Why you should allow users to see their password

May 24, 2016

Your signup form is one of the first impressions users have of your app. After they read the marketing copy and decide your product is worth trying, the first time they interact with your app is to sign up.

For years, every signup form worked like this:

Users think of a password and type it into...

100 Day Project

Apr 20, 2016

This year I’m participating in the 100 Day Project. If you haven’t heard about it on Twitter and Instagram, the 100 Day Project works like this: Pick an action and do it every day for 100 days. I’m usually down for a good challenge so I’ve decided to participate.

I chose writing for my project, which...

Wait, what UX are you talking about?

Mar 5, 2016

Most of the confusion around what UX is and isn’t comes from people using “UX” to talk about completely different things. When people talk about UX, they’re usually talking about either the process, philosophy, or the quality of an interaction.

The process

“UX always includes research”
“We’re...

Confirm or undo? Which is the better option?

Jan 15, 2016

When designing software, you reach a point where you need to design actions that are potentially dangerous. In a couple accidental clicks, a user can embarrass themselves in front of their boss or wipe out hours of work. So how do you design so that doesn’t happen?

The most common solution is to...

Make click areas bigger for better usability

Oct 2, 2015

Quick usability tip for y’all:

Make your click areas bigger.

Click areas are the clickable (or tappable) parts of links and buttons in your app. And they’re probably making your users work harder than they need to.

What do I mean? Let’s look at an example. Here’s the navigation for Rdio’s web app...

Do you need a confirm email field in your sign-up form?

Aug 10, 2015

Short answer: Probably not. There’s little evidence they work and there’s better ways to make sure people type their email correctly.

Longer answer: Read on.

The confirm email field used to be part of every sign up form on the web. Now it seems like many apps are abandoning them. How do you figure...

Redesigning a registration form step-by-step

Jul 27, 2015

When faced with a redesign, often the hardest part is just knowing where to begin. How do you take a complex form and simplify it? Where do you begin? Should you throw it out and start from scratch? There’s plenty of inspiration out there, but often all you see is the end result and rarely the steps...

How to improve user generated content

May 21, 2015

When creating an app with community content, the success of your app depends on the quality of the content created by your users.

Here’s some strategies for improving and maintaining high quality community content.

Define quality content and stick to it

It’s important to set concrete guidelines...

Troubleshooting Sketch

Mar 24, 2015

Somewhere between version 3.0 and 3.2 I noticed some issues when using Sketch. After some trial and error, I found the following steps fixed issues for me and a few other people.

What issues has this solved?

• Sketch Mirror not being able to find devices or constantly disconnecting from a device...

Should I use nouns or verbs when naming navigation?

Mar 17, 2015

A friend of mine was working on a feature for a travel site that showed possible trips travelers could go on. He was adding this new page to the navigation and couldn’t decide if he should name it Trips or Find a Trip.

After a few questions about the page, I told him to name it Trips. Here’s why...