Christina Wodtke
Stories by Christina Wodtke
If an app launches in the app store, and no one hears it, did it really launch? Today, digital products like apps and sites require marketing. Luckily, this has become easier to do, even a limited budget. This is also a great opportunity to do market research. Many products fail because they don’t solve…
As I watched the app go live in across the various app stores I felt exhausted. The steps leading up to the launch had been intense, involving multiple stakeholders, scores of different user personas, and innumerable iteration cycles spread across a multitude of design teams. We shipped the project on time and shared high-fives all…
December 20th, 2016
Designing Progressive Web Applications for the Future
Google unveiled progressive web apps around 12 months ago. We’ve now had the chance to look at some of the pioneers of the technology, see how they’ve managed to implement the concepts, and look at their results. As both a web and Android developer, I’ve been very interested in progressive web apps, not just from…
December 6th, 2016
Book in Brief: Digital and Marketing Asset Management
The Real Story About DAM Technology and Practice
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Editors’ note: The second “Book in Brief” feature here on Boxes and Arrows is from Theresa Regli’s Digital and Marketing Asset Management: The Real Story About DAM Technology and Practice. Use the discount code ‘dmambanda’ to add this to your library; it’s good for 20% off. We’ll publish an excerpt, up to 500 words, of your book….
November 29th, 2016
Could You Hand Me the Dry Rub Please?
Taxonomy of Spices and Pantries: Part 5
by Grace G Lau
Tree testing is an effective technique for evaluating navigation and taxonomy. In an environment devoid of visual design and cues, tree tests are useful for assessing existing site navigation and proposed site structure changes. Using my kitchen, I devised a plan to test the findability of my kitchen’s spices and pantries.
The desert was frigid and the sun was just peeking over the mountains when we arrived at the Mojave Air & Space Port. A full-scale rocket prototype at the end of a long driveway marked the spaceport’s entrance. I was just a walk away from realizing a small part of a big dream: being part…
November 1st, 2016
Panda’s Guide to User Experience
Learning to embrace the cannonballs
by Lis Pardi
I blacked out when he said he wanted to underline text so that the site looked more interactive. I couldn’t hear him anymore because of the internal dialogue reinforcing my superiority. “He doesn’t think of the user. He only cares about sales. What kind of stupid idea is that? A really, really stupid one. What…
In the user experience (UX) industry, benchmarking is a practice that measures the usability of a website. Benchmarking helps the UX researcher understand the current state of the site so the team can attack problem areas and improve them. It is very difficult to fix or improve something when you don’t know what is wrong….
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. Sometimes, it feels as if we…
September 13th, 2016
Creating the Persuasive Pattern Card Deck
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One of our finest tasks as designers is to filter the abundance of choice into easily digestible bits. Creating great interfaces is as much about motivating, teasing, leading, and guiding users along—so that they experience value, faster—as it is to improve usability by removing friction. This requires an endeavor into product psychology and the art…