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Assumptions are bad for business. They’re bad because, by nature, we hold opinions based on the way we see the world and biases based on things that have happened to us. When it comes to design, making assumptions is dangerous because design costs money, time and resources. And it costs much more money, time and resources than it does to conduct some simple user testing that can help prove (or disprove) the theories we hold. Following assumptions often results in at least one of the following outcomes: Designing the wrong thing first Not designing the right thing at all Designing the right thing but doing it in the wrong way What exactly is user testing? User testing is where users actually use an app or website (or, at the very least, a prototype of it) and offer feedback and insight that can be used to improve it. User testing goes above and beyond a simple feedback survey and involves watching actual users (or the target market) as they test our design. In this article we’ll self-service our own user tests using UserLook – this is where, after defining the questions that we’d like to ask, we send the user a link where they can conduct their user test remotely in their own time. This helps us automate user testing (which saves time), while sourcing user testers from our own user-base (which saves money). Note: If you’d rather have UserLook recruit testers for you, that’s fine too – the pricing page lists various options. When to user test You might be wondering how often you should run user tests. The short answer is: constantly – always be user testing. When decisions are fuelled by what users are outright asking for, you’ll feel way less anxious and far more confident of success when the product you’re designing finally becomes publicly available. The majority of the time, teams throw in the towel with user testing because they don’t understand why they’re doing it and therefore ask all the wrong questions, which results in vague answers that don’t offer much insight. Before asking questions in a user test, we first need to ask ourselves ‘Why are we doing this?’ and ‘What do we want to learn from this user test?’ Before we begin, we first need to consider whether we’re testing an MVP (a minimum viable product) – for which user testing is the right approach – or the usability of an already validated product, in which case usability testing is the right approach. If you’re testing an MVP, then you’re probably best off focusing on user testing. When it comes to user testing the core question is: ‘Does this solve the problem?’ However, with usability testing, the defining question is: ‘How well does it solve the problem?’ User testing comes first and this happens as soon as we have an MVP. Usability testing happens once the core product has been validated and it’s time to flesh out the wider scope of functionality that the app or website is supposed to offer. To summarise: User testing = user needs Usability testing = usability/UX 01. Set up UserLook To define the scope of a user test, click the Start Testing button in the top-right corner of the home screen In this step we’ll set up UserLook and define our question set, discussing test length, compensation and more along the way. Start by signing up to UserLook, then choose: Start testing Self-service w/my own users Some of the form fields are fairly self-explanatory (for example Name of Test) but we’ll run through some of the less-obvious options that can impact the outcome of our tests. 02. Choose URL of website to test Obvious? Actually not so much! While you might think to add a live website URL here, we can actually include prototypes built with InVision Studio, Adobe XD, Sketch and basically any screen design tool that syncs mockups to the cloud – which means we can test sooner (ie before investing valuable money, time and resources getting into the various complexities of development). To make this work, simply sync your design to Sketch Cloud, InVision or whatever the equivalent is in your design tool of choice, then paste the given share link into the form field. 