Viewpoint

In the previous few years I’ve gone from being a freelance designer to working exclusively on my own projects (some very successful, and some less so). And I’m not the only one. Every day, more programmers and designers join the tide of hopeful bootstrappers launching a book, an online course, an app, or some other kind of product. But sadly,… Read More ￫

We leverage the sounds of our morning alarm or the distinct beep of an unlocked car to communicate with our technology. Yet there’s an assumption that user interfaces communicate mostly through a screen, overlooking the power of sonic language. “Although hearing is one of our primary senses, most interfaces today are primarily visual.” I’ve been a designer for 16 years… Read More ￫

How do you encourage teams to think “creatively”? What about to “iterate” on an idea across multi-disciplinary teams? Or to encourage broad “ideation” on a tough problem? Of course there are lots of different processes you can employ, like building a playbook. These plays are step-by-step guides used by any team to help them run effective workshops at different stages… Read More ￫

How to make useful, friendly software for real people. One of the things I love about making software is that it’s a deeply mental exercise, chock full of heady processes, abstractions, and interconnected pathways. You can fill your brain with the practical nuts and bolts side of it—research, strategy, prototyping, programming, UI, operations, and more. Lots more. And if that’s… Read More ￫

Steps for building a scalable design foundation and to help set large-scale design projects on the path to success. Designing for large-scale design is one of the biggest challenges a designer will face. Every aspect of the project is amplified and the complexities, risks, and unknowns can have a crippling effect. Luckily, there are some steps we can take early… Read More ￫

How to get in the door with a great portfolio There’s a lot of advice out there — forum threads, blog posts, and even other medium articles — all outlining how to build the perfect portfolio. However, after many years receiving and reviewing designer portfolios, it has become apparent that this conversation might be worth a fresh take. Lately, our studio has been getting… Read More ￫

About two and a half years ago, I decided I fancied a change from working for myself designing & building WordPress sites in my bedroom, so I applied to work at GoCardless. From the website I wasn’t totally sure what the company did, but from what I could find on social media it looked like a group of people who… Read More ￫

I made my website conversational. Here is what I learned. A while back, I ran an experiment on my website. I made it conversational. The feedback, responses and media coverage have been absolutely amazing. I received over 300 emails within the first 24 hours. I was asked me to share my insights. Since this whole thing started as a conversation,… Read More ￫

What I learned from a year of designing products with 100+ people VTEX is an online commerce platform with headquarters in Rio de Janeiro, almost 200 employees and 60+ software developers. Our clients range from big enterprise operations to small shops in over 16 countries around the world. When I joined the team over a year ago, I didn’t really… Read More ￫

A while back I received the following question from someone on Twitter: … If you don’t mind, I wanted to ask you a specific question thats been bothering me for a long time. There are front-end developers and there are UI/UX designers. As I understand it, UI/UX designers come up with how things should look and front-end developers implement their… Read More ￫

An introduction to the basic ingredients of a TV UI Welcome to the new Golden Age of television. Not only is there more great television being produced than ever before, but we also have more choice in how we watch our favorite shows. And while we can access these shows anywhere and anytime through our computers, phones, and tablets, televisions… Read More ￫

The technology of virtual reality (VR) has been gaining traction, however there is an absence of methods and best practices when designing for it. In my bachelor’s project I am focusing on the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) opportunities and problems created by the technology of virtual reality. Historically digital interfaces, have been crafted to suit the hardware… Read More ￫