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Weekly curated resources for designersthinkers andmakers.Recently, multiple businesses worldwide, including banks, airlines, TV channels, and more, were forced to suspend their operations due to a faulty cybersecurity update to Windows. The update took down thousands of computers, causing them to boot loop and crash to a blue screen of death. Suddenly, our beloved icons were gone, and we thrashed around helplessly without them. This may be a good time to think a little about the processes by which Microsoft became such a huge monopoly.The blue screen of death: have GUIs truly defeated iconoclasm? By NeelDozomeEditor picksWhy you should have a brag document Your secret weapon for performance reviews and interviews.By TedGoasOur company is acquired. Now what? Business as usual applies no more to us UX professionals.ByMeltemWhy not all voices should be equal We need to start centering decisions of those deeply impacted.By MarielleSam-WallThe UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about theirwork.A curated collection of free typefaces Make methinkCool self In my simplest definition, its the version of you that feels like youre being yourself and feels cool. Naturally, this hinges on how we define cool. So in the fewest words I can muster, cool means being authentic, confident, calm, and original.The paradox of builders & users Builders are different. Every time they open their own product, they spot problems. Theyre constantly thinking of opportunities to change thingsarguably for the better. The optimisation brain is on full revolutions.Steve Jobs: the objects of our life Part of Steves brilliance was how he learned to support the creative process, encouraging and developing ideas even in large groups of people. He treated the process of creating with a rare and wonderful reverence.Little gems thisweekBack of the TV UX By Chris RBeckerGoing offroad for a better design system By TripCarrollDangerous metaphors in AI By Luis BerumenCastroTools and resourcesNever hide your email unsubscribe link A cautionary tale of email deliverability, retention, and LTV.By Rosie HoggmascallHow to make tables fit on small screens Spoiler: you probably cant and maybe you shouldnt.By LitsaBabalisA designers introduction to AI The brief exploration of a (kinda) new design material.By FelixKalkuhlSupport the newsletterIf you find our content helpful, heres how you can supportus:Check out this weeks sponsor to support their worktooForward this email to a friend and invite them to subscribeShare open positions on our jobboardSponsor aneditionBlue screen of death, brag document, designing tables for small screens was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Exploring how to design interfaces that feel intuitive and forgiving, even when users make mistakes.Source: https://dribbble.com/shots/4291349-MistakeWeve all been there. Youre rushing to book a flight, fingers flying across the keyboard, and just as youre about to click Confirm, BAM! You accidentally select the wrong departure date. A wave of panic washes over you as you scramble to fix the mistake, hoping it hasnt cost you a small fortune. Errors like these are a common occurrence when interacting with digital interfaces, and they can be a real pain to dealwith.These little hiccups, these moments of frustration, often expose areas where technology falls short of providing a smooth and intuitive user experience. Theyre the digital equivalent of a banana peel on the sidewalk, and they happen to the best of us. But while some errors are simply minor annoyances, others can have significant consequences, leading to lost time, data, or even financial losses.In this article, I am going to take a closer look at interface errors. Ill explain the difference between slips and mistakes, and share some ways to design intuitive, error-tolerant interfaces that make it easier for users to recover when they makeerrors.Slips vs.MistakesWhen it comes to interface errors, its important to understand the difference between slips and mistakes.SlipsSlips occur when the users intent is correct, but they accidentally execute the wrong actionlike clicking the wrong button or entering an unintended value.Imagine scheduling a team meeting using Google Calendar. You diligently set the date, time, and carefully add all participants. However, while fine-tuning the meeting agenda, you accidentally overlook the Notify participants checkbox before saving the event. As a result, no notifications are sent, leaving your team uninformed about the meeting. This is a classic slip: your overall intention was correct, but a simple oversight in the workflow led to a communication breakdown.MistakesMistakes, on the other hand, happen when the users underlying goal or plan is flawed, leading them to take the wrong action in the firstplace.Youre setting up a team meeting in Google Calendar, aiming for a productive one-hour brainstorming session. You carefully select a time slot that appears free for all participants and send out the invitations. However, what you dont realize is that your free Google Calendar account has a 40-minute limit for meetings.Because youre unaware of this limitation, the meeting unexpectedly ends after 40 minutes, disconnecting all participants. This interruption causes confusion and disrupts the flow of discussion, potentially leading to frustration and wastedtime.The mistake stems from an incorrect mental