03. Set a time limit Setting up a user test in UserLook requires you to define a few settings, most of which are optional You’re probably wondering why you would want to set a time limit on your user test. Here’s one example: the five-second user test. In this day and age, where users are typically impatient, forgetful and easily distracted, a five-second user test can reveal what the user really remembers about what they just saw. Was it immediately clear what the webpage was about? If the answer is no, then the user is likely to hit the back button. A five-second user test can determine whether or not the screen or webpage clearly communicates what the user needs to do. 04. Compensate users While only optional, some level of compensation will create incentive for users to offer quality feedback. Compensation doesn’t have to mean financial compensation though, it can be something as simple as free access to whatever you’re building. 05. Consider your questions carefully Naturally, the questions themselves are the most defining aspect of the test. The truth is you probably have lots of questions but it’s important to remember that we can conduct as many user tests as needed, so before each test, have a long and hard think about what you want to learn in each one. For instance, an initial free exploration test might reveal that users have trouble signing up, so after designing another iteration one of the questions in a follow-up performance test could be: ‘What frustrations did you have signing up?’ 06. Create a context intro A context intro is the first thing users see when they start their test – this is where we introduce ourselves, explain what we’re doing (and why) and set expectations. If the user is required to complete a specific task, this is where we’d introduce that task and state that there are a few questions to be answered (these will appear in the sidebar during the test process). 07. Set participant info requirements Participant info includes name, email, age, occupation, location, household income and gender. If we wanted to see how different types of recurring feedback correlate with different demographics, we could segment this data to contribute to what are called user personas, a sort of written story that describes a certain user type as well as their needs and objectives. For example, 18- to 29-year-olds and 48- to 59-year-olds will naturally have different needs and objectives when using, say, Facebook – where younger users might want to engage with brands and older demographics might want to stay in touch with friends. Although optional, this data can offer more context to the user feedback and contribute to the development of these personas. 08. Share test After defining the scope, we should receive a URL that we can share with user testers. After that, users can complete tests in their own time, leaving us free to work on something else. If the test questions have been defined correctly, we should have some high-quality feedback that’s both actionable and consistent; this means it’s clear what we need to change in the next iteration, with some feedback recurring more than others. Next, it’s simply a case of organising the feedback. 09. Organise your data Affinity mapping is a grouping technique used to organise various data, including insights, ideas, sketches, feedback and snippets of research; in this scenario we could organise our user feedback based on common themes. If we were user testing, for example, these common themes could help us create what’s called a product roadmap, essentially a timeline of features and fixes focusing primarily on commonly occurring feedback while making less common feedback a secondary concern. After implementing all of these high-priority improvements, features and fixes from the current sprint cycle, another round of user testing could then reveal a fresh collection of opportunities for improvement, laying the foundation for the next sprint cycle (which, by the way, could also include some or all of the low-priority tasks from the previous sprint). Then just rinse and repeat: always be testing! This article was originally published in issue 317 of net, the world's best-selling magazine for web designers and developers. Buy issue 317 or subscribe to net. Related articles: The ultimate guide to user experience 10 steps to great UX testing 13 best pieces of user testing software View the full article

