I’m always surprised at how poor the fitting rooms are in clothing stores. Retailers have clearly spent a significant amount of time on every detail in the main part of shops to ensure that the way clothes are presented entices you to buy and reflects their brand, yet when you go to try on clothes you’re interested in, the experience can be the complete opposite.

Fitting rooms are where customers make their decision whether or not to buy clothes, yet the space in which this happens often seems like an afterthought. So many are cramped cubicles made from substandard materials, with few places to hang up clothes or leave other items you might have with you. Customers want to feel confident about their purchase, and a poor fitting room experience undermines this decision.

Marketers, digital designers and developers are all struggling to keep pace with the rapidly changing digital landscape and the evolving expectations and behaviours of consumers. New devices bring new challenges in designing experiences which span many devices and platforms.

In a world where the variety of internet connected devices is rapidly increasing a design technique called ‘responsive design’ offers designers and developers a forward-looking approach that, done well, provides a great user experience for users across devices.
 

If you’re interested in getting a job in user experience (UX), what should you do to make a great first impression? I spoke to Leslie Fountain, Experience Design Director, and Karen Varnavas, HR Co-ordinator, to find out what you should think about when putting together your CV, covering letter and portfolio.

On Friday, we made our annual trip to Brighton for the dConstruct conference, this year billed as exploring “how designers can bridge the gap between the physical and digital world”. It sold out in only seven hours and yes, you should join the scrum too if you’re looking for commentary from old and new voices on the future, but not if you’re looking for practical tips to take away.

We recently conducted user research in Paris and Berlin, where we used interpreters to translate questions and answers between respondents and ourselves. Here’re my reflections on my experience of working with translators.

As web designer Scott Jehl recently tweeted “Progressive enhancement doesn’t mean settling for poor UX”. When I asked who would say that he replied: “I commonly sees PE labeled as a practice for those happy settling for less-than-stellar design.”

I think that whoever thinks this is misguided and out of touch with how modern websites are designed and built. Progressive enhancement is core to creating a good user experience, not something that is in conflict with it.

Bryan and Stephanie Rieger’s workshop ‘It’s not the device people are after it is all the things the device enables…’ highlighted all that is so fascinating about the mobile user experience. Designing for mobile presents a greater challenge than standard desktop websites and, even with so many smart people in the room, it was clear that best practice is going to take years more to emerge.

To complete many online processes, such as booking a flight or buying insurance, people need to work through forms. Each field poses a potential barrier to progress and can force users to either quit or transfer to a higher cost channel, such as the phone. All form fields are not equal though, and some require much greater thought than others.

When we talk about user experience, we’re often referring to websites and applications on desktop computers and mobile devices. A game’s user experience is extremely important in video gaming but is often overlooked.

This whitepaper on test drive booking online summarises findings from our evaluation of UK car brand sites. We’ve used 12 principles developed from published best practice as well as our own research in this field.

The results appear to be a paradox: 32 sites carry this functionality, suggesting that it is a standard component for user experience; and yet only a handful offer a truly viable, useful experience.