge ) ...