model of the systems functionality, highlighting how a users understanding (or lack thereof) can significantly impact their experience and lead to unintended consequences.Designing for Error PreventionWhile some errors are simply unavoidable, interfaces can be designed in a way that minimizes the occurrence of both slips and mistakes, and makes it easier for users to recover when they dohappen.Preventing SlipsWhen it comes to slips, the key is to design interfaces that make it difficult for users to accidentally take the wrong action. This couldinvolve:A clear visual hierarchy acts as a roadmap for users, guiding their attention to the interactive elements. A well-structured hierarchy aligns with users natural tendencies to scan for visual prominence. By strategically using size, color, contrast, and placement, designers can signal which elements are clickable buttons, editable fields, or draggable components, making the interfaces functionality instantly understandable.Implementing inline validation to provide immediate feedback as users fill out forms can helps users correct errors in real-time, reducing frustration and improving the completion rate.Chunking and progressive disclosure can help to reduce cognitive load and minimize the risk of users losing track of their current step in a multi-step process.Providing clear and unambiguous labels for buttons, links, and other controls, so theres no confusion about what each elementdoes.Implementing safeguards, such as confirmation dialogues, to catch potentially harmful actions before theyre executed.For example, Jitter, a tool for creating animations from Figma designs, demonstrates how progressive disclosure can help prevent slips caused by cognitive overload. Instead of bombarding users with information about how to instal the Figma plugin right away, Jitter strategically reveals instructions based on the users chosen workflow. This measured approach ensures users receive only the information they need at each step, reducing cognitive load and minimizing the risk of errors or accidental clicks due to feeling overwhelmed.Source: https://mobbin.com/screens/a7725b24-f16a-4d16-b0e9-935ffea824edIntercom effectively implements confirmation dialogues to prevent slips, especially when dealing with potentially irreversible actions. For example, the Archive and Block options for contacts, both of which can have significant consequences, are positioned closely together. To mitigate the risk of users accidentally selecting the wrong option, Intercom requires explicit confirmation before proceeding. This confirmation step not only acts as a safety net to catch potential slips but also empowers users to reverse an accidental click before any unintended consequences occur.Source: https://mobbin.com/screens/adad8065-0cfb-414c-ae1f-24538f061d19The registration pop-up in Figma provides users with inline validation for the email input field. In the example below, the mistype is detected and the user is prompted to correct it with a singleclickSource: https://mobbin.com/screens/a3b9500b-9f95-47f0-a176-3450efd9e90aPreventing MistakesMistakes, on the other hand, require a slightly different approach. Since these errors stem from the users underlying goal or plan being flawed, the focus should be on helping them develop a correct mental model of how the systemworks.This couldinvolve:Using familiar metaphors and metaphors that align with the users existing mental models. Users dont approach systems in isolation; they bring expectations shaped by their experiences with other products and interfaces. As Jakob Nielsens Law of Internet User Experience, often applied more broadly, suggests, users prefer systems that work in ways they already understand. By incorporating familiar metaphors and design patterns, you tap into those existing mental models, reducing the learning curve and minimizing the potential for mistakes caused by unfamiliarity or confusion.Sometimes it is impossible to follow only established patterns, especially when dealing with novel features. In these situations, nudges and contextual guidance can help users discover the correct actions and avoid mistakes. By providing helpful tooltip, hints, or suggestions at the point of interaction, designers can gently steer users towards the optimal path, reducing the likelihood of errors stemming from uncertainty or a lack of understanding.Nielsens Help and Documentation heuristic emphasizes that while its ideal for a system to be usable without any extra help, it is necessary to provide help and documentation to assist users. However, a knowledge base can be overwhelming, especially to novice users. Generative AI suggests a great approach: incorporating chatbots trained on the knowledge base, which can communicate with users in natural language and help them in context, for example IBM Watson Assistant or Google Dialogflow.Novice users often make mistakes when faced with unfamiliar systems or features. This is where proactive guidance, like the contextual suggestions provided by the Otter chat interface, can be invaluable in preventing errors. For example, new Otter users might not fully grasp the full potential of the chat feature, leading to unproductive interactions or a sense of being lost. By offering contextually relevant suggestions, Otter guides users towards meaningful actions, preventing the Blank Canvas Syndrome that can lead to frustration and mistakes. This proactive approach helps users learn by