UX News
A look at what's going on in the field of user experience.
Human in the loop means making sure the human is not out of the loop
, UX Collective - Medium
A reviewer’s hand hovers over an approve button while the work it approves has already moved on without them. AI assisted.Agents now act before we ask and reach past what we authorized. A person in the loop isn’t enough if nobody owns the outcome. Here’s what to consider when designing for it.Agents used to wait for a prompt because everyone though that AI was only chat. Now they triage inboxes, update records, and send messages while we’re in another meeting. That’s the whole point of them, and it’s also where the trouble starts.
Because of this, most agent teams hit the same questions:
I ran a 7-week AI workshop for designers (that wasn’t really about AI)
, UX Collective - Medium
It was about what a designer really needed to know about shipping to production, and what people truly wanted from online learning
Nobody feels heard by a report
, UX Collective - Medium
Why the forward-deployed engineer boom stops at the customer.
Designed for a Dead Language
, A List Apart: The Full FeedEvery language app in your pocket inherited a teaching method built for Latin. Understanding why that happened is a more useful design lesson than anything the apps themselves will teach you.
In 1788, Prussia introduced the Abitur, a standardized national examination required for entry into universities and the civil service. To pass it, students needed to demonstrate measurable, gradable knowledge. The system needed to teach language to large classrooms, produce consistent outcomes, and do it with one teacher and thirty students. The educators responsible for designing this system reached for the only teaching template they had, one that had been used in European schools for two centuries: the method developed to teach Latin.
Good designers, bad websites: a proposal
, A List Apart: The Full FeedI want to discuss accessibility because it is the most important thing for making websites. Other A List Apart articles give you innovation and insight. This article will give you homework. These are just my personal views, but they’re pretty good.
I want to start off with a couple of statements, and you will agree:
Design for Amiability: Lessons from Vienna
, A List Apart: The Full FeedToday’s web is not always an amiable place. Sites greet you with a popover that demands assent to their cookie policy, and leave you with Taboola ads promising “One Weird Trick!” to cure your ailments. Social media sites are tuned for engagement, and few things are more engaging than a fight. Today it seems that people want to quarrel; I have seen flame wars among birders.
These tensions are often at odds with a site’s goals. If we are providing support and advice to customers, we don’t want those customers to wrangle with each other. If we offer news about the latest research, we want readers to feel at ease; if we promote upcoming marches, we want our core supporters to feel comfortable and we want curious newcomers to feel welcome.