Web design is about communicating with people through the web, but when we design and build websites, it’s easy to get caught up in the technical minutia: What hamburger icon should I use? Where does the sidebar go? How do I allow more space for ads? It is time we start thinking about the people who visit our sites. What devices are they using, and how are they using them? What is their purpose for visiting, and what situation are they in when they do?
This talk brings the focus of web design back to its core subject: How to communicate with people. You’ll learn about user research, empathy in the design process, communication patterns, real-world testing, and designing from the content out. Web design is about empathy for the user, and the users who visit your site are people. This talk will teach you how to prepare, design, and build websites with user experiences that communicate clearly and make the people who visit the site the top priority.
Links from the talk:
- What Should They Do tweet by George Hess
- Bicycles May Use Full Lane – research paper
- Luke Palmer’s free stock photos
- There Is No Fold by LukeW
- AdAge study on The Fold
- BBC piece on the hamburger
- Fight Against Right Rail Blindness by Nielsen Norman Group
- Erik Runyon’s Carousel Interaction Stats
- Scott Hurff’s thumb pain maps
- Web Design with Thumbs in Mind
- Time article on Apple’s ad blocking feature
- Gluten Intolerance May Not Exist
Comments
3 responses to “Designing Websites for Human Beings – WordCamp NYC 2015”
Great points, Morten. Everybody forgets that people are human beings with a myriad of wants, needs, wishes, and desires. Looking forward to your next theme.
Is there a video of this presentation, or a version of it with narration? Some of the slides lack context to make sense of them.
The video will be posted to WordPress.tv in the future. Once it’s there, I’ll embed it here.