The Daily Index — Monday, November 6, 2023 · TLDR Index

NEWS & TRENDS

TLDR Design

TLDR Design

DESIGN THINKING PIONEER IDEO LAYS OFF 25% EMPLOYEES

IDEO’s CEO Derek Robson announced a global meeting in October. The company is set to lay off around 125 employees by the end of the year, amounting to about 25% of its global workforce. This is the company's second round of layoffs for 2023, with a total reduction of 32% in headcount for the year. In addition to the layoffs, IDEO is closing its offices in Munich and Tokyo and downsizing in several U.S. locations, London, and Shanghai.

justlayoffs.com · 2 min

TLDR Design

GOOGLE PASSWORD MANAGER COULD SOON PICK UP A NEW DESIGN

Google Password Manager for Android is set to receive a visual overhaul, aligning with Material Design 3 guidelines. The update will split core features into three tabs and replace the '+' symbol with an 'Add password' button in the Search bar. Google continues to improve its Password Manager to compete with top password managers, offering features like biometric authentication and cross-platform sync.

androidpolice.com · 2 min

TLDR Design

NASA LAUNCHES NEW APP TO SEE THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

NASA has launched a new app for both iPhone and Android that makes it easier to spot the International Space Station (ISS) in the night sky. The app provides information about when and where to see the ISS, including its brightness, duration, altitude, and direction of travel. It also offers an augmented reality feature to locate the ISS in the sky and provides access to news and information about the ISS and space exploration.

9to5mac.com · 2 min

TLDR Design

AI FOR UX: GETTING STARTED

Designers can use AI to increase their productivity, improve the quality of their work, and enhance their skills. An essential element in getting full value from AI is to include a heavy dose of human judgment in the workflow. This is for three reasons: humans must select ideas suggested by AI, hallucinations can be convincing, and bias lurks in the training data. To get AI working, designers should provide ample context in their prompts, ask for multiple options, iterate on the output, and build a prompt library.

nngroup.com · 18 min

TLDR Design

5 TIPS FOR GIVING FEEDBACK TO YOUR DESIGNER… THE CORRECT WAY

Feedback in the design profession is crucial but often challenging due to the reliance on remote communication methods like email and messaging platforms. Constructive criticism requires clear, objective language and thoughtful expression that cannot rely on tone or body language, making it essential to choose words carefully.

uxplanet.org · 4 min

TLDR Design

BUILDING INTERACTIVE UX MAPS

Interactions can be applied to high-fidelity UX maps to showcase user research and further engage with stakeholders. To make the UX maps easier to consume and more engaging, start with consolidating findings and data into a low-fidelity map. Then establish a visual design system, group key elements of your map by theme or type (e.g., videos, photos), create a structure using auto layout, add the content, prototype the desired interactions, test, and troubleshoot.

nngroup.com · 7 min

TLDR Design

IN SEARCH OF THE IDEAL PRIVACY ICON

Icons are capable of enhancing the content that surrounds them, but they have to be self-explanatory for that to happen. We have icons for things we like (a thumbs up), things we can share (a box topped with an up arrow), and even for protection against malicious online attacks (a shield), but what are the options we have for representing “privacy?” A padlock, a detective, a Zorro mask, or a shield?

smashingmagazine.com · 14 min

TLDR Design

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF VISIONARY DESIGNERS

Among designers, a silent wave of standardization has been slowly but steadily engulfing the essence of our creativity, leading to what has been poignantly termed "The era of The Vanishing Designer." This phenomenon encapsulates the systemic shift towards a rigid, data-driven approach, overshadowing the whimsical charm of individual creativity that once was the hallmark of the design ethos.

skeuomorphic.design · 4 min

TLDR Design

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? DIGITAL DESIGN NOW HAS ITS OWN HISTORY

Art and design historian Stephen J. Eskilson is releasing Digital Design: A History, the first book to examine how computer-aided design has impacted culture and society. Eskilson takes a broad view of digital practice and outcomes, looking at games, UX/UI, digital typography, prototyping, and more.

printmag.com · 8 min

TLDR Design

HOW GRAPHIC DESIGNERS ARE CREATING THEIR OWN AI TOOLS

Despite AI's ability to produce technically competent designs and aesthetically pleasing images, it remains based on some median output dictated by whichever visual data it's been trained on. For creativity to indeed exist, it requires a greater degree of human involvement, intent, and authorship on the creator's part. Six designers explain how they built their own AI toolkits, their approach to using tech, and how they keep humanity in their work.

wepresent.wetransfer.com · 5 min

TLDR Design

BREAKING DOWN A DESIGN

Follow these patterns to make breaking down a design to get it ready for development easier: be clear on the outcome and opportunity, do it at the right moment, be clear on the end-to-end journey, work at the right fidelity, accept the chunks of work, don’t get disheartened when the design is being chopped to pieces, identify releases with outcomes, design for interim releases, and be prepared to move on even if the project is 80% complete.

jamiemill.com · 5 min