Did you know that we process visuals 60,000 times faster than text? That’s according to some interesting research from the company behind the Post-it Note. Humans are visual creatures, and there’s a reason video is hard to beat when it comes to taking on new information – especially interesting video.

With that in mind, we’ve asked our user researchers for their favorite TED talks for people getting started in the UX space. We’ve also included 2 extra videos we think are definitely worth watching.

The beauty of data visualization

What it’s about: David McCandless explains how complex datasets (whether on military spending or even something like Facebook status updates) can be transformed into beautiful visualizations to unearth previously-unseen patterns and connections. The point of this talk is essentially that good design through visualizations is the key to making sense of the huge quantities of data available today.

About the speaker: David McCandless is a data journalist and information designer, founder of the Information is Beautiful blog.

The complex relationship between data and design in UX

What it’s about: Designer Rochelle King explains her journey overhauling the Spotify interface, in which she was challenged to combine the various interfaces of the product into a single layout. She covers the process of redesigning the website as well as how to best manage the relationships between designers, users and data.

About the speaker: Rochelle King was the global vice president of user experience and design at Spotify and is now vice president of product creative at Netflix.

How giant websites design for you

What it’s about: Margaret Gould Stewart (whose designs have undoubtedly touched hundreds of millions of people) speaks about the 3 rules for design at scale, and points out that even tiny tweaks can cause either global outrage or have sweeping positive impacts.

About the speaker: Facebook's Director of Product Design, Margaret Gould Stewart also worked at YouTube. She certainly has the right experience for this topic.

The first secret of design is… noticing

What it’s about: The man (no, not that man) behind the original Apple iPod shares some of his tips for noticing and driving change – specifically the importance of noticing the little things. It’s a light, funny talk that’s as useful for UX researchers as it is for designers.

About the speaker: Tony Fadell is an Apple veteran and creator of the original iPod. After that, he moved onto Nest, the home automation company that was eventually acquired by Google.

Simplicity sells

What it’s about: David Pogue presents one of the more lighthearted TED talks, running through some of the worst user interface designs and some of the underlying principles that went into their design. As just one example, he talks about the different approaches to logging off that Microsoft and Apple use, and at one point he breaks out into song.

About the speaker: David Pogue is a bestselling author, columnist for the New York Times covering personal technology and technology correspondent for CBS News.

The power of vulnerability

What it’s about: Vulnerability researcher Brené Brown delves into one particularly deep human insight she came across during her research. She explains that this insight sent her on a journey to understand both herself and humanity. It’s not strictly UX research, but this talk has valuable learnings for every UX professional.

About the speaker: Brené Brown is a researcher who focuses on vulnerability, courage, shame and authenticity. She wrote the bestselling book Daring Greatly: How the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent and lead.

Also watch: How to speak so that people want to listen

What it’s about: One of the most important skills for any UX professional is communicating with others, and this talk by Julian Treasure holds some valuable advice. He explains the “how-to’s of speaking”, including how to speak with empathy and exercises for warming up your vocal chords.

About the speaker: Julian Treasure is a sound and communication expert, traveling the world and teaching people and businesses to use sound more effectively.

Also watch: The puzzle of motivation

What it’s about: Figuring out motivation is a constant puzzle for user researchers. Career analyst Dan Pink explores motivation in this talk, examining the fact that traditional rewards aren’t actually as effective as most think.

About the speaker: Dan Pink was Al Gore’s speech writer before heading into the world of career analysis. He’s also written 6 books, including the bestseller When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing.

Designing for a mobile app is quite different to designing for websites. The content may be similar (even the same) but the intent for users is likely to be different, as are the environments and occasions they use them. When designing for mobile the information architecture (IA) uses a different set of rules. The key consideration needs to be around ease of use on a smaller screen for a user that is possibly on the move and very likely distracted. They have limited time, limited attention and need a quick result.

Your app could be the first point of contact. It might be the only way your user interacts with you on a regular basis. It needs to be super simple, clean, and quick to interact with. A well thought out, thoroughly researched, and organized information architecture plays a big part in helping to deliver an easy and enjoyable user experience.

What is information architecture?

According to Abby Covert, a leader in the field of information architecture, IA is ‘the way we arrange the parts to make sense of the whole.’ Information architecture (IA)is found in every digital product, from websites, apps to an intranet and can even be applied to the physical world in places like libraries and supermarkets.For the purposes of this blog we will focus on the importance of information architecture for mobile apps. Researching and designing an app’s IA with just the right amount of information is key. And providing a way of navigating that content in a way that is quick and intuitive is key to a good user experience.

