Accelerators Maximize Efficiency in User Interfaces

Summary:  Alternate methods for accomplishing frequent actions in user interfaces support expert users by speeding up their interactions, without hindering novice users. Designing for expert users requires balancing learnability with efficiency. While new users need an intuitive interface to start quickly, expert users demand features that improve speed and productivity over time. Any system that… Continue reading Accelerators Maximize Efficiency in User Interfaces

35+ Free Poster Mockups: Perfect for Showcasing Your Work

If you’re searching for free poster mockups to showcase your design projects, you’re in the right place. Free poster mockups are indispensable tools for designers, marketers, and creatives who want to present their work in a realistic and appealing way. These mockups allow you to display your designs as they would appear in the real… Continue reading 35+ Free Poster Mockups: Perfect for Showcasing Your Work

Prompt Controls in GenAI Chatbots: 4 Main Uses and Best Practices

Summary:  When following good practices, prompt controls can increase the discoverability of genAI chatbots’ features, offer inspiration, and minimize manual user input. Adding UI Controls to Prompting Generative AI (genAI) chatbots, such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, rely heavily on text prompts from their users. As these interfaces continue to evolve, AI chatbot designers have started… Continue reading Prompt Controls in GenAI Chatbots: 4 Main Uses and Best Practices

Feedback: The Foundation of the Designer Communication Toolset

Reality hits as soon as you cut into a piece of wood. First, you might blame the quality of the wood. After countless trials and errors, you slowly begin to realize that using a Ryoba requires practice, patience, and technique.  Based on my experience and after a series of internal mentoring at UX studio, I… Continue reading Feedback: The Foundation of the Designer Communication Toolset

The 4 Stages of AI Image Generation: An Experience Map

Summary:  AI image generation users often follow a similar creative process: ideate, generate, refine, and export. Understanding how expert users use AI tools in the process of image generation can help designers and other beginner users get better at using these tools for their projects; it can also inform the future design of such tools.… Continue reading The 4 Stages of AI Image Generation: An Experience Map

How do I propose to improve the usability of Gymnasium.com

[unable to retrieve full-text content] Photo by Hal Gatewood on Unsplash I pretty much discovered UX Design through their UX fundamentals course while working as a Test Automation Engineer. Although the course material was excellent, covering the fundamentals of UX beautifully, the platform itself had some clear usability issues. Gymnasium features a clean and simple design… Continue reading How do I propose to improve the usability of Gymnasium.com

Best Groovy Hippie Fonts | Envato Tuts+

Looking for a groovy hippie font for a new project? Head to Envato Elements, where you’ll find a number of cool fonts you won’t be able to resist.  For one low monthly fee, this subscription-based marketplace offers tons of fonts, graphic templates, logos, add-ons, and more. 15+ Groovy Hippie Fonts 1. Groovin Hippie Font (TTF,… Continue reading Best Groovy Hippie Fonts | Envato Tuts+

10+1 Commandments For Using Figma

As we constantly work on many projects and in-house innovations, our UX professionals are massively familiar with the golden rules of using Figma. At UX studio, we develop ourselves and help everyone at the company grow continually. We have our well-established onboarding system, in-house pieces of training, and many other ways of knowledge sharing. It… Continue reading 10+1 Commandments For Using Figma

The rise of Generative AI-driven design patterns

[unable to retrieve full-text content] How Generative AI advances are helping shape the future of feature design, from enhancing content interaction to more informed decision-making Order among chaos (Credit: Dall-E) The ChatGPT revolution has been unfolding for over a year now. While the specific chatbot may not represent a seismic technical shift, the profound change in… Continue reading The rise of Generative AI-driven design patterns

Best Halftones Brushes, Textures and Effects for Photoshop and Illustrator

61 Shares Halftone art, with its distinctive dotted patterns, has been a timeless favorite among graphic designers and artists alike. It adds depth, texture, and a vintage charm to designs, making them stand out with character and style. In the realm of digital design, harnessing the power of halftones requires the right tools – and… Continue reading Best Halftones Brushes, Textures and Effects for Photoshop and Illustrator

15 Great Tools & Resources for Designers & Agencies in 2024

Posted · Category: Design, Tools It’s 2024 and the number of web design resources and tools on the market seems overwhelming. That’s good news since you need the right tools and resources to come up with competitive designs. The bad news is, rather than sifting through thousands of products to get the ones that best… Continue reading 15 Great Tools & Resources for Designers & Agencies in 2024

