Native Versus Web: A Moment In Time (Greg Cox)

Whenever I see punditry about web versus app, or worse, web versus mobile, I see a graph in my mind’s eye. It is inspired by disruption theory, but I’m not a deep student of Christensen’s work so please don’t read his implicit support into anything I’m writing here. (expletiveinserted.com)

Why Do So Many Responsive Sites Look The Same? (Steven Bradley)

Do you think too many responsive sites look the same? It seems to be a very common perception. If you do think they look alike, have you thought about why? Is it something inherent in responsive web design or are there other reasons? (vanseodesign.com)

Video: "JIBO: The World's First Family Robot"

Video: "JIBO: The World's First Family Robot" http://bit.ly/IATelevision (IA TV)

Revisiting Proto-Personas for Executive Alignment (Brent Summers)

As an experience design agency, most of our clients place significant value in understanding user needs. But placing value on user needs and actually meeting those needs is not the same thing. User needs must be balanced with organizational objectives. Many of our clients have evolved so quickly that their original target users aren’t the only (or real) target any longer. We use proto-personas as a way of gaining alignment among our project sponsors and striking the right balance of focus between organizational and user needs. (uxmag.com)

5 Superstitions In Design That Clients Believe In (Addison Duvall)

People are amazingly self-deceptive. We allow ourselves to believe many things that aren’t true, simply because they make us feel better or fulfill a need we have. And plenty of other people love to take advantage of this fact. From advertisers to employers to politicians, there is a never ending stream of people who will tell us exactly what we want to hear. (hongkiat.com)

Getting Revenue From Unhappy Customers (Jeff Sauro)

How does it feel to pay the check at the restaurant where you had terrible service and bad food? Or how do you feel when you pay your cable bill each month? (measuringusability.com)

3 Myths About Duplicate Content (Andy Crestodina)

The words “duplicate content penalty” strike fear in the hearts of marketers. People with no SEO experience use this phrase all the time. Most have never read Google’s guidelines on duplicate content. They just somehow assume that if something appears twice online, asteroids and locusts must be close behind. (kissmetrics.com)

Attract, Engage, Convert – How to Better Measure and Optimize Content Marketing Performance (Lee Odden)

The obstacle in front of most large, or mature companies of any size when it comes to digital and content marketing, is the battle with status quo. From strategy to tactics and especially measurement, change is often seen as interruptive and risky vs. adaptive. But without adaptation, we can hardly evolve, can we? (toprankblog)

Mobile UX Summit 2014 Schedule

Mobile UX Summit 2014 (Sept 13, Berlin) SCHEDULE coming soon... Super Early Bird ALMOST all gone! http://2014.mobxcon.com #mobile #ux

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Low Findability and Discoverability: Four Testing Methods to Identify the Causes (Jennifer Cardello)

One of the biggest causes of user failure is when users simply can’t locate stuff on the website. The first law of e-commerce design states, “if the user can’t find the product, the user can’t buy the product.” So these design flaws are not just usability problems, they’re often a site’s biggest profitability problems as well. (nngroup.com)

Jesse James Garrett and Ken Jennings Talk Maps and Design (Adaptive Path)

When Ken Jennings stepped onto the stage of Jeopardy! back in 2004, he was a humble software engineer from Salt Lake City. 74 wins later, he stepped off that stage as the winningest contestant in game show history. Since then, Jennings has continued to indulge his interest in esoteric knowledge of all kinds as an author and columnist. One of his books, Maphead, digs into the world of maps and map enthusiasts, looking at the past, present, and future of maps as a fundamental part of human experience. (uxmag.com)

10 Customer Metrics You Should Collect (Jeff Sauro)

There are a number of ways to quantify the value of your customers throughout the customer journey. While the "best" metrics depend on your goals and specific context, here is a list of 10 that most organizations should collect. (measuringusability.com)

Creative Minds: Brian Frandsen Offers a Philosophical View on Design (Moa Dickmark)

