As a UX designer or researcher at a startup, it can feel like the team is sprinting down a path as fast as possible. You don’t get weeks to get user research done, you only get days. Instead of detailed spreadsheets with UX research data, designers should focus on getting the main message across, use the rainbow spreadsheet to make user research visible with color, and do the page-level notetaking with sticky notes to highlight problematic areas.
2023.11.03·dataanddesign.substack.com·9 min read·TLDR Design Create a cool gradient map directly from a selected image in Figma
Free AI-generated images and photos for creatives and professionals. Curated by humans and the prompts are included.
Investors are starting to worry Walt Disney Studios is beginning to show its age as it turns 100. Its share price dropped to its lowest level in nearly nine years as the company stumbled in streaming. But adapting to the times is not a new challenge for Disney. Instead, it’s been a point of survival throughout the company’s history. A century ago when “Disney” was a single person and not a global company worth over $150 billion, emerging sound and color technologies rattled the silent film industry.
Online, undignified access is making people with disabilities jump through hoops to access information that other people can access easily. For example, throwing a bunch of inaccessible captchas infuriates them and means they have to contact support. To simply check their email.
Art Materialism is a movement that celebrates physical art that uses unconventional materials in an era where so much art relies on AI and digital tools. Materials you wouldn't normally associate with the type of art it creates characterize the creations. Art Materialism's first nine artists are exhibiting their work at the Catto Gallery. The materials used include denim, packing tape, sneakers, car upholstery, scrap metal, wallpaper, tulle, crayons, and paint swatches.
In honor of the Sounders’ 50th anniversary, the franchise sought the expertise of Athletics for a brand refresh in partnership with the Seattle-based design firm Column Studio and ad agency DNA. The brand evolution brief aimed to root the Sounders in a clearer sense of place, reconnect it with its 50-year heritage, and embed the club within the broader global soccer culture. In doing so, Athletics developed a guiding theme for the identity: “At the Water’s Edge.”
Leading disaster expert Lucy Easthope explains why she gets chills when architects work on disaster recovery pro bono. "What natural disasters have done over the years is simply cloak massive design failings," Easthope says. Architects working on projects subject to flooding or wildfires must maintain a mental balance that involves imagining, exciting, and innovatively pushing the boundaries of failure while simultaneously preparing for the worst.
Uber provides the best example of designing a service that works everywhere for everyone. Its secret involves designing beyond the screen, taking the complexity of travel into account, empowering designers to act as psychologists, and taking notice of local habits.
Part of the design for the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro includes the introduction of a new blue shade called Bay, a striking hue that came from a color strategy developed during the pandemic. The matte back is back and it gives the devices a subtle grip and silky feel and is great at preventing fingerprints. The Pixel 8 and 8 Pro are also less boxy than their predecessors, with thinner bezels to reveal more of the glass display.
When the Touch Bar launched, it felt like touching the future. It was an OLED strip that recognized touch and replaced the function row of keys on the 2016 MacBook Pro. The problem was the Touch Bar never quite got out of the proof-of-concept phase, despite being in the majority of MacBook Pros made between late 2016 and 2019. Due to its low interest among developers and low usage among Apple’s laptop users, the TouchBar has been discontinued in the new line of MacBooks.
The tvOS 17.2 beta introduces a redesigned Apple TV app that focuses on Channels and app navigation. The update includes a new sidebar with improved content sorting, dedicated pages for Channels and apps, and a more integrated experience for services like Disney+. While some apps like Netflix still operate separately, the redesign aims to enhance ease of use and encourage more apps to join Apple TV Channels, making Channels and apps more equal within the TV app ecosystem.
Switching VoiceOver and Voice Control is cumbersome if you are in the process of testing an app or website. Siri can make this easier. You can invoke VoiceOver by using the command “Hey Siri, VoiceOver on”. Switching VoiceOver off works by issuing “Hey Siri, VoiceOver off.” These and other accessibility features can also be enabled by a shortcut, from the control center, with a back tap, or with the action button.
People make thousands of decisions every day, with some sources suggesting upwards of 35,000 decisions per day, though this number is somewhat suspect as it is difficult to estimate something predicated on personal bias. Understanding how and why people interact with products and employing persuasive design principles based on that information can ease decision-making anxiety and improve overall user experience.
The design team at Slack explored many different concepts and approaches to improve user focus, including a literal focus mode. In the end, the optimal tab set included Messages, Activity, and Later. They kept the number of tabs as small as possible, requiring that each addition provide a place to focus on a certain task.
