Why UI designers should understand Flexbox and CSS Grid

CSS for UI Designer Or bye bye, 12-column grid layout Most designers are familiar with responsive design, a column-based layout approach with fixed breakpoints to cover all screen sizes. However, we can move beyond the rigid structure with modern CSS layouts, crafting flexible and dynamic designs that seamlessly adjust to different screen sizes. Designers and developers having different… Continue reading Why UI designers should understand Flexbox and CSS Grid

Distinguishing between ARIA and native HTML attributes

As a developer, you want to create more inclusive and accessible digital experiences for your users. Great! It’s possible, however, that you might be feeling a bit confused or overwhelmed by the element attributes that can affect the usability for users of assistive technology. ARIA (or WAI-ARIA, Web Accessibility Initiative-Accessible Rich Internet Applications) defines some… Continue reading Distinguishing between ARIA and native HTML attributes

Test smart: How to validate product on a business-facing level?

It took a long time since my story How to Select Testing Techniques for an Agile Team was published (if you ask me what happened in between, the short answer will be: a war in Ukraine and a career pivot). The mentioned story focused on Agile Testing Quadrants, a method presented by Lisa Crispin and… Continue reading Test smart: How to validate product on a business-facing level?

Good design is subjective, contextual, and intentional

Urban planners have been designing for human experiences for nearly 200 years, and UI/UX designers can learn from this. Examples of The Chicago School of Architecture | Photo Credit: Tom Seiple When I finished my graduate degree, I was lucky to find my first job in Chicago. From a very early age, I had always hoped to… Continue reading Good design is subjective, contextual, and intentional

Norman Doors: how do we still get this wrong?

The confusing design of Cybertruck’s doors. Tesla Cybertruck The concept of the “Norman door” is a well-known and widely recognized principle among designers. Named after design guru Don Norman, it describes any door that proves confusing or difficult to use, highlighting a common design flaw. In this article, we will discuss the application of the… Continue reading Norman Doors: how do we still get this wrong?

Using Figma variables for breakpoints

The hunt to find more use cases for local variables. At this point in 2023, almost all UX UI designers who use Figma should know about one of Figma’s biggest features of this year, local variables. Something I have continued to struggle with since its initial launch this past summer is how to actually apply… Continue reading Using Figma variables for breakpoints

Designing for accessibility beyond compliance

Companies approach accessibility as a checklist of standards — but a client with disabilities showed me how to think beyond compliance. Source: Photo by Marcus Aurelius During my time volunteering at Neil Squire Society, and helping Hunter, a client with disabilities, be more comfortable using a computer, I learned a lot about how to better design from three… Continue reading Designing for accessibility beyond compliance

Designing safe and trustworthy AI systems

Designing for safe and trustworthy AI Why human oversight to make up for AI errors doesn’t work and what we can do instead Illustration created by Cara Storath in Midjourney As much as AI is powerful, in some cases it can be misleading or wrong. A realization that came too late to a New York lawyer,… Continue reading Designing safe and trustworthy AI systems

The usability problem with prompt-driven AI

As the GenAI hype dust settles — it’s time to start thinking about usability and the opportunity it presents to address declining engagement and retention. Source: Pexels GenAI represents a new paradigm in User Interface Design and a radical shift from Command-Based Interaction Models and Graphical User Interfaces which have dominated the last 50 years of computing.… Continue reading The usability problem with prompt-driven AI

What should be the contrast level of inactive buttons?

Using the APCA Readability Criterion to improve the accessibility of disabled controls Disabled buttons. They need to look non-interactable. But they also can’t be completely unreadable. How do I find the sweet spot? I spent a few hours in a deep dive going through a bunch of blogs and accessibility guidelines documentation in search for best approaches… Continue reading What should be the contrast level of inactive buttons?

How to create a color ramp used in design systems

Whether you’re a brand designer putting the finishing touches on a color palette or a product designer laying the foundational work for a design system, I will walk you through how to create color ramps utilized in design systems. If you’re new to creating color palettes for digital spaces, check out my previous article, Color for… Continue reading How to create a color ramp used in design systems

Our dangerous tendency to hold on to losing bets

Tools to mitigate commitment bias and overconfidence Midjourney Last week, we wrote about how ‘conviction’ is a very human attribute responsible for our powerful, yet irrational ability to almost will positive outcomes into existence; presumably against all odds. Today we’ll cover the dark side of conviction and overconfidence — and unfortunately, the more common tendency to overcommit and… Continue reading Our dangerous tendency to hold on to losing bets

Accessibility of the Button: Should We Fix It or the Root Cause Problem?

