Design Thoughts

Why do well-funded companies with ample resources often ship broken user experiences? No one is immune. Even design darlings do it sometimes. As users discover a company’s product, read about it, sign up or install, then use it, they may traverse the output of many different teams. Broken handoffs are common. We all have war stories. A few highly-trafficked sites… Read More ￫

How do you quickly and collaboratively come up and pitch ideas or potential solutions to a problem? My former co-worker at Hinderling Volkart (Lukas Karrer) introduced me to a method I have found extremely effective, inclusive and fun to use in client workshops: NABC: A 3-in-1 approach to ideating, prototyping and pitching. NABC can also be applied in an educational… Read More ￫

Can you name all 24 events at the Winter Olympics at PyeongChang from memory? Of course not, nobody can. But I bet you could do really well if I showed you illustrations of each event. You can try it here. Imagery and easily-understood iconography is a necessity of an event like the Olympics, with so many cultures coming together in… Read More ￫

You probably use drag and drop in your everyday interfaces — dropping Gmail threads into folders, moving around Trello cards, or rearranging tabs in Chrome. These interactions are a lot more complex than you think, something that I learned while designing drag and drop patterns at VMware. Drag and drop interactions are often overlooked or go unnoticed. Sometimes they happen… Read More ￫

Create any kind of app for mobile with these high-quality UI kits

Getting from point A to point B is sometimes messy even when we are simply walking — wondering if the path is right, if we are going in the right direction, what if we took that shortcut and so on. But when point A is a user problem and point B is an implemented feature, it’s like navigating in open… Read More ￫

This reading list is based on recommended reading from a design class at Stanford — The History and Theory of Design. Main category: Design in Business, Contemporary Design, Design History, Sub-fields of Design History and Design Theory and Methods. Design in Business Change by Design | Tim Brown Change by Design: How Design Thinking Transforms Organizations and Inspires InnovationThe myth of… Read More ￫

Why designers need to learn how to speak the same language as stakeholders

This reading list is for anyone who wants to learn or deepen their knowledge in the disciplines of User Research, Usability, Information Architecture, User-Interface Design, Interaction Design, Content Strategy or Experience Strategy. The list is broad and includes books that exemplify design thinking, processes, methods, principles and best practices. Some of the books on this list are over 20 years… Read More ￫

Designing is easier when you start with the answers. The ability to ask meaningful questions is a fundamental yet often overlooked skill in the UX Designer’s toolkit. I’ve begun to notice a clear correlation between the number of questions a designer asks throughout the process and the quality of the final design output. It’s much more than creating, it’s about understanding… Read More ￫

Last November, I decided to transition out of freelance user experience design. During my job hunt, I found myself needing to answer the same questions again and again. I collected my favorite questions and wrote thoughtful and exhaustive answers, creating a list of frequently asked questions. They served me in two ways: I linked to my FAQs in my cover… Read More ￫

Whitespace (or “negative space”) is an empty space between and around elements of a page. Although many may consider it a waste of valuable screen estate, whitespace is an essential element in design: “Whitespace is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background” — Jan Tschichold Today, I’ll cover how you can use whitespace in your designs… Read More ￫