Speak Like a Native or Not

Accents at the Workplace

Depending on the industry where you work, attitudes towards accents may be more forgiving in the fields where the focus is primarily directed at your technical aptitude or overall professional expertise, and less accepting in areas where higher public stakes are involved, such as law, politics, and broadcasting. 

On the other hand, certain special-interest channels may attract the type of audience who are purposefully looking for a unique kind of experience. Perhaps placing themselves outside of a habitual framework and exploring other forms of informational intake, the ones that may involve certain voice pitch, tone, resonance, a funny word choice, and generally something unconventional and possibly mind-opening. Why could this be the case? Because a foreign language could mean more cultural and social contexts, to begin with...

There are applications that were developed specifically for the purpose of improving language pronunciation to sound like a native speaker. They can be very handy for someone who is too busy to register for and regularly attend a formal language course that specializes in such training. Below is a comparison between the two effective English pronunciation apps:

 Speakometer vs. BoldVoice

Both of these apps help train proper English pronunciation. On a very basic level, these apps allow you to try their training for free, and once you approach a certain threshold of usage, you choose to stop there or get a paid version to continue your practice.

Speakometer can evaluate your pronunciation and provide just graded feedback, from not quite there yet to perfect, without any elaboration on what part of a word had weakness and how to tweak it to sound more like a native.

BoldVoice, on the other hand, attends to every mispronounced syllable, and once it captures your voice, it explicitly tells you in which part of a word or a phrase there was a weakness and provides recommendations on how to fix it. 

In the case with Speakometer, regardless of the number of times you rehearse to master a pronunciation, there is no guarantee that you get it right, because after all, there is no explicit guidance on how to do it. 

With BoldVoice the story is different: if you rehearse while following explicit recommendations, there is every chance for you to succeed and leave no trace of a foreign accent. 

Skepticism Toward the Credibility of Non-Native Speakers

There are instances when native speakers exhibit mistrust toward non-native speakers, and it doesn't happen intentionally. It is related to an unconscious kind of bias where non-native speakers are perceived as "others" who may have fundamentally different ways of functioning and interpreting things within the social and professional contexts. 

One of the most potent ways to overcome skepticism and bias is to simply know your subject well, be assertive about it, and be generally sincere in your intentions. 

How Help-Seekers Interact with Non-Profits on the Web

There is no single way of presenting information for help seekers that would be considered intuitive and user-friendly; however, if we, as designers, follow the rules of thumb, it never fails to work the way it is intended: clear and conscientious guidance that helps a user to complete their task and achieve short-term (or long-term) goals.

Help seekers, when it comes to the care and protection of minors, are usually legal guardians, social workers, therapists, or any other formal representatives who advocate for minors. They are the ones who come to the organization's web page to find a solution, and it is important that the information is there at their fingertips. One of the ways to tailor it to them effortlessly is to prompt them to answer a questionnaire - an approach that many for-profit organizations use to sort out their clientele and push them further in the recruitment and sales processes. 

The same approach can be applied to resource and assistance distribution tasks. When done consciously, it reduces a cognitive load and ensures that help-seekers only receive guidance that is relevant to their specific case and nothing beyond or in excess.

Organizational Fragmentation and How it is Reflected in User Experience

One might think, if we have all the available outlets to interact with one another remotely and our message and information transmission are instant, then any informational or communication gaps could be eliminated. However, this is not the case. The digital interaction merely extends the inaptitude and fragmentation of different departments within one organization.

It does not really matter what organization is focused on or what service or industry it is in; they all have one thing in common: promoting and priding themselves in tribal knowledge, where valuable information is contained within a closed circle of people and is not shared with the external groups within the same organization, even though this information is vital for performing a task or completing a process efficiently and error-free.

Example #1: Public College

• The student reaches out to the registration department, asking for help registering for an online summer course to later transfer it to her home college.
• The registration department advises reaching out to the pathway advisor.
• The student reaches out to the pathway advisor via Zoom, and she tells the student to send an email to career coaching.
• Career coaching replies back and suggests scheduling an appointment with a career coach, and provides a list of available coaches.
• The student books the next available appointment with the career coach.
• Later, the student receives an email reply from someone else on the email list requesting to provide transcripts via email.

