Top UX Influencers You Need to Know

This article was originally published on Linked In.

If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.

Thus said, Isaac Newton. Thanks to the Internet, I am constantly learning from the work of many great people across the world. This article is a small attempt to introduce you to few giants in User Experience (UX) space. This list is never complete as there are hundreds of thousands of people who are quietly doing their work.

Twitter is a treasure trove of experts in different fields. I frequent Twitter to learn from the experts on specific topics like UX, read about latest trends and apply them to projects based on the context. Many experts I wrote to, responded graciously and guided me. I am amazed and grateful forever, for the great work done by these great people who have generously shared their experience and expertise for free to make this world a better place for all of us. Aspiring UXers and designers looking for inspiration can learn from these UX influencers with a great legacy behind them. The names are in no particular order.

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Donald Norman @jnd1er

www.jnd.org

The founding father of user experience, Donald Norman is credited with coining the term “user experience”. He is one of the world’s most famous UX Designers with @NNgroup. Don Norman’s books are intense, thought-provoking, and showcase his love to create humanizing experiences for users.

Recommended Reading: All of Donald Norman’s books

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Luke Wroblewski @lukew

www.lukew.com

Luke Wroblewski is my digital transformation hero. He is a straight-speaking UX guy with a penchant for all things UX in Web and Mobile. His deep work and advice on building next generation mobile apps are close to none other. True to his Twitter bio, he is truly humanizing technology. Luke is a truly hands-on, highly insightful technical subject matter expert of our times.

Recommended Reading: Every article he has ever written!

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Jared Spool @jmspool

https://www.uie.com/brainsparks/

Jared Spool is a UX legend and one of the most influential authority on UX design for almost 40 years. His articles, talks, and workshops give you fundamental insights we need to build great experiences. He emphasizes on overall human experiences while building products. Jared’s thought-provoking satire on his experience of flying United Airlines experiences can air drop you into a thinking pool.

Recommended Reading: Every article he has ever written!

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Steve Krug @skrug

https://www.sensible.com/

Steve’s best-selling book Don’t Make Me Think was the first book that got me thinking about usability. His books are simple and easy to understand for beginners. His insights on human-computer interactions and user testing are commendable. If you are starting out in usability, this guy’s body of work does wonders for you.

Recommended Reading: Don’t Make Me Think

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David Rose @davidrose

https://about.me/davidlrose

David Rose is a world-renowned MIT Media Lab researcher who has built fabulous products with enchanting experiences, as he calls them. The products he has built imbibe subtle human feelings. His products and book are must learn stuff. David is one of the gifted UX artists we have today.

Recommended Reading: Enchanted Objects: Design, Human Desire, and the Internet of Things

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Bill Buxton @wasbuxton

http://www.billbuxton.com/

Bill Buxton is a Principal Researcher, Interaction Designer and a relentless advocate for innovation and design. His 2007 book, Sketching User Experiences reflects his love for human values and culture.

Recommended Reading: Sketching User Experiences

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Alan Cooper @MrAlanCooper

https://www.cooper.com/

Rightly called the Software Alchemist, Alan Cooper is the ‘Father of Visual Basic,’ and Inventor of design personas. Alan’s books focus on how not to drive users crazy and keep them sane.

Recommended Reading: The Inmates Are Running the Asylum: Why High-Tech Products Drive Us Crazy and How to Restore the Sanity.

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Golden Krishna @goldenkrishna

http://www.nointerface.com

One of the top hands-on designers with a legacy of great UX work at Zappos, Amazon, Samsung, Cooper and now at Google, Golden Krishna is a human-centered designer who is making technology human-friendly.

Recommended Reading: Best Interface is No Interface

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I follow many others like Jakob Nielsen, Bruce Tognazzini, Adrian Zumbrunnen, Susan Weinschenk, Karen McGrane, Annette Priest, Laura Klein, Ethan Marcotte, Jess James Garrett and a hundred others. I’ll add their information once I have read their books/blogs and learn more about their body of work.

I use the term Expert for a constant learner, a teacher or a guru. With due credits to all great people who claim to be experts as well as those who don’t think of themselves as experts, we need to understand, there are no EXPERTS on any subject or in any field. Every so called expert builds on the knowledge and experience of their predecessors and contemporaries. Making this world a better place to live is the only thing that matters. And many people do that. I express my heartfelt thanks to everyone who share what they know and help others to become better moment by moment through Twitter, books, blogs, and other online/offline forums. THANK YOU!

Guru devo bhava!

How to Improve Payment Forms Using Four Interaction Design Patterns on Mobile Devices

This article was originally published on Linked In.

Payment forms are critical on mobile apps, to sell products online. Conventional payment forms have at least 4 input controls — Name on Card, Card Number, Expiry Date, CVV and in some cases, even Card Type — Visa, Mastercard, American Express and so forth. We seek card type although we can detect which type of card it is using first two digits of the card number. We seek detail to this level in the name of providing freedom and control to users.

Typing through each field, by looking intermittently at the card and the payment form to ensure correctness can be a daunting task. Payment form listed above can be simplified by reducing the number of input controls from 4 to 1.

Great! It’s a given that this single input control gathers all the information previously done but in a more elegant and simplified way.

Interaction Design Patterns

Good experience only begins from here — the single input control. Four intuitive interaction design patterns can be used to improve the input experience further.

1. Contextual Keypad

Tapping on the card number field displays a keypad. A lot of mobile apps display qwerty type keypad. The user has to switch to the numeric keypad with few taps to enter the card number.

Reducing the effort required to switch between multiple keypads while entering input is a big relief to users. Displaying a numeric keypad (input type=tel) since.

2. Input Masks

As a user types the card number, after typing first 4 digits, he/she pauses to decide whether to give space or hyphen symbol. The user needs intuitive guidance here on which separators (space/hyphen) to use and how many digits are remaining.

Input mask is the answer. Input mask can be implemented in many ways:

• Use ‘XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX’ and gradually reveal the input structure as user types along
• Use real text like ‘Expiry Date’, ‘CVV’ to hint users
• Auto-populate card logo based on card number as user types first two digits of the card number. This provides feedback to the user that he/she has indeed, entered the right card number.

3. Animation

An improved design pattern for payment forms is to introduce animation using card metaphor by designing a virtual card layout. As a user enters the data, it is auto-populated on the card to give a real card visual experience.

4. Machine Input

Tired of typing input manually? There is a simpler pattern :). The built-in camera on mobile phones can be used to retrieve card information by just scanning the card.

The user doesn’t need to enter card number manually anymore. Many mobile apps are adopting this approach these days [This approach might need intense machine learning algorithms to work with precision.]

Using small/big fingers on small screens to perform input operations can be challenging for many users. Payment forms are particularly risky given the secure nature of operations. Intuitive interaction design patterns listed above can soothe stressed out users by simplifying payment forms to a large extent.

How simple are the forms in your apps?