Design That Works.

Should I have a separate mobile website or one website that is responsive to all screen sizes?

This is a common question many of my clients and students ask me.  The simple answer is that the baseline is a responsive website, especially if you are in the marketing and content distribution business. However, the truth is a bit more complicated, because: Today’s web landscape is sophisticated enough that no one strategy fits all scenarios. …

How to Draw an Effective Storyboard: UX Design Project, DesignOps Workshop, Web, Mobile, or Wearable Product Design

Video: 36-minute free segment of O’Reilly Video Course. Covers all of the essential parts of the storyboard: Things, People, Faces, Opening Slide, and Transitions. Expert hands-on guided exercises provide step-by-step instruction in basic drawing skills. The module also covers advanced topics like poses and camera angles for students who are ready to move to the …

Effective Sketching for UX Design: New O’Reilly Video Course

30 Minute video: Parts of a Storyboard is currently available to view FREE, for a limited time. I’m proud to present our new video course from O’Reilly Media: Effective Sketching for UX Design Written and presented by UX design expert Greg Nudelman (clients include Oracle, Cisco, and eBay) and Emmy-nominated graphic designer Will Krause (Sesame …

8 Mobile UX Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore

Here are the top trends in the mobile UX industry. Without further ado, here’s our count-down to #1. #8 Mobile First: Responsive Web Design Responsive Web Design or RWD has been a dominant trend in web industry for several years now. We predict that this will continue to be the case. RWD will be the …

How to Easily Prototype Your Android L Material Designs: TripAdvisor App Case Study

In my workshops, often the greatest challenge for designers is converting their existing Android designs to the new Material Design approach—making the interface both simpler and more visually rich than their corresponding Android 4.x designs, as well as laying out the “happy path” for the customers (using Floating Action Button or FAB, as one of the tools). The following sticky note wireframes demonstrate my quick take on converting the Android 4.x TripAdvisor app into Material Design using $1 Prototype methodology — perfect for prototyping Android Material Designs.

Visual Guide to Android L Material Design: 7 Insights Every Serious Designer Needs to Know

Material Design is a new Google design language that Google hopes to port to everything from mobile phones and tablets to websites and desktop apps. Here are 7 hard-won insights from 4 Material Design workshops I recently facilitated with my top clients in Argentina, Abu Dhabi and United States.

7 Mobile Trends for 2014 (and How to Profit From Them – with Case Studies!)

The importance of mobile to your company’s digital strategy cannot be overstated. But where to focus your energies? Here are 7 trends we see emerging in many of our clients’ businesses, from financial and banking services to ecommerce and social media.

C-Swipe: An Ergonomic Solution To Navigation Fragmentation On Android

There are 3,997 different Android devices. Your navigation should work with all of them. C-Swipe can help: It is an alternative navigation pattern for tablets and mobile devices that is novel, ergonomic and localized. This article provides a detailed walk-through of the design and code and provides a downloadable mini-app so that you can try out C-Swipe to see whether it’s right for your app.

Let Them Pee: Avoiding the Sign-Up/Sign-In Mobile Antipattern

Anything that slows down customers or gets in their way after they download your app is a bad thing. That includes sign-up/sign-in forms that show up even before potential customers can figure out if the app is actually worth using.

The Definitive Guide To The Android Carousel Design Pattern

We’ll use the analogy of a real-world amusement park carousel to explain what makes for an authentically mobile user experience, and we’ll give you the design, the complete source code and a downloadable mini-app, which you can use today to add an enjoyable and effective carousel to your own app on phones and tablets.

Three essentials of Android design DNA

For many years since its release, the Android OS has been behaving like a teenager in the grip of raging hormones. Growth has been nothing short of explosive and the changes have been sweeping and profound. With the release of Ice-Cream Sandwich OS, the UI standards and design elements have changed dramatically and the platform has really matured and even stabilized somewhat. Nevertheless, the OS has retained it’s rebellious hacker DNA with unique features that are authentically Android.

