We’ve published over 50 articles since launching UX Mastery in August.
Here’s a rundown of the 10 most popular articles to date. I thought I’d count them down in reverse, David Letterman-style, up to the most popular.
Happy reading!
10. 5 UX Traps and How to Avoid Them
Towards the end of the year, Luke shared a brain dump of 5 frustrations that he has experienced during his time as a freelance UX designer, and shared some ideas about how you can deal with them. The fact that it made the list after only being live for a couple of weeks reinforces the fact that this topic resonates with many designers.
There be dangers in them there waters!
9. Object-focused vs Task-focused Design
Everyl contacted us about writing the occasional guest post for UX Mastery, and this was her first submission. In this post, she posits that most designers take a task-oriented approach, and argues that, while counter-intuitive, creating an object-focussed navigation system results in a menu that is more usable.
Is your approach to creating navigation menus object- or task-focussed?
8. A Time-poor, Small-budget Approach to UX
Not every project will afford you the luxury of time or funding for comprehensive user research or more than one design iteration. Luke lists some practical, pragmatic ways that you can make the most of the situation and sneak in some UX best practices without blowing your deadline or your budget.
Insufficient research and testing on a project is a common hurdle faced by UX Designers.
7. The Difference Between Web Design and UX Design
When someone on the street or at a party asks me, “What do you do for a living?” I usually say I’m a web designer. But when it comes to talking to clients, recruiters and co-workers, I make a point of the fact that my job title is user experience designer. In this article, I explained why you should too.
Which hat do you wear? I bet it depends on who’s asking…
6. Sketchnotes from UX Australia 2012
I started publishing my sketchnotes on this website because the sessions I was fortunate enough to attend covered topics of interest to UX designers, and I thought that a sketch of the presentation would be an interesting way to pass on the content of the talk. However, it seems that many readers are interested in the sketches themselves, and the process of creating sketchnotes. The sketchnotes I took at UX Australia were the first of these.
Kim Chaterjee & Ruth Ellison:
21.5 Ways To Win Friends & Influence People
5. 10 Secrets Behind a Stunning User Experience
In this post, Luke pulled together some of the most useful—but not obvious—tips that he could think of for crafting a high quality, memorable user experience. Full of sage wisdom, this is one to print out and pin to your cubicle!
They may not be secret anymore, but they’re still worth checking out!
4. Sketchnotes from Web Directions South 2012
The Web Directions South conference is the web conference that Australians look forward to each year. 2012 did not disappoint, and the presentations were great fodder for Matt to hone his sketching skills. In these sketchnotes I experimented with some grey shading, and folks seemed to like the style!
A sketchnote of Ben Hammersley’s presentation: The Flower, The Field, And The Stack
3. Should You Become A UX Generalist Or A UX Specialist?
This question is one that plagued me for years. The “jack of all trades, master of none” dilemma has given me cause to evaluate my entire career on occasion! These days, I’m comfortable with my approach to specialisation (or lack thereof). In this post, I spelled out why, and offered some help to those facing the same career crisis.
Ever get the feeling that something has to give?
2. What is UX Design, and Why Should you Care?
The UX Mastery website was launched at the Web Directions “What Do You Know?” event in Melbourne on August 23rd 2012, and to coincide with the launch we created this fun little animated video that explains UX Design. Inspired by the RSA Animate video series, we’re rather proud of how it turned out, and judging by the traffic this post continues to receive, our visitors seem to enjoy it as well.
What the heck is UX Design? Find out in this 5 minute animated video.
And the Number 1 most popular post on uxmastery.com for 2012 is …
1. Sketchnoting 101: How To Create Awesome Visual Notes
After getting positive feedback on the sketchnotes that I had published, I decided to break down the process I use for creating sketchnotes. It seemed like a bit of a risk at the time, as sketchnoting a presentation isn’t really directly related to UX Design (although there is some overlap).
A collection of handy visual containers to use in your sketchnotes
Ultimately, it proved to be a good decision, as it has been our most popular article ever, and several readers have emailed me personally to thank me for the article and to share their own sketchnotes that they’d created as a result of reading it.
What was your favourite article on UX Mastery last year? Let us know in the comments!
Just found your blog through the Google Blog Search. I’m in heaven. I want to read all of these articles, but I especially like the sketching article. It always starts with a pen and a notebook!
Bit belated here Michael (we were on holiday when you commented) but very glad to have you, and thanks for the kind words. Cheers!