fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
UP & OUT Part 2: Trail Running in Snowdonia
By: Mathew Smith
Tags: Running, Wales, Nature, Trailrunning, Explore

Following on from my last video here is some of the footage from the abandoned miners village and later, the descent through the quarry, next to Cwmstradtllyn. Once I’d reached the base of Moel Hebog I realised I’d burned too much time and had to head home. I’d not taken much footage of the ascent so it skips ahead from the miners village to the point I turn around. I also took some footage on my iPhone which also looks slightly different. Most of this was in the miners village buildings.

Originally, I hadn’t planned on using this footage and thought it might be a little bit too boring but on a return to it I thought it might be interesting and hold merit to see, following on from the previous one.

I hope you enjoy this video. If you do, please consider giving it a like, leaving a comment and subscribing if you haven’t already.

www.instagram.com/mathewsmithmathew

Part 1: https://youtu.be/jNxISTE_ox0
Отдых может пойти на пользу вашим результатам
By: Margarita Karpacheva
Tags: Running, Recovery, Health, Sports, Training

in In Fitness And In Health
// Final Major Project // Final Outcome — 01
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Product Catalogue

As I really wanted to get the catalogue printed before the printing station in LCC closed for Christmas break, I immediately started to work on it right after completing the model.

Working with this product catalogue allowed me to be creative and free as I need to turn some of the items from the 3D model to a sellable product. For examples, I added a thruster for the floating bed in the overwater bungalow design. For the cloud shape marshmallow, I turned it into a can shape and labelled it as reformable, so people can transform it to any shape they want instead of fixing it as clouds. In the space design, the participant wanted the room to be zero gravity, so for the product, I used a floating bubble ball instead. This way, not only human can be floated, they can also place the stars and diamond decor in the bubble ball to create diamond rain and star sky. There are also other fun products which I will show through the photos below.
User centred design
By: Kevin Power
Tags: Design Thinking, UX, Design Process

Why is user centred design important?

I wanted to understand and find examples of user centred design and I picked up a copy of The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman who explains what a signifier is in design. A sign or indirect instruction that influences our instinct to act upon something. For example a sign on a door that says ‘PUSH’ on one side and ‘PULL’ on another is something I always assumed to be insignificant — you push or pull a door and if it does not open when you pull it it needs to be pushed and vice versa. But why waste time working out which way this design is supposed to be used when we can consider an element into the design known as a ‘signifier’ to streamline the users’ experience?

Signifiers are an important element in design and are the difference in the design of something that looks good and the design of something that looks good but works well and allows the user to experience the design without complication.

A signifier is not always obvious at the initial design stage of any project, the original concept will need prototyping and testing on the user to unearth the problems we don’t always anticipate at the original design stage. These processes allow us to incorporate signifiers into the next iteration of our design until we have the final perfect product.

UX Design is about finding the perfect human solution for the problem — if you are not solving a problem you are not making good design.
// Final Major Project // Design — 01
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Co-Design & Model Making

I had a lot of ideas while I was designing the space, the moodboard also gave me inspiration on how to combine multiple function in a furniture. I also invited a participant who provided me her bedroom dimension to join the design process with me. Since we both were at different locations and time zone, we had to make use of the “day time” that we both have to talk about it. We had a lot of Skype calls along the way to talk and discuss how things can turn into within this bedroom size. And I did make adjustments according to her feedbacks:

1. Extendable barre — Since that participant does ballet as her hobby, I originally added a barre that has the same width as the closet and placed it between the closet and dresser. However she told me that the barre would be too short for her to even do stretching. After searching the dimension of a home barre, I decided to make the barre extendable from its original length to 100cm, so it can fulfil her needs as well as being store at the original place.

2. Multifunctional cubes — I always have an idea of making use of those cubes for different purposes. Apart from using it as stairs for accessing to the bed, I was thinking to make those cubes moveable to separate space within the room and create another private spot such as a reading area. After sharing my initial idea with her, she mentioned she would prefer to have a small social spot in the room instead, hence we started to calculate the heigh of the cubes and see whether it suits the purpose of having a tea table. (The size was just a rough dimension)

Cubes use it as social/ tea table

The participant also proposed to merge the desk with the cube shelfs so as to maximise space. However, after measuring the heigh the the cubes, I told her the height of the cubes would not be suitable for serving as a long term work desk. (which might caused more negative emotion) Therefore we ended up with my initial thought, which is to placed an extendable desk instead. Under daily situation, user can use the desk with its original form, but if they need a bigger workspace, the desk surface can extend a size more to fulfil their needs.

