A proposal for modern UX Researchers

A glimpse of the current standing of UXR and strategy on how to stay relevant with the workforce demand. Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash “The UX researcher fallacy: ‘My job is to learn about users.’Truth: ‘My job is to help my team learn about users.’”– Caroline Jarrett As 2024 starts, layoffs are still everywhere, specifically in… Continue reading A proposal for modern UX Researchers

Johan Cruyff’s influence on adaptive role switching in Product Design

Johan Cruyff's influence on adaptive role switching in Product Design A product design philosophy inspired by the brilliance of Total Football, as orchestrated by Johan Cruyff and the 1970s Dutch masters. Switching Product Roles: Created via Midjourney 2023. NB. The product design theme of this article should still strike a chord, even if you aren't a football fanatic.… Continue reading Johan Cruyff’s influence on adaptive role switching in Product Design

Housing, It’s a Human Right (Part 2)

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 2)

From Image Adjustments to AI: Photoshop Through the Years

Tech By Max Walton 2 days ago Remember when Merriam-Webster added Photoshop to the dictionary back in 2008? Want to learn how AI is changing design forever? Join us as we delve into the history of Photoshop, from its early beginnings right through to the dawn of artificial intelligence. Photoshop is nothing short of a… Continue reading From Image Adjustments to AI: Photoshop Through the Years

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

Why Unique ID Attributes Matter

Ambiguous IDs can cause both your developers and your users a lot of frustration, and may ultimately damage customer relations. A Little Background It’s one of the most common WCAG 4.1.1 violations reported by automated accessibility testing tools such as aXe, and it can cause a fair share of problems for your users. It happens… Continue reading Why Unique ID Attributes Matter

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

We’re turning designers into factory workers

Considering the availability of modern tools and recent advancements in governance (design systems), one might think designers could relax and enjoy some leisure time. Surprisingly, that’s not the case. In fact, it feels like designers have even less time than before. As we’re frantically pushing towards an auto-governed future, we ought to stop and think… Continue reading We’re turning designers into factory workers

How to ‘un-stuck’ your design work

Three lifelines to call on when you’re feeling stuck creatively I’ve been a professional designer for over twenty years, working across a wide range of media: UX/UI, motion, branding, web design, mobile apps, and creative coding. Most lately, I’ve been developing my font design practice. Design is a long journey of exploration and growth. You… Continue reading How to ‘un-stuck’ your design work

Why Ive's way of doing personal projects is good for designers

Why Ive’s way of doing personal projects is good for designers Personal projects should be an important part of life as designers, but is mixed with the work and the realities of an in-house design team, which can be a messy process. Often, the question of fulfilment comes into play. Surprisingly, the answers to fulfilment… Continue reading Why Ive's way of doing personal projects is good for designers

Think Inside the Box: How Accessibility Shapes Digital Product Design

Think inside the box: How accessibility shapes digital product design How constraints ignite creativity, spark innovation, and why accessibility is a uniquely effective constraint everyone should embrace. “Design depends largely on constraints.” — Charles Eames Access to digital technologies is a fundamental human right¹ and legal obligation². In an ideal world, there would be no need for more justification to… Continue reading Think Inside the Box: How Accessibility Shapes Digital Product Design

Innovative Home Decor: How Custom Neon Signs Elevate Interior Design Strategies

‍“There’s No Place Like Home” LED sign by VoodooNeon.com Introduction to innovative home decor In recent years, the world of interior design has seen a significant shift towards innovative and unconventional home decor ideas. As homeowners, we are always on the lookout for unique ways to express our individuality and creativity in our living spaces.… Continue reading Innovative Home Decor: How Custom Neon Signs Elevate Interior Design Strategies

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

3 Essential Design Trends, June 2023

That’s a big part of the reason so many designers are stripping down menus to more minimal styles. (Plus, it can create a cleaner, more sleek overall design.) Here’s what’s trending in design this month – and it is all about navigation. 1. Pop-Out Navigation There’s an obvious connection to mobile-friendliness here – website designs that use… Continue reading 3 Essential Design Trends, June 2023

Embracing change with system-driven design

To embrace change, you have to make it easy and cheap. System-driven design is one way to do just that. Waterfall, the double diamond, and other traditional ways of approaching the development of digital products rooted in the building perspective take for granted that it’s easier to make changes to designs than code. They operate under… Continue reading Embracing change with system-driven design

AI? Artificial Intelligence? Accessible Intelligence!

What We Can Look Forward To in the New AI World The Journey For the uninitiated, the concept of AI could seem new, but I can remember learning the term in the late 1980s when I took a course in LISP. LISP is a computer language originally developed over sixty years ago at MIT and… Continue reading AI? Artificial Intelligence? Accessible Intelligence!

AI is about to kill creativity

AI has a massive disruptive quality on the creative sector. Is AI going to benefit us, or will it create a new dark age for innovation? The Aeolipile (left) and the Steam engine (right) on a section of Bosch’s masterpiece The Last Judgment (Wikimedia) In the early first century, the first steam engine was invented… Continue reading AI is about to kill creativity

5 lesser-known tips on spacing for product designers

5 lesser-known spacing tips for product designers Your BAE might not give you space but after reading this article you will definitely give your UI objects some well-deserved space :p When we start out as designers, spacing is often the most neglected aspect of the design process. Various objects are spaced based on what we, at… Continue reading 5 lesser-known tips on spacing for product designers

How people read online

Tips for accessible text. What makes a text nice to read? To know more about this, it is important to take a closer look at how people are reading. Additionally, it may be the case that someone is impaired, physically or mentally, to read a text. How does it work? Saccades, fixations, and breaks The reading process… Continue reading How people read online

A radical opinion on ChatGPT

Churn out every idea and then burn it down. We need to talk about ChatGPT. Actually, not just ChatGPT but all AI-powered content development tools. Whether it’s text-to-image AIs, or those capable of generating conversational text, computer code, poetry, and more in response to prompts. Artificial Intelligence has been chipping at creatives for a while, and this… Continue reading A radical opinion on ChatGPT

The Ultimate Guide to Typography

Are you interested in typography? This complete course covers everything from typography history to the difference between typefaces and fonts, typeface classification, how to choose a font, and more! Watch the Ultimate Guide to Typography Course What You’ll Learn What is the history of typography? What is the difference between a typeface and a… Continue reading The Ultimate Guide to Typography

Twitter layoffs, meeting fatigue, Taylor Swift’s AI, Apple accessibility

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers. “Any of us could face what our colleagues at Twitter faced yesterday. Some of us already have, and some of us will in the future, especially if you stick around the profession long enough. It’s a good reminder that, whether we realize it or not, we’re in this together. We… Continue reading Twitter layoffs, meeting fatigue, Taylor Swift’s AI, Apple accessibility

How To Make Your Designs Scannable (And Why You Should)

Jakob Nielsen’s How Users Read on the Web is 25 years old this week, and one glance at an eye-tracking study will tell you its key observations are still relevant today. Simply put, users don’t read a web page; they scan it for individual words and sentences. A typical pattern shown in eye-tracking reports is that… Continue reading How To Make Your Designs Scannable (And Why You Should)

The big picture and the small designer

The importance of understanding and designing for a connected world I was on my train commute home and heard the familiar “tickets please”. Opposite me sat an elderly lady, with a printed paper in her hand, readily awaiting the train conductor to check it. When the train conductor glanced at the lady’s paper, she only said,… Continue reading The big picture and the small designer