Here are some of our top ten tips for working at home.

1. Meetings.

Stuck for a way to have a meeting with more than one person? Use Google Hangouts, or Zoom for meetings. For a more personal approach try Skype.
Always, always have a decent suit jacket to reach for if the occasion arises.

2. Its lunchtime. I do sport or go to the gym.

For those of us sporty types, an online class or two for yoga or pilates is enough to while away an hour. Check your gym for online classes. Use ‘Youtube’ to find a pre-recorded exercise class session. We recommend les mills online but don’t do bodypump in a confined space!

3. I’m Wanting to Network!

Try an online community boasting a pub, a beauty salon, a gym, the kids club, the travel clinic at the virtual village. Startup or Entrepreneur? try Startup nation , use twitter hours to network and advertise your business. Join your local chamber of commerce, or the yorkshiremafia but remember no hard sell!

4. Productivity apps

Worth checking out for writing documentation as an alternative word processor is Grammarly. Grammarly has the ability to store documents. It offer’s targeted content tonality checks. This means you can tell if your writing is ‘friendly’ to your audience. It is also lightweight for use in the browser.

5. Space

Find a decent sized workspace when you can sit unhindered by life’s distractions. Yes. Right! Okay, okay i hear you. If your fighting for workspace with your cat, your housemate, or your family try this approach. Create an uncluttered area in your home which is off-limits to them between normal working hours. Remember that the understairs cupboard won’t do if your in IT and don’t forget that you still need a source of light.

6. Lists

List everything you need to do at the start of the day, get a schedule, or get alexa to remind you. This helps you to focus on what needs to doing. As opposed to how many jobs in the house need doing.

7. Get a break…..

Normally we would suggest going for a long walk at lunch. Unusual but valid approaches to this include using a running machine for a ten-minute walk in the house. Getting up to have a cuppa and a few biscuits. Or doing something completely different.

8. Call people…

That’s right call them just to say hello if you are missing your office social life, or even skype them for a chat.

9. At some stage you will get distracted.

If you can stop distractions like tv, and neighbours calling round. Distractions like dog’s attacking next doors prize Persian cat, and foibles like inappropriate social media memes aren’t always solvable. If this happens don’t worry! Move on. Nothing to see here. But do block your work colleague responsible for memes from social media accounts, and put the dog on a leash eh.

10. Logging off

Don’t forget to keep to your normal working hours. So if the working day clock stops at 5pm you log off, if it starts at 9am you start or log in too. Try Clearing your desk afterward so your house gets back to a home!

Companies that allow remote work have 25% lower employee turnover than those that don’t. (Owl Labs)

We are verified content creators with Brave Rewards using the Brave Browser. Brave Rewards allows you to choose, browse and reward content creators like ixdlab using BAT or other Cryptocurrency’s. If you find our content useful and like what you read please donate via downloading the Brave browser. The Brave Browser allows you to earn free BAT. We are currently trialling this type of crowdfunding for our Cryptocurrency research projects.

Whether it’s your website, app or software – great usability and UX design is an essential part of the package.

It doesn’t matter how amazing the ideas, features or designs are, if your customers can’t use it, don’t enjoy using it, or don’t understand it!

In this post, we explore the top 7 things customers hate about UX (and how to create digital experiences customers will engage with).

1. The system doesn’t work as it should

People hate it when things don’t work!

If customers can’t use their preferred browser or device to access your website, web apps, mobile apps or software – they won’t use it!

Users dislike being limited to using a specific browser or device and in 2019, they shouldn’t have to. It’s up to businesses to create ‘device agnostic’ experiences. This means that whatever you make, you need to ensure it offers full functionality, and looks the same on every platform.

2. The product isn’t made for them

If your experience doesn’t connect with your customers’ values, expectations and limitations, they won’t like it. You need to make users feel as though your digital experience has been made for them, with their needs in mind.

Before designing anything, it’s essential that you get to know your users. You need to understand exactly what they want from your product or service. It’s important that you understand their expectations, behaviour, motivation and goals. Investing in user research and creating clear customer personas is the best way to ensure your experience is right for your audience.

3. The website or app asks for too much information (the customer journey disrupted)

Customers are using your product or service for a reason. Let them use it!

Too many websites and apps bombard new users with unnecessary barriers. These include unexplained permission requests, forced account creation, newsletter signup prompts, excessive terms and conditions and suggested setting changes.

These are likely to frustrate users and make them suspicious of your intent. This is especially true if they’re encountering your business for the first time online and don’t know whether they want to use your product or service.

Remove barriers wherever possible and make it easy for your users to get straight to the value.

4. The navigation is confusing or unclear

If your users can’t find what they are looking for, they are going to go elsewhere.

Dead ends, poor organisation, broken functionality or ‘creative’ navigation) won’t do you any favours.

Clarity, ease and simplicity matter and the best digital experiences provide an easy to follow journey for users. Your users should be able to find the information or functionality they want in as few steps as possible. Applying the right information architecture principles to the design is the best way to achieve this.

