6 Design Best Practices for Apple Watch Applications

I recently worked with a client to design a standalone Apple Watch application to serve as an accompaniment for 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 […]

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 […]

Bringing Modern Design Practices to Legacy Technology

Almost all of the work we do at Atomic is forward-facing. We design cutting-edge mobile applications, rethink software that defines businesses, and develop code that automates the way our cars, batteries, and trucks manage themselves. Occasionally, we have to make software for legacy hardware. I recently finished designing for an embedded touch screen the size […]

Mobile Design for iOS 13 – Skeuomorphic Components & Dark Mode

I’ve been working with one of our clients for several years, which has given me a great opportunity to watch their mobile and web applications grow and respond to feedback from users. This month, I was asked to update their existing iOS application to reflect changes that came from the latest iOS update, namely a […]

Smoothing the Design Handoff with a Component Library

If your team is like many of the teams we work with, you’ve implemented a component library, but you’re finding that things aren’t working as smoothly expected. Component libraries alone can do the job for a small, highly-skilled implementation team. But communication seems to break down when you add in less-than-top-rated developers or designers or those […]

Adapting Design Thinking Methods to a Team’s Cultural Dimensions

When you start incorporating design thinking into a business, you usually bring more than practices. Why? The methods of design thinking are rooted in collaboration, out-of-the-box thinking, and taking measured risks. And at some companies, these attitudes are downplayed, or even outright discouraged. Bringing design thinking into a company like this can be very challenging. […]

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 […]

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. […]

Users Absorb Rules (Until They Can’t Trust Them)

The other day, I was golfing in my league, at a course I had played many times. As I was trying to figure out which club I should use for my second shot, I looked around the course for something specific—an indicator to let me know how far away I was from the pin. This […]

Stop Saying “User” when There Is No “User”

But wait, isn’t everything we do for users? Nope! I’m really beginning to hate the term “user.” It has become mainstream. Much as we say “google it” when we mean “search for something on a search engine,” “user” has become synonymous with anything we do in the design/development/product world.

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UX/Design Practices