Bedroom with extendable desk

Note: Since Homestyler does not allow making customise furniture, the image here is just a concept visualisation
// Final Major Project // Research & Design — 05
Tags: UX Design, Design Thinking, Design Process, Ux Strategy, Wellbeing

Emotion Object Mapping

In order to get a deeper understanding on young adults’ emotion well-being inside a home, I first list out the items that a home contains, then finally selected three objects from different locations and ask them to rate their emotion experience with their bed, desk and sofa from the pre-covid period until now.

Brainstorming the main objects we have inside our home

Turns out that apart from a person who continues to have positive emotion with these objects due to similar life experience, majority of them didn’t feel good about their work desk at home.

For sofa, everyone gave out different answers. Some like their sofa more because they could spend more time there for entertainment and family reunion, while one realised how really uncomfortable the sofa is, or it is just another relaxing spot apart from the bed.

For the bed, the answers were quite different as well. For people who didn’t have much interaction with the bed besides sleeping, they emotion experience towards the bed didn’t change. However, their mental state could also affect how they feel about the object. One participant felt less precious with the bed because she has spent so much time lying on it doing nothing during lockdown, versus, another participant felt more enjoyable staying in bed to reduce stress.
I agree. As with science, the fact that we can (try to) apply the scientific method to our critical…
By: Barbara Vasi
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process

I agree. As with science, the fact that we can (try to) apply the scientific method to our critical thinking does not make a scientist out of us.

And exactly as for the scientific method, we all should aim at being co-designers and part of processes which apply design (thinking) methods to approach and solve problems and to gain new opportunities.

The world would profit from this.
How to Create a Mood board using Canva
By: Eunice Choi
Tags: Vision Board, Design Process, Mood Board, Canva

I make content about DIY, decor, and home life on www.youtube.com/c/euniceathome
// Final Major Project // Research — 03
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Cultural Probes

In order to have a deeper understanding of their backgrounds, situation between covid outbreak peak and now, and what they value at this age, I designed a cultural probe to allow people to share their lives in a new form.

Participants

Since my target group is Asians, I also want to explore how the place where Asians grew up or lives would affect their mental wellbeing during COVID-19. Thus, apart from people from Hong Kong, my participants also includes Malaysian, Singaporean and Indian.

Format

Ideally I know I would get more interesting findings if I let participants to do more practical tasks with a physical cultural probes. However, due to location differences, time and efficiency, I ended up making a booklet instead.

My original plan was to send out the soft-copy so people can print it and work on the physical booklet, or even edit it on the PDF file straight away; but consider not everyone is familiar with software editing, I also provide a second option by putting my content on Google Slides with given text box for people to fill in their answers easier. Although this method may restrict their areas where they can be creative and draw freely, compromising their needs is also important.

Turning cultural probes (physical booklet) to digital version

Sidenote: When I ask them which method they would prefer, more people prefer the online version.

Tasks

Rather just asking how people feel during COVID-19, it is also important to know the side factors that might linkage to their feelings. Hence, the booklet includes 11 tasks with 3 chapters: 1.) General, 2.) Lockdown/ Stay Home Period, and 3.) Present.

The tasks are basically wanting to their general interest, where their sense of security are, further knowing what their previous distress, life comparison between previous lockdown and now, things that are consider as important in their mind, a week of their mood record, and more.

Before setting up the tasks, I did make notes on the types of information I would like to explore so as to ensure the relation. Some task are derived from literature reviews as well.
// Final Major Project // Design — 02
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Modify Design

Monitor wall? Projector?

I reviewed the bedroom design I did from last week, tried to see how I can integrate the crazy idea to my current design. I soon then realised the bedroom contains furnitures that would block the walls from having monitor room, which might affect the experience of changing the whole environment.

I continued to think what else can be the “touch-up” point that can enhance the experience. I later got inspired by the galaxy light, and thought I can include this feature to the design.

Previously, I had an idea of putting a projector in the bedroom so people can either use it as a large screen or mini movie room for entertainment, however due to to lack of space, I couldn’t figure out where to put it. But for now, I had an idea of adding the projector and galaxy light on the ceiling light, this way every feature can be included in the room!

Modify desk

From my last design, I have designed an extendable desk from a default desk set up. Through the workshop, I also got inspired to make the desk foldable in a way that allows it to lay on the wall so as to save more space for exercising or even add a bean bag chair as a reading spot. Thinking of the mechanism of the desk wasn’t easy, I wanted it to be as flexible as it can to suit people’s needs.

