A hamburger menu should not be used when there is plenty of real estate to display menu items. On devices with less real estate (like smartphones), using a hamburger menu is sometimes a necessity. When a hamburger menu is used in these circumstances, it should be accompanied by a clear “menu” label above or below the horizontal lines.

The UX process informs the technical layer and the UI. As many product teams have discovered, without the foundation of UX, investing in design and development is futile. Teams get caught up chasing fads and features, reskinning interfaces without addressing underlying UX issues, and ultimately fail to provide what all digital products need in order to survive: value.

If your web-based software relies on self-service, as many software as a service (SaaS) products do, clear instructions are vitally important.

Nonprofit digital “engagement” is an overused buzzword that often lacks any meaning. There is a Venn diagram where your organization’s goals are in the left circle, your personas’ are in the right, and engagement is the overlap in the middle.

Here’s the thing about a call to action—it is a call to action. It’s sole purpose is to continue the conversation with eh customer or prospect on your website. You want them to click and move forward.

When the website is not meeting the goals of a specific action, organizations too often focus on getting more people to the website. This path ends up being a numbers game the organization is destined to lose for one key reason: the website is not meeting even the most basic of user expectations.

We’ve changed our name and our vision. HT Design Studio is now Voice+Code.

The success of emerging technologies will depend on how seamlessly they integrate with the human experience.

I’ve talked to hundreds of agencies and product teams and only a handful incorporated a process that involved interacting with the people who would actually use their digital product or website. Spoiler alert: it’s not due to lack of time or budget.

Investing in SEO and in user experience research will only serve to benefit the other. This means that the investment positively impacts not only your product pages but your entire website.

Your redesigned marketing website does not magically produce more sales or move people through your sales funnel. In fact, a newly redesigned website may be doing your business more harm than good—deterring website visitors instead of helping your business meet its user experience goals.

If your company’s marketing website is experiencing decreased conversions and increased waste, it’s typically because of the following three key areas: lack of relevant content/information, confusing content/information, and/or features that can’t or won’t be used.

Your software as a service platform is designed to be used by a group of people who, very often, are quite dissimilar to you and your team. Creating personas helps your team avoid this problem by involving the representative user throughout the design and development process.

Effective website navigation should be like a well-designed map—it provides a “you are here” anchor and gives you a sense of where you could go and how best to get there.

Digital marketing may, in the short-term, increase conversions. But, when this comes at the expense of the user experience, the business’s long-term success will be adversely affected.

A user journey visually maps a persona’s experience with a digital product, relating to a specific goal. The purpose of the document is to uncover challenges and opportunities for optimizing the persona’s experience.

Usability testing is a user experience research method that determines how well a user can perform a set of tasks on a website, app, or other digital product.

User experience research and SEO teams should be working collaboratively to ensure your product pages are more profitable.