UI elements are not so elementary

To function, components require a specific structure. To appear visually — they don’t. This has been breaking handoff processes for years. Dmitri Mendeleev’s periodic table looks simple, it doesn’t strike as if the elements are, in fact, significantly different from one another. But when you dig in and understand that just a ‘seemingly insignificant’ property of the number… Continue reading UI elements are not so elementary

The Art of Engineering AI Prompts

AI By Louise North 3 days ago In the rapidly evolving world of artificial intelligence, the ability to communicate effectively with AI tools has become an indispensable skill. Whether you’re generating content, solving complex data problems, or creating stunning digital art, the quality of the outcomes you receive is directly influenced by the prompts you… Continue reading The Art of Engineering AI Prompts

Google Maps: a refreshing turn in the right direction

Finally! Google Maps gets a much-needed makeover… and we’re here for it. Sometimes, a reroute is all it takes to rediscover the joy of the journey — Google Maps’ latest update is a testament to that. What’s New Since My Last Rant A few months back, I ripped into some serious user experience flaws in Google Maps. Google Maps: about that… Continue reading Google Maps: a refreshing turn in the right direction

30 Free Xmas Graphics

Compilations By Louise North 4 days ago We’ve reached that time of year when all marketing is on a singular theme: snow, presents, and turkey (or nut roast, if that’s your preference). These last few weeks running up to the Christmas break can be an endless trudge through grey, cold weather if you’re in the… Continue reading 30 Free Xmas Graphics

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

Give Your Site Some Focus! Tips for Designing Useful and Usable Focus Indicators

What Are Focus Indicators? Have you ever noticed the blue outlines that sometimes show up around buttons or form fields? What about when you click on a menu item? Have you ever tried to make those outlines disappear? Here’s a hint: by default, browsers use the :focus css pseudo class to give outlines to form… Continue reading Give Your Site Some Focus! Tips for Designing Useful and Usable Focus Indicators

Housing, It’s a Human Right (Part 1)

A 3-Part Series on the digital accessibility of the housing process experienced by people with disabilities. In this 3-part series, we will look at the challenges and rewards of the entire experience surrounding the process of acquiring housing for people who live with a disability.  We will look at: Buying an existing home Leasing an… Continue reading Housing, It’s a Human Right (Part 1)

From toy to titan: the activations behind the Barbie effect

The marketing budget for Barbie was $150m, more than the $145m for the movie itself—and it shows. Barbie takes over the streets of Dubai. Credit Eye Studio. Operation Barbie Summer (the internal codename from Warner Bros) is in full swing. Since its release on July 21st, just two weeks ago, the Barbie movie has shattered 11 box… Continue reading From toy to titan: the activations behind the Barbie effect

WCAG 2.2 Removes 4.1.1 Parsing and How axe-core is Impacted

Earlier this year, for the first time ever the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) proposed to remove a success criterion from WCAG 2. Success Criterion 4.1.1 Parsing ensures that pages written in markup languages like HTML and SVG are written in a way that allows browsers and assistive technologies to understand them consistently. Let’s take… Continue reading WCAG 2.2 Removes 4.1.1 Parsing and How axe-core is Impacted

Apple Vision Pro: how to turn people into 24/7 surveillance agents for capitalism

From Apple.com In the world of tech, innovation is a double-edged sword. On one side, we have the allure of cutting-edge technology, promising to revolutionize our lives. But what happens when this revolution infringes on our privacy? The latest product from Apple, the Vision Pro AR headset, is a perfect example of this dichotomy. The… Continue reading Apple Vision Pro: how to turn people into 24/7 surveillance agents for capitalism

The AI revolution for businesses and the customer experience

After scouring the web and experimenting with numerous AI tools I am sharing my predictions for 2030 and beyond. Image created by Midjourney AI using a prompt from Danny Bluestone. In this article I am outlining my 6 ‘I’s to how I see AI evolving over the next decade. They include AI’s impact on the Internet,… Continue reading The AI revolution for businesses and the customer experience

The state of SaaS marketplace UX

A comprehensive review of popular SaaS marketplaces, including Airtable, Figma, Miro, Slack, and Zoom. Designing a SaaS marketplace or platform? Want to understand the SaaS marketplace experience of today? You’re in the right place. In this article, you’ll find a summary of the research I gathered to support my team in building our emerging platform. By reading… Continue reading The state of SaaS marketplace UX