doing, fostering a smoother and more error-free experience from theoutset.Source: https://mobbin.com/screens/838ca45b-08ae-424e-a40a-26bf79c6f94fIntercom employs several effective approaches to introduce users to the interface:They leverage metaphors, using familiar categories like inboxes and views to explain the information architecture.The visual hierarchy is designed to guide user attention. A dimmed background draws focus to the side panel. The inclusion of a human photo in the tooltip leverages Gestalt principles, ensuring its the first place users look. The tooltip message effectively uses chunking, separating the information into two one-sentence parts, utilizing the Serial PositionEffect.Source: https://mobbin.com/screens/f0180cbf-58b1-42f3-a262-63dc6c70e2d1Graceful recoveryIn an ideal world, our designs would be so intuitive and error-resistant that missteps would be rare. However, the reality is that users are human, and human error is a natural part of any interaction. Even with the most well-intentioned design efforts, unforeseen circumstances, slips of attention, or gaps in understanding can lead to unintended actions. Thats why its not enough to focus solely on error prevention; we must also design for graceful recovery. When errors do happen, its crucial to provide users with a clear, straightforward path to get back on track, minimizing frustration and helping them achieve theirgoals.Here are some key ways to design for graceful error recovery:A key principle of graceful error recovery is ensuring users can quickly recognize when theyve made a mistake. A system that clearly communicates its status empowers users to self-correct. By providing clear and timely feedback about the systems statewhether an action was successful, whats currently processing, or any changes resulting from their inputusers can readily track the impact of their actions and identify any unintended outcomes. This aligns with Nielsens heuristic Visibility of System Status, which emphasizes the importance of keeping users informed about whats happening inside the system at alltimes.Once a user has identified a mistake, the system should provide clear and readily accessible options for reversing the action or getting assistance. This could include prominent Undo buttons, readily available help documentation linked within error messages, the option to connect with a human support agent,etc.Even when errors occur, the system should be designed to minimize their impact and prevent data loss or other irreversible damage. This could involve: a) Autosaving user progress: Regularly saving the users work can help to easily recover it if an error forces them to restart or lose their current session.b) Providing clear warnings before irreversible actions: If an action cannot be undone (e.g., deleting a file permanently), the system should clearly warn the user and require confirmation before proceeding.c) Offering safe modes or sandboxes for experimentation: Allow users to explore features or make changes in a safe environment where mistakes wont have lasting consequences.Recovery codes for two-factor authentication are a great example of this proactive approach. By generating and prompting users to store these codes, services like Basecamp provide a safety net if a user ever loses access to their second authentication factor.Basecamp further emphasizes the importance of these codes by employing a Von Restorff Effect or the Isolation Effect visually highlighting the potential threat of losing access and strategically placing the recovery code option within that message. This combination of proactive problem-solving and clever design effectively guides users towards a solution before they encounter a criticalerrorSource: https://mobbin.com/screens/765b19a9-910d-437a-b32c-b8b77e13369dAdditional resourcesDesigning for error recovery is an ongoing learning process. Here are some additional resources that can provide furtherinsight:What Is Error and Types of Errors in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) in video by AlanDixUsability Heuristic 5: Error Prevention by Katie Sherwin fromNN/gThe Design of Everyday Things, Chapter 5Human error? No, bad design by DonNormanDesigning Better Error Messages UX by VitalyFriedmanThe Nature of User Errors lesson byUxcelFinal thoughtsIn the end, embracing errors as a natural part of the human experience and proactively designing for their prevention and graceful recovery is crucial for creating delightful, user-friendly interfaces. By understanding the different types of errors users might make, such as slips and mistakes, and employing thoughtful strategies to address both, designers can empower users to confidently engage with digital products and services, fostering a sense of trust, control, and satisfaction.Do you know any other effective techniques for designing for error tolerance and recovery? Feel free to share your thoughts in the commentsbelow!Designing for forgiveness: How to create error-tolerant interfaces was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

A quantitative approach to design ROI that puts collaboration at the centerContinue reading on UX Collective

