UX Design

Picture Wondering what DDD stands for? Well, DDD stands for Developers Developers Developers! (presumably taken from this famous Steve Ballmers on-stage chant) It is an inclusive, non-profit conference for the software community. This year, DDD Melbourne was held on 15th September 2018 at Town Hall in Melbourne CBD. It was a one-day conference which started at 9:00am and concluded at 5:15pm. Personally, I thought the conference was very well-organized and at $79, it was affordable and being held on a Saturday meant I didn’t have to talk a day off work either. Based on what you fancy, there were several talks to choose from. The agenda, which was finalised after attendees voted on the talks, can be found here.   
01 November, 2018 /

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Semi Permanent May 24-26, 2018 

Held in Carriageworks in Sydney this design conference has been going since 2003. It covers new design ideas, presentations of great media and advertising agency work and artists recalling their own journeys developing their work and careers. The presenters include directors, photographers, typographers and illustrators. It includes big names in the design industry - past conferences have hosted Pixar, Banksy, Weta digital, Oliver Stone and VICE media.
21 June, 2018 /

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Recently, Energy Australia (one of Shine's long standing clients) approached us to help them build an Alexa skill in time for the launch of the Amazon Echo into the Australia/New Zealand market. The skill will allow Energy Australia customers to ask Alexa for information regarding their bills, and to get tips on how to minimise their energy usage.  In this blog post I'll give an overview of our solution, and outline some of the tips and pitfalls we discovered during development.
07 February, 2018 /

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5 tips on form design to improve your relationship with users

Filling in a form online is one of the most important points of interaction a user has with an organisation. And we interact with them often. We fill in tax forms, grant applications, make online purchases or sign up to dating sites. Forms can be the first step in a relationship with an organisation, or the final step in a journey to achieve a goal. For example get a grant, a drivers license or a partner in crime. Sometimes not filling them properly can carry unpleasant consequences like an interrogation by immigration officers at the airport, or your profile on OkCupid matching you with the wrong date.💔
“A form [ ] collects information from at least one party, and delivers it to at least one other party, so a product or service can be provided.”~Jessica Enders
The role of a UX designer is to help create easy, fast and productive form experiences. To entice users to fill in forms. As form design expert Jessica Enders states, designers should “create an optimal user experience, such that the needs of both the users and the owner of the form [organisation that owns the form] are met.”  
02 May, 2017 /

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Or how to keep Groomzilla away

As a UX designer with a background in Law and Visual Communication, I have been solving problems for a while. Yet, little could prepare me for solving a challenge of a different kind: my very own wedding. Well, that is what I thought. My partner is from South Africa. I am Spanish. We met in Dublin, then moved to Melbourne and eventually decided to get married in my hometown in the Canary Islands. The ‘problemo’? Organise an enjoyable multicultural wedding 10,000km away, without breaking the bank or losing my cool.
15 February, 2017 /

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Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Customer Experience Conference 2015 (CX 2015) run by UX Australia.  The conference was about designing customer services, and was coupled with a single-day workshop demonstrating techniques for customer journey mapping. There are many definitions available for 'Customer Experience', but Forrester Research has the best I have found: “How customers perceive their interactions with your company.” Here are summaries of two presentations that explain what CX consists of and highlight the value of user-centered design methods.
30 June, 2015 /

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[caption id="attachment_6688" align="alignleft" width="231"]With permission by @bencrothers Image with permission by @bencrothers[/caption] Last month I had the opportunity to attend the Agile UX conference in Sydney.  A one day conference, run by UX Australia, the topics centred around "designing great user experiences within an Agile environment”.  For me, as a non-UX practitioner, my goal was a greater insight into some of the challenges that others in the UX field are facing.
29 April, 2015 /

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obama_ab.jpeg It’s being almost 3 months since I start implementing A/B tests for one of our clients and I have to say I am enjoying it a lot. A/B testing is very powerful technique. Not only does it increase your web site conversion rates, it also promotes innovation and encourages data-driven solutions. In this article I will give an introduction to A/B testing by asking an important question: what have scurvy, A/B testing and Barack Obama all got in common?
26 March, 2015 /

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