This time I added slide rails on the back of the desk, with keep the foldable feature, it allows people to decide whether they want their desk to face the wall or in front of the window.
// Final Major Project // Design — 03
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Co-Design Continues

This week I have moved beyond the function of a bedroom and started to investigate what else can happen within a small space that can increase individual’s wellbeing. I looked back the research findings from cultural probes, and got an insight from their wants of wanting to go travelling and hangout with friends. I then started to wonder whether I can bring the vocation vibe and togetherness in.

I invited 5 participants respectively, and had a Skype/ Zoom call with them for another co-design session. This time I asked each person to think of what they want or how the feel about the theme of “traveling” and “togetherness” with the size constrain of 67 square feet. I mentioned how they can be crazy about their ideas with no budget limit.

Method

Consider I couldn’t hold this design session in person, plus the fact that they have no experience with those design tools. The way I did it was asking them to tell me their ideas, then I would sharescreen and create the room instantly on Sketchup.
Logo inspiration, week #53
By: Drahomír Posteby-Mach
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process, Marketing, Design, Logo

Logo inspiration, week #53

Hello beautiful reader, this is Drahomír, the logo designer. Welcome to the curated logo design inspiration site (note that I am not the author of the submited logos). One logo every day in 2020. I hope you like it.
// Final Major Project // Research — 02
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Literature Review

In order to pick a focus on the topic that I am more interested in, I decided to add context to my topic linking with COVID-19. Although the COVID-19 outbreak was less than a year, there are quite a lot literatures discussing about it.

Emotion well-being under COVID-19

From reading them, I have already known the positive and negative points on how COVID is affecting adults, young adults, and medical staff’s life. I also know how these changes are affecting their emotional state and some certain behaviour they would react.

Some key findings out of the readings are:
// Final Major Project // Research — 01
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Emotion Regulation

After getting an idea on the types of basic emotion human have, I continue to search about “what controls people’s emotion?”, then I learnt about emotion regulation.

Emotion regulation allows people to evaluate how they feel under situations, then determine what type of emotion reaction to response, and when to express it (Wang and Saudino, 2011). Many scholars have mentioned how important emotion regulation is to one’s mental health and wellbeing.

Emotion regulation can be identified as two types:

Antecedent-focused (e.g. reappraisal) Response-focused (e.g. suppression)

Antecedent-focused emotion regulation allows people would reevaluate the way they perceive the situation then generate emotional response. Research shows older adults tend to use reappraisal more frequently and have better emotion regulation.

Response-focused emotion regulation is the opposite to the former one, it is the after state where emotions are already here and one is managing it. Suppression is a type of strategy under response-focused emotion regulation. It means not overly expressing emotion out but keeping it on the inside, it doesn’t change the situation or emotion at present (Catterson et al., 2017).

Emotion regulation takes control in both positive and negative emotions, however more research shows suppression might create more negative emotions and affect one’s socially. In the long run, it would cause emotional problems such as depression. Younger adults are more likely to employ such method to manage their emotion.
// Final Major Project // Design — 04
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Design Outcome Idea

Struggles

When it comes to deciding the design outcome, I went through many stages of thinking because I thought there are many outcome options that I can choose from. At the very beginning, I was thinking of making a model of each design to showcase the fantasy thoughts the participants had through the design session, but then would be too time consuming with consideration of the remaining time I have left. I also received feedbacks on turning their fantasy homes in a more realistic way and make a model of that, or do more workshops like this and document the process an outcome. There were many thoughts in my head that made me hard to make decision…

Fortunately, after chatting with couple tutors asking for advice, I got inspired by a point when a tutor asked me “what story would you like to deliver”. It’s true, when I know what story or message I want to send out, then I would know what design outcome to make.

Final Idea

In speculation design, one thing that is important is to bring the idea back to reality in a way that people would believe such things is possible in the near future. Eventually, I decided to set up a storyline that happens in the year of 2050. By this time technology is already advance enough to turn many impossible ideas to possible (similar to the world like Doraemon). I have started to develop a storyline where there’s another coronavirus and people need to stuck at home. Instead of not knowing how to handle the negative emotions from past experience, people nowadays can purchase different products to build fantasy homes themselves inside their home. And to help to deliver this story, I was planning to create:

A news article to describe the news as well as the year that is happening A physical model as a sample home for people to know what’s possible to make in their home; and lastly A product catalogue that showcases the products that are available to buy for creating a fantasy home.

