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Author: RussellW3bbDesign

  • Setting up Photoshop like a Pro UXer

    TLDR: Photoshop, the designers ‘must-have’ is such a flexible tool that there are many ways to set up your workflow.

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    Layer Compas and Smart objects

    After some 20 years I have found these two to be the most efficient, most transferable within a team, and most manageable i.e. avoiding the dreaded spinning-wheel-of-death

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    Layer comps

    Fickle as clients can be, I’ve come to realise that there will always be amendments. Version after version, where the client/stakeholder/CEO wanna-be-designer suggests colours or positioning changes. Simply switching on/off layers and groups and saving as a state was an ingenious ideas by Adobe. Big pat on the back.

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  • Protected: Time sheet and Invoice – 2016

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  • iOS Casino App for the iphone

    iOS Casino App for the iphone

    TL;DR; While the gambling industry continues to boom despite global financial woes, a reliance solely on branding through splash screens has its limitations. This post dives into why your home screen deserves more attention. Showcase promortaionl content, search (as navigation maybe?) and Quick Links as crucial building blocks, including introducing the popular hamburger icon for primary navigation and transform your home screen into landing page(s) into a powerhouse of usability and brand identity.

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    Brief

    Next to essentials like food and water, one of the only other industries not effected by the world financial situation is gambling. In fact the industry is booming. There are many UX challenges in designing the perfect game play experience, catering for the green fingered punter all the way through to the seasoned veteran is a difficult balancing act.
    Plus, as mentioned, in these more straighten times, to be conscious of not forcing the gambling experience on to the more vulnerable.

    Splash screen

    Modern smartphone don’t need 2-3 seconds to start up, so the original notion of the start-up or splash screen is now redundant. But brands love to position their logo ‘front of stall’ so for this reason, this screen is important. Keep it simple and remember, if you can’t get your brand message over in 2-3 seconds, think about a re-design.
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    Home

    This is the heart of the application, the place to show off what you have to offer – the ‘showcase‘ if you like. So make it impressive, make it big and try your best to impress.

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  • Wireframing an iPad Casino App

    Wireframing an iPad Casino App

    TLDR: Focusing on planning functionality and layout without design is the most efficient way of concentrating decision markers (especially business or product-owners) to agree on functionality without distraction. Think: function over form.

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    Personally I love to use traditional pen and paper for wireframing. How about you?

    First launch feature areas

    This is the main ‘shop window’ to your experience. On first launch, the user to launched in the gambling casino world. Pre-selected games adopt the ‘parallax scrolling’ technique and occupy the prime real estate. There is also functionality to drill down via category types. Account Management and Help are all ‘front-of-store’, as is the ability to push sign up and login promotions.

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  • Low fidelity prototypes

    TLDR: Skip the fancy prototypes! Low-fidelity sketches are fast, cheap, and encourage better feedback – perfect for early UX stages to focus on functionality before aesthetics.

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    basic is still the best?

    I’ve made a few assumptions here, first… you work in UX. Second, you’re familiar with Agile and third, you haven’t much time so I’ll keep this brief. Straight to it, here is a couple of the main advantages of low fidelity prototyping:

    • Get better and more honest feedback
    • More involved collaboration
    • Make the cost of mistakes cheap, not expensive
    • Refine the page flow, not the pages
    • Figure out the interaction design rather than the visual design
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  • Branding a Russian Hedge Fund

    How brand identity works

    Integrated brand identify both help reputation and consumer awareness. I was tasked with conceptualising a strong brand identity for a new Russian hedge fund. This involves developing routes that generated the tone, style and flavor of the brand across a 2D and 3D environment. This includes, but is not limited to;

    • color
    • type
    • photography/imagery
    • logos
    • design grid
    • Signage

    Here is how I did it;

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