Let me tell you a story along the lines of…Button, Button, Who’s Got The Button? Typical “how to” articles are dry laundry lists of tactical “do this/don’t do that” mechanics that do nothing to help you think about WHY you should do things differently. Today, I’m going to share a more strategic accessible design approach… Continue reading Accessibility of the Button: Should We Fix It or the Root Cause Problem?

How you can create non-obvious UX research insights

6 tips to sidestep “we already knew it” feedback on a research report Image on https://www.nirandfar.com/hindsight-bias/ Every UX researcher wonders how they can create amazing insights that go beyond expectations and elicit a ‘wow!’ reaction from their audience. Despite conducting numerous rounds of interviews, sometimes our research reports can seem too plain and bland if they… Continue reading How you can create non-obvious UX research insights

Designing for AI: beyond the chatbot

Guidelines and strategies for meaningfully leveraging AI in your applications With the recent advancements in AI, we as designers, builders, and creators, face big questions about the future of applications and how people will interact with digital experiences. Generative AI has unleashed huge possibilities with what we can do with AI. People are now using… Continue reading Designing for AI: beyond the chatbot

Words: the new data commodity

The AI and LLM industry is changing and developing rapidly. How will the industry move forward, become regulated and adjust to this new reality of words as a commodity? We’re starting a new chapter of data commodification through access to and the commodification of words. In a yet unregulated space, product teams need to self-regulate… Continue reading Words: the new data commodity

Starting design work in a spreadsheet

In the early phases of a project a spreadsheet can be a more useful design tool than Figma. If you’re redesigning an existing website there are huge benefits in getting to know the content you’ll be working with. The earlier in the project the better. A little upfront investigation will help you make informed design decisions.… Continue reading Starting design work in a spreadsheet

Software accessibility for users with Dyslexia

It is estimated that 15% of the population has Dyslexia. In absolute numbers this means that 30 million adults in the USA alone are dyslexic and a lot of them don’t even know — because it is often not diagnosed. Dyslexia is a cognitive disability where the brain has difficulties to manipulate the sounds and letters of… Continue reading Software accessibility for users with Dyslexia

Software accessibility for users with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD)

When discussing accessibility, the first person that pops into the minds of people is probably a person in a wheelchair. Thinking about software accessibility, the next two types of disabilities might come into mind are blindness and deafness. These are three types of disabilities most people commonly think of when talking about accessibility: blindness, deaf… Continue reading Software accessibility for users with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADHD)

Loading UX: make users not care about having to wait

An article about the psychology of waiting and how you can make this a positive user experience. Waiting. It’s something we all do every day. Waiting for a response to that message you sent, our food to be delivered, the traffic lights to turn green, and our computers to start at the beginning of the… Continue reading Loading UX: make users not care about having to wait

3 things to consider before you implement CAPTCHA for accessibility

What are you bothered by the most when you use digital products? For me, it’s e-mail and phone verification, pincode, setting complex passwords and not remembering them… and I especially find one particular thing obnoxious, and it’s CAPTCHA. Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart (CAPTCHA) is a tool very commonly used… Continue reading 3 things to consider before you implement CAPTCHA for accessibility

Are Modals In Web Design A UX Disaster?

Modals, a nifty little feature that allows you to display different messages at the top of your website, have been touted as extremely useful. Some even claim that they are helpful enough to completely replace the banner ads we all hate so much. But are modals in web design a UX disaster? If you are… Continue reading Are Modals In Web Design A UX Disaster?

Designing for scalable Dynamic Type in iOS

Designing for scalable Dynamic Type in iOS for accessibility When we wanted to implement accessibility settings on our iOS mobile app, I had to figure out where to start. Looking online, I could only find engineering resources. It was all about code and how to implement it with UIKit or SwiftUI with plenty of great… Continue reading Designing for scalable Dynamic Type in iOS

Measuring Empathy for Accessibility

After my previous blog on the Two Pillars of Accessibility, I was asked on LinkedIn from a peer in the accessibility field how a program could measure and report the empathy pillar of an accessibility program i.e. how much does your company care about accessibility. Measuring the impact of accessibility is relatively easy — you can track… Continue reading Measuring Empathy for Accessibility