Top Articles: Designing UX/UI Via Curation
Week 4, 2018
In a climate of similar apps, elements like exclusivity and curation become the focus of a platform’s UX/UI design when trying to stand out above the competition. Curation can be defined as the gathering and presenting of select content, often specific to a certain niche market or theme. Naturally, in the digital age, much of this curation relies on Artificial Intelligence or algorithms. However, with machines running the show, that leaves users with the paradox of choice where there are too many choices and leads to a bad user experience. In other words, UX Design walks a fine line between intuitive and overabundant. That’s where curation comes in.
Facebook Watch Is Introducing More Dramas
By Kerry Flynn from Mashable
Facebook, though late to the game, has launched its own streaming service. While Facebook Watch is not a subscription service, their goal is to create original and exclusive programming. To do this, Facebook is leveraging its user data and communities to create niche content that they know will have an engaged audience. It’s a clever way to curate content based on the social currency that Facebook owns.
Apple’s Enterprise Evolution
By Ron Miller from TechCrunch
Apple is the OG of extreme curation. They were founded on a mission of giving the users what they need, not necessarily what they want. Creating hardware and software that worked better than others on the market was the primary goal; the fact that people liked to use them was secondary. This mode of operation has continued to be part of the company’s culture even beyond the average consumer. Since Apple is traditionally a consumer company, it has diversified its partnerships in order to improve its enterprise offerings. Even these offerings, however, are closely curated.
Skeptics, Step Aside: Here’s Why Netflix Keeps Defying All Growth Expectations
By Nicole Laporte from Fast Company
Netflix always seems to defy analyst expectations by continuing to grow every quarter. While some might believe that this is because Netflix simply has more content than other platforms, it really boils down to their UX. Netflix has used its data to create new shows, makes it more difficult to stop watching content than to keep watching content, and uses buffering algorithms to keep the content playing without interruption. They don’t create content for people to watch; they design their content to be watchable.
Spotify Has New Plan to Take on Radio and Reinvent Podcasts
By Lucas Shaw from Bloomberg
Spotify’s new Spotlight initiative will collaborate with eight companies, including BuzzFeed and Gimlet Media, to deliver news and political coverage in the form of podcasts. The goal is to lure radio listeners and ad dollars, which could be good news for the company that has not yet turned a profit. Spotify’s curation is typically associated with their playlists, which are notably user-generated. Spotify as a whole is an interesting case study into crowdsourcing curation, but this new initiative takes it to the next level because these playlists will be created around news and other companies.
Alexa, We’re Still Trying to Figure Out What to Do with You
By Daisuke Wakabayashi and Nick Wingfield from The New York Times
Amazon Alexa is an interesting case of giving the people exactly what they want. Over 30,000 skills have been created by third parties to control anything and everything a user could want. However, the paradox of choice comes into play here as many users only use the digital assistant to perform very routine, basic tasks. Amazon is taking a “catch all” curation approach hoping that if they throw everything at the user, at least one skill will stick. This is in contrast to Google Assistant, which is going for a very personalized approach. For now, Amazon’s approach is working, but they will soon have to adopt a more selective curation process if they hope to grow on their own.
Curated by Hadley Stork