If youre looking for the Wordle answer for July 31, 2024 read on. Well share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Todays puzzle is harder; I got it in five. Beware, there are spoilers below for July 31, Wordle #1,138! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to todays Wordle game.How to play WordleWordle lives here on the New York Times website. A new puzzle goes live every day at midnight, your local time.Start by guessing a five-letter word. The letters of the word will turn green if theyre correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isnt in the days secret word at all. For more, check out our guide to playing Wordle here, and my strategy guide here for more advanced tips. (We also have more information at the bottom of this post, after the hints and answers.)Ready for the hints? Lets go!Does todays Wordle have any unusual letters?Well define common letters as those that appear in the old typesetters phrase ETAOIN SHRDLU. (Memorize this! Pronounce it Edwin Shirdloo, like a name, and pretend hes a friend of yours.)Four of today's letters are from our mnemonic. The fifth is fairly common. Can you give me a hint for todays Wordle?A type of pasta. Does todays Wordle have any double or repeated letters?There are two repeated letters today.How many vowels are in todays Wordle?There are is one vowel, used twice. What letter does todays Wordle start with?Todays word starts with P.What letter does todays Wordle end with?Todays word ends with E.What is the solution to todays Wordle?Ready? Todays word is PENNE.How I solved todays WordleI started with RAISE and TOUCH, followed by LEDGE. There were a few possible solutionsPEEVE was my next guess, followed by PENNE. Wordle 1,138 5/6Yesterdays Wordle answerYesterdays Wordle was harder. The hint was wild, like an animal and the answer contained four common letters and one fairly common letter. The answer to yesterdays Wordle was FERAL. A primer on Wordle basicsThe idea of Wordle is to guess the days secret word. When you first open the Wordle game, youll see an empty grid of letters. Its up to you to make the first move: type in any five-letter word.Now, you can use the colors that are revealed to get clues about the word:Green means you correctly guessed a letter, and its in the correct position. (For example, if you guess PARTY, and the word is actually PURSE, the P and R will be green.)Yellow means the letter is somewhere in the word, but not in the position you guessed it. (For example, if you guessed PARTY, but the word is actually ROAST, the R, A and T will all be yellow.)Gray means the letter is not in the solution word at all. (If you guessed PARTY and everything is gray, then the solution cannot be PURSE or ROAST.)With all that in mind, guess another word, and then another, trying to land on the correct word before you run out of chances. You get six guesses, and then its game over.The best starter words for WordleWhat should you play for that first guess? The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, thats still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isnt a single best starting word, but the New York Timess Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these:CRANETRACESLANTCRATECARTEMeanwhile, an MIT analysis found that youll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these:SALETREASTTRACECRATESLATEOther good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that its better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out.How to win at WordleWe have a few guides to Wordle strategy, which you might like to read over if youre a serious student of the game. This one covers how to use consonants to your advantage, while this one focuses on a strategy that uses the most common letters. In this advanced guide, we detail a three-pronged approach for fishing for hints while maximizing your chances of winning quickly.The biggest thing that separates Wordle winners from Wordle losers is that winners use their guesses to gather information about what letters are in the word. If you know that the word must end in -OUND, dont waste four guesses on MOUND, ROUND, SOUND, and HOUND; combine those consonants and guess MARSH. If the H lights up in yellow, you know the solution.One more note on strategy: the original Wordle used a list of about 2,300 solution words, but after the game was bought by the NYT, the game now has an editor who hand-picks the solutions. Sometimes they are slightly tricky words that wouldnt have made the original list, and sometimes they are topical. For example, FEAST was the solution one Thanksgiving. So keep in mind that there may be a theme.Wordle alternativesIf you cant get enough of five-letter guessing games and their kin, the best Wordle alternatives, ranked by difficulty, include:Wheeldle, which lets you play one puzzle after anotherDordle and Quordle, which ask you to play two (Dordle) or four (Quordle) puzzles at the same time, with the same guesses. There is also Octordle, with eight puzzles, and Sedecordle, with 16.Waffle, which shows you several five-letter words, scrambled in a grid; you play by swapping the letters around until you solve.Absurdle, which changes the solution after each guess, but needs to stay consistent with its previous feedback. You have to strategically back it into a corner until there is only one possible word left; then you guess it, and win.Squabble, in which you play Wordle against other people with a timer running. You take damage if you spend too much time between guesses; winner is the last one standing.Antiwordle, in which you are trying not to guess the days solution. Youre required to reuse any letters that you (oops) guessed correctly, so the longer it takes you, the better you are at the game.