Mobile Welcome UX Antipattern: End User License Agreement (EULA)

Like the overzealous zombie cross-breed between a lawyer and a customs agent, End User License Agreements (EULAs) require multiple forms to be filled out in triplicate, while keeping the customers from enjoying the app they have so laboriously invested time and flash memory space to download.

Essential Design Patterns For Mobile Banking

Despite a great deal of mobile innovation, many creators of financial apps still copy their interface patterns from the desktop Web, even though these patterns are not as well suited to the mobile space. Small screens, custom controls, divided attention and fat fingers demand different thinking when designing for mobile: taking what works on the Web and converting it into authentically mobile flows using simple, effective design patterns.

Android, Siri and Tangible Future of Voice Search UX

Today, Apple announced a bunch of enhancements to Siri and voice search. How does Siri UX compare with Android 4.0? What’s just around the corner for Voice Search? Don’t tell your phone or tablet anything else until you’ve read the article.

Cross Channel UX Elements Framework

The Cross Channel UX Elements framework is a practical design tool you can use to create “Magic Moments” of flow and delight for your customers across the different channels in a more deliberate fashion, rather than arriving at great designs only through occasional happenstance.

Mobile Magic Moments: Transform the Trivial

When mobile or tablet design is executed well, the device feels like the extension of our bodies. Because interfaces respond even before we consciously give them a command. Often, the interface “dissolves in behavior” and we feel empowered, as though the device we hold in our hand is the equivalent of Iron Man’s suit of cybernetic armor, or Batman’s utility belt. I call this empowering experience a “Magic Moment”.

Virtual Seminar: Cross-Channel Design: Magic Mobile Moments

Why do some million-dollar apps fail, while simple apps like Instagram make billions? The answer is “Magic Moments”. And on May 16th, the author of best-selling book “Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success” will show you how to create “Magic Moments” in your own Mobile and Tablet apps.

NOTE: Not for beginners. The Expert Strategy(TM) Series is aimed at mastery of advanced design principles.

Virtual Seminar: QR Codes That Convert: Mobile UX Strategies for Success

“The QR Codes that Convert webinar has already paid for itself. I was able to tweak a client’s QR campaign today, using what I learned, and it started increasing their customer engagement right away. I would recommend this webinar to anyone using QR codes in their marketing campaigns or anyone advising clients who use QR Codes.” – Marty Diamond, Diamond Website Conversion

You can view the recording made April 6th, 2012.

Don’t Put a QR Code on Your Business Card

… until you read this article. I had a QR code on my business card for years, and studied how to engage people after the initial QR Code scan, and how to drive tangible value. Here I will reveal everything I learned about using QR Codes for personal and social connection, including using special formats like MECARD, and the secrets of linking to Twitter, LinkedIn, blog posts and custom landing pages.

Why we don’t do mobile usability tests (and neither should you)

In my experience, mobile usability tests, as they are popularly conducted, are a waste of time and resources and in vast majority of cases fail to lead to creation a better mobile product. Instead, I conduct RITE (Rapid Iterative Testing and Evaluation) studies: the only methodology that I’ve actually experienced in the real life yielding more delightful, usable and successful mobile products in less time.

How to make Agile work for your Mobile Design project

I recently had dinner with one of my heroes and fellow Rosenfeld Media workshop leaders, Steve Krug. We had a long conversation about how to make mobile usability testing work for Agile mobile design projects. This webinar is the result. Learn the essential techniques that will make Agile mobile design work for you: how to replace boring kick-off meeting with a fun Design Workshop and how to do fast, effective mobile RITE testing with PostIt Notes. Get the complete Webinar: techniques, case study with wireframes – FREE!

4 Ridiculously Simple Tips for Using QR Code to Connect 10 Times More Mobile Customers With your Social Media

Engaging with your customers through mobile social media is an excellent idea, and has the potential to add a lot of value and further enhance the relationship of your customers to your brand. Here are four simple tips that will help you make the most of the QR Code technology.