How is designing for mobile different?

The first thing to understand about mobile app information architecture is that it’s different – and not just with regards to size. The sheer physicality and specifications of mobile devices mean we need to consider different design requirements. Because mobile devices are light and portable, users are in constant contact with them and they are by far the most convenient way to access information. With mobile apps it can be even more important to consider the user journey, to keep that journey as short as possible, and anticipate the user's needs. Consideration should be given to:

1. Physicality and specifications
2. Constant accessibility
3. How people behave and feel

1. Physicality and specifications

Most mobile device interfaces are accessed through touch screens. Users rely on learnt gestures – in addition to a simple interface – to interact. Because of their smaller dimensions, users often expect the content structures to be simpler and smaller. Also, because of limited bandwidth and connectivity, mobile devices require app designs to be optimized for loading time, with reduced data demands.

2. Constant accessibility

Because we have constant access to our mobile devices, we tend to use them a lot more. They come with us on the bus, walking the dog, or even watching TV. We often use them while ‘doing’ something else. This means we often use the device under difficult viewing conditions, or among a variety of distractions.

3. How we behave and feel

We have different attitudes, behaviors and priorities while using mobile devices. Many of us often have our mobile device within arms reach at all times. We have become attached to these devices and feel ‘lost’ when we don’t have them nearby. Some people even consider them an extension of their being!

How do you factor information architecture into your mobile app design?

We need to think of mobile devices as having their own particular information architecture structure to work within their unique requirements and environments. While the structure of a responsive website may follow the same IA, native apps often employ navigational structures that are tab-based. There’s no one or ‘right’ way to architect a mobile site or application. Rather it’s dependent on factors like the size of the content you need to organize or what the intended user journey is that informs the choice of  information architecture structure. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular IA structures for mobile apps:

Hierarchy

A standard website structure with an index page and a series of sub pages. If you are designing a responsive website you may be restricted to this structure, however introducing additional structural patterns could allow you to tailor the user experience for mobile.

Hub and spoke

Gives you a central index from which users will navigate from. It’s the default pattern on Apple’s iPhone, with a home screen and the various apps users download. Users can’t navigate between spokes but must return to the hub (home screen), instead.

Nested doll

Leads users in a linear fashion to more detailed content. It’s a simplified interface which quickly leads on to the next step. It can be most useful when users are in distracting conditions because  it’s a quick and easy method of navigation.

Tabbed view

Regular app users will be familiar with this structure. It’s a collection of sections tied together by a toolbar menu. This allows the user to quickly scan and understand the functionality of the app as soon as it’s opened. Easy to navigate throughout the app.

Filtered view

Allows the user to navigate within a set of data by selecting filter options to create a view that suits them. Can be more difficult to view on mobile if there is too much content, as it can be difficult to display.

Wrap up

When designing for mobile devices it is important to always keep in mind the user journey and how (and when) users  are likely to be interacting with your app. What is their primary objective? What is your organization's objective? How do you move them through their tasks to enable them to complete them quickly, simply and easily? Working within the size restrictions and limitations of mobile devices and users needs and desires with a thoroughly thought out IA structure will always win on the day.

Stratis Valachis, senior user experience designer at Aviva’s Digital Innovation Garage, took some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions about designing for conversational user interfaces (CUI). Learn more about his processes for research and design for CUI, what he thinks the future will look like, and some of the biggest challenges he’s faced while designing for CUI.Stratis will be speaking at MUXL2017, the third annual conference around Mobile User Experience in London on the 10th of November at City, University of London. Using case studies through talks and workshops, the conference will cover Core UX principles as well as emerging topics such as AI (Chatbots), VR (AR) & IOT.

What does the research and design process for conversational interfaces look like?

