What makes some designs good and others bad? Why do some designs work while others don’t? Posts in this category offer thoughtful design critiques of modern digital interfaces, with commentary inspired by Don Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things.”
WeChat, a super app developed by Tencent, eventually became China’s app for everything in the last decade. Not only can users chat with others through texts and videos, but they can also share posts, subscribe blogs, hail taxis, pay utilities, order food deliveries, make medical appointments, shop online, transfer payments, etc. Among all those features, …
Introduction Tezza is an all-in-one photo and video editing app created by photographer and influencer Tezza. The app provides iOS users with photo and video presets along with various other editing tools that can be applied in one-click for on-the-go edits. While the iOS app is free to use, the Tezza app also features a …
Libby is a free app for borrowing and reading ebooks, magazines, and audiobooks from public libraries. With the app, users can input their library card information to borrow and read library books directly on their smartphones, tablets, or kindles. In this article, I will specifically critique the usability of the Libby iPhone app using theories and principles from Don Norman’s book, The Design of Everyday Things.
TCGplayer is a popular collectible card-purchasing marketplace, enabling people to buy and sell cards from various games like Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon, and more. This critique will focus on the desktop experience of buying Magic: The Gathering cards, utilizing design principles from Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things. Let’s start by defining my …
The Luminary app is designed to take the same subscriber-based model popularized by Netflix and Spotify and apply it to the podcast industry. Launched in 2019, Luminary’s model promises subscribers an ad-free experience where they can listen to Luminary exclusive content as well as the podcasts they’ve listened to on competitor apps. Onboarding Through …
Google Meet is a digital video conferencing application that allows users to join and/or host meetings from remote locations. While steadily gaining popularity over the years, digital conferencing platforms such as this became a standard and daily practice for businesses and education alike when the Covid-19 pandemic began to sweep across the United States. Almost …
JAWS, Job Access with Speech, is a computer screen reader for Microsoft Windows. It allows blind and visually impaired users to read the screen and navigate without a mouse. It provides the user with a text-to-speech output or braille display. The software is capable of reading documents, emails, websites, and apps as well filling out …
In 2020, most of the products we use today have some type of dark mode integrated into the user interface. Dark mode is a color scheme which utilizes light-colored text, icons, and graphical user interface elements on a dark background. Dark mode is often associated with accessibility with its user-friendliness to those who have poor …
The Immersive reader is the primary feature of Microsoft Learning Tools and was developed based on literacy science to improve the readability of content. It was mainly designed for students with dyslexia and dysgraphia and by supporting them in a non-stigmatizing way, it helps students with learning differences to grow into more independent learners.
The Google Arts & Culture App provides an online platform in which users can view high-resolution artworks and learn the worldwide culture of art from their smartphone anywhere and at any time. This article mainly introduces the user experiences related to augmented reality(AR) features and interactive games. Note: This design critique is focused on the …