With these three elements, I thought it would be persuasive enough to tell the story, and showcase the designs I have done with my participants.
// Final Major Project // Final Outcome — 02
Tags: UX Design, UX Research, Design Thinking, Design Process, Wellbeing

Website Building

This is my first time building an website, so the content might not be as finished as the ones launched.

Low Fidelity wireframes

Before building the actual website, I did some low fidelity wireframes to visualise the concept I have on my head.

Company Name & Slogan

I came up the with the name DreamBig as the company name. It aims to let people feel dreaming for real is possible here. The slogan for DreamBig is “You dream, we build”, meaning that people just have to dream about what they want, and our workers will help them to visualise it. The background behind the slogan is also an image of one of the designs from the previous design session, it helps to give people a visual idea what we can create for them.

Home Page

Sections

In the website, I have set up seven sections, including:

1. Our Service — Tell people the type of service we provide

2. How to design with DreamBig — Demonstrating the whole experience in 3 steps, making it simple and easy to understand

3. Plans — Showing the types of plans we offer, as well as the differences between the two

4. Gallery — Showcasing some of the designs that’s made by us. Give people a concept on how crazy their ideas can be

5. Customers Reviews — Showcasing positive reviews of satisfied customers will allow others to know how great our service is, and is worth the time and money to experience it

6. Mementos — Listing the available options that the 3D model can turn into

Through the process, I have learnt how to create AR and Lego model from the 3D model. The demo was supposed to include colours and more detail version from the original design, but due to non paymentship with Sketchup, I wasn’t able to save a better quality file to transform the models, hence you can only kindly see the shape of the design but not the detail parts (underwater scene and colours)

7. About DreamBig — Give people an overall idea of our company and service

Booking System

At first, I only planned to include the “Book” button the page without adding the actual interaction, but after considering the whole experience of the website, I still decided to add these extra pages. But since I didn’t subscribe to get the full function from Wix.com, I had to build my own booking system from scratch. Fortunately I successfully made it, and the website looked much better and more complete as a prototype.
❤️ Logo inspiration, week #52
By: Drahomír Posteby-Mach
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process, Marketing, Design, Logo

❤️ Logo inspiration, week #52

Hello beautiful reader, this is Drahomír, the logo designer. Welcome to the curated logo design inspiration site (note that I am not the author of the submited logos). One logo every day in 2020. I hope you like it.
Improving the Netflix Kids Experience for Parents
By: Jasmine Tay
Tags: Case Study, Design Process, Netflix, UX, Product Management

Too much screen time

Parents are a busy bunch — they do not have the luxury of being physically present with their kids 24/7 to monitor their TV usage. At the same time, they definitely do not want their kids to fall into the blackhole of Netflix and mindlessly consume content for hours on end.

“Excessive screen time may inhibit a child’s ability to observe and experience the typical everyday activities they need to engage with in order to learn about the world, leading to a kind of “tunnel vision,” which can be detrimental to overall development.” — Health Matters

Other negative impacts of excessive screen time

Delayed sleep — due to the blue light emitted from the screen which inhibits melatonin (the sleep hormone)

Sedentary behaviour

Eye health

Cognitive development

Educational Value

The type of content that kids consume is often a concern for parents as well. There are put simply, ‘good’ shows and ‘bad’ shows, where the former provides educational value to the viewer (eg. nature shows, moral value shows), while the latter is purely for entertainment purposes.

Parents might be less willing to let their kid spend a lot of time consuming ‘bad’ shows.

Knowledge of their Kid’s Activities

As mentioned earlier, parents do not have the time to physically monitor their kid’s watch activity 24/7. It’s important for them to know what their kids are up to in their absence, so that they can be aware of the above concerns.

Netflix has a few product solutions to tackle this, such as the ability to track the viewing history of your kid’s profile and a recently launched Kids Activity Report to help parents connect better with kids.

Out of these 4 concerns, I chose to focus on Problem 2: Too much screentime as the key one due to both the lack of product solutions for these as well as the importance weightage among the concerns.
Doesn’t it apply to all good/bad postings?
By: Joost Engelen
Tags: Ui Ux Design, Design Process, Design, Graphic Design, UI

Doesn’t it apply to all good/bad postings? Not saying there wrong, there very helpful to learn something quickly and to compare benefits for two or more subjects, but they can also limit you to be creative and limit you to find a fitting solution for something that needs new and refreshing icons, colors, typography or any other design element.