Young people don't usually vote in huge numbers, and I get it: Voting is boring, and it only encourages politicians anyway. But the entrance of Kamala Harris into the presidential race seems to be invigorating the political interests of young people. It's anyone's guess whether that will lead to engaged new voters in November, but it's resulting in a lot of memes now, and that's the next best thing, right? And once you've digested that, you can focus on what really matters: A badass Olympic sharpshooter with real Main Character Energy. The Kamala Harris meme explainerSince Kamala Harris became the Democratic Party nominee for president a little over a week ago, the internet has been meme-ing her up, and hard. While it's difficult to cut through the hype to really understand how younger people feel about politics, it seems clear that they like Harris better than Biden, and they like her way better than Trump. At the very least, they find her to be better fodder for internet jokes.Here are some of the most prominent Harris memes that have caught on, and what they mean.Brat: Some online folks have been are referring to Harris as "brat" (complementary). The honorific was bestowed upon Harris by pop singer Charli XCX in a tweet posted shortly after Harris announced her campaign, which reads: "kamala IS brat." This references the singer's album of the same name, which had already become something of a meme itself, thanks in part to its distinctive lime green cover art. According to XCX, to be brat is to be that girl who is a little messy and likes to party and maybe says some dumb things sometimes, who feels herself, but then also maybe has a breakdown, but kind of parties through it." So that's how young folks see the future president maybe? I'll take it.Coconut: Along with "brat," people are are mentioning coconuts in the same breath as Harris, or saying they're "coconut-pilled." This is a reference to a speech Harris gave in 2023 in which she quoted her mother saying, "You think you just fell out of a coconut tree? You exist in the context of all in which you live and what came before you. As for why it catching on, it's a clear idea in a concise little package, a little silly and novel enough to be memorable. Or maybe the kids are making fun of her a little bit? Even Lifehacker's Gen Z expert Meredith Dietz thinks it's hard to tell. Weird: The Democratic Party has seemingly reached an agreement to refer to Donald Trump and and his running mate JD Vance as "weird," and as often as possible. Many people have called Trump weird throughout his life, but it's sticking this time, thanks to a cable news appearance by Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in which he painted the GOP with the "they're weird" brush. This message was soon amplified by a Harris campaign statement describing Trump as "old and quite weird?" [Sic.]In a broader context, "weird" dovetails perfectly with the song of the summer (and probably the decade), "Not Like Us" by Kendrick Lamar, in which Lamar ejects Drake from hip-hop by defining him as "not like us." The same energy is being applied to Trumpworld by the meme-makers (and the Democrats cashing in on the trend.)What is budots music? Add "budots" to the list of musical sub-genres you will probably not like. Budots is a genre of electronic dance music that originated on the streets of the Philippines and is taking over TikTok. It's characterized by simple, repetitive eletro-beats and lots of sound effectsstrictly music for the feet, not the head. The breakout piece of budots music is DJ Johnrey Masbate's Emergency Budots, a remix of Dr. Beat by the Miami Sound Machine. It's has been used in over 400,000 TikTok videos and counting. But the genre has been around longer than that song. It was developed by DJ Love, an internet cafe owner in the Philippines who started releasing Budots videos 11 years ago (although "budots" originally referred to the silly, joyous, overly exaggerated moves of the dance that accompanies the music). What does EYP mean?NSFW warning! If someone has been posting "lemme EYP" at you lately, they are asking to eat your pussy. The phrase is blowing up on various online comment sections lately, but like budots music, it's been around a few years, bubbling under the surface, waiting for the right moment to catch on.Ilona Maher: The 2024 Olympics' viral star Most Americans don't think much about women's rugby, but younger people are becoming very aware of Ilona Maher. The 27-year-old Olympian is an absolute beast on the rugby pitch, and her TikTok and Instagram have become wildly popular for their mix of body positivity, rugby positivity, and content anyone can relate tolike this video of Maher saying the most awkward thing possible when meeting an Olympic tennis player, and her pure excitement over a photo op with Snoop Dogg. Viral Video of the Week: "Kim Yeji breaks the world record for 25m Women's Pistol" Another breakout viral star of the Olympics this week is South Korean pistol champion Kim Yeji. While she's competing in various air pistol events this year, her virality comes from the ISSF World Cup held a few months ago, when Kim broke the world record for 25m Pistol. She did it with such style that the video of the moment must be seen to be believedit's been viewed over 20 million times in the last day alone. Del Walker, one of many people who posted the video on Twitter, summed up the vibe like this: "The most 'Main Character Energy' I've ever seen in my life." How it's possible to break a world record while winning a gold medal at an international event and stay that cool is a mystery, but the all black clothes and cyberpunk-looking magnifying glasses don't hurt. (To add to her legend, Kim just won a silver medal at the women's 10m air pistol event.)