Pumika
Spring has sprung, and this week we bring you a curated list of our favorite industry reads from around the interweb, complete with some seasonal goodies. Join us as we explore the top fashions from Paris with Gucci’s interactive Spring/Summer collection — bursting with enticing designs and UX/UI. If you’re looking to sharpen your design game, we also study how to nail microinteractions, contact forms, and even how to make virtual reality feel more real. Rounding out this week’s gems is Intercom’s new interactive site about the history of messaging technology. With all these hot reads, try to stay cool 😉
Happy reading, friends!
1: Intercom’s Digital History of Messaging
Intercom has nailed the countdown and “coming-soon-hype” game with this fun and fascinating site that counts down to a surprise announcement next week. “The Evolution of Messaging,” interactively leads you through a timeline of how we communicate via text from 1844 through to today.
Intercom’s Interactive Site About the History of Messaging
2: Springtime for Gucci
Spring is in the air with Gucci’s new interactive magazine/website. WIth an absurd mix of tech innovations and highly-stylized graphics, you don’t need to be a designer to appreciate the level of creativity, humor, and craftsmanship that went into the creation of this site.
Gucci Spring/Summer Magazine 2018
3: Let’s Get In Touch
Ever wondered how to nail the illustrious contact form? Look no farther, this article is a comprehensive rundown of one of the cornerstones to online marketing. Smashing uses excellent gifs and pictures to walk readers through all the highlights, tips, and industry secrets you never knew. Who would have thought that contact forms could be so exciting?
UX In Contact Forms: Essentials to Turn Leads Into Conversions
4: Wink, Blink & Scroll
A look at how to use, and not overuse, microinteractions in your designs. The article encourages designers to “design with care,” and use microinteractions to think about user needs on a very micro level. With visual references ranging from the adorable to the well… obnoxious? You be the final judge.
Microinteractions: The Secret of Great App Design
5: Virtu-real
A deep dive into how designers make virtual reality feel real, including profiles of oculus and avatar designs..The embedded videos and graphics add great visual aids to a complex subject. This article is an in-depth, long-form article that is both easy to understand for the layman and complex enough to provide some new insights for seasoned UX designers.
These Tricks Make Virtual Reality Feel Real
6: Synergizing UX
Bringing computer-human synergy, or the optimization and exploration of the working relationship between humans and computer to the forefront, this article explores systems, and designs, in which the computer becomes a partner and helps in digital processes. Focusing on complicated health care systems, chess champion computers, and the rise of Amazon from print catalogs, this article is an interesting framework and reminder that our UX processes are constantly morphing and improving.
Computer as Partner: A Synergistic Approach to Interaction Design