You're reading 9 Tips for Design Job Applicants to Get that Interview, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Applying for a design job, like any job, can be stressful. Whether it’s your first role or your fifth one, it’s always a good idea to read up on the best tips and advice out there to make sure your … View the full article

It's not news to anyone that if you want the world to know about your work, you'll need a good-looking portfolio. But it's easy to fall into the trap of building it and then sticking with the same design for years, with the result that what looked good a while back is now positively outdated and a little bit creaky. If your design portfolio is showing its age, or if you're just starting out and looking for the best way to present your work, we've found ten of the best on-trend portfolio templates for you, delivering all the up-to-date technologies, effects and layouts you're likely to need. Many of them are available both as HTML and WordPress themes, and most importantly, none of them will cost you a fortune. 5 quick-fire portfolio tips from design experts 01. Werkstatt Werktatt provides a host of hover and sound effects Built to bring out the best in your portfolio, Werkstatt offers a huge range of great-looking ready-made portfolio themes to choose between, plus plenty of options for creating your own custom look. It uses Visual Composer to help you build your page using drag and drop, and with any number of hover effects and even sound effects available, you can be sure your finished portfolio will get people talking. 02. Oriana For a minimal look, give Oriana a go If you like to keep things simple, Oriana is a sleek minimal theme that's made with photography in mind but just as suitable for graphic design or illustration portfolios without any unnecessary visual clutter. This WordPress theme is fully responsive and retina-ready, and its one-click install means you can have a site up and running in minutes. 03. Wizzard Wizzard combines cool features and fast loading times For a slick, fast-loading site with plenty of options, Wizzard is well worth casting an eye over. It's an Ajax-powered template (there's also a WordPress version available) suitable for all types of creative, and delivers plenty of in-demand features such as smooth scrolling, a full-screen overlay menu and beautiful page transitions, and with fast loading times you won't keep visitors waiting to see your work. 04. Sahel Sahel's palette is an absolute eye-opener We love the warm earth tones of Sahel's default configuration; if it's something that fits with the style of your own work then you'd be hard-pushed to find a better portfolio template. It's responsive and retina-ready comes with a full set of project and portfolio list templates, as well as an assortment of shop page layouts and blog templates; everything you need for a stunning site. 05. Overlap If you're not sure what you want, Overlap has plenty of options Whether you want a simple one-pager or a more complex portfolio site, Overlap has an option for you. It's a fully customisable WordPress theme that makes it easy to create beautiful responsive pages using Visual Composer, and it gives you load of options for making your portfolio stand out, including text scrolling animations, video backgrounds and colour overlays. 06. Inshot Inshot is ideal for photographers Available in both HTML and WordPress versions, Inshot is a clean and modern portfolio template that's aimed primarily at photographers but ideal for anyone looking for the perfect way to present their creative work. It comes with six portfolio designs as well as 10 single-pagers, and with the option for full-screen images or video as backgrounds, plus seven homepage options including sliders and horizontal carousels, it has all the options you need to build a unique site. 07. Satelite You can't beat a beautiful full-screen slider A full-screen slider can be a fantastic way to give people a close-up look at your work as soon as they hit your site, and Satelite is a fast-loading and fully responsive way to do just that. As well as full-screen sliders, it also offers large and small carousel sliders as well as a Masonry grid, and for that cool extra touch it also gives you one of those mouse-following cursors that you see on all the best portfolio sites these days. 08. Notio Notio delivers lightweight pages with lots of layout options Built for WordPress with a stack of portfolio layout options enabling you to choose the perfect way to lay out your work, Notio comes packed with custom elements as well as eight unique templates with four different pagination options. It uses WordPress' adaptive images functionality to reduce loading times, and it also features three different filter styles for great-looking layouts. 09. Aoko Aoko's video navigation is certain to turn heads For that all-important first impression, take a look at Aoko. It's a responsive HTML template that's also available for WordPress, and its top selling point is its clipping video navigation that's guaranteed to catch the eye. It comes with stunning mouseover effects and CSS3 animation options, and it's built to be easy to customise. 10. CV Portfolio Will you choose the light or dark side? Finally, here's a simple way to create a stunning responsive portfolio. CV Portfolio comes with three basic homepage layouts – a type-based page, a video page and a static page – in light and dark variations, and it comes with ready-made page designs such as an about page and a contact page and of course that all-important portfolio page. It's built using the latest version of Bootstrap and it comes in both HTML and WordPress options. Related articles: Craft the perfect portfolio in a day 5 quick and easy ways to fix your portfolio The dos and don'ts of perfect portfolios View the full article

French fashion company Lacoste is set to roll out a new wave of its Save Our Species polo shirts this week, all of which sport an endangered animal in the place of its signature crocodile logo. Building on a similar campaign from 2018, these shirts form the second part of Lacoste's three-year deal with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Set to launch on 22 May to coincide with the International Day for Biological Diversity, all profits from the shirts will go to ICUN to help its conservation efforts. There's more to this campaign than logo design inspiration though. The stock numbers of the shirts match the numbers of each species known to exist in the wild. So the North Atlantic right whale, which will be an in-store exclusive at New York's Broadway outlet, will be limited to 444 shirts; while the Yemeni mouse-tailed bat will only feature on 150 shirts in London's Covent Garden store. Other animals featured on the shirts include the northern hairy-nosed wombat, the mountain chicken, the Hawaiian monk seal, and the Cebu damselfly. In a stark reminder of the threat facing these species, the entire run will only include 3,520 polo shirts. The full range of logos was released recently in a tweet from Lacoste, below. To learn more about the full range of shirts and animals, head over to the Lacoste site. Here you'll find information about the species in question, and the threats facing their existence. Shoppers will be able to pick up nine of the ten limited edition shirts from region specific shops, while an online exclusive will also be available to order from the Lacoste site. The shirts are expected to retail at £135 (roughly $170). Related articles: 6 times brands temporarily changed their packaging 5 times brands shook up their logo to create a powerful message The best logos of all time View the full article