Sometimes you got to break the rules and make new once and sometimes you have to follow them to get to your intended goal.

It’s al about the timing of the project, the intended business goals and standing out with your brand for me.

Let this also be different for each designer, right? This makes each of us unique in style and approach.

Non the less good article, thank you, keep it up✌️🙂
Bring your design ideas by Wireframes
By: Mostafa Metwally
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process, User Experience, Design Patterns, Wireframe

So What is Wireframes ?

First things first. A wireframe is a low-fidelity design layout that serves three simple but exact purposes:

It presents the information that will be displayed on the page It gives an outline of structure and layout of the page It conveys the overall direction and description of the user interface

Just like the blueprint of a building, a wireframe describes details clearly and specifically while giving the builders (you, other designers, developers, etc.) an overview of the project.

Wireframes serve as a middle ground between pen-and-paper sketches and your first prototype. They help you plan the layout and interaction patterns of your users without distracting details like colors or copy. The proposed user journey should be clear without needing color or shading or fancy menus.

To learn more about wireframes you can use the website “Chrome Extension Tool” https://www.wirify.com/ to see wireframes in action, Wirify lets you turn any web page into a wireframe in one click, and it’s great for getting inspiration or guidance, especially when you’re just starting out.

Using of Wirify

Wireframing is a way to design a website service at the structural level. A wireframe is commonly used to lay out content and functionality on a page which takes into account user needs and user journeys. Wireframes are used early in the development process to establish the basic structure of a page before visual design and content is added even not to distract our users with colors and visuals.

The purpose of that?

User journeys should be clear without needing to add any colors, shading or menus.

Wireframes are fast, cheap, and perhaps most importantly, impermanent.

Wireframes (and the sketches you draft before wireframing) are meant to change as you gather more information through user research or stakeholder input.

Compared with a high-fidelity mockup or prototype, gathering feedback with a wireframe is much more important than researching usage patterns or user journeys. With a wireframe, people pay more attention to functionality and the user experience than the aesthetic characteristics of the on-screen elements.

Wireframes serve as a common language between designers, users, stakeholders, and devs.

They’re complex enough to inform everyone but simple enough to not be bogged down by too much detail or design language.
Designers, we can’t use the same tools to do our work and sell our work
By: Dan Iel, Ritz Enthaler
Tags: Design Process, Product Design, UX, Design, Product Management

One thread stood out that needed a strong pull: journey maps.

“We love making them. The storytelling potential of a well-constructed journey map is immense. It is a highly effective workshop facilitation tool. It produces a nice artifact for external communication afterward. But if I’m truly honest with you, in my gut, I know that the majority of them don’t help do more than tell the most surface-level story of limited user paths. And an inaccurate story at that.”

I remember chuckling. Nodding in agreement. Somehow, I also felt the need to defend journey maps. The mental clash was irritating.

I went and read an old blog post of mine with a similar vibe: Wireframes: A Good Communication Tool, a Poor Design Tool.

“A wireframe is good for gathering and consolidating the design thinking — the conversations and sketches — that has already occurred. Wireframes are good at opening up avenues of communication and spurring useful feedback. They can help you obtain someone’s approval, or move a project on to its next phase. Emails, contracts, and specifications also provide this kind of value. I like to call it paperwork.”

The key point above is that the design work has already occurred. The wireframe, for me, is writing up the report, so to speak. The report isn’t bad. Often useful and necessary. It’s that I’d rather include more people in the earlier steps where the real design work happens. Less reporting to external parties, more co-designing.

Also! Odds are, the higher fidelity versions that come after will include new lessons learned. Wireframes are always out of date (just like everything else).
2020: the Year Design Changed Forever
By: Michael Mcwatters
Tags: Design, Design Process, User Experience, Product Design

In August, I watched two dozen cursors swarming my screen, a hive of designers working together on a single Figma file. We were mid-sprint, a week in, and the team was powering through the challenge not as a group of solo artists, but as a symphony. It was breathtaking.

When I started designing 25 years ago, we worked in isolation on our individual project slices, coming together to share our work at infrequent intervals. Although we wanted greater collaboration, the tools stopped us in our tracks. That’s no longer the case.

I’ve witnessed a handful of watershed moments, times when it was clear everything would be different. Those fluttering cursors, moths around a flame, represented one such moment. I made a mental note: 2020 is the year design collaboration officially moved from wishful thinking to reality.

