UX

iPhone Stamp for UI/UX Sketching

/ Andrew

When starting mobile UX projects, I often found myself using my ATM card to draw out rectangles to represent a smartphone screen. I came across a post on The Russians Used a Pencil for an iPhone stamp to help with UI/UX sketching. I used the file to have a rubber stamp made locally about $38 and $15 for a stamp pad. The stamp outline is made to fit Field Notes or larger sketchbook. You can download the image file below and had a high quality stamp made locally in Toronto at Unique pages – www.uniquepages.ca

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Contextual UX – Building Relevant and Customized Experiences

/ Andrew

Contextual UX is the use of context-aware technologies that allow us to design and build experiences that are personalized to meet unique needs of the individual user based on specific situation or context of use. Before we start, let’s look at two of the primary concepts that define the user experience from a human-computer interaction (HCI) perspective, explicit and implicit interaction. (continue reading)

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IxDA Education Panel

/ Andrew

Last night I took apart in a panel discussion on the general state of interaction design education at IxDA Toronto.

My fellow panelists included a senior Digital Planner from a large agency, an interaction designer/educator from a design studio and designer who recently graduated from a MDes IxD program. The main theme of the rich discussion was that UX career paths are not “one size fits all” and that people in UX benefit from their past experiences and the skill sets they bring from their education and work history. Individuals follow diverse paths to end up in the UX field. Some people began with formal education in a completely different field (accounting, computer science, information science, fine art and design).  Others fall into the role by learning on the job or are self-taught.