Design Systems Teams: Understand Your Users So They Can Serve Theirs

Welcome to the next edition of my Design Strategy blog series. Today, I’ll be sharing a story from some recent client visits that will help y’all recognize WHY you should do things differently to mature and scale your digital accessibility program quickly. I will once again skip the “how-to” dry laundry lists of tactical “do… Continue reading Design Systems Teams: Understand Your Users So They Can Serve Theirs

25 Best Free New Years PowerPoint PPT Templates for 2024

It’s that time of the year again. We start counting down the days in anticipation of the new year.  Are you tasked to make a presentation for the upcoming New Years event? We’ll look at some New Year template to help you on this mission.  Happy New Years PowerPoint Template, a premium file from Envato… Continue reading 25 Best Free New Years PowerPoint PPT Templates for 2024

Ensuring negative numbers are available for everyone

This post is co-authored by Michael Fairchild and Jeremy Katherman. That little minus sign before a number is very important. It can mean the difference between having money in your bank account or paying overdraft fees. It can be the difference between a deposit or a withdrawal. Negative numbers can be indicated in several ways,… Continue reading Ensuring negative numbers are available for everyone

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

How Serious Is Your Design Practice About Learning?

Today I’m sharing a strategic approach that enables your design practice to learn more from the accessibility-related data you already have. I will again skip the “how to” article formula and dry laundry lists of tactical “do this/don’t do that” mechanics. Instead, I’ll focus on helping you think about WHY you should do things differently… Continue reading How Serious Is Your Design Practice About Learning?

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

WWDC 2023 Accessibility Goodies for Developers

This year, Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) was a big deal! Among the many announcements this year, Apple introduced the new Apple Vision Pro headset which has arguably and understandably stolen the show this year.  Although Vision Pro may be the big talk of the town post-WWDC, there was also a myriad of exciting… Continue reading WWDC 2023 Accessibility Goodies for Developers

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

Choosing humanity over automation

Navigating the role of AI in design discipleship. Designers can learn AI skills and practice similar techniques as UX researchers. Pain is a part of the design process, and designers should choose which pain they are willing to endure to achieve their desired outcomes. And they can learn intangible values from their masters to become… Continue reading Choosing humanity over automation

What if AI tools paid artists?

Exploring solutions and challenges for the controversial debate about AI art Salvador DALL•E (Source: Year 2049) It’s been less than a year since DALLE•2 was released and blew our minds away with the variety of art it could generate from a simple yet descriptive prompt. Other tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion quickly followed. The initial stages… Continue reading What if AI tools paid artists?

20 Best iOS App Mockup Generators

Promoting your app or website so it can connect with potential users can be easy when you use an iOS app mockup generator from Placeit. The designs are vibrant and draw attention to the message of your app.  In this post, we’ll first use an iOS app mockup generator  to create engaging iPhone and iPad app… Continue reading 20 Best iOS App Mockup Generators

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

Ask a UXR #2: introducing user research to an organization

On asking the existential questions about a UXR’s purpose, being a thought partner, and bringing questions, not just answers This is the second post in a bi-weekly UXR Q+A series. Submit your questions in the comments, or in this Google form, and it they may be answered in future posts. Follow “Ask a UXR” by subscribing… Continue reading Ask a UXR #2: introducing user research to an organization

How to find your designer self — and understand how YOU approach design

How to find your designer self — And understand how YOU approach design We all know the feeling. The identity crisis that comes with being a designer is not easy to overcome. Somehow we are solving problems for others all the time, but when it comes to ourselves it feels impossible. The good news is you already have… Continue reading How to find your designer self — and understand how YOU approach design

How IBM revolutionized corporate America with design

For more than 100 years, IBM has been one of the prominent names among computing giants, dominating the early global market with technical and service superiority. They forged a path of innovation leading to Nobel Prizes, lucrative defense contracts, and they even helped to put a man on the moon. IBM CEO, Thomas J. Watson Jr.… Continue reading How IBM revolutionized corporate America with design

Stealing like an artist — design heuristics in creative ideation

Stealing like an artist — design heuristics in creative ideation Mental shortcuts and cognitive frameworks aren’t only useful in everyday judgments and problem-solving. When faced with creative challenges, we can also tap into our “design brain” to channel previously encountered ideas into our own work. At their core, design heuristics are the combination, exploration, or transformation of often already… Continue reading Stealing like an artist — design heuristics in creative ideation

Tested and Rated for You

Starting an online shop is a great way to make money without dealing with shipping and stocking fees. And if you already have a brick-and-mortar store, going online will help you expand your customer base.  Creating an online store is easy with WordPress and an eCommerce WordPress theme. These themes have professional features that make… Continue reading Tested and Rated for You

How to Make the Background Transparent in Photoshop

There are several different ways to make a background transparent in Photoshop. And when multiple different tools do the same thing, it can be a pain to figure out which to use and when. Follow along as we go through four of the easiest ways you can quickly remove a background in Photoshop.  In a… Continue reading How to Make the Background Transparent in Photoshop

4 Best Real User Monitoring Tools for 2022

The success of your website or web app hinges on the user experience. A positive experience translates into loyalty through high user retention and conversion rates, which in turn increase your profits.  The good news is that you can discover exactly what kind of experience users are having on your website or web app. You… Continue reading 4 Best Real User Monitoring Tools for 2022

How to automate competitor’s reviews collection to find great insights

In this article, I will show how to build a database of competitors reviews that will update itself automatically and how to get insights for your product development Imagine, that you are building a new product or feature. If it’s something new, you will go to potential customers and ask about how they solve this… Continue reading How to automate competitor’s reviews collection to find great insights

How to Remove Green Screen in Photoshop

Today we will be looking at how to remove green screen in Photoshop! Using only built-in auto-select tools and a few adjustment layers, you can perform a quick and simple background swap on any green screen photo. In a hurry? Swap backgrounds, automate your workflow, and chroma key in Photoshop using one of the thousands… Continue reading How to Remove Green Screen in Photoshop

How Climate Change Affects Business (and How Leaders Can Respond)

Some business leaders believe that the only reason to care about climate change is that consumers care about climate change. With this mindset, these leaders might do the bare minimum to convince their audience that their organization utilizes sustainable practices. Yet, there are plenty of important ways that climate change directly impacts business performance. Changing… Continue reading How Climate Change Affects Business (and How Leaders Can Respond)

Animal Logo Design: Animal Symbolism in Branding (With Examples)

* { box-sizing: border-box; } body {margin: 0;}*{box-sizing:border-box;}body{margin-top:0px;margin-right:0px;margin-bottom:0px;margin-left:0px;} In this article, we touch on the different animal symbolisms and why brands opt to use animal-themed logos. Animal symbolism is based on each animal’s traits and stories from different cultures. It’s easy for people to form an emotional bond with a living thing. Animal logos are… Continue reading Animal Logo Design: Animal Symbolism in Branding (With Examples)

What is React Native?

React Native is a cross-platform mobile application development framework that Facebook created in 2015.  React Natives uses JavaScript as the underlying programming language, and it aims to help developers can build native mobile apps for both Android and IOS devices with a single codebase. In this post, I’ll introduce some of the key concepts and… Continue reading What is React Native?