Shelve your ego: there’s no going back.
Porque você precisa investir em UX Design no desenvolvimento de softwares
By: Claudia Ursa
Tags: UX Design, Desenvolvimento Software, Design Process, User Experience

Learn more. Medium is an open platform where 170 million readers come to find insightful and dynamic thinking. Here, expert and undiscovered voices alike dive into the heart of any topic and bring new ideas to the surface. Learn more

Make Medium yours. Follow the writers, publications, and topics that matter to you, and you’ll see them on your homepage and in your inbox. Explore
What is Empathy? It Is Awareness, As We Are Born Self-Centered
By: Cyron Chan
Tags: Design Thinking, Empathy, Design Process, Entrepreneurship, Human Centered Design

As an educator and design thinking practitioner, we always talk and emphasize the importance of Empathy. However, do everyone knows what empathy is. I want to kickstart the discussion with these scenarios.

Difference between administrator and user’s view

Did you experience the following situation before?

“I am really hungry. Are you? What you wanna eat?” “NOOO, I just finished my lunch, I am full” “Can you turn off the aircon? the office is too cold!” “NOOO, I just finished exercise outside, still sweating!” “OMG! I’m in the period, why you don’t know how painful I am?!” “NO, I know it baby, I know you are very pain” “NOOO, you don’t!”

Put yourself in somebody’s shoes.

These situations are very, very common. But it also shows what Empathy is and why we need empathy. It’s because everyone is different in terms of our situation, gender, or even our age. We are different even when you finished your lunch, but I eat nothing. The difference is everywhere. You can never find someone who is the same as yourself.

Like a saying, “Put yourself in somebody’s shoes.” I tried to search in the wiki, and it tells:

(figurative) To try to look at a situation from a different perspective, as if one were the other person, to empathize. If you could just put yourself in his shoes for a moment, perhaps you would understand why it is not as easy as you seem to think.

It is a traditional way when we talk about empathy. So, Empathy is the ability to look at a situation from a different point of view? Does it mean that how great you can feel like others’ feeling?

I will say, NO!

Empathy is awareness.

Instead of saying it is an ability, I believe that it is awareness. The awareness of you know nothing about others feeling.

It is common to say that “I had experienced it before, so I know what you feel.” For example, when you just broke up with your girlfriend, your brother may tell you, “Don’t be sad! I know your feeling. I had been broken up with someone before!” However, does he feels what you feel? Is it the same thing?

Usually, we judge others by our experience/feeling. If you are talkative, you think it is easy to do a presentation in the classroom. In contrast, for Introvert people, it is the most challenging thing in their life.

Therefore, Empathy is not an ability to know others feeling. It is an awareness to remind yourself that actually you know nothing and that’s the reason why you should always share what you feel and ask others what they feel.

It is the key to Empathy.

We are born self-centered.

Yes, I believe, and scientists proved.

It is not a negative thing, and it is natural as everyone is their own story’s main character.

We should be educated and remain ourselves the awareness of differences, which is Empathy.

That’s why it is crucial.
To those about to ship, we salute you!
By: Greg Nudelman
Tags: UX Design, UX, Design Process, Designops

This blog is the culmination of more than 20 years of experience as a consultant and UX leader, in a variety of environments: from Silicon Valley startups to giant multi-national corporations, government, and non-profits. Although specific methods for getting the most from your DesignOps practice are often quite different, the practice usually delivers three key benefits:

Processes to streamline delivery from conception to code, so that you can innovate with confidence. Continuous validation with customers, so you can ensure you maximize delivered value. Collection of interface guidelines implemented by Dev as a set of reusable components, so you can ship faster.

I’m proud of what I and my teams have delivered over 20+ years. But at the end of the day, no matter how good our deliverables are, no matter how well-validated the designs, nor how streamlined our processes — they are not the product.

The *Product* is the Product.

Thus,

As a team, the emphasis of UX activity must be on SHIPPING. Shipping working code that delivers the most valuable functionality to the customer with the minimum effort.

I call this approach “UXecution”.

I will be sharing all of the time-tested, practical tips, hacks, and secrets I collected in my 20+ years of work to shipping faster and with less pain, and for making your DesignOps resourceful, efficient, and above all: effective and practical.

I will discuss:

How to put together the ideal UX team

How to work in creative harmony with Devs and PMs

Why it’s important to be, to paraphrase Einstein, “As lazy as possible but no lazier”

That aiming at perfection is folly, but aiming for an ideal solution is both an attainable and worthy goal.

