The changing world of User Experience
The world keeps changing and technology is helping shape the future. In the past years, we’ve seen virtual reality, augmented reality and other new developments find their ways into the day to day products and services.
This has also meant new challenges for UX designers. Whilst the basic principles of putting the customer first and testing everything you do remain, there are also learning points you can take specifically from working on projects involving emerging tech. Since this is one of our main topics at Mobile UX London 2018, we caught up with Laura Leon, UX/UI Designer at Mobi Lab to discover what are the rules she follows when designing for AR/VR. Laura and her colleague Veiko Raime will host a workshop on Prototyping XR (extended reality) products and you can register to attend the event here (all tickets offer you free access to a workshop of your choice).
Can you briefly explain your experience in UX? What made you become interested in the topic?
I was studying and very much liking IT. But luckily, I got introduced to UX in college and started learning it on my own. Next step was to jump into the water and get the real project at the UX agency. Now I’ve been working in the field for about four years, learning more each day. AR/VR seemed just like the next step – daunting but endlessly fascinating to start with.
If there were a list of ten commandments for good mobile UX, what would be your number one?
Do your research! It’s the first step for any project and sets a precedent for other choices down the road.
What is the most frequent mistake you’ve seen done in mobile UX? How can people avoid this in the future?
One thing that really comes to my mind is an obvious one but very frequent. That is opting for dropdowns – that can be very long. Why not let users insert their own info and offering suggestions?
When do you think a project should include extended realities? What should it be mindful of in the planning stage?
When it’s vital for an experience to be short but educational or extremely engaging.
We’ve seen AR/VR take off in the gaming/entertainment industry and slowly find its place within education and manufacturing industries where efficiency plays a significant role. Our agency mostly works with projects that focus on efficiency and business values. So emotions don’t play a too important role in these cases.
And be mindful that the testing stage will be the most important one since prototyping for the field is still quite tricky and time-consuming.
How do you think mobile UX will be transformed in the next years? What trends do you think will become the norm in the following years?
I see two technology trends. We are moving towards screenless experiences and AR becoming more accessible and the norm via mobiles.
What are you looking forward to at Mobile UX London 2018?
I’ve been to a few MUXL events before, and it’s always been enlightening to hear from experienced industry professionals.
When it comes to the topic at hand, I give talks on AR/VR because I’d like to see more designers enter the field – we will be the ones modelling how the field will be seen by users and what the content standards might be.
At MUXL 2018 the workshop we present will not focus just on designers but address everyone who’s entering the field with their own ideas or business. I believe that technology will soon be ready to use in so many new applications. So it is time to teach the business people how to get their AR/VR ideas down on paper and get started with the product.
Do you want to check out the workshop and the other AR/VR talks? Get your ticket to join 250+ UX professionals, including Laura herself, at Mobile UX London 2018 and see how the future of UX design looks like.