Ultimate Guide to Designing NFC Mobile Apps You Won’t be Ashamed Of

Mobile NFC (Near Field Communication) is finally here! Here is the ultimate guide to designing awesome mobile NFC apps your customers will rave about.

IA Summit * March 21 – 25, 2012 * New Orleans, Louisiana

Cross-Channel Search: Design Approaches for Mobile and Tablet
The rise of smartphones and tablets is an unprecedented opportunity for all kinds of search to escape traditional limits and become the single best way to access information. In context. Real-time. Come hear practical tips for designing search with tap-ahead, geo-location, still image and video input, voice and unprecedented personalization… While juggling crushing constraints: limited screen real estate, fat fingers, spotty connections, multi-tasking and shortened attention span. From the author of “Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success” (Wiley, 2011).

7 Ways to Whip Up Viral Value Through QR Codes: #6 Connect Through Social Networks (Part 1 of 2)

Installment #6 shows how to deliver QR code value by allowing your customers to connect to your company through social networks. As of the date of this writing, many companies have been implementing their social mobile engagement strategy by putting printed Facebook and Twitter “buttons” on everything from print advertising to packaging. We think QR codes offer a much better solution. This is Part 1 of the article: 6 Reasons Printed Buttons Must Die.

Mobile Websites, Tablet Apps and Hybrids: 7 Mobile Strategy Tips for 2012

Sites like YouTube and Facebook are already projecting mobile use to surpass desktop use as early as *this year*. What’s your mobile and tablet strategy? Allow me to humbly present the wisdom I got from the experience of walking the last 365 miles. Barefoot. In the snow. Uphill both ways.

7 Ways to Whip Up Viral Value Through QR Codes: #7 Offer More Info About Your Product

Your QR code is just the nail you need to engage the consumer. A chance to tell a story. A way to create the authentic, artesian, immersive product experience. An opportunity to give a service that extends the relationship with your brand well beyond the current moment of consumption.

3 Secrets for a Successful QR Code Campaign This Holiday Season

14 million Americans scanned a QR code in June 2011. Most of these folks had higher-end mobile devices and many had a household income of $100,000+. How do you reach these millions of Olympic Caliber Shoppers? Here are 3 key design strategies that help ensure the success of your QR code campaign.

Enterprise Search Summit Fall * November 1-3, 2011 * Washington, DC

Ubiquitous Enterprise Search: New Design Approaches for Mobile and Tablet
Lessons from ecommerce and other consumer-oriented mobile designs will provide practical strategies on managing the high-risk mobile search investment and growing the scope of enterprise search offerings.

GOLD SPONSOR: DrawCamp * October 23, 2011 * Milwaukee, WI

Agile Mobile Prototyping with Post-It Notes
In this intensive, hands-on session, participants will learn how to use a pack of post-it notes to successfully simulate a mobile device and re-create and study key interactions, transitions and touch-screen control ergonomics cheaply, quickly and accurately. Participants will walk away with a set of completed paper-prototype screens of their next app, ready for testing.

Designing for Mobile & Tablet Workshop * October 21, 2011 * Milwaukee, WI

Today, mobile experiences are beginning to dominate our connection with technology. Stories we read. Places we go. Stuff we buy. Food we eat. Who we interact with. Mobile is increasingly becoming the platform, the operating system on which we run our digital lives. In this intensive hands-on full-day workshop, you will learn to design authentic mobile and tablet websites and apps that deliver experiences your customers will love to come back to again and again. And create a return on investment that will make your business people tremble with greed.

Designing for Kindle Fire and iPad? What you need to know now.

How would an experience on a 7-inch tablet (like Amazon’s Kindle Fire) differ from one on a 9.7-inch tablet like the iPad? How does the size of the tablet device play into the application design, and how the user interacts with the device? Do smaller 7-inch tablets have the potential to be as popular as the larger iPad, from a user experience perspective?

