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Nick Babich

The Difference Between Customization and Personalization

Customization and personalization have long remained two of the most popular buzzwords in the modern development world. People often use the these words interchangeably. But there is a difference between the two. While both personalization and customization achieve the same goal — an experience tailored to a user’s interests — the

The Power of Defaults

Defaults are the values or settings that come out of the box. They might not seem like much, but defaults (and their designers) hold immense power — they make decisions for users. In this article, we’ll discuss how to use pre-populated input fields and default settings in apps for better

Wizard Design Pattern

Today I’d like to talk about the topic of wizards, and I don’t mean those guys with the hats and all the magical spells. I mean the step-by-step process that we use in apps or websites to guide someone through a process. Should you use a wizard? Isn’

F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Content

This article will walk you through the principles of the F-Layout, why it works, and how you can create your own. What is the F-Pattern and how it works? The F-Pattern describes the most common user eye-scanning patterns when it comes to blocks of content. F for fast. That’s

The Details That Matter

Your product’s success is based on a combination of factors, but the overall user experience tops them all. When it comes down to designing a new app or a site, sticking to best practices is a solid way to go, but during the creation of the big picture, it’

Bringing Mobile Apps to Life Through Motion

If you look ten years back, the use of animation and motion in user interfaces was considered a crime rather than a best practice. It was associated with flashy websites, jumping popups and blinking buttons. But this has changed tremendously over the last few year. Since the introduction of the

Best Practices for Search Results

Search is like a conversation between the user and system: the user expresses their information need as a query, and the system expresses its response as a set of results. The results page is a crucial piece of the search experience: it presents an opportunity to engage a dialogue that

Design a Perfect Search Box

Search box is a combination of input field and submit button. One may think that the search box doesn’t need a design; after all, it’s just two simple elements. However, on content-heavy websites, the search box is often the most frequently used design element. When users encounter a

Best Practices for Split Screen Design

One screen divided in two. More and more websites are using design patterns that include two vertical panels placed side by side. Split-screen design follows a simple rule: > One screen. Two messages. Each side features a separate contained element, such as a photo, text block, or illustration. Split-screen is especially

3 Key Uses for Animation in Mobile UI Design

With the quick development of technology, animation is less of a visual luxury and more of a functional requirement that users expect. Animation solves a lot of functional problems within interfaces and makes interfaces feel alive and truly responsive to the user. Let’s explore the key animation tactics that