Posts

A matter of Accessibility

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How Our CSS Framework Helps Enforce Accessibility by Ian McBurnie  Spot the difference….You can’t! To a sighted user it appears we have two identical button elements. A user interface control not only needs to look like a certain control, it must be described as that control too. Take for example a button, one of the simplest of controls. There are many ways you can create something that looks like a button, but unless you use the actual button tag (or button role – more on roles later), it will not be described as a button. Why does it need to be described as a button? Users of AT (assistive technology), such as a screen reader, may not be able to see what the control looks like visually; therefore it is the job of the screen reader to describe it aurally. A screen reader, such as VoiceOver for Mac OSX and iOS, can do this job only if we, the developers, ensure the correct semantics are present in our HTML code. Semantics In the table below, compare and contr
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The Difference Between UX DESIGNER and UI DESIGNER

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I am constantly hearing people to ask what is really the difference between UX designer and UI Designer. Into words is really hard to answer this questions because people just are not able to grasp all the small differences between what UX designer do and the skills it has to have to do what he or she does compared with what are requested from UI designers. I found this infographic in the internet by Anna Harris and it is so well explained with picture that anyone can really understand. So here it is:
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Mobile First by Adobe, LinkedIn, IBM and LukeW

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With the boom of mobile that has surpassed the number of PC at a 1000 times, mobile first is a need that unfortunately still many companies don't get it. Here an OLD, keynote from Adobe Max 2010 where,  Adobe CTO Kevin Lynch made the case for designing Web products for mobile first: Another one from Eric Schmidt about Mobile First: Mobile First at FACEBOOK! How to design component for mobile first by LukeW: Mobile First by LinkedIN talks with LukeW: IBM -> Mobile First: Intel Software Interview - "Mobile First" - Luke Wroblewski wrote the Book Just to complete the MOBILE FIRST thought, just get a look on Luke Wroblewski slide on the statistics about the use PCs and the use of MOBILE: Just pay attention in the graphic that in 2011 PCs and Mobile had the same amount and from that point on, it sky rocket at the point that there is no deny that if companies don't start to pay attention about mobile first they will be fade to a sl
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How To Create A Customer Journey Map

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There are things that are really worth sharing and this video show in a concise and short way what the UX is all about. Enjoy and share with others.
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Great Customer Experiences Ready to Apply

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A lot has been said and speculated about user experience but it is still a mystery that many top, senior and mid-managers don’t take it seriously endangering their companies of a bright future due to their lack of understanding. Matt Watkinson in his book “The Ten Principles Behind Great Customer Experiences” says “The customer experience is the quality aspect of any interaction that an individual has with the business, its products or services at any point in time.”  Is worth to remember user experience is not limited when the customer purchasing the product or service, and on the use of it. In reality it starts when the user is first exposed to the product or service and goes on until the customer does not need the product or service anymore. It involves any interaction with the brand, product or service. Does it ring any bells now how important User Experience is? The most successful companies of our days such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, Mercedes,
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Experience Map for Digital Marketing and Software Development

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I am constantly updating myself and my skills to match the new technology advancements and business tendencies. It is nothing new the amount of information nowadays is so overwhelming that is sometimes difficult to know what to pursuit. One very exciting and interesting tool I have leaned when doing a course of user experience last year is called Experience Map. If you know what is affinity map diagram, you could say that it is the affinity map inflated with steroids. I have written in this blog and in my linkedIn group  http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=4862097  about how important is to get to know our customers in order to build a proper digital strategy that will work properly for the business in question. Experience Map is a tool that help to build a proper digital marketing based on the customer-centric design approach and it is simple enough to be learned and used by everyone. Experience Map can only be build with data in hands. It means that we already need to
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Software Quality &Testing: The myth and lack of understanding

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After passing a day today talking and exchanging ideas with colleagues of the Quality Assurance department, it is clear for me that most people don't understand how testing is critical to any custom software development. I hear over and over again from sales people, consulting, project managers among other roles within IT that when selling at a competitive price and the budget is tight, the first thing to be cut off is TESTING.  Make not mistake, less testing means less quality; no testing means no quality and a crap software , that might be modern and beautiful but full of bugs that make impractical and unpleasant to be used. When testing is not well understood within IT companies, how can we expect our customers understand the value of testing? In my professional IT life I have heard the comparison such as: " the same way customer purchase a car and it has been tested, they expect our custom development also tested without any additional cost." How can a car t
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