Thoughts on product design, technology, and building human-oriented digital products
Design your environment based on your desired actions It's easier to create new behaviour by creating conditions by yourself than using plain willpower. Creating conditions is much more effective than (delusionally) thinking that you can do everything by your willpower. Your brain energy is limited, therefore plan its usage smartly. Some examples: To be progressive, surround yourself with…
How useful tools augment us and make us stronger It's bad to outsource activities that are valuable on its own (like thinking, parenting, reaching out, writing or even planning your day). - Andy Masley, the lump of cognition fallacy Consider, for example, communication. Communication is not only about the information being exchanged; it's also about the relationship between the communicators,…
An unexpected response from the boss A designer, anticipating a commentary for design she previously sent, suddenly gets the message which reads like this:"I don't like the placement of the main call to action button. Also, the whole layout looks crowded. Why the customer email is written in third person? And I expected our agent's voice to be female, not male!" This is the typical feedback that…
Why I blame designers for missing my flight Setting the alarm clock is probably the most common form of programming. It has existed in digital devices long enough that it should be a solved problem by now with a standardized, intuitive interface. Or is it? I have recently set up an alarm to wake me up for a flight but my phone didn't wake me. Why did that happened? I adjusted the alarm as usually…
No tool or design process can fix a poorly conceived product Unpopular opinion: Tools that you use in the design process do not matter. What matters is the user response to the product. No LLM can fake that. I met a lot of designers who obsess about their design process, about the toolset, about the latest and the greatest "AI" tool they employed. All of this matters to designers only - but not to…
Notes from the resources about permacomputing I've recently come across a special branch of sustainable technology, called permacomputing . It is a philosophy and an (indie) movement that proposes alternative, non-consumerist thinking about technology, specifically computers: it tries to ask and to answer a question: Is it possible to make a long-standing, repairable computing machine, that…
Why correct naming of the discipline is important When asked about my profession I simply reply "I am a product designer". My answer often triggers an association with product aesthetics, kind of "oh I see - you are making software look simple and pretty" answer. Traditionally, design was always connected with how something looks, with the emotional experience. This relates to product design as…
Improving user's life is the ultimate goal of the product UX outcome tries to answer a question: When we deliver great designs, how does it improve someone's life? By asking this question, we no longer consider what the solution should look like (in terms of UI or other artefacts) - but what is the impact of the resulting product. We are talking about the overall quality of the solution as well.…
Designers should plan for long-term effects of their products Faced with tight schedules and focused on shipping product, designers rarely think beyond the product's core goal: to fulfil user needs while providing necessary business outcomes. This reductionistic approach in design overlooks the impact of the product beyond its intended scope. However, in many cases a product affects the user and…
Every design tool is meant for documenting design The way agile is implemented in organizations has eroded the quality of products: 2-week sprints are often focused on outputs and not on understanding . The resulting outcomes are then less likely to deliver desired value to the customer. Products are shipped without understanding of users' mental model, their intention, their goals, their contexts…
Perception manipulation is a powerful tool Design is a manipulation. Here is one example: Texas highways have speed limits of 70 mph. To reduce car accidents, the authorities employed architects to devise a solution. They decided to change the perception of a speed during driving. First, they designed lines across the road that gradually got closer together, making drivers feel like they were…
The best way to screw your research is to do it out of the real context I frequently hear about doing "guerilla research" by intercepting random strangers in cafes, offering them a drink in exchange for the conversation about your very product. This is wrong on many levels: There is a low probability that the stranger belongs to your target user group (except if you are developing next social…
A snappier, quicker product creates a better UX Designers frequently under-appreciate the factor of speed in the overall user experience of their products. But in my career I have never seen any user complaining that their site or product is too-fast. However, vice versa is true: you can design the most elaborated user flows and detailed UX screens in the world, but if the product is generally…
Subjective feedback is usually unstructured and non-constructive As designers, we are faced with subjectivity every time when collecting feedback. This is default and natural human behaviour. This is also a sign of us asking for product feedback in a wrong way. Customer feedback is an opinion; it is not a demand [1] . The final decision about which feedback should be implemented into a product is…
The design process can always be improved Here are some common issues in the design process from my career: Stakeholders not included a designer (me) in product-related discussions . "In a product startup, every conversation is a product-related discussion," some may argue. This means that every conversation is important, which is not true. I am talking about something different; the substantial…
A computer cannot slow down spontaneously "My computer is slowing down!" - I frequently hear that from my friends. This is also a common theme among computer service technicians, across tech support teams, and on the internet forums. The complaint is reasonable. The perceived speed of the system, the responsiveness, waiting for boot - everything seems to be slower after a while. But, let's make a…
Design interviews could actually be interesting Design interview questions that test problem-solving, not tool proficiency I recently wrote about design interview questions and how the proactive designer should first respond with questions, rather than just start drawing rectangles. I also addressed why doing fake design projects is a bad idea. Here are some ideas for design interview questions…
The problem with fake design projects - and what we can do about that Advise to aspiring young designers: stop doing fake projects. Putting yourself into imaginary business situation with fictional users and personnas will do little good for you. In my opinion, doing fake projects is a wasted time. This trend started with design bootcamps. The typical design bootcamp project starts by assigning…
Digital designer should appreciate the luxury of the medium The advantage of digital products over physical products is in their fleeting nature, their impermanence, that they could be continuously improved and become increasingly better. Digital products are the perfect creations that could be upgraded incrementally; after the change, a designer can test the results, apply the learned principles…
The invention of buttons paved a way to a modern simplicity "You push the button, we do the rest". This was once the slogan of the famous Kodak company. They wanted to convince buyers how easy their devices were to operate. The first button was invented to trigger mechanical devices, and then its application evolved toward electric and digital machines. It is such a powerful invention that…
Ask questions on a design job interview, then move to a solution When interviewing for a design position, I expect a candidate to ask many questions before starting to go into solution. Focusing on output too early in the design process usually leads to a suboptimal solution, a "local maximum" so to speak, given the designer's limited knowledge about the business problem. Designers love the…
Distraction can sometimes help to concentrate better That morning I learned: The best meetings start with a disaster you barely survive. It was one of many sunny days in San Francisco, more than 10 years ago. I went to a UX conference nearby and used the opportunity to meet with a client. I walked into the lobby and asked for the person waiting for me. The receptionist told me that she would come…
Successful Redesign is seldom dramatic or revolutionary September 3, 1967 was the day every Swedish driver had to relearn how to drive. Here is how the streets looked on the day when Sweden switched from driving on the left side of the road to the right side of the road: This is what radical redesign looks like in practice. This confusion is inherent to how humans process change. The big redesign…
When added feature actually improved user's lives Here is a powerful example where adding a feature actually leads to a positive outcome for the users. This one comes from a real-life case that relates to a non-digital product. It's a strong lesson in product design. The other day, I stumbled upon the mess in front of my garage door that led to the car elevator. There were three cars waiting to…
Annoying issues in my operating system Provocative ideas about humanizing technology Why can't I put margin notes to myself on a webpage, PDF, or any other kind of document that I read? Why can't I annotate ANY file? Why can't I put comments in a YouTube video directly? Why can't I tag webpages, emails, files, everything on my computer, in the same manner and in a single place? I want to be able…
Humane OS Manifest A proposal for operating system that maximize human potential. HumaneOS prioritise universal ethical values HumaneOS respect human attention HumaneOS utilize serendipity HumaneOS supports all human attributes HumaneOS utilise positive aspects of computers HumaneOS is modeless HumaneOs is non-trivial and anti-intuitive HumaneOS is a second-class citizen HumaneOS transparently…