About one year ago, I was giving a talk to students who were about to graduate from the various design schools in Copenhagen. After I finished, I leaned back in a chair located rather close to the door (and close to the drinks and snack section...) when I caught myself staring at a bag. It captivated me to the extent that everything around me disappeared, and the only thing left was the bag and me. Once I snapped out of it, I went up to the person holding the bag as to ask him where he had bought it. To my great despair, it turned out he had made it himself, and he was holding the only sample. The Man with The Bag turned out not just to have a great eye for design, but to also have a great and intricate mind, and his name is Brian Frandsen. (core77.com)

Usability Tip: Interfaces Need Rhythm (Tammy Guy)

The overall presentation of a site must be clean and professional in order to gain user’s trust. Consistent and easy-to-use interfaces help users concentrate on the content and flow through the rhythm of browsing. In e-commerce, when that rhythm stops due to any uncertainties, it can deter users who will in turn defer back to in-store or phone help—or give up on a business transaction all together. (uxmag.com)

The Outsourcing Guide for Web Designers (Rudolph Musngi)

There are times in the life of a freelance web designer when design projects come like rain falling from the sky. Those times are great and abundant to a point that the said freelancer’s bucket is too full that he can’t carry it. (1stwebdesigner.com)

8 Design Patterns for Autocomplete Suggestions (Jamie Appleseed)

Autocomplete widgets have become somewhat of a web convention for e-commerce search, with 82% of the top grossing e-commerce sites offering up autocomplete suggestions to their users as they begin typing their search query. And Google has had autocomplete suggestions on by default since 2008. (baymard.com)

Structuring a New Collaborative Culture (Rosie Manning)

When I was a junior designer, my creative director asked me to design a mascot with the rather uninspiring instruction to reorder the shapes of the famous 2012 Olympics logo. Having little choice but to accept my task, I threw myself into it with all the boundless, panicked energy that comes from needing to impress the powers above, trusting my superior to steer me in the right direction. (alistapart.com)

M-Commerce: Why Going Mobile Is Important For Businesses (Azzief Khaliq)

Everyone knows that e-commerce is a constantly growing part of the larger retail and commerce landscape, but did you know that mobile commerce is growing at an even faster rate? Given the growing number of smartphone and tablet users, this is understandable, but there are still a lot of e-commerce retailers out there that haven’t been keeping up with the times and are still serving up unoptimized, unresponsive online stores to mobile users that can very easily drive mobile customers away. (hongkiat.com)

How Well Do You Understand Wireframes and Prototypes? (Taimur Asghar)

Few people know about the actual difference between the two terms ‘Wireframe’ and ‘Prototype’ in creating web design projects. There can be confusion with regards to their similarities. However, it is very important to know the difference of these two. Also, what are the benefits that these two can have for your designing projects? It might be possible that sometimes you will only require wireframe in your project and sometimes you will need a prototype for it. (1stwebdesigner.com)

Google Blurs The Line Between Web And Native Apps On Android (Romain Dillet)

Today at Google I/O, Chrome Director of Product Management Avni Shah introduced the new version of Chrome coming in the next Android update dubbed Android L.

As expected, we got a couple of feature updates. But it isn’t just a better version of Chrome. There is a clear and more profound message coming from Google. The company wants to blend native apps with web tabs. And the end of native apps as we know them could be closer than we might think. (techcrunch.com)

The product design sprint: a five-day recipe for startups (Jake Knapp)

At Google Ventures, we do product design work with startups all the time. Since we want to move fast and they want to move fast, we’ve optimized a process that gets us predictably good results in five days or less. We call it a product design sprint, and it’s great for getting unstuck or accelerating projects that are already in motion. (gv.com)

Frontend Optimisation for a better User Experience (Part 1) (hostpresto.com)

Everything is about speed these days, and user expectations are higher than ever. We no longer wait for information, we want it instantly, we want to consume it as quickly as possible it and move on to the next thing. (hostpresto.com)

Beyond SEO: Googlebot Optimization (Neil Patel)

You know all about search engine optimization — the importance of a well-structured site, relevant keywords, appropriate tagging, technical standards, and lots and lots of content. But chances are you don’t think a lot about Googlebot optimization. (kissmetrics.com)