Articles on Design
The Carbon Five Guide to User Research: Interviewing
You’ve written your script. You’ve screened your respondents and you’ve scheduled time with them (which you learned to do in our Guide to Recruiting Participants). You’ve got a big day of learning about your users ahead of you! We’re going to cover what to do during the interview and what to prepare ahead of time. …
Tech Consulting: 2016 Year in Review
As a consulting firm that’s been around for 17 years, Carbon Five has a unique perspective on trends in digital product development. In this post we look back on 2016 and reflect on what we’ve seen in the industry, and where we think it’s headed. Here are the the top five trends we saw in …
The Carbon Five Guide to User Research: Recruiting Participants
If you have ever tried to recruit folks for a focus group or usability test, you know it can be really hard, super frustrating, and downright discouraging. But have no fear, Carbon Five is here! Before you start reaching out, you’ve got to get into the right headspace. You will probably be interacting with people …
The Carbon Five Guide to User Research: Starting Your Research Project
So, you’ve read the introduction to the Carbon Five Guide to User Research and you’re ready to get started. Welcome! During this step we’ll be working through what we’re hoping to find, who we’re hoping to talk to, and what we’re hoping to ask. If you’re trying to convince someone else in your company to …
The Carbon Five Guide to User Research: Introduction
What is User Research? User Research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies. User research helps us understand the constraints and opportunities of the audience we’re building for, and is a core part of building a successful product. Why Research? Let’s say you’ve got a …
C5 Labs: Daily Ascent
There is plenty of research to show that taking stairs is one of the best ways to work out without taking time out to exercise. Taking the elevator wastes electricity, and the stairs are a great opportunity to improve overall health. With this in mind, we wanted to encourage people to start thinking about using …
Design by Listening Inside and Out – Carbon Five LA Talk Night July 20th
Designing good UX is an iterative process that begins and ends with the same core action; listening. But who do we listen to and how? As the speakers of our July 20th design themed Talk Night will demonstrate, you listen to everyone! Whether they’re the person you believe your product is for or your fellow …
Before You Build: How to Get Your Startup Off the Ground Without a Team
Photo from my colleague Yasmine Molavi’s sketching workshop You’re starting a company. You’re so full of ideas that you have three PowerPoint decks! Wowza! You have a couple co-founders or maybe even an employee. If only your team had some engineers to build the product… There are many, many important things you can do to …
April 21st 2016 Talk Night at Carbon Five LA – Sketching for UX
Great communication is at the heart of a great team with the free and clear exchange of ideas flowing between design, development, and product. However, we’ve all had moments where the team gets “blocked” on a design; some members struggling putting their thoughts into words, others feel they have to provide high quality comps, while …
Flexing the Rules of Material Design
5 Steps to quickly differentiate your Android app design while being Material Design compliant.