You will save months of aggravation by not making useless updates to prototypes, creating reports no one reads, and polishing recordings no one listens to. You will also learn how to use your hallmark UX skills of observation, passion, and empathy to embrace both your customers and everyone in your organization as Experience Partners involved in an elegant cross-functional dance of product delivery.

All of the techniques in this blog build in the knowledge of myself, my team-mates, partners, and clients, who proved time and again that these techniques will help you ship consistently and quickly while maximizing the value delivered to the customer.

But don’t take my word for it — try them for yourself. See what works for you, what makes sense in your own organization, and watch new doors open with less effort than you ever thought possible. Now it’s up to you, the reader, to use these techniques and keep improving your own UXecution.

To those about to ship, we salute you!

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El temido bloqueo creativo
By: Diseño Y Esas Cosas
Tags: Creativity Tips, Mental Health, Design Process

Hi! My name is Patricia, i am graphic designer based in A Coruña. I do a bit of everything, and that little bit is sometimes interesting and sometimes not.
Why Process Doesn’t Matter
By: Arlindo Pacheco
Tags: UX Design, Design Process, User Experience, Product Design, UX

Image from Undraw

If you’re anything like me, you have dozens of bookmarks describing different design processes. And if you really got it bad, your YouTube history is probably inundated with videos from self-proclaimed (and some actual) experts. From user research and personas to mental models and user testing, and everything else in between.

One book proclaims this design process is best; another YouTube video announces the only design process you should ever use; Oh! And that email blast you just got in your inbox — there’s another must-use design process in there as well.

With so much information coming from myriad sources on the internet, it can be easy to find ourselves doubting our own design processes, and that’s what brings me here today to tell you:

There is no right process.

Those who proclaim what the right answer is don’t know the answer any better than you or me. This is very important to note. It’s important because using the “right process” as a crutch for designing products can be dangerously irresponsible, and here’s why:

Users are not one-size-fits-all.

If the process is how you measure success, then you’ll follow each step meticulously until you reach the end of your process feeling as though you succeeded and accomplished what you sought out to accomplish.

But here’s the catch: shouldn’t the ultimate accomplishment be a happy end-user? Shouldn’t some KPI indicating positive UX engagement be how we measure success instead of following some specific process to a T?

It’s been my experience that when you prioritize and optimize for happy users, the process you use matters less than the end result. In fact, your process to create happy users may not be very pretty, or clean, or perfectly labeled.

But that's okay — those things don’t matter as much if you’re making your users happy.

Image from Undraw

In summary, no single process guarantees success every time. Design, by nature, is dynamic and responsive. It’s supposed to change according to the product and user.

As UX professionals, we have to not only be okay with that uncertainty but relish in the opportunity it permits for us to create extraordinary and personalized user experiences.

Happy user first, process second.
Help! I’m Cracked up on Capitalism!
By: Greg Nudelman
Tags: UX Design, Design Thinking, Design Process, Design Philosophy, Designops

Just today I saw another existential #UXcrisis unroll on Twitter. TLDR of the rant went something like this:

I went to college to change the world, so picked UX design as a major. UX Design! I was so wrong because now I’m cracked up on capitalism!

You can’t go a day without hearing someone having an existential crisis of a similar nature. And let me just say: I understand.

Design is the soul of capitalism.

There, I said it.

Designers make things that are for sale useful and desirable — (occasionally even coveted if we get very very lucky).

Got a problem with that?

Houses in Park Güell designed by Antoni Gaudi, Barcelona, Spain (IMAGE: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Growing up in Ukraine under the Socialist regime I can tell you that it is design is what most starkly differentiates Ukraine from capitalist countries like the United States and Europe. Totalitarian regimes dehumanize everyone. Every ounce of individuality, creativity, and dissent is actively found-out, shamed, and then ground in the dirt with the heel of the soldier’s boot.

Khrushchoby (Russian: Хрущобы) (IMAGE: Artem Tkachenko, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)

You can see it in the architecture, clothes, cars, products, services, in people’s faces. The message is clear — you are nothing more than a cog in the machine.

No one gives a damn if you buy these shoes or that phone. And by extension, very quickly no one cares about you, only about the Party and the “greater good” whatever that may be.

And so the phone is unusable and ugly.

And shoes always hurt your feet.

And there is a thriving black market for anything that carries an ounce of beauty or utility.

Like toilet paper.

In contrast, design, by its very nature, celebrates individuality and seeks to fulfill every viable need, as ruthless competition fights over the ever-thinning slice of the long tail. Design makes things sexy and appealing. And that’s a good thing!

