Michal Langmajer Follow May 12 · 3 min read Some time ago, I saw this beautiful inspirational image on Twitter that told inexperienced entrepreneurs and product managers how they should approach the development of their products. It had hundreds of retweets and likes yet there is something fundamentally wrong with it. To be honest with… Continue reading What’s not an MVP
Category: UX
The fine balance between safety and surveillance
By letting the government know where we’ve been, we could help fight COVID-19, but at what cost? Sophie Hodge Follow May 9 · 8 min read Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash South Korea has nearly eliminated new infections of COVID-19; they’re one of the success stories of this pandemic. Just how have they done… Continue reading The fine balance between safety and surveillance
Add some flair to your Lucidchart diagrams
Lucidchart is easy to use, but its diagrams look a bit stodgy… unless you think outside the textbox Dave Taubler Follow May 6 · 10 min read Created by me, in Lucidchart I use Lucidchart to create the diagrams that accompany my articles. It’s pretty easy to use, and it’s cheap (in fact, it’s free… Continue reading Add some flair to your Lucidchart diagrams
Test it before you make it
Yafonia Hutabarat Follow Apr 27 · 5 min read People sometimes question the importance of creating tests before making the software itself. Well, i did. But when I experience TDD itself, I’d never skip a test, since the requirements always change. TDD (Test Driven Development) is an evolutionary approach to development which combines test-first development… Continue reading Test it before you make it
North-South or East-West: what is your platform’s direction?
The AI LAB Follow Apr 30 · 6 min read North-South execution is likely what researchers are most comfortable with: conducting research to help the developers improve a specific product. In contrast, East-West execution refers to the same processes across teams, pillars, and organizations. Platform developers should strive for strengthening their muscles in East-West execution… Continue reading North-South or East-West: what is your platform’s direction?
Is there a Universal Design Process?
It depends on your maturity level. Tian-Yuan Zhao Follow Apr 26 · 4 min read Well we all know what the design process is, at least we should. But, quick recap, it’s basically this: Empathizing & Defining, followed by: Ideating & Prototyping, followed by: Testing, & Implementing, then rinse, lather, and repeat. However, most companies… Continue reading Is there a Universal Design Process?
How Amazon, Airbnb, Netflix, and Uber have become so successful
Esther Pomerantz Follow Apr 25 · 4 min read What do all of these companies have in common? They are all major market disrupters that single-handily took down the other players in their respective industries. Amazon: Changed the way people shop, taking over a huge part of the retail industry. Airbnb: Caused a huge decline… Continue reading How Amazon, Airbnb, Netflix, and Uber have become so successful
From IRL to remote learning: pain points and insights
From the learners’ point of view, a class or a webinar can be effective as far as they can easily follow through on development, actively participate in it and also collect all the material to share it with their team and network. Most of the participants’ experience depends on the instructor’s communication skills and the… Continue reading From IRL to remote learning: pain points and insights
How to be more strategic?
As a UX researcher or any kind of UX practitioner, what would you do if you were asked to come up with an experience strategy to help an insurance company grow its user base? You might start with understanding the existing user experience and journey, identifying gaps and pain points along the way, and come… Continue reading How to be more strategic?