Choose a base style, then customize it with colors, filters, and transforms. Each pattern style has its unique transforms. Once done, you can export your patterns as SVG, CSS, or PNG.
A collection of free sans serif, serif, monospaced, and display typefaces.
With Componly, you can easily distinguish which components in a project come from your design system and which do not. This empowers you to monitor usage and performance, strengthening your system's value for wider adoption.
In 2019, DoorDash restructured its payments to drop the controversial “tipped wage” method and pay a base rate with 100 percent of tips going to drivers. However, this resulted in orders without tips being less appealing to drivers. DoorDash has added a pop-up in its app warning customers that orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered. According to DoorDash, this is something that it's currently testing to help create the best possible experience for all members of its community.
Magic Write is a generative AI tool that allows students and teachers to access quick actions from a dropdown menu, including summarizing text, expanding short text into longer formats, rewriting text, and changing the tone. Another feature, Magic Animate, allows students and teachers to turn static text into moving text and automatically add transitions to presentations. Magic Grab automatically detects separate elements and objects within an image — say text within a classroom handout or diagrams — and lets the user automatically move, resize, and reposition them, even if they were not separate elements to begin with.
This survey gathers usage data from thousands of designers each year. Many of the design companies you know and love use this data to better understand the design tools industry.
Shutterstock’s new Magic Brush feature lets you tweak images by brushing over areas and describing what you want to change. You can also use the AI-powered background removal tool and smart resizing features to resize an image to your desired dimensions automatically. Shutterstock is updating its AI image generator, which it launched in beta in January, with OpenAI's DALL-E text-to-image generator.
Apple's new MacBook Pro has a finish option called Space Black, a color first introduced on the iPhone. It's slightly darker gray than Space Gray, which it replaces, and it uses a new chemical to deter fingerprints. Space Black is exclusive to the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 Pro and M3 Max configurations.
Google has introduced a bottom address bar for Chrome on iOS, allowing users to move the address bar from the top to the bottom. This feature was highly requested and provides flexibility based on user preferences and device size. Users can enable it by long-pressing the address bar and selecting the "Move address bar to bottom" option, similar to Safari's interface.
Framer has been updated with over 30 improvements and fixes in October, including three key additions. The Color Picker was updated to split the values of RGB and HSL colors for easier editing. In addition, you can now drag and drop videos directly onto the Canvas to easily add and upload new videos while preserving the aspect ratio of the source file. Finally, there have been improvements to all the copy-and-paste workflows in Effects.
Designers burn out because of three reasons: constant pressure and deadlines, being an underestimated member of a team, and monotonous work. As a result, the quality of their work decreases, their motivation disappears, and their well-being deteriorates due to stress and overwork. To prevent burnout, they should take walks, keep track of their schedule, not don’t overwork themselves, leave enough time for hobbies and socializing, get rid of distractions at work, exercise to stay fit and dump the extra stress, and check in with their career progress regularly.
In design, problems arise when designers spend too much time on minutia at the expense of big strategic decisions. The “Default it or Design it” heuristic helps mitigate that issue by sorting decisions based on their impact, allowing designers to focus their creativity where it matters most. The 'Default It' approach is about simplifying choices. On the other side is the 'Design It' approach, where designers take time to work in-depth on critical choices that can shape projects in big ways.
A design decision is often viewed as a matter of personal preference or opinion. However, design solves problems, so it is essential to base decisions on something other than hunches or ideas. Throughout this lesson, you'll learn how to align stakeholders' expectations and gain their support for your design choices through effective communication. You'll find flaws and wrong assumptions so your work supports users while matching business goals. Also, you'll learn how to explain how your decisions impact business goals.
Shots is a tool that generates mockups for devices such as smartphones, tablets, laptops, and even wearables.
Figma templates and Figma widgets have been welcome additions to the platform's ecosystem, helping designers do certain things faster and easier. In this great list, you'll find wireframe kits, illustration sets, design system templates, icon libraries, and much more.
Let AI decide the right colors for your design projects and apply colors with a single click.
Within the furniture and lighting design realm, there’s an unspoken rule regarding design pitches. Designers share their concepts with companies, and it’s the company’s prerogative whether to proceed with the idea. Ferréol Babin made a bold decision at a certain point—to start afresh and create his pieces with a distinctive approach that birthed something entirely new, unparalleled, and inspirational, breathing life into beautiful objects crafted with reverence for both material and process—an ethos that every designer should embrace.
