Mobile UX/UI Candy: Writing For My Audience

Recently I asked some followers what they would like to read about on my site. I realized that writing content for myself would make me only go in circles. So I’ve made a turn in my site and am now writing more articles based on what my audience wants to hear.

Here is a request made by a follower:
“@anareyna: I’d like to see UI/UX tips every now and then :)”

I am going to focus on mobile UX/UI for this question. Mainly because I believe I’ve learned some valuable tips and also because I haven’t touched on it yet here on my site. Although a lot of these tips you could apply to web just as easily.

1.) You MUST create gray scale wireframes
I put this as number one because without wireframes you’re going to have a non functional application. Creating the frames in gray scale is important because you can see the hierarchy of buttons and text. I use Illustrator or Fireworks for this process. But use whatever you feel comfortable with and is the fastest for you to use.

2.) View your work live!
LiveView is a great desktop and iOS app that lets you view your work live. It’s great for seeing button sizes on your device and button placement. You can view it in both retina and non retina. You can also have the option to move buttons around on the actual device. I don’t recommend this because depending on your Internet connection It’s very slow and not accurate.

3.) See your app in motion
I love Mocksup, it’s a great site and app that lets you connect screens to be able to see the flow of your app on an actual device. You can link images together and tap on buttons just like you would if it was on your device. It’s pretty awesome. You can get a free account for one project only.

4.) Designing in Retina
Can’t begin to tell you how much I wish I knew this tip when I first started designing mobile applications. It’s best to design in retina so you can scale down. Even better if your work is vectorized so it’s easier to scale. Also, design in 640×960 and the zoom out to 50% to see what your app would look like at non retina. If you can’t see text and your buttons are too small, then thats a good indication that you need to reconsider your sizing.

5.) Last but not least, test, iterate and repeat
Never believe that your first set of wireframes is the right set. Even with a finished design, question it. I always ask myself “Is this the best possible way to communicate this action? Is there anything I can do here that wold be better?” If it means re-doing the UX or UI so be it! It’s always worth it in the end.

Remember, sometimes it’s necessary to replace beauty with functionality. Besides, the user will never know the difference!

More than just a designer.

I seem to blog more when I am going through something personally. Then intern, I want to share it with you. I have been feeling dried out lately, like there is no creativity inside of me. It’s been hard to think up new ideas and then sit down and create the pictures I see in my mind. It’s been more like seeing half of a picture and not the whole thing. I know designers go through design blocks. But this was more like a design desert. Then, today on the bus, I had this sort of revelation, epiphany if you will. But it was something I have not thought about when it comes to a creative block.

I realized I was trying to be creative. When I try to be creative or focus too hard on an idea, nothing comes. But when I am free, letting my mind roam, thats when all the ideas flood in. You should try it sometime, it’s pretty fun. Actually, scratch that, don’t try. It doesn’t work that way. haha!

“Everyone is created for great things. Gifts and talents act like open doors, to lead us to who we were made to be.”

The second thing I realized, was that I am more than just a designer. Of course, It’s my profession, I do it for a living and I love doing it. But it’s not all that I am and it’s not all that you are. I have to learn to take time for myself and and focus on the other talents that I contain. Like writing poetry, creating music, playing guitar, painting, running & and most of all, being wild and free! Lately, I have forgotten to be myself and I feel my zeal and joy for life seem to quickly fade. I don’t often write personal posts, but I always want to be transparent and real.

I just don’t want you to forget to by yourself and do things that you love to do. Even if that’s having a creepy dead frog collection, eating Fruity Pebbles at 1 am and watching Spong Bob, singing to Miley Cyrus in the shower, or in my case trying to rap in the shower. All in all, no matter who you are, no matter what you do in the end, don’t forget to love with all that you have and be yourself. Everyone is created for great things. Gifts and talents act like open doors, to lead us to who we are made to be. Live like today is your last and remember, you’re more than just a designer. ;)

What’s in your World?

If you follow me on Twitter, you will have seen a number of tweets about my ‘Imaginary World’. As much as it sounds crazy and it probably is, I have one, well several. But it’s more than just imaginary, I would rather say they are dreams of mine. Okay fine, I do have a world I see in my head that’s pretty awesome looking, but that’s not the point of this blog post.

What I really want to focus on are your dreams. No, not the kind you have when you sleep, but dreams for your life. What you want to be, where you want to go. Remember as a child you would play imaginary games with your friends and go places that you dreamed of going? A child plays and makes up things so that his/her brain grows. Well, tell me why should that ever stop?

Someone without vision, without goals, without a dream, is living in a black and white world. There are walls to their world and only boundaries to set them back. Someone cannot grow if they are constantly set in a place of boundaries. That’s why having an imagination is so important, because it allows the imaginer to dream.

“Dreams are just a distant reality.”

You’re probably thinking: “Hillary, you are sounding crazy.” Maybe I do, but it’s far better to sound crazy than to have no passion and no dreams.

Fact: People are more likely to accomplish their dreams when they write them down on a piece of paper.

Physically write them down, in your journal, anything and keep that paper. Then make a goal to check them off your list. I do this every year and as I get older my dreams may change and some I realized I have already accomplished.

Dreaming and Design
How does this all tie into design? Easy, you imagine something in your head before you see it. When you sketch, you first make it up in your mind the draw it out. Think of what would happen if you couldn’t imagine. Your creativity would be stagnate minimal in its purpose.

Before you can learn to dream up a design, you have to first learn to dream in every aspect of your life. I think so many of us get stuck or unhappy in our lives is because we forgot to dream. Or something in our lives stunted our ability to believe in ourselves. Trust me, I have been in some extremely tough waters in my life. I felt like I would never get out, but I held onto a hope and believed I would reach the Light.

“Your dreams are at your fingertips, what will you do?”.

My encouragement to you today, is to dream in your life again. Make big dreams for designs and development projects. I wouldn’t be where I am today without the dreams I have dreamed in my life and the people that have encouraged me. Dream big in your creative and personal life. You never know where dreams may take you and remember, people get old, they don’t grow up.

So…