Mobile Auto-Suggest on Steroids: Tap-Ahead Design Pattern

In contrast to desktop Web search, auto-suggest on mobile devices is subject to two additional limitations: typing avoidance and slower bandwidth. The new patent-pending design pattern, Tap-Ahead, uses continuous refinement to create an intuitive, authentically mobile auto-suggest solution. This helps dramatically reduce the amount of typing needed to enter queries, and utilizes slower mobile bandwidth in the most efficient manner. Using this novel design pattern, your customers can quickly access thousands of popular search term combinations by typing just a few initial characters.

Immersive Mobile E-Commerce Search Using Drop-Down Menus

Specialized drop-down menu are one of the ways of creating immersive experience in mobile e-commerce search UIs. A novel design pattern, status bar drop-down menu, allows 100% of the screen real estate to be dedicated to search results, while also providing convenient and intuitive access to navigation and filter functions.

Storyboarding iPad Transitions

In confined mobile computing interfaces, on tablet devices or in complex virtual environments, transitions are an authentic, minimalist way of enabling way-finding, displaying system state and exposing crucial functionality – in short, they are key in creating a superior user experience. Here is how to storyboard transitions quickly using Post-it notes.

Designing Brand Landing Pages for Mobile Devices

People love to search by brand names. On the small screens of mobile devices, well-designed landing pages can provide a much better experience than keyword search results. This makes brand landing pages today’s biggest sleeper opportunity for mobile and tablet ecommerce. But you have to learn to be completely ruthless with your features and content. Here’s how.

The Silicon Valley iOS Developers’ Meetup * January 19, 2011 * LinkedIn Headquarters, Mountain View, CA

Designing a Resourceful Mobile Search Experience
“Greg was very knowledgeable and had numerous examples to demonstrate his concepts. Definitely worth my time.”
“Very interesting and insightful talk. We need more Greg’s in the world!”
“Thanks Greg for a top notch presentation on mobile UX.”

Design4Mobile * September 20-24, 2010 * Chicago, IL

Designing Resourceful Mobile E-Commerce Search
Mobile search presents a compelling story in its own right, with it’s own experience considerations and tremendous opportunities. To help illustrate what creates a resourceful and intuitive mobile search experience, I will present the best material from my upcoming book, Designing Search: UX Strategies for eCommerce Success due out from Wiley in Spring 2011.

DrawCamp * June 12, 2010 * Milwaukee, WI

Storyboarding iPad Transitions
In this session we will dig deep together into the frame-by-frame analysis of popular iPad interface transitions and discuss the animation principles behind the secrets of industrial design magic that makes iPad transitions such a compelling experience. Then, I will demonstrate how to easily draw both existing transitions and any new design ideas in a fun storyboard format using post-it notes.

Design Patterns for Mobile Faceted Search: Part II

In Part I of Design Patterns for Mobile Faceted Search, I looked at Four Corners, Modal Overlay, Watermark, and Full-Page Refinement Options design patterns, which maximize the mobile screen real estate. This column covers strategies for making people aware of the filtering options and methods of improving transitions between the various states of a search user interface.

Design Patterns for Mobile Faceted Search: Part I

In my previous Search Matters column, Designing Mobile Search: Turning Limitations into Opportunity, I discussed how mobile search user experiences differ from those on the Web. In this and my next column, I’ll look specifically at the challenges and opportunities of mobile faceted search. This column covers design patterns for maximizing the real estate available for search results, while the next will cover strategies for making people aware of filtering options.

Designing Mobile Search: Turning Limitations into Opportunities

Thinking of porting your Web finding experience to iPhone, Android, or Windows Mobile? Just forget about the fact that these devices are basically full-featured computers with tiny screens. Designing a great mobile search experience requires thinking differently: In terms of turning limitations into opportunities.

Brave New World of Visual Browsing

Today, everywhere we look, it seems like image content is taking over the Web. The ubiquitous use of digital cameras and improvements in the picture quality of mobile phone cameras has likely helped this phenomenon along. The shift toward content that is primarily visual introduces new challenges and opportunities for developing intuitive and powerful user interfaces for browsing, searching, and filtering visual content.