Passkeys are beginning to make their way into popular apps, from password managers to multi-factor authenticators, vastly improving the user experience of authentication. There’s also a downside — having to store additional cryptographic keys for each login and every site for which you have a passkey often requires more space than storing a password. However, the security gains, the user experience from not having to remember a password, and the prevention of common phishing techniques more than offset the increased storage space.
2023.11.01·smashingmagazine.com·19 min read·TLDR Design Netlify recently rebranded all of its properties, including its marketing pages, docs site, and app UI. Often, this type of work takes six months or more since there are so many moving parts, stakeholders, and time zones. It took Netlify just six weeks.
Cartoonist Amy Kurzweil shares how she and her father, inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, used artificial intelligence to connect with her grandfather. Fredbot, her grandfather's chatbot, was built by digitizing thousands of his lecture notes, love letters, music writings, and employment applications. The process inspired Amy to write and illustrate the book.
We don't always get answers to our greatest questions in words. In some cases, art can help us see things in a new light. A new exhibition at Impulse Gallery in Lucerne, Switzerland, shows 14 sculptures by Christian Bolt that explore the concept of beauty from unexpected angles.
More than half of the world's population has low literacy, making using prompts difficult. Alternatively, the fundamentals of usability have been neglected or forgotten in the frenetic race to push generative AI to an eager audience. As soon as the novelty of these tools wears off, they will need more than just utility to keep users interested.
Slack's mobile app has undergone a redesign to streamline its expanded features, like voice/video clips and collaboration tools, into a simpler, more intuitive interface. The revamp introduces a simplified navigation bar, ergonomic gestures for quick access, a supercharged search, and a comprehensive activity feed, all aimed at enhancing productivity on smaller screens without compromising on functionality.
Design leads at IBM talk about balancing strategic management with hands-on design work and share key insights from their roles. They emphasize adaptability, transparent communication, and clear feedback as crucial to leading design teams effectively and aligning with business goals. Their shared experiences underscore the ongoing evolution and learning necessary for successful leadership in design.
Nimo Planet has released its Nimo Operating System (Nimo OS), which delivers spatial computing in a streamlined way, allowing users to work anywhere. With Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and Linux as their foundations, Nimo OS leverages Android's stability and versatility.
The essence of design leadership lies in the balance of being a catalyst for inspiring visions while also nurturing an environment where practical, achievable ideas can thrive. With a clear North Star, a series of well-thought-out stepping stones, and a team empowered to contribute and realize these visions, we move closer to turning today’s ideas into tomorrow’s products, rather than just chasing vaporware.
The tech industry's recent layoffs have sparked debates on organizational structures, highlighting the need to separate Research from User Experience (UX) to better serve companies. As research matures, it should evolve into an independent intelligence function, rather than being confined within UX, to broaden its impact across all areas of a business.
Current AI systems seek to mitigate AI mistakes by requiring human oversight, keeping humans in the loop, and relying on them to detect and fix the AI output if needed. However, human oversight to make up for AI errors doesn’t work because AI is not transparent, displaying AI explanations and a confidence score can cause over-reliance, people act more risky when supported by AI, AI support leads to less cognitive engagement, and judging AI output takes time and mental capacity.
A collection of SaaS pricing models and page designs.
These regularly updated Figma AI plugins help you automatically generate design elements, code, and other design assets.
2023.10.31·webdesign.tutsplus.com·7 min read·TLDR Design Generate, test, and pivot ideas like a pro with AI-powered tools, with new releases every week.
In 1987, brothers John and Thomas Knoll began working on a program to display grayscale images on a monochrome Apple Pro Plus computer. Since then, much has changed. With 24 versions and a rich history of updates, Photoshop now enters the AI age with new features that should make 2023 one of the most groundbreaking years in its history.
2023.10.31·webdesignerdepot.com·13 min read·TLDR Design De-Extinction decided to partner with its clients to go beyond designing more sustainable packages. It now wants to help its clients rethink their means of production and manufacturing to make a real impact on the world.
Designers design forms to improve data accuracy and quality through form submissions, reduce support requests or the use of other channels to do the thing, ensure legal compliance, use patterns to increase trust, make things consistent with branding and company values, identify or make sure of quick wins for usability, and avoid costly revisions because things don’t work or increase workload.
2023.10.31·grillopress.github.io·5 min read·TLDR Design Geist Sans and Geist Mono are open-source fonts that represent the coding and design spirit within Vercel's creative community.