UXperts Weigh In: Designs We Love, August Edition

Our UXperts are offering up a little bit of everything this August. From an app that helps you find the perfect recipe, to a website designed to drive home a big social statement, they’re sharing the best the web has to offer in UX design. Whatever the intention of your app or website, these are clear examples of designs that put the user first and achieve exactly what they set out to do.

Manasi Agarwal, UX Designer at Adobe

Pick: Yummly

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I consider myself an amateur chef and my reliable companion in knowing the difference between a béchamel and a hollandaise is the Yummly app. I must admit that I end up browsing the app for hours, drooling over the exquisite imagery of the food and bookmarking recipes (called Yums of course); more time than actually cooking anything.

The delicious UI is part of the reason why I spend as much time on the app as I do. From a UX perspective, the app is super personalized; something which is taken care of during a perfectly-designed onboarding process. Whether it is to input passwords, food choices, or allergies, the form filling never feels like a chore. It’s a great example of how people can willingly give up a lot of information for customization, only if the timing and the design are done so seamlessly right.

Another cool part of the app is the easily accessible in-context menu that animates in from the right of an image and lets you add that recipe to a collection or check its ingredients; without getting in the way of the browsing experience. Ingredients can quickly be added to a shopping list from this menu itself and, while I’ve never used the feature myself, I can imagine it being very useful for folks who are more organized about their cooking schedules than me.

The smooth interstitial transitions between the main navigation screens and also the filter menus show an amazing attention to detail. Along with the clean and minimal design, a comprehensive set of features and content aggregated from so many sources makes the Yummly app a foodie’s ultimate weapon in the ‘hunger games!’

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James Rafferty, Senior Designer at DesignMap

Pick: deathpenalty.org

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Bold, high-contrast, typographically driven messaging supported by subdued, but provocative imagery effectively work to propel the mission of this organization. Dense information, and often misunderstood subject matter is divided into succinct, accessible compositions that look and feel like mini-posters.

Visitors can scan high level information to gain a broad overview of the content, or they can drill down into detailed areas of interest without interruption. The immediacy of the mission is always in the forefront, but not enough to distract from the material presented in each section.

UI controls and CTA’s are large and unmistakable. The color system is simple but varied enough to add visual interest without straying too far from recognizable consistency rules. Scrolling is kept within reason, and global navigation controls never disappear—both being welcome considerations given what we see on the web every day.

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Jackie Tanner, UX Designer at The Honest Company

Pick: Clarity Money

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Handling money is so complicated, which must be why there’s this growing market for digital money management solutions. Clarity Money is great for 2 big reasons: seamlessness and friendliness. You can track your recent purchases, transfer money between banks, cancel subscriptions, start a savings account, track your debt and investments, and so on. It really does seem like the “one stop shop” for organizing and maintaining personal finances.

On top of all of that, they’ve organized their features in a super simple card-based hierarchy and every option is explained through straightforward, yet approachable directives. The ability to breakdown complexity in such a friendly way is something I always try to achieve in my designs, so this app has been a great example for me to refer to.

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Lex Valishvili, Freelance Graphic and UX Designer

Pick: Pinterest app

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Pinterest has been one of my favorites for a while now and they only keep improving it. While many people see it as just a place for wedding ideas, DIY projects, and food recipes, I love the app’s clean and intuitive interface! Easy bottom navigation, perfectly animated gestures, and layout that emphasizes the visuals.

In my UX approach, I always focus on the flow users are expected to go through before even starting to think about UI. Unfortunately, too often we see apps or websites that just look pretty or trendy and it’s so easy to get lost or confused about the purpose of it. The design team over at Pinterest did an amazing job of knowing user scenarios very well and creating a product that lets you use it without thinking twice.

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