As a general rule, navigation should have a specific number of categories. These should be listed in a logical manner, such as alphabetical order. The navigation should work for everyone, whether they are using touchscreens or traditional laptops and desktops.

5. There’s too much information (information overload)

The average human attention span is around 8 seconds.

If you fill a screen with too much information, you risk confusing or overwhelming users. The risk is that they lose interest and go elsewhere.

The solution is to keep things short, simple and clear. Your users need to be able to find what they are looking for – whether it’s specific information, instructions, calls to action, or buttons.

6. There’s too many features

Less can be more!

When it comes to apps and software, the temptation is to try and fill screens with as many features as possible. This can overwhelm and confuse users (especially new ones).

User experience testing often reveals that people prefer products that focus on a limited selection of features. Take time to prioritise and research what matters most to your users. This will ensure you’re focusing on the features they want.

7. It’s full of jargon!

Did you know that the average reading age in the UK is about 9 years old?

Language matters – and industry jargon and complex terms can be a real turn off for your users. When creating experiences, it’s easy to use insider industry terms and complicated tech speak.

Always communicate in language that your users understand and are comfortable with. Creating personas and investing in user experience testing will help you to get this right.

Improving User Experience with IXDLAB

At IXDLAB, we help the world’s top brands to create digital experiences that work for their users. From user research and design, to evaluation – our UX experts will ensure that your digital products are right for your audience.

For more about UX, or a no obligation consultation, please get in touch with us today on 07858110704, or email info@ixdlab.co.uk.

We are verified content creators with Brave Rewards using the Brave Browser. Brave Rewards allows you to choose, browse and reward content creators like ixdlab using BAT or other Cryptocurrency’s. If you find our content useful and like what you read please donate via downloading the Brave browser. The Brave Browser allows you to earn free BAT. We are currently trialling this type of crowdfunding for our Cryptocurrency research projects.

Facebook’s Libra is a ‘Permissioned blockchain digital currency’. A higher degree of security is built into this peer to peer network so new computers being added into the network have to be pre-authorsied to join. The present Blockchain of Bitcoin, uses a permisionless Blockchain which some argue is still as secure as pre-authorisation that Libra intends to transact using. Libra is trying to be seen as more security conscious. Libra also hides transactions, or obsfucates these similar to Cryptocurrency ‘Monero‘. The idea being that only members of the Libra network can analyse, and extract info from the distributed ledger so the network is closed and transactions unlike Bitcoin cannot be viewed. Libra however is not ‘decentralised’ and is ‘permission based’, and offers the ability to generate ‘Smart Contracts’.

Libra unlike Bitcoin does not rely on mining to generate coins. Libra has a permissioned proof of stake system which allows a network to receive distributed consensus on a transaction, via random selection on the stake, which could be wealth, or age, as opposed to ‘Mining’. So the more ‘Coins’ you own, the more power you have with the proof of stake system. Even as a Bitcoin miner you need to stake at least an amount to mine a block.

Libra has an impressive list of name companies, and backers on board known as the Libra Association. Visa, Uber, Paypal, and Andressen Horowitz are all involved in developing this new payment technology.

It is expected that libra will be policed by facebook to remove fake libra related sites. Regulatory issues, have placed Libra under the spotlight as cryptocurrency, and digital currencies generally seen as a ‘huge risk’ to financial stability. All agree these type of developments are ‘inevitable’, particularly the US. Facebook has at present over 1 billion users on its platform. Stats for end of 2018, fourth quarter, showed facebook, without its cryptocurrency in use had 2.32 billion monthly active users worldwide. One admittance about the technology is it cannot right now deliver necessary scalability to support billions of people using a Cryptocurrency.

Libra is expected to be incorporated into Facebook within the next 18 months causing concern with legislators. Reportedly an ‘anti-trust’ probe is now being launched by EU regulators, concerned that libra shuts out competitors. Facebook Libra’s, main rivalry is Binance ‘Venus’.

Despite these teething problem the launch date for Facebook’s libra is set for 2020.

What will be able to buy with facebook libra?

• Pay for goods and services on facebook
• Use payments for car rides with Uber
• Pay for Spotify online subscriptions
• Proposals for more diverse financial based products are also in the pipeline for development

Here at ixdlab_ we can help you to understand and formulate opinions on using electronic cashless payment technologies such as Bitcoin, Ripple, XRM in your business. Look out for more on #Cryptocurrencies later on.

Liked this article on Cryptocurrencies? Please feel free to donate

We are verified content creators with Brave Rewards using the Brave Browser. Brave Rewards allows you to choose, browse and reward content creators like ixdlab using BAT or other Cryptocurrency’s. If you find our content useful and like what you read please donate via downloading the Brave browser. The Brave Browser allows you to earn free BAT. We are currently trialling this type of crowdfunding for our Cryptocurrency research projects.