Alex Poole

User experience consultant

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Category: visual design

Avoid jobs advertised as “UI/UX Designer”

Posted on February 6, 2015 by Alex Poole · 1 Comment

Jobs such as “UI/UX Designer” are often advertised in France and some other countries – but you should think twice before applying even if you have a background in visual design. They may indicate that the company misunderstands UX or doesn’t really value it enough.

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Plan ahead when designing semi-transparent overlays

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Alex Poole

This is a web version of the common problem you see in subtitled films – white text on a white background is going to be very hard to read (see Gaîté lyrique). I always prefer automatically overlaid text to have a dark mask behind it to guarantee sufficient contrast. The consumerist website tries to avoid […]

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Spot the UX mistakes in this Hollywood film

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Alex Poole

It’s easy to spot UI design bloopers in Hollywood films, like big red beeping “ACCESS DENIED” messages or cheesy 3D database fly-throughs. Well, the other day I was watching the film Friends with Benefits when a scene came on that had me throwing imaginary bricks at the screen – not because I saw some silly […]

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3 website designs in harmony with their content

Posted on October 28, 2011 by Alex Poole

It’s quite satisfying when a website manages to reflect its subject matter fully through its visual design. Here are 3 sites that achieve this special kind of harmony.

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Featured articles

  • How Agile and UX can work together
  • Avoid jobs advertised as “UI/UX Designer”
  • Playing Top Trumps with UX
  • Good UX should bridge the divide between online and offline worlds

Original research

  • Which Are More Legible: Serif or Sans Serif Typefaces?
  • Fighting bad typography research
  • Eyetracking metrics (book chapter)
  • How do people find and recognise browser bookmarks?

Good vs bad UX

  • Poster or stamp? Use sensible defaults for product previews
  • Plan ahead when designing semi-transparent overlays
  • Use sensible defaults on forms
  • Supermarket receipt with categories
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