Are you a content creator, graphic designer, advertiser, blogger, or entrepreneur? You're probably familiar with vectors and how important they are for things like web banners, newsletters, slideshows, mobile apps, and a whole lot more. StockUnlimited is the perfect go-to destination for all things vectors, because it's chock-full of eye-catching content! Best of all, StockUnlimited Vector Plan: Lifetime Subscription is yours for only $34.99. With StockUnlimited, you get unlimited downloads of more than 500,000 Premium vector designs. All the content is royalty-free for both commercial and personal use, so you can use any vector asset to your heart's content. File formats come in SVG, EPS, and PNG, and you can continue accessing all the vectors for life. For one low price, you get an entire lifetime's worth of designs to choose from, and new designs are added every single month. The best cloud storage 2019 It's no surprise that TechCrunch wrote, “StockUnlimited Brings The Netflix Model To Stock Imagery, Starting With Vector Graphics.” Get StockUnlimited Vector Plan: Lifetime Subscription for only $34.99. Related articles: Where to find free vector art online: the 19 best sites 30 top vector art tutorials 24 eye-catching flyer designs View the full article

If you've ever wondered why #PortfolioDay is suddenly trending on your Twitter feed, and is still trending a couple of days later, you're not alone. Although Portfolio Day is supposed to be just that – a day for creatives to share their portfolio on Twitter using #PortfolioDay – sometimes that day seems to drag into weeks, probably because no one seems to know when it's supposed to be. Artists and creatives seem to be sharing their portfolios pretty much any day of the year, and while there's nothing wrong with that per se, the hashtag does work better when everyone's posting their art and design portfolios at once. With that in mind, we decided to address some common questions about the event. What is #PortfolioDay? Portfolio Day is a day once every three months where artists and creatives can share their portfolios on Twitter, in the hope of attracting more followers and landing creative roles or freelance work. It's a great way to motivate yourself to refresh your portfolio regularly, and could lead to not just more work, but also some fantastic new creative connections. We should also remind you at this point that if you are looking for a new job, there's no need to wait until Portfolio Day to check out our design jobs board. When is #PortfolioDay? When exactly Portfolio Day is has been the bone of some contention. Ben The Illustrator was so confused about the timing of the event that he took to Twitter to ask fellow creatives for clarity, and many of them were equally confused. Audrey Gonzalez clarified things, and pointed out that Portfolio Day is the second Tuesday of the month, every three months. That means the next two in 2019 are 9 July and 8 October, so there's plenty of time to get your portfolio in order ahead of these dates. Can you share your portfolio whenever you want? Sure, but you're probably less likely to attract the attention of others, as more people will be checking the hashtag on the 'official' #PortfolioDay. Should you get involved in #PortfolioDay? Seeing as getting involved is as simple as sending a tweet with some images of your work, a link for people to see more and the hashtag, there's no reason why you shouldn't get involved with Portfolio Day. You can also add further relevant hashtags, of course, to make it clear exactly what sort of creative you are, e.g. #illustration or #3dartist. It's also worth checking out how other people are sharing their work, and what work has gained the most traction, in order to see what stands out. Below are some of our favourite recent examples from the hashtag. And no, not all of them were shared on exactly the right day. Read more: The dos and don'ts of perfect portfolios What's the difference between art and design? How to change the font in your Twitter bio View the full article