Like any design project, you should always start by identifying user needs and real problems. Research how users solve that problem currently and then evaluate for which use cases you can remove friction and enhance the experience by utilizing a conversational interface.Don't try to chat-ify or voice-ify your product just because it's a cool trend. In many ways conversational interfaces (CUIs), both voice and visual, have more usability constraints than traditional GUI. For example, it’s hard to interrupt the conversation to recover from errors, you can't easily skim through information, progress is linear and you very often need to rely on recall.Users make conscious compromises about which type of interface they want to use.This means that a solution utilizing a CUI needs to offer an obvious benefit for your chosen use case, otherwise users won't use your product. That's why special emphasis should be placed on early research about the context in which users will use your product and on why a CUI could provide a better experience. When you begin the design phase, a good practice would be to craft a personality for your interface. Studies have shown that because humans are empathetic, they will assign human character attributes to your CUI anyway, so it's better to make sure this is defined through design. This works really well for platforms like Google Home and Facebook Messenger, which make it clear to the user that each product built on them is a different entity from the default assistant.Some channels like Alexa, though, don't make that distinction clear. In these cases, you need to make sure that the character of your CUI doesn’t significantly deviate from the personality of the default assistant, otherwise you'll mess with their mental model and create confusion. For example, when you're ordering an Uber with Alexa, it’s Alexa that speaks back to you: "Alexa, ask Uber for a ride." "Sure, there's an Uber less than a minute away, would you like me to order it?". While on Google Home, the Google Assistant makes it clear that it passes you over to Uber "Hi, I'm Uber, how can I help?".After you define the personality, start drafting out the core experience of your product.If you're working on a visual CUI, type the conversation down like a screenplay. If you're working with voice, act the dialogue out with your colleagues and use voice simulators to see how it feels in the channel you're designing for. This will make it easier to decide the direction you'd like to follow and will also help you initiate conversations with stakeholders.At this stage, you will be ready to start designing your user flows to define the functionality at a granular level. Again, understanding context is crucial. Make sure you think of the different scenarios in which users will interact with your product and the ways they're likely to phrase their input. User testing is key for this.

What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced designing for CUI?

Setting the right expectations for users. That applies to both visual and voice interfaces. There's a gap between the mental model users have of what most AI products with conversational interfaces can do, and what they are actually capable of doing. That was a common pattern I've seen in user testing sessions even with users who had previous experience in the conversational channel that was being tested. As a designer your challenge is to make the affordances and constraints clear in a way that feels like a natural part of the conversation and mitigates disappointment from unrealistic expectations. Another challenge is trying to cater for all the different ways people will phrase the requests. The key here is to invest time and resources in user research and NLP (natural language processing) services. If you feel that this is out of scope for your project, you may consider limiting the options for your users as trying to guide them to say things in a certain way will not work. Good examples of this are Facebook Messenger bots which now allow developers to remove the input field entirely from the experience in order to prevent users from making requests that can't be supported.

How do you think CUI is going to change the way designers and researchers do their work?

It might require designers and researchers to slightly alter some techniques they're using (for example thinking aloud during user testing doesn't work with voice interfaces) but the fundamentals will stay the same. You still need to focus on understanding the problem, explore different solutions through divergent thinking, converge, develop and continuously iterate based on user feedback. The exciting thing is that these new technologies significantly expand our toolbox and offer new interesting ways to solve problems for our users.

What improvements to this kind of technology do you wish to see? How would you like this technology to progress in the future?

I would like to see a more widespread integration of voice interfaces with visuals and GUI interaction patterns. A good example of the benefits of this approach is Amazon's Fire TV. Users can converse with the system via voice when it's more efficient than the alternative interaction options (for example, searching for a movie) but use their remote control to interact with visual UI elements for tasks that would be tedious to perform through voice. For example, selecting a movie cover to reveal descriptive text and then skimming through it helps you gauge whether the plot is interesting faster than if you had to consume this information through a conversation. This hybrid approach utilizes the best of each world to create a stronger experience. I think we will see this type of interface a lot more in the future. Think of Iron Man and J.A.R.V.I.S.

Any advice for young designers and researchers hoping to get into this part of the industry?

Invest time in learning best practices for crafting good dialogue. It's a crucial skill for designers in this field. Google and Amazon's design guidelines are a good starting point. This doesn't mean you should omit training and improving your knowledge in usability for traditional interfaces. Most of the principles are time-proof and channel agnostic and will help you greatly with conversational interfaces.Another thing you should make sure you do is stay up to date with the latest trends. The technology evolves very fast so you need to stay ahead of curve. Attend meetups, work on personal projects and participate in hackathons to practice and learn from the experts.As long as you're really passionate about the field, there will be plenty of opportunities for you to get involved and contribute. We're still in the early stages of mainstream adoption of the technology, so we have the chance to make significant impact on the evolution of the field and shape best practices for years to come, which is really exciting!