Theory | UX Central

Customer-centric and easy-to-use is the new business model (The Alibaba story)

By Rob Cowie 27 May 2014Strategy, Theory

Truly customer-centric companies will dominate the Internet Age. Alibaba, a Chinese Internet company, is about to go public in the US. It is expected to raise more than the Facebook…

Navigating the Mobile Jungle

By Rob Cowie 15 May 2014Design, Theory

A quantitative look at mobile usability and conversion-friendly design. Did you know 1.2 billion people access the web from mobile devices? Mobile traffic accounts for over 15% of all Internet…

An icon is worth 1,000 words

By Rob Cowie 15 May 2014Design, Theory

A picture is worth one thousand words. This aphorism means even more when we apply it to icons: save, open, and print are just a few of the many actions…

Agile UX vs Lean UX, which should you choose?

By Rob Cowie 15 May 2014Design, Strategy, Theory

The Web is a well established kingdom of acronyms and buzz words. I’m sorry to say so, but we tend to generate a lot of terms that more often than…

Where to place icons next to button labels

By Rob Cowie 15 May 2014Design, Theory

Icons placed next to button labels are like bullet points placed next to items in a list. Both can make information easier to find and scan, as long as they’re…

UX How-To with Luke Wroblewski

By Rob Cowie 11 May 2014Design, Strategy, Theory, Video

Luke Wroblewski presents some great how-to video tutorials on User Experience. | Video playlist

The Information Architecture Value Chain

By Rob Cowie 11 May 2014Design, Strategy, Theory

In my last column, I described how an information architecture (IA) compass is useful in grounding your approach to solving IA challenges and offers a perspective that is good to…

Gamification And UX: Where Users Win Or Lose

By Rob Cowie 11 May 2014Design, Strategy, Theory

The gaming industry is huge, and it can keep its audience consumed for hours, days and even weeks. Some play the same game over and over again — and occasionally,…

Hybrid sweet spot: Native navigation, web content

By Rob Cowie 11 May 2014Design, Strategy, Theory

When we launched the iPhone version of Basecamp in February of last year, it was after many rounds of experimentation on the architectural direction. The default route suggested by most…

Leonardo Da Vinci would have made an amazing UX Designer

By Rob Cowie 11 May 2014Design, Strategy, Theory

Leonardo Da Vinci: I can’t speak for his people skills, but there’s plenty of evidence to suggest that it’s unlikely we’ll ever see someone with such a masterful grasp of…