We're always on the lookout for hot new web design tools that can save you some precious time and improve your workflow. Every stage of building a website is covered this month, from planning your layout, creating colour schemes and adding animations to making user documentation and optimising search engines. Read on for the best web design tools of May 2019. 01. Startup 3 Build a Bootstrap site using a visual interface If you like Bootstrap, this tool from Designmodo could be a good option for you – it’s an online app with built-in templates and themes for building websites based on Bootstrap 4 with a 12-column grid. Sites are built using a drag-and-drop generator, so you can put everything together without coding but you do need a basic understanding of HTML and CSS to complete the process of creating a site. Startup will export your static HTML, CSS and JS files so you can upload them to your hosting provider. 02. Figma Plus Find and install useful plugins for Figma Figma Plus is the unofficial plugin system for Figma that lets you download and install third party plugins from within the Figma UI. The tool installs on Mac and Windows Figma desktop apps and you can also use it with Chrome browser. The intention is for the community to create and share plugins, but to get things started the team behind Figma Plus have built 11 useful new plugins so that there are things to play with if you install the system today. You can find out more in the release notes. 03. Sidedoor Speak to engineers inside companies you would like to work for If you’re getting frustrated with recruiters, Sidedoor offers an alternative approach to finding a job by putting you directly in touch with engineers at companies that fit your criteria so you can talk about the role with someone on the inside. Based on your conversation, the referrer decides whether they want to put you forward for a position at their company. This process is hopefully more efficient as it quickly gives both sides a good understanding of whether the position is right for you. For a more traditional approach to finding a job, you can check our listings of the best web design jobs from around the world. 04. Interplay Collaborative prototype-building that works with all your usual tools Interplay is a flexible prototyping system that you can use to plan layouts and even your design system. You can work in the online or desktop app and your changes are automatically saved to the cloud for easy collaborative working. Interplay has its own component-creation tools but a major boon is that it’s compatible with lots of other software and systems – you can import things from Sketch, Figma or InVision Studio, and you can synchronise React, Angular and Vue code components. 05. UserGuiding 2.0 Create interactive manuals for your users Create interactive user manuals for your products without writing any code – UserGuiding helps you to attract and retain users by making it easy for them to understand what your app does and how to use it. Your manuals might be for user onboarding or to get employees up to speed, either way there are many known benefits to communicating effectively, including reduced support costs and increased conversions. The latest version has a number of extra features and improvements based on customer requests that make it even easier to create your product tours. 06. Found Color Palettes based on colour combinations found in the wild Creating interesting colour palettes is hard, and we never get tired of novelle ways of doing it. This site extracts dominant hues from photographs that are pleasing to look at because of their colours – most of the images depict shadowy corners, street furniture, bins and other miscellanea that happen to have appealing colour combinations. The result is an archive of naturally-occurring palettes that aren’t generated by rules or algorithms, and don't necessarily follow colour theory. 07. CSSFX Simple CSS effects to beautify your interface Subtle CSS animations can be an effective yet understated way to make your interfaces easier to understand and more pleasant to use. This site has a collection of small animations that you can use to give feedback when an interface element is clicked or hovered over – just select the ones you want and the CSS code is copied for you. They are fully open source so you can use them as you please. 08. Backlinks Find out who links to your competitors' websites Put any URL into Backlinks and it shows you who links to it, so you can compare your own link situation to that of your competitors. You can see who is linking to your competitor and not to you, which gives you a picture of what you need to work on to improve your search engine rankings. You can also organise links according to factors like anchor text, domain score, page score and .edu and .gov domains. The results can be exported to CSV for further analysis. This might sound like paid-for data, but it’s a free tool. 09. Helvetica Now Re-engineered letterforms for the modern world Helvetica has been going strong for many years, but as an older typeface there are some aspects of it that aren’t suited so well for modern usage. A few years ago it was decided that a reboot was necessary to bring the typeface up to date and the result is Helvetica Now. Every single character has been redrawn and refitted so that it works in every situation, from the tiny text on a mobile device to an advert on the side of a bus. It’s available in three sizes, Micro, Text, and Display, each of which is specially tailored to be used at a different scale. Read more with our post on Helvetica Now. 10. Colour Review Find out contrast values for your colour scheme When putting together a colour scheme, it’s important to ensure that there is sufficient contrast between colours so that text is easy to read – this makes your site legible for people with a visual impairment and more effective for all users. This site is useful because you can input HSL, CMYK and RGB colour values and there are guides that tell you where different contrast boundaries lie on a given colour plane. It also helps you to ensure that you hit WCAG standards. Read more: 10 new web design tools for April 2019 8 Google Chrome extensions to make your life easier Cool CSS animation examples to recreate View the full article

