Userfocus Usability Newsletter, February 2013

Welcome to the February edition of the Userfocus usability newsletter.

• Message from the Editor
• Feature article: What Russian dolls and Fantastic Voyage can teach us about designing for mobile
• What we're reading
• Online training in user experience
• Upcoming training courses
• User experience quotation of the month

Message from the Editor

So February brings us Valentine's Day, which Wikipedia tells me is one of the most celebrated holidays around the world — second only to New Year's Day. But in between buying the red roses, lighting the scented candles and putting your favourite Barry White trackes on repeat, why not take time out to relax over the Userfocus newsletter?

Call me an old romantic, but this month we have a special offer for newsletter readers in the form of a discount code for our new online training course. I also wrote an article on designing for mobile.

I hope you enjoy it. Happy Valentine's Day!

— David Travis

Feature article: What Russian dolls and Fantastic Voyage can teach us about designing for mobile

You can't create a mobile version of a desktop system simply by shrinking the screen. You need to re-conceptualise the application and design for red routes, fat fingers and transient use. Read the article in full: What Russian dolls and Fantastic Voyage can teach us about designing for mobile.

What we’re reading

Some interesting usability-related articles that got our attention over the last month:

• Labels in input fields aren't such a good idea.
• How Google's UX team choose UX metrics for their products: HEART and Goals-Signals-Metrics.
• Like all satire, there's some truth in this Onion article. Users don't always want an 'experience'.
• 10 basic findings from usability tests that emphasise the differences between 'ordinary' people and designers.
• Why do some Japanese refer to green traffic lights as blue? Fascinating review of language effects on colour names.
• Why you shouldn't use automatic image sliders or carousels (if you're interested in conversions)

Like these? Want more? Follow us on Twitter.

Online training in user experience

I'm pleased to announce that our online UX training course —User Experience: The Ultimate Guide — is now open for registrations.

We took a long time deciding on the right platform to use and spoke to a number of our training course delegates to find out what mattered. HD video and high quality audio were at the top of the list alongside an environment that supported something more interactive than the standard online fare. Of course, it also needed to be easy to use. We eventually settled on Udemy, which we think does a good job of meeting these requirements.

To celebrate the launch of the course, we're offering newsletter readers a saving on the price. The standard price is $195 but if you enter this code you'll be able to sign up for $165 (a saving of over 15%): UF-NL-FEB.

This code will expire in 7 days, on Feb 11th, so make sure you use it this week.

The team at Userfocus have worked really hard on the course and I'm so sure you'll like it that we're offering a 30-day money-back guarantee. So sign up today, it's risk-free.

One thing: I have a favour to ask you. Whether or not we do more of these really depends on the success of this course. So if you could spread the word on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin or plain old email, I would really appreciate it (it's OK to pass on the discount code).

Sign up here: Online UX User Experience training

Usability Training: Now Booking

If you prefer your training in-person, try these upcoming courses.

Web Usability: An Introduction to User Experience, Feb 11-12, London.

This web usability training course will give you hands-on practice in all the key areas of usability, from identifying your customers through to usability testing your web site with them. More information about this training course: Web Usability: An Introduction to User Experience.

Axure Essentials, Feb 25, London.

Learn how to use Axure to build wireframes and generate HTML prototypes. More information about this training course: Axure Essentials.

Advanced Prototyping with Axure, Feb 26, London.

Learn how to prototype rich internet applications (RIAs) and use the advanced features of Axure RP Pro. More information about this training course: Advanced Prototyping with Axure.

Prototyping mobile interfaces with Axure, Feb 27, London.

Learn how to prototype mobile applications with Axure RP Pro. More information about this training course: Prototyping mobile interfaces with Axure.

User Experience quotation of the month

“Design is easy. All you do is stare at the screen until drops of blood form on your forehead.” — Marty Neumeier.

Hungry for more?

Read previous newsletters.