Icons are used in applications, websites, marketing materials, you name it. They communicate complex topics, create visual interest, punctuate topics, and draw user focus. One of the easiest things to do to ensure that icons are used correctly across applications is to create and share an icon typeface. These icons can then be added to documents on a computer as a font, or used in your stylesheet to display the icons online or in an application.

For the past several years I've been working with SVGs - a lot. Not surprising to myself, I quickly fell in love with them for all the reasons I love vector art. I have come up with several tricks to get lean, highly manageable SVGs that I want to share with you here.

The most difficult part of any design process can be finding the correct, best, or most successful idea out of all possible ideas out there. In User Experience (UX) we start by finding empathy with the user, researching user preferences, successes and failures, and understanding the needs of the clients. However, even armed with research and understanding, discovering or uncovering the correct solution out of all the possible solutions out in the world can still be problematic. Used appropriately, sketching is a fantastic way to generate new ideas without the usual constraints we put on ourselves with technology.

The heart of creating a LSG is the ability to put your documentation right where it belongs: in the source code. Chances are that you are already documenting your code, which is a great opportunity to take it to the next level by using a style guide generator that can turn those comments into an organized site, letting others (and yourself from the future) know why and what has been done in the code.

While the bulk of your LSG documentation will come from special comments that you add to the source code, you can also create standalone pages where you can host other types of content that are not specific to the code (think of design principles, accessibility guidelines, or pull request guidelines). This gives you the advantage of centralizing your documentation in one place: your application living style guide.

Imagine this: you’re a designer who has been tagged on a pull request as a reviewer. It’s up to you to look at the changes made and decide if you are going to approve them and let them frolic with the rest of the app code.

User testing is a great way to validate assumptions and gain new insights about how people interact with our websites and apps. When it comes to eCommerce (and in particular mobile commerce or “mCommerce”) it’s critical to understand how people find and purchase products online. This was evident on one project where we were tasked with testing the mobile website design for retail membership giant, Sam’s. As it turns out, there are many common navigation patterns that aren’t nearly as effective as people might think.

Think of the app on your phone that you love using: the one that just makes sense when you use it, the one that feels like it was built with you in mind. This is good UX or User Experience. Good UX makes an application sticky; it invites new users and retains active users. UX is the process of designing an application (or product) that is intuitive for people to use by considering how they will use it. Intuitive interactions are important for every project simply because people like things that are ‘easy to use’. However, creating a product that is easy to use takes lot of time, expertise, and iterations.