BT has trademarked its new logo, which it plans to roll out later this summer, and at first glance, we were decidedly underwhelmed. It seems we're not alone, either, as the rebrand has faced pretty widespread ridicule on Twitter. The new logo design is similar to one the company trademarked in 2016, which was also a circle containing its name, and differs only in its use of colours. This newer version of the logo could still change, however, as BT's employees are being "consulted on the detail," according to a BT spokesperson. The current BT logo focuses on a connected globe London studio Red&White created the new logo, and while it is easy to call it yet another example of logos paring back until they're almost non-existent – Burberry springs to mind – it's also worth considering whether this is actually a very clever move. And when you view the logo in action – as in the video below – it starts to make a lot more sense. By stripping back any element of what the company actually does and focusing solely on the name, BT is demonstrating absolute confidence in its brand and in itself. And as the company has expanded to cover several remits – mobile, internet and TV – this logo cleverly leaves room for further expansion. It also allows customers to make up their own mind about what that brand means to them – although so far, the response has not been good. There was talk of blandness... Talk of MS Word (and MS Paint, naturally)... The inevitable comparison with other brands... And other brands also joined in on the slating, with Poundland stating it had also updated its logo... costing a whole £1 and looking "just like" BT's. It's even gone as far as to update its Twitter image with the new design. But of course, there were also those who took a little more balanced view. It's also important to remember that logos are just one part of a wider identity, and viewing a single, black-and-white logo in isolation is unlikely to inspire at the best of times. We're intrigued to find out more behind this rebrand, and look forward to seeing more of the design in context. (Not, you understand, that we'll necessarily be switching to BT anytime soon.) Read more: All hail the new Uber logo 5 brilliant brand collaborations (and what you can learn from them) 9 agencies to follow on Instagram View the full article

From a zero day flaw in WhatsApp, to Patch Tuesday fixes, Threatpost breaks down the top vulnerabilities of this week. View the full article

The bloom is on mobile, whether it be the enterprise, employees or the cybercriminals plotting new ways to slip past a corporate defenses in a post-parameter world. View the full article

The vendor also issued a patch schedule for the still-unpatched bug in its Secure Boot trusted hardware environment, which affects most of its enterprise and SMB portfolio, amounting to millions of vulnerable devices. View the full article

Google is offering free replacements for its Titan Security Key after discovering a misconfiguration in its pairing protocols. View the full article

Here are 10 top takeaways from Intel's most recent class of Spectre-like speculative execution vulnerabilities, disclosed this week. View the full article

You're reading 2 Ways to Add Interactive Hotspots to Postcards Email Templates, originally posted on Designmodo. If you've enjoyed this post, be sure to follow on Twitter, Facebook! Adding an interactive hotspot to your email’s image is a wonderful idea. It can significantly improve clickthrough conversions if your subscribers can click on the items you’re referring to in your copy. Additionally, these interactive hotspots can be an innovative … View the full article

Microsoft Patch Tuesday security bulletin tackles 22 critical vulnerabilities. View the full article

A massive update addresses the breadth of the computing giant's product portfolio. View the full article

Intel has disclosed a new class of speculative execution side channel attacks. View the full article

Adobe has issued patches for 87 vulnerabilities on Patch Tuesday - the bulk of which exist in Adobe's Acrobat and Reader product. View the full article

The bug is remotely exploitable without authentication or user interaction. View the full article

WhatsApp has patched a vulnerability that allowed attackers to install spyware on victims' phones. View the full article

The two high-severity bugs impact a wide array of enterprise, military and government networks. View the full article

A Twitter glitch "inadvertently" leaked iOS users' location data to an unnamed partner. View the full article

In its latest observed campaign, there were also overlaps in victimology with the DarkHotel APT. View the full article

Using a bug patched in March, the attacks are starting to ramp up worldwide. View the full article

From a creepy Airbnb incident to Verizon's Data Breach Investigations Report, Threatpost editors break down the top privacy and security stories for the week ended May 10. View the full article