Design Thoughts

A good user experience is not something that can be created through simply following best practice or a robust UX design process.  To truly learn what works for your end-user, you need to know how to test UX design. Each product has it’s own specific target audience, with their own unique needs and to address those needs you need to… Read More ￫

UX testing, or usability testing, comes in many forms and there isn’t really a one size fits all solution – especially if you’re working without a research team. As designers, you might experience time constraints, budget limitations or dry spells in other resources. That’s why introducing varied UX testing methodologies can present you with quick wins, that help you bridge… Read More ￫

I lead a creative team of two at a company that has grown from three co-founders to over 150 employees. We’ve acquired a company, expanded to multiple offices, and launched the world’s first end-to-end account-based marketing platform. I guess you could say we’ve grown up. But one thing that hadn’t changed over the past five years — until recently — was the Terminus brand… Read More ￫

This design process series covers the exact design process we use every day at SetDev.io. It’s a culmination of a six-year journey, bootstrapping a software engineering consulting agency as the sole designer. All deliverables discussed are attached as Sketch files for your convenience. I. Design Process Brainstorming Ahhh a fresh, new project — very few things are equally exhilarating, right?… Read More ￫

If there’s one lesson that has been validated in every conversational UI product I’ve worked on, it’s that building the interaction is just the beginning. Testing and iterating are the most time-consuming and headache-inducing (but worth the effort!) parts. Here is what I wish I’d known about the design process: 1. Build with a clear objective. Remember: a bot excellent… Read More ￫

The McKinsey Design Report in a Nutshell In October 2018, McKinsey & Company challenged our hunch about the business value of design. They carried out “the most extensive and rigorous research undertaken anywhere to study the business design actions that leaders can make to unlock the business value of design.” 300 publicly listed companies across three industries (medical technology, consumer… Read More ￫

If I learned anything from Pixar in the last decade, it’s that life is complicated and often requires a balance of joy and sadness to make it through the tougher times (Inside Out, you get me). Whether you’re in the writing/design field, or someone who deals with customers on an ongoing basis, the key to creating memorable experiences starts with… Read More ￫

The digital age brought us the inevitable ‘Disruptor’ – companies that have transformed the traditional way industries operate through regular high impact innovation. With the arrival of it’s new Fin-Tech competitors, finance is an industry in particular that has felt significant impact. Banking, Insurance and other financial services have had long standing procedures that have granted their monumental success to… Read More ￫

For a long time, using gradients was the biggest no-no in design. Designers tended to avoid gradients because they created a strong impression of design from the 90s. But that is no longer the case. If you open Dribbble or Behance right now, there is a strong chance you will see dozens of designs that use gradients. The gradients designers… Read More ￫

This article is an excerpt from the Marvel eBook, The Book of Collaboration: Handoff Edition. Many designers and developers hesitate at the idea of collaboration because it sounds like accepting compromises. Nowhere is this dilemma more apparent than when our workflows overlap and the design is ready for developers to begin building. “Great products come from harmony between the design… Read More ￫

We all have those two friends that have strong personalities. You walk on eggshells when you all get together, hoping you can keep the peace. If left alone, they just don’t mesh – it’s like having two competing soloists. Now, imagine those two friends are fonts. Just like people, fonts combinations need balance. Two loud fonts generally don’t work well… Read More ￫

It’s time we start addressing accessibility before aesthetics in our design processes to create meaningful products for our diversified societies and cultures. Before diving into the why, how and what of it, let’s revisit the definitions of these terms to set the context. Accessibility As the definition goes, it’s simply the quality of being able to be reached or entered…. Read More ￫