There is nothing wrong with making an honest living shipping valuable features people want to buy.

And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
The steps through a design system.
By: Rita Soares
Tags: Design Process, Product Designer, Design Systems, Style Guides, Software Tools

Everyone, as a Designer, has heard of or worked with a Design System. In my first real job as a responsible UI&UX Designer of a product, I was able to create the entire design system for the app and website.

This is to all my Designers friends who are searching for tips when creating a Design system. In this post, I will be showing my creative process, and I’ll leave a list of all the stages to build a Design System. Maybe it can help someone who wants to learn more about it.

I have chosen Adobe Xd, as the design tool, to build and catalog components, and the Confluence to write documentation, related to design principles, writing, and development.

Other tools you can use include Figma, Sketch, and Adobe Illustrator.
Bridging the gap between designers & engineers — a how-to guide
Tags: Design Process, User Experience, UX, Software Design, UI

The gap between designers and engineers can be tough to bridge, especially in larger organizations where roles may be siloed and less knowledgeable about each other’s work. As both a full-time software developer and a part-time designer, I have witnessed the challenges of both roles, and in particular, the challenges of working together. Much like any other group of people, the spaces that divide us can easily be reduced by employing empathy and working together to understand each other’s point of view.

I have put together this guide to help bridge that gap, particularly for designers working with engineers.

(This guide also desperately needs a counterpart for how engineers can better work with designers — please reach out if you’re interested in collaborating on this!)

This guide is broken into what a designer should say, write, ask, do, and not do when working with engineers and why each point is important. I have also included brief descriptions of common technical terms for which designers may not be familiar. Finally, no coin is one-sided, so I have included some tips on how designers can encourage engineers to practice better empathy toward their design partners.

I will use the terms “engineers” and “developers” interchangeably. I will also reference non-designers, which can be engineers or other partners such as supervisors, product managers (PMs), or other. I will also use the terms “app”, “service”, and “product” interchangeably to mean the production-ready tool that engineers are building from the design.
3 ways to synthesize research
By: Celine Fucci
Tags: UX Research, Research, Design Process, UX, Design

Research is leveraged throughout the design process to decode complex problems. It informs decisions and helps us validate our ideas. It’s also how we learn about users — how they feel, what their needs are, etc. However, it can be daunting to synthesize a large body of data. Why? Well, synthesis involves breaking down, taking apart, studying, and understanding data. This takes practice depending on how much has been collected.

In this article, I’ll share some techniques to help you pull out key data points that deserve further attention. All of these techniques work in conjunction with the affinity diagram.

An affinity diagram is used to group a series of data points written on post-it notes or cards.

Although I’m still learning how to effectively synthesize data, there’s no harm in sharing what has worked for me thus far.

1. SWOT Analysis

Traditionally, SWOT Analyses are used to evaluate and assess a business or industry. However, they can also be applied to a product, feature, or individual.

SWOT S = Strengths W = Weaknesses O = Opportunities T = Threats

In general, you should try to maintain strengths, improve upon weaknesses, leverage opportunities, and minimize threats. As a side note, threats can be a bit tricky to figure out.

I like the SWOT Analysis because it has helped me to successfully decipher data from usability tests and user interviews. An overarching theme will usually appear after conducting the analysis but if not, it’s alright to drill down further and group data.

An example template I created in Miro👇

SWOT Analysis Example

2. Positives vs. Negatives

The next technique, positives vs. negatives, is as simple as it gets. It involves categorizing a subset of data into two columns — positives and negatives. Although this technique can be effective on its own, you may need to do some extra analysis depending on your goals. This will most likely involve finding commonalities in your data and creating subsequent categories and groups.

Example👇

Positives vs. Negatives Example

3. Yay, Nay, K

This last method is one my team and I made up (mostly as a joke). We actually found it to be quite useful! The “Yay” column is for things that are working, the “Nay” column is for things that aren’t working, and the “K” column is for the maybes (things that could go either way).
❤️ Logo inspiration, week #51
By: Drahomír Posteby-Mach
Tags: Design Thinking, Design Process, Designer, Design, Logo

❤️ Logo inspiration, week #51

Hello beautiful reader, this is Drahomír, the logo designer. Welcome to the curated logo design inspiration site (note that I am not the author of the submited logos). One logo every day in 2020. I hope you like it.
Backstage съемок и визуальной концепции ювелирного бренда Vertigo. Делимся секретами
By: Dotorg. Branding
Tags: Design Process, Backstage, Jewelry, Vertigo, Branding

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