Styling Modern Web Applications – CSS Frameworks vs. Component Libraries

When building a new web application, there are quite a few decisions you have to make. Will it be rendered by a server and sent to the client, or will it be a feature-rich SPA? Which JavaScript framework should be used (if any)? React? Angular? Vue? Ember? But one decision that’s often overlooked is how […]

Is Sketch Still King? My First Impressions of Figma

I love Sketch — it’s my go-to for wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and even prototyping. I’ve become as proficient as I can, including mastering nested symbols and utilizing JSON data connections to populate real data into static designs. But I recently started helping a client’s design team build out their design system. The problem? They exclusively […]

Creating a 3D Logo with Vectary

Before a recent request to create the Atomic Logo in 3D, I had never ventured much into the 3D design realm. A few years back, I’d attempted 3D design using Sketch, and before that, I’d tried Blender/Rhino. This software brought with it a host of challenges, so I was pretty nervous to try to output […]

Internal PDF Links Zooming In or Out? Set the Zoom Level

Using Acrobat to create an interactive PDF or a quick clickable prototype is my go-to when I want to keep things simple. Acrobat can, however, change the zoom level of the page you’re linking to, making the page smaller and smaller as you click through your deck. Here is a quick overview of how to […]

More Ways to Test – 9 Situations to Test the Strength of Your Mobile App

I was recently asked: “What else is there to test on a phone app when you’ve tested the functionality?” After giving it some thought, I came up with a brief list and thought I’d share that list with a wider audience. 1. Airplane Mode Test to see how your app behaves when there’s no network. […]

Making the Most of Mural – 5 Ways to Prep for a Great Remote Workshop

Since working from home has become the new normal, we’ve adjusted to remote workshopping by employing a variety of digital tools to help us collaborate from afar. One of our most beloved has been Mural. Out of the box, Mural offers a variety of handy templates and tools to get your team collaborating quickly. It […]

6 Design Best Practices for Apple Watch Applications

I recently worked with a client to design a standalone Apple Watch application to accompany an exiting iOS app. When starting, I was surprised at the lack of design resources for the Apple Watch, specifically for designing standalone watch apps. Here are my top six tips and resources for designing for the Apple Watch. 1. […]

A Very, Very Lightweight Test Plan

When I first started to learn about testing, I found out about test plans. They looked impressive and professional. Many templates were available, with specific figures on how many P1, P2, and P3 defects were allowed before testing could move to a different phase, how many cycles of testing there would be, etc. They even […]

How to Create a Cohesive Conceptual Model from Diverse Mental Models

A successful software application needs one united conceptual model. But bringing together different mental models and turning them into a cohesive experience is a significant design challenge. Where should the application maintain divergence, and where should it unify similar concepts? Where do we (as a product team) aim to meet expectations, and where do we […]

App User Experience Review: How We Feel

Delivering new software is a complex process. Doing so at the height of a global pandemic only adds complexity. I thought I’d share my thoughts on an example done well, the How We Feel app. How We Feel is a mobile app that fills the gap between virus testing limitations and having no data at all. […]

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UX & Design