In 2013 Luke and I used UX Mastery to explore just about everything under the UX umbrella, publishing over 60 articles in the process—how-to guides, opinion pieces, podcasts, and more.
Here are the 10 articles that garnered the most interest from our readers, counted down in reverse, David Letterman-style, just like last year.
10. Review: Design Your User Experience in 7 Simple Steps
In January we published the first of our reviews of the many online UX training courses that were beginning to appear on the web. Amir’s course is targeted at enterpreneurs and developers, and offers a structured, lean approach to sketching, refining, and polishing your ideas.
9. Infinite Scrolling: Fad or Fab?
Our first guest post covered a topic that was for most people—the trend to display a list of items using infinite scrolling. Danielle explored the pros and cons of infinite scrolling to help you determine whether it’s right for your site or app.
8. A Day in the Life of a UX Designer
What does a day in the life of a UX Designer actually look like? One reader wanted to know, so Matt attempted to capture a typical day for him as a comic.
7. How To Estimate a UX Project
One of the most difficult things to get right, even for more experienced UX designers, is estimating projects. Whether you’re a freelance designer who needs to give a quote to a client for a job, or you’re an in-house designer preparing estimates for your project manager, Ben’s tips on estimating UX work will help you in your next UX project.
6. How Much Code Should a User Experience Designer Write?
Attending the Web Directions Code conference got Matt thinking about the degree that coding plays (or should play) in the role of a user experience designer. He captured his thoughts on the topic as an animated sketch video.
5. 10 Ways to Add Delight to your Website or App
Ben Tollady is obsessed with designing websites that are not merely usable, but delightful. So how does one create delight in a website or mobile app? In this post, Ben lists 10 approaches, backed up with a ton of examples.
4. What Does A User-centred Design Process Look Like?
Articulating the process that UX Designers follow on a software design project is not a straightforward task. Where should someone new to the field start, and what techniques should they apply for maximum gain? We attempt to answer these questions with our Techniques Bank.
3. How To Conduct A Content Audit
Ever been faced with the redesign of a website containing content that you’re completely unfamiliar with? You need to perform a content audit. “A what now?” I hear you ask. Fear not: UX Australia’s Donna Spencer is here to guide you through.
2. Review: User Experience: The Ultimate Guide to Usability
When I reviewed David Travis’s introductory training course, I wrote: “There’s one big reason why I hate this course—and that’s because I wish I’d created it myself!” We think David has done a remarkable job at providing introductory material to newcomers to the UX world, and a number of other people who have also taken the course agree with us.
1. How to Get Started in UX Design
We get a ton of emails from readers looking to break into UX Design. Matt spelled out some advice on how to prepare yourself for a career as a UX Designer, based on his own experience and from talking to others, and it turned out to be a hit. In hindsight it’s obvious that this would be a popular topic—hindsight’s a wonderful thing, of course!
Happy New Year! What was your favourite article of 2013? Let us know in the comments.
