Well, UI is a subset of UX
“Can you please explain to us the difference between UI & UX?” — this was the first question I was asked during my interview at IIT Kanpur for admission in M.Des program. I told them that in my understanding of the subject, UI is a subset of UX. Although the panel didn’t seem to like what I said, all this while later, I still firmly stand up to the same viewpoint.
To actually understand the difference (to say) between UI and UX, it’s imperative to understand the definitions first. The term UX stands for ‘User Experience’ which was first coined by renowned author and researcher — Don Norman. Not that he was the first person to introduce the world with UX design, he was certainly first one to put a label on it. In his book, ‘The Design of Everyday things’, he made clear points to support the importance and need of designing for human experiences.
In my own understanding of the book and his works, a good user experience should always be treated as a design fundamental for any given project (not just the ones related to Human-Computer Interaction or HCI ). …
Design follows data
Project overview: Dashboard design to effectively communicating data to relevant people
Client: UNI.xyz, a web platform for designers focusing on crowd-sourcing design solutions and making the design more accessible.
Timeline: September 2020 — Feb 2021
Introduction: Dashboards on UNI platform were envisioned to be a one-stop destination for all statistical information regarding a particular entity. Since UNI has multiple features for varying user groups, one dashboard for all didn’t seem like a workable solution. So the project was to create a dashboard layout along with design guidelines which could be used anywhere by making minor tweaks.
Overview: For me, dashboards are one of the most interesting problems of communication design. There is data which needs to be communicated and there’s a user who is interested in the story. The entire game is to find an equilibrium between the capacity and limitations of the user with the information to form a narrative. A dashboard is not limited to colourful charts, bold text and quirky illustrations. It’s a canvas where a story is told. …
If there’s one thing in my 2020 bucket list which I could proudly tick off is to develop a reading habit. I read many titles in 2020, thanks to lockdown but listed below are the ones which stood out to me in some way or other. So, here goes my list of top 7 books:
- Animal Farm: A rather small but great novel by George Orwell which talks on the topic of communism and capitalism through the lens of farm animals. While reading this book, I found it tough to stop myself drawing parallels of the characters with actual politicians around. However, given that it was written in 1945, I am certain that those people were surely not the influence behind the characters.
I’m not a fan of fiction books and rarely recommend one, but that being said — this book is on top of my list. …
TL;DR Reading time less than 3 minutes, no clickbait
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Re-designing experience for the largest design competition organizing platform
Overview: UX case study for a web platform organizing design competitions. Includes design audit, UX research, wireframing & hi-detail prototyping of competition catalogue and detail page.
Client: UNI.xyz ,a web platform for designers focusing on crowd-sourcing design solutions and making design more accessible.
Timeline: Started in June, 2019. Carried on in multiple phases in next 10 months.
Please don’t let it become another Quora
Medium is a great platform for writers and readers worldwide and it is going places. The fact that you’re here reading this article only adds to the validity of the statement. I often spend more time here reading (or writing) than I do scrolling through the infinite feed of other social media platforms — and I’m certainly proud of that. Medium is clean, ad-free and filled with tons of quality content.
But if there’s one thing even this platform hasn’t been able to get rid of, that’s clickbait writing. Let’s be real here, clickbait is everywhere and has practically spoiled the environment for many curious readers and quality writers. Even Medium is not spared. It’s not surprising to find long articles with generic writing and no information at all, that too behind Medium’s paywall. So, after reading countless worthless articles and face-palming at the end, I have started finding a pattern of articles which are potential clickbait. …
UX design isn’t just about users
“Obsession with users, understanding their needs and solving their problems is key to success for any product or service” — I’ve lost the count of the number of times I’ve heard/ read some variation of this phrase in all those UX meetups, webinars, keynotes, etc. They’ll suggest you think nothing beyond the requirement of users. The fact is that it is true — but to an extent.
In a recipe for a successful product, users aren’t the only ingredient.
UX design isn’t just about solving user problems. A UX project has multiple requirements from development, business (and legal) point of view which are more or less as important as user needs. Think of a UX project as a structure where the roof is supported by multiple pillars — users, business, development and legal. …
Things I wish I did right in the first place
June 2020: The world is suffering from a pandemic which has made everyone confined within the bounds of their homes yet there are thousands and thousands of people on roads in the USA. They all are together, united for a single cause — Black Lives Matter.
The tragic incident of killing of George Floyd pulled up the drapes from layers of racial discrimination which we refused to acknowledge or accepted as a harsh reality. However, this incident did stir things up. It made people talk, raise their voice and realize that things needed to change. This turned into a movement. A movement for change that wasn’t just limited to people in the USA but all over the globe. …
Designing a signup page
Task
Create a sign up page, modal, form, or app screen related to signing up for something. It could be for a volunteer event, contest registration, a giveaway, or anything you can imagine.
Process
For this and upcoming challenges, I’ll try to stick to the following process:
- Research. 30-60 mins [Includes case study, moodboard creation]
- List down observation and sketch ideas for my own creation. Create wireframe model. 30-60 mins
- Create Hi-detail mockup in Adobe Xd or InVision Studio. 15–45 mins
Case study
I began with the most obvious thing all designers do when looking for inspiration — hit up Dribbble, Behance and Pinterest. After spending about 30mins looking on signup screens, I observed few common pattern which…
A step-by-step guide
This article is written in sheer frustration for lack of complete and comprehensive guide on creating an icon-font (To put in another way, an icon-glyph font where icons appear in place of characters or glyphs). This article intended for designers or beginner level developers. Here I’ll try to keep things as simple and straightforward as possible like a cooking recipe.
Ready to begin, let’s go.
Ingredients:
- Icons in SVG format.
- An account on any file hosting service. I used Amazon AWS (S3), you can choose any hosting service you like.
- A text editor (preferably Microsoft VS Code)
Recipe:
1) Preparing icon SVGs
- Convert shapes in your icons to a compound path. (In Illustrator, select all shapes, go to window > pathfinder and in the panel, click…