Example #2: Online Marketplace

• The customer calls to process a refund for something that he does not need, and wants to return it to the seller.
• The operator transfers him to another department.
• Another department listens to the customer's inquiry once again and transfers him to yet another department.
• One hour later, the customer is still getting passed from one department to another in circles, returning to the status quo: original operator.

It really does not matter what industry or service is involved in the process; the problem persists on all levels of hierarchy and structure. For reasons that are hard to identify firmly, people hold a tight grip over valuable information with fierce stubbornness, refusing to share it with colleagues even when they know that it would maximize the overall benefit of the greatest number of people both within and outside the organization, as prescribed by the utilitarian principle.

Is it a competitive spirit that stands in the way of efficiency?

Does it involve a fundamentally individualistic mindset where we separate ourselves from the rest?

Or maybe both?

Thanks for reading! #UXDesign #DesignForAccessibility #Communication #UserExperience

Digital Interactive Book Clubs

I've seen some readers' platforms on the internet, such as Goodreads, StoryGraph, and more personalized versions of book clubs that populate the digital spaces.

I personally use GoodReads to plan my reading ahead of time, to ensure that I do not forget about the book titles that interested me a few years ago. It doesn't necessarily mean that I will commit 100% to reading them, but at least it leaves an imprint of the history of my interests and how they have evolved within my lifespan.

If I end up reading some of the planned titles, I can leave my book review, which is publicly accessible and can be replied to by any registered user.

However, with the indisputable value of such platforms, it is missing one important extension: the real conversations about the books to which we were able to connect and process emotionally. It would have been helpful to create more localized book clubs that are attached to the user's residence so that they can find each other to eventually meet and discuss their impressions in person.

It is not to say that there aren't any existing physical book clubs in the regions, but it is probably about the missing element that would connect digital spaces with the existing groups of readers. How do they find the book clubs that actually align with their unique interests and that aren't arbitrary in their book selection and culture?

AI in Wireframes and Mockups

 Sometimes companies are pressured with deadlines and are forced to deliver products to their clients within a very short timeframe. In such cases, it wouldn't be optimal to completely shy away from AI tools that can save a company's and clients' time. 

AI tools do not have to remove from a company's vision, values, and integrity, but merely support it with better time management while creating impactful products that are still unique in their design and interaction, and are representative of the company's professionalism and standard of care and delivery.

Some of the recommended free AI Mockup & Wireframing tools are:

                                       

My favorite wireframing AI tool is Visily because of its robustness, flexibility, and straightforwardness. It helps me to organize my ideas and goals into visual concepts in the early stages. For example, I enter my criteria into the AI box: 

  "Create an engaging explainer for minors that teaches them about internet safety and smart and prudent online behavior".

The tool immediately builds a sitemap based on these criteria:

Of course, nothing is set in stone, and I can always rebuild my sitemaps manually, the way I see fit; however, such prompts are a great kickstart that helps me think further and explore more.

Attracting Donors through Visual Design and Translating It into Physical Experience

Attracting and retaining donors' interest in nonprofit organizations requires continuous engagement. Some of the ways to do it are through recognition of their efforts, showcasing the considerable impact that such efforts have brought to the lives of others.

If there are events that are dedicated to donors' appreciation, they have to be informative and rewarding, and at the same time, ensure that no time is wasted. One thing is to market such events to attract donors' attention, but another thing is to keep them interested and engaged. What happens outside of the digital spaces is crucial because this reflects the level of integrity with which something was advertised. If the physical experience falls short of the anticipated one based on good and catchy visuals, then the goal of the visuals has not been achieved. 

The engagement does not end on a well-marketed cause; it only provides the introduction to the real experience. The conceptual one that many donors want to keep in their minds, the one that aligns with their own values and aspirations.

