Issue #46: Hiring people smarter than you

The need to tweak a user interface design constantly pales in comparison to improving the whole experience of using a product or service. This becomes particularly useful to know when redesigning a page. Where does that page live within a user journey? Duval Nicolas talks about how his team moved to using a pattern library - something I’ve started to do with Wiggle. Good stuff!

“In a new research paper from earlier this year, UX experts concluded that 18-point fonts provides web readers with the best readability for body copy.” Font size is such an interesting topic and has largely been quite a subjective choice by many. Studies like this are incredibly useful, giving more reason to bump up your copy!

“After leaving Adaptive Path in 2012, Todd Wilkens has been focused on one of the biggest issues in Service Design: building a Service Design practice on a massive scale.” Really interesting article here on a discipline that is always evolving. I liken this to Jeff Gothelf’s post from the last issue about no matter how you achieve good design, just think of the user benefit.

The success of Airbnb isn’t really based on them doing something new, or them shouting the loudest. It’s from a company culture that drives the innovation. Airbnb’s CEO Brian Chesky “interviewed hundreds of people when hiring his first employee – a process that took six months, due to his determination to find the right cultural fit for the company.” Having just hired a new UX designer here at Wiggle, I too appreciate hiring for the right fit. I also believe in another element that David Hassell writes in Entrepreneur:  “you should hire people smarter than you.” Backfill your skills with new blood!

“During our year-long research study on Mobile eCommerce Usability at the Baymard Institute, we’ve identified 146 mobile usability guidelines and best practices. Design patterns and UX aspects that, in mobile usability testing of 19 leading mobile eCommerce sites, were consistently proven to perform the best.” Massive effort from Christian Holst here and some amazing insights e.g. Disable Auto-Correct During Checkout. BOOM!

You know what? You don’t have conversion unless you have customers and customers need a reason to come to you over anyone else. This is why companies like Vulpine put a lot of their energy into creating content. Agencies are recognising this too (like Twotone Amsterdam, who are at the Vienna Bike Show this weekend and helping by creating content on the show’s Instagram). Content drives brand affinity and excitement. Do it right and see sales improve long-term.

This year, will you go as a design sprinter, zombie stakeholder, or Party Parrot? Invision put together some alternatives to make your Halloween more geeky.

“In turning the tech to cycling industry advantage, Accelerate will now offer cycle labels new ways to display product and offers.” Time will tell whether Accelerate can pull this off - but great to see an agency pushing the envelope!

“Located on Madison Avenue with amazing views of the Empire State building, Yelp’s New York office features a coffee shop with in-house baristas and a subway inspired gaming zone.” Nice!