New UX pattern? Meet the Drill-In

New UX Pattern Proposal — Inspired by a real-live compliance crisis in a big data financial platform Continue reading on UX Collective »

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The coffeeshop mobile UX battle: Starbucks x Peet’s

That Starbucks is a coffee shop powerhouse everybody knows. Living in California though, there are many options when searching for your daily caffeine dose. One of those options is Berkeley-based Peet’s Coffee, a west-coast-focused chain with over 200 stores, most of them in the Golden State. If there’s no comparison in terms of company size… Continue reading The coffeeshop mobile UX battle: Starbucks x Peet’s

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Co-creating has drastically improved my designs

How co-design has drastically improved my work Users, engineers, product managers… I’m not the only one designing things around here I find defining a problem challenging. Ideally, at the start of a project all the metrics and objectives form a crystal clear statement. But working with high ambiguity in the platform space, I often start with a… Continue reading Co-creating has drastically improved my designs

I am a product designer that became an engineering manager overnight

Can “not having the answers” actually be your greatest asset? I was building the plane while it was flying. It wasn’t always pretty, but we didn’t crash. I was in over my head. Big time. Standing in front of Packback’s engineering team, I tried to look semi-composed while I explained that our Head of Engineering… Continue reading I am a product designer that became an engineering manager overnight

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How to increase the UX maturity of Scrum teams

Investing in the UX skills of a Scrum Team delivers a huge return. Learn how. In this article you will learn: Why enabling Scrum Teams with UX Design capabilities is important. Why introducing UX capabilities to Scrum team is frequently hard. What is the job of an UX Leader in a product development organization. How to use… Continue reading How to increase the UX maturity of Scrum teams

The Barry Lyndon poster is a design classic, not designed by Saul Bass

The very mention of Barry Lyndon will either elicit a groan you get from an over stimulated teenager forced to trudge through economics class or silent reverence in a middle-aged man who bought the Criterion Collection edition, and delicately wipes it down every month. It is Kubrick’s overlooked masterpiece, sandwiched between the higher profile A… Continue reading The Barry Lyndon poster is a design classic, not designed by Saul Bass

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The humanity of Blockchain, Wordle UX, web3 painpoints, free UI loaders

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers. “In Agile, discovery is assumed. At a minimum, you need a rough spec and some goals to get started. But is the spec validated against business goals or user needs? Is this the best solution? If so, when does that discovery work happen? Not during Agile development.” Is Agile… Continue reading The humanity of Blockchain, Wordle UX, web3 painpoints, free UI loaders

11 steps to keep Figma clean

We all probably already know how it is to receive a project from someone else. Not everyone works the same way, it’s what makes our field so varied. We need to spend some time focusing on adapting. In this article, I will go over 11 steps that may help you and your teammates in organizing… Continue reading 11 steps to keep Figma clean

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Whatsapp Communities — Much needed or a bad move?

Whatsapp Communities — Much needed or a bad move? A few days back WhatsApp announced that it is launching Communities, one of its most anticipated features in recent times very soon. But is this really a good move by Meta? Here’s a brief post around it. That’s how Zuckerberg started his 452-word-long Facebook post announcing the launch of the… Continue reading Whatsapp Communities — Much needed or a bad move?

Reframing streaks on Duolingo: 5 ideas for healthier language learning

The following article looks at healthy and flexible approaches to streaks in Duolingo and examines how users can still be consistent with language learning without having to worry about their streak number. Photo by Jan Antonin Kolar on Unsplash When I was living in Singapore last year, I used Duolingo to (try to!) learn Chinese.… Continue reading Reframing streaks on Duolingo: 5 ideas for healthier language learning

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Wordle is a masterclass in product design simplicity

Some of the most fun I’ve had this year is playing Wordle with my friends and family. But I’m a product designer and a programmer, so as I played, I couldn’t help but notice some strange things about how it was constructed. I was right in the middle of making my own product School Morning Routine,… Continue reading Wordle is a masterclass in product design simplicity

UX fundamentals for web3, investing in design, automated UI variations

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers. “Crypto-natives have been living and breathing Web 3 for years. They populate an enormous echo chamber of people speaking a language that most tech people can’t even understand, to say nothing of the general public. The sense of wonder and empowerment that comes from knowing you are building the future… Continue reading UX fundamentals for web3, investing in design, automated UI variations

It’s 2022: PMs and designers should be talking about ambient computing

Source: Google Web3. Metaverse. Crypto. Elon Musk. You’ve probably heard all of these tech buzzwords already. Let’s add a new one to our repertoire: Ambient Computing. Ambient computing refers to “always-on” hardware and software technologies that allow users to consume digital content and services by interacting with their surroundings. We’re still at the beginning of… Continue reading It’s 2022: PMs and designers should be talking about ambient computing

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Why blockchain and Web 3 user interfaces will suck for a while

How Web 2.0 grumpiness + Web 3.0 hubris are contributing to terrible user experiences on the cutting edge of tech. Statler and Waldorf definitely aren’t interested in Web 3. Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RF62EGPppFU My point in a nutshell: Web 3 people are generally not interested in lessons from the past, and experienced tech people don’t need Web 3… Continue reading Why blockchain and Web 3 user interfaces will suck for a while

How to Design better dashboards?

Before diving into the core topic let’s first understand what User Experience is? User experience is the way a person feels when interacting with a particular product, system or service. It refers to all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services and its products. User experience design (UXD) is “the process of… Continue reading How to Design better dashboards?

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Decolonizing typography: creating a font for Afrikan writing systems

The driving force behind my relentless mission to create digital fonts for Afrikan writing systems, one letter at a time. In this case study I’ll walk you through the process of designing a font for the Bassa Vah Alphabet. The name ‘Bassa’ and a Bassa proverb. Background Bassa language is spoken by about 600 000 Bassa… Continue reading Decolonizing typography: creating a font for Afrikan writing systems

Visual forensics, impostor syndrome, UI color system, accessibility checklist

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers. “User feedback is always a valuable source of information. But if product designers aren’t careful, user feedback can quickly become a to-do list of features organized by whoever yells the loudest and most often. This not only runs the risk of pulling a product team in dozens of different… Continue reading Visual forensics, impostor syndrome, UI color system, accessibility checklist

Critical Sankofa (transit) planning in the afrofuturist city

Transit planning in the Afrofuturist city is not a pipe dream. By examining Afrofurutist productions such as the series of comic books and blockbuster Marvel movie both named Black Panther, we can readily envision alternative approaches to transit planning. In the various images shown below, we see the “golden city” — Birnin Zana — a… Continue reading Critical Sankofa (transit) planning in the afrofuturist city

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Design and development during turbulent times

Usually we are talking about design in a perfect environment: stable internet connection, various tools to use, enough time and safe placement, but what if we erase all of those conditions and put war in your country instead of them? In this article, I will tell you how to design during a crisis. Hello, my name… Continue reading Design and development during turbulent times

The meta-learning capabilities that will help you beat automation

For many reasons, Google is a dream workplace for future knowledge workers. The company provides a challenging and stimulating environment that attracts top talent. But Google, like many innovative companies, is no longer looking for purely technical skills. In their recruitment process, they are increasingly leaving room for improvised problem-solving exercises, which involve group thinking.… Continue reading The meta-learning capabilities that will help you beat automation

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