Why Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) should be part of your strategic design toolkit
Jobs theory helps us understand the purpose and proposition behind the products we build. It enables us to focus more on customers and what they are trying to achieve and less on the product itself; both opening the door and changing the landscape for creativity and innovation. 1. Jobs as a lens to innovation Jobs… Continue reading Why Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) should be part of your strategic design toolkit
8 common questions about accessible UX
Recently, accessibility in tech has been a hot topic. We are currently at peak popularity for terms like “WCAG” and “A11Y” in search engines. Certainly, the rise of web accessibility lawsuits plays a part in this increased interest, but with COVID-19 we are faced with using more online tools now than ever before. As UX… Continue reading 8 common questions about accessible UX
The importance of pilot testing your user research
Kelly Batchelor Follow Apr 7 · 5 min read If you’re reading this through the lens of a product designer, I’m sure there’ve been times where your stakeholders were itching for you to conjure some spec-ready designs at the drop of a hat. They want to crack on with building the feature/page/concept you’re exploring —… Continue reading The importance of pilot testing your user research
Designing for different screen sizes & devices — responsive images and more
Krisztina Szerovay Follow Mar 27 · 7 min read Summary sketch of this article This is my second article on designing for different screen sizes and devices. In the previous part I outline the basics of fixed layouts, adaptivity, fluiditity and responsivity. In this article, I discuss some more important aspects, for instance responsive images,… Continue reading Designing for different screen sizes & devices — responsive images and more
TikTok: designing digital products for the millennial mindset
While passing-time or entertainment is the most common answer to why people want to continue using TikTok, there are also some other answers that I received. Coronavirus lockdown bored people to an extent that many of them have downloaded TikTok only for entertainment purposes. Some said that they feel more close/connected to home, when they… Continue reading TikTok: designing digital products for the millennial mindset
What Women LOVE to Hear, Remote Work, UI Checklist — and more UX this week
[unable to retrieve full-text content] A weekly selection of design links, brought to you by your friends at the UX Collective. 5 principles for better designer-developer collaboration →Prescriptive guides on how to hand off designs to developers are easy to follow and cross out from one’s list. But are they future-proof enough? Photo Privacy →What… Continue reading What Women LOVE to Hear, Remote Work, UI Checklist — and more UX this week
How do you make a good album cover?
Lauren Entwistle Follow Mar 6 · 6 min read Photo by Retha Ferguson from Pexels The best-loved albums of all time only seem to stand out in our memories (and the shelves) when they are wrapped in bright and beautiful album art. Think Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors, depicting Mick Fleetwood and Stevie Nicks in black-and-white chiffon,… Continue reading How do you make a good album cover?
Resonating with your product managers: a designer’s guide
I personally believe that asking a lot of “Whys” during the initial stages of your project helps not only the designers but also the other contributors to the project. Diving deep into the problem and starting off without a solution is what designers do best. While your Product manager and other stakeholders may have many… Continue reading Resonating with your product managers: a designer’s guide
Making strategic decisions when creating content by using journeys, funnels & maps
1. Customer journey map A customer journey map, as its name implies, focuses on the journey of a customer, or on the process that the user goes through when trying to accomplish a goal. This goal can be learning a new skill, buying a product or service, finding a location and so on. The design… Continue reading Making strategic decisions when creating content by using journeys, funnels & maps
Why do so many innovative products fail?
Chad Alessi Follow Feb 25 · 6 min read Innovative Product Failures Another high-profile consumer electronics company is going out of business. On February 12, 2020, Essential Products, said that they would cease operations. The New York Times published an article about the company shutting down entitled “Andy Rubin’s Start-Up, Essential Products, Shuts Down.” Essential… Continue reading Why do so many innovative products fail?
A quick break for visual inspiration
Illustration by Calvin Sprague on Behance Most designers tend to underestimate the importance of their sources of inspiration. For some, it might be a snug café in Brooklyn or Paris. For others, it could be their favorite couch with a cup of hot coffee or tea. If you’re dealing with creative block, try going back… Continue reading A quick break for visual inspiration
Turtles all the way down
Defining a powerful experience strategy is one challenge. Being able to roll it out is another one. And to do it so that people want to follow and stay committed to it is the most crucial aspect of these two challenges. Only then your strategy becomes the basis for your organizational culture. And the only… Continue reading Turtles all the way down
The anatomy of a UX revolution inside an organization
But let’s back up a bit, I want to describe one of the key learnings for me as a product manager before I talk more about what we achieved. How We Started We started with neither UX researchers nor product designers to help us get there. I had worked with designers before to create websites,… Continue reading The anatomy of a UX revolution inside an organization
Bad writing will destroy a designer’s reputation
The barrage of articles reminding us what poor designers we are is seemingly endless. Either we do too much user research or make abhorrent design choices. For me, this is not a missive about incorrect word usage in error messages. Guy Ligertwood’s insights from Google I/O 2017 cover those requirements. Instead, I am more interested… Continue reading Bad writing will destroy a designer’s reputation
Designing for Google Glass
Since scheduling interviews with doctors proved challenging, I opted to test the prototypes internally. I recruited 10 employees with various levels of experience using Glass. The group’s experience level was similar to our doctor population. Each participant went through three prototypes. Initially, some newcomers struggled with the swipe down gesture but eventually, they got it.… Continue reading Designing for Google Glass