More Ways to Test – Learning from Fairy Tales

When coming up with data to test out your app, you might get stuck deciding what to enter. We’ve all used our own name and data or the classic “asdf asdf 123.” One way to get creative with your testing is to turn to fairy tales. And there’s a concept we can clearly learn from […]

Four Sources of Creative Inspiration for a New Design

A blank canvas. Infinite possibilities. Now… start creating. This feeling of creating something from nothing is probably familiar to anyone starting a new project. The pressure to create the best work yet (and fast!) can get in the way of just exploring some ideas. When I’m seeking inspiration, I look for threads to pull; to […]

What You Can Learn by Studying Design Maturity Models

I recently worked on a project that involved assessing a corporation’s design system. As a part of that research, my team came across the idea of a design maturity model in a study published by Invision. This model helps assess how well design is being applied in an organization. Since we often receive feedback about […]

Using Sketch Symbols to Build a Dynamic Breadcrumb

While working on a design system for a client, a colleague and I were building out our components in Sketch. It was important to utilize symbols for nearly everything so we could maintain consistency throughout our designs. It was also important that we could make global changes quickly when needed.

UX Patterns: When to Avoid Dropdown Lists

Dropdown lists are common user interface components. Chances are, you interact with them frequently—whether you’re entering your address in a form or selecting the color of a sweater when online shopping. Let’s chat about the good and not-so-good aspects of dropdown lists, and when you should avoid them altogether.

UX Wins & Sins: Winc

Welcome to UX Wins & Sins, the blog series that reviews popular products and digital experiences to glean design lessons from what’s working (the wins!) and what’s not (the sins). For this post, we’re kickin’ it nine to wine🍷 and reviewing Winc, a millennial-targeted wine club that aims to make palate education and wine delivery […]

Informing Design with Context Scenarios

The planning phase of any project is crucial, and there are many deliverables that can help document it, including a project roadmap, a product backbone, and user research insights. The challenge comes when trying to turn these deliverables into a wireframe or design. For a recent project, I took to writing context scenarios to bridge […]

Sketch vs. Adobe XD for Prototyping – A Designers’ Conundrum

As part of the design process, we use tools like Sketch or Adobe XD to think through our workflows, visualize wireframes, and share designs with clients and developers. We also use these tools to create clickable prototypes that can clarify component functionality and validate designs in user testing.

Intro to Lean UX Canvas – Defining a Software Solution

The Lean UX Canvas is a tool to help visualize and document your problem space, similar to the Business Model Canvas that you may know. It can be leveraged at the beginning of new software products to help align the team around the problem, come up with potential solutions, and figure out how to refine […]

Don’t Forget: Design Is Also Agile

Agile methodology, in its truest form, is not a series of processes, sprint cadences, and ceremonies. It’s the ability to quickly adapt or pivot when faced with unforeseen challenges or new information. It often comes into play while reprioritizing a backlog of work or deciding on a quicker/cheaper way to implement a feature during development. […]

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UX & Design