Analyzing data is a great way to make design decisions. But when your analytics log contains billions of clicks, how do you distinguish which ones you should use in forming those decisions? Users’ behavior and activity can provide you with great information and insights. But when do you look to that and when do you trust your own instincts? Julie Zhuo discusses Facebook’s design process.

“Thinking mobile” goes beyond scaling down an existing app to fit a smaller screen or making decisions about what content to include. Because the app can be used anywhere by nature and the interface is manipulated with thumbs and fingers, there are much more than just aesthetics to consider. Josh discusses mobile design with Adam Churchill.

Web-based applications are a different beast than other types of software or web sites. Web app designers have to take care of the users’ goals, and also ensure that the business needs are taken into account. Business needs can be complex. They come from all over the enterprise, originating from initiatives (like marketing campaigns), infrastructure [...]

Nothing reminds me more about the power of what we can do with our data than this TED video of PatientsLikeMe‘s Jamie Haywood, talking about how they change people’s lives with incredible data visualization tools: Here he tells the story of his brother and how it inspired him to look into the data of 45,000 [...]

As we were finalizing the program for this year’s UIE Web App Masters Tour, a theme quickly emerged that we hadn’t originally planned on: designing mobile applications. Up until now, mobile has been elusive for us. You see, we don’t talk about a subject just because it’s the latest fad. There are plenty of sources [...]

With mobile quickly emerging as a viable and practical source of web based content, designers need to know how to adapt and keep up. With the sheer number of different devices out there it can be a daunting prospect. Josh joins Jared Spool in this podcast for a discussion about making the decision between mobile web and native apps.

The number of places that you can access the web grows every day. But are you designing for it? How do your users see your content? And more importantly, how are they interacting with it? Bill Scott joins Jared Spool and discusses the challenges and a few of the surprises that come with designing for multiple platforms.

Web applications live in a strange world―half application, half website. Making a command look like a command can be tricky. Do you make it a button? Should it be a link? David discusses a number of considerations for creating or updating your application’s visual design

Online banking is notorious for poorly thought-through interactive experiences. Chase Online is no exception. Their mortgage screen contains this list of menu options, with one of my most favorite menu options ever. As asked in the comments, this is the default presentation when you first view the menu. (Some commented it would make more sense [...]

For years, the mobile web experience was little more than an afterthought as most design teams focused on catering their designs to the desktop. As Luke Wroblewski explains in his session “Why You Should Design for Mobile First” from the User Interface 15 Conference, this is becoming an increasingly backwards way of thinking.