Design Thoughts

Since I started speaking about calm technology and designing with attention, designers and developers often ask me if a particular product they’re helping create is calm — i.e. designed to seamlessly, unobtrusively integrate with person’s life and daily habits. We deal with non-calm products every day. Jeremiah Owyang noticed that the new Facebook Messenger asks users to turn on notifications… Read More ￫

When it comes to selecting a pattern for the primary mobile navigation, product designers usually choose between two options — side drawer (also known as a hamburger menu) and tab bar. Both navigation patterns have their pros and cons. Since this article is about tab bar, let’s start with its advantages over sider drawer: Visibility of current user location. No… Read More ￫

Why all the products on the market look the same? Have you ever been searching for a product that could solve your needs but could not choose one because all somehow look the same? Or it becomes harder for you to choose between 2 services because they offer the same features? The only thing that differentiates them is their design, but… Read More ￫

This week’s post is a compilation of what our motion designer at Marvel, Jonathan, found inspiring this month in design. New BBC 2 Idents Following the rise in subscription TV services, from the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime, there’s been an ongoing battle between broadcasters and media companies to convey a more memorable expression of a brands identity. One… Read More ￫

If you look at companies like Dropbox, Google, and Twitter you’ll notice that they each have their own unique aesthetic. Across all their products, both mobile and web, there is a sense of consistency and uniformity in their design.The way that companies and products achieve consistency is through styleguides. A styleguide is a set of standards that aligns designs with… Read More ￫

This article was co-written with Angela Nguyen  You passed the initial phone interview and now comes the final test to show potential employers what you are capable of: the portfolio presentation. Portfolio presentations are the norm for any design position. It shows employers your thought process through design problems and how well you communicate to others. It’s the perfect opportunity… Read More ￫

‘Design Sprints’, ‘Agile’, ‘Stand Up’, ‘Lean’ – Is ‘Design System’ just another one of those buzz words we hear? It really depends on how you choose to look at it. I find that everything that’s ‘trendy’ or ‘buzz-wordy’ is usually so for a reason. There is a lot of innovation in the design systems space at the moment hence why… Read More ￫

Recently I started seeing a trend where fellow designers skip wireframing/low-fidelity-mockups and jump straight into their UI work. While for “some” tasks this might be okay, I believe for majority of your tasks, this will hurt your final design. First, what do I mean by wireframing? When I say wireframing, I am not really talking about fancy wireframes built pixel… Read More ￫

To build prototypes in Marvel, all you need to do is import your designs. Whether they’re low-fi wireframes you drew on paper or hi-fi prototypes you built in Sketch, you can add these as static images to a project and make them interactive by adding hotspots. These hotspots link together your designs to create a flow which in the end… Read More ￫

In the world of digital design, we have a lot of different tools that make the process of prototyping really simple. But still pen and paper remain the most useful tools for UX designers. Paper prototyping can be extremely helpful during the early-stage conceptualizing — when a team needs to explore a variety of different concepts and choose the one… Read More ￫

Luckily there are a lot of articles about why psychology is important in UX/UI design. But unfortunately, only a few of them provide practical knowledge. What I mean by practical knowledge is those daily designs that exemplify the impact of psychological rules on design. Collecting more examples and techniques that can immediately be applied into designs is why I started… Read More ￫

Labeling bad decisions as “unforeseen consequences” is no longer an excuse. Here’s how designers can proactively ensure that their products are ethical in every stage. This is the second part of a two part series. If you haven’t already, check out Designing Ethically Pt. 1 for a high-level overview on why ethics in design is necessary, how to redesign our design… Read More ￫