Online Censorship to Eliminate Hateful Language

 Although it is impossible to censor and scrutinize every user's utterance that is out in the digital space, it is helpful to utilize moderation tools that can diminish offensive online behavior. 

Some of the most common tools that assist with these efforts are:

1. Google Perspective API
2. Microsoft Azure Content Moderator
3. Two Hat (Community Sift)
4. Hive Moderation
5. Meta's AI Moderation

Each of these tools is tailored to specific platforms with their unique needs. For example, Microsoft Azure can detect profanity, adult content, or personal information in social platforms and enterprise-level applications. It is also good at scanning images and videos, and not just simple text. Two Hat is good at real-time chat moderation and is suitable for gaming and youth communities. And Google Perspective API supposedly identifies toxicity in online comments.

Google Perspective is interesting because it is trained both by Labeled Human Data and Machine Learning Techniques such as Natural Language Processing, User Feedback, and Supervised Machine Learning. Labeled Human Data is a collective effort in which the word labeling is done by a varied group of people and experts to ensure low bias rates. They determine the levels of toxicity of a word and assign a particular category to it, such as: toxic, high level of toxicity, hate speech, identity attack, somewhat toxic, etc. This labeling isn't arbitrary but is powered by socio-cultural context and nuances, tone, and intent. 

Modern Website Layouts and How We Interact With It

 Lately, many businesses have uniformly chosen long scrolling, wide pages as their main website layout, justifying it by a great way to tell a story, reducing click fatigue, and the ability to present a large amount of information on one page. Those decisions appear to be backed by some user research, however, it is a well-known fact that a person can absorb information in fragments, and not in its endless flow. Just like we need time to digest one book page at a time without any distractions, before flipping to the next page, in the same way, we need to be able to concentrate and not be visually distracted or overwhelmed by any other visual elements, such as giant photos that take up most of the space, and/or a scroll bar (without borders, so to speak) that moves the wide page with its heavy content endlessly up and down.

It seems like most of the businesses that make such choices are merely focused on the trendiness of visual representation, and not necessarily on its friendliness and digestibility. I personally get scroll fatigue when I view some of these trendy websites, filled with large, attractive commercial photos that are scrolled with text endlessly up and down. 

Traditional print designers and a more contemporary digital design expert, Jacob Nielsen, suggested that a user can read the content comfortably when it does not exceed 45-75 characters (700-800 px) per line. In this case, why do so many UI and web designers make such strange choices of dispersing the content, text + image mixtures, throughout the page horizontally? Shouldn't we try to keep the text more or less at the center and ensure that it does not exceed the 700-800-pixel threshold? 

...And what if we try to keep it more organized by reintroducing and emphasizing a center-forced three-part layout, where we still use the spaces on either side of the centered content in a more organized and readable manner? This way, a reader understands what the page's primary content is, and where he can find secondary sources to aid him with information when needed:

Technology: A Pure Surrogate to Relationships or a Potential Aide?

When we engage in heavy texting with our potential partner, it gradually and seamlessly replaces a real interaction; it becomes the ultimate surrogate to real intimacy, and because of the amount of effort that is put into these texts, there is a deceitful sense of accomplishment that demotivates further efforts to meet in person.

By the same token, if you step onto the path of a complete digital experience, eliminating even the remotest sense of connection, such as texting someone you know already, you build yourself an alternate reality, where your world is built of appealing male and female avatars and where you play by rules that do not necessarily replicate the rules, norms and traditions of real world. It may be creative and very inspirational; however, if this becomes the world to which you resort during most of your idle hours, it can be concluded that most people from your nearest circles and a potential love partner have all lost you to the world of pure fiction.

In this alternate world, you satisfy all of your urgent needs: from camaraderie interactions to intimate fantasies and love aspirations. By the time you exit this reality and find yourself back in the very physical, pragmatic, and even cynical environment, you may find yourself unprepared and exhausted in advance. 

But what if we design tools and spaces that would, on the contrary, aid our relationships and make them more enriching and satisfying? The kind that would encourage you to always stay present and explore more of it, instead of resorting to the alternate reality that is built on pure algorithms?