Christian O.

The most expensive design problems aren’t visual. They’re strategic. When design capacity can't scale fast enough during launches, redesigns, or periods of rapid growth, the costs quietly pile up: Missed deadlines and lost market windows • Redundant work and inconsistent UX • Burned-out teams and last-minute compromises • Delayed revenue and missed business opportunities These issues don’t show up in Figma. They show up in slipped roadmaps, higher churn, and rising team attrition. Strong design leadership isn't just about quality. It's about planning, alignment, and staying ahead of demand. Scaling late often costs more than scaling early. Where is your team feeling the pressure to do more with less? 🔃If you found this post helpful, repost it with your network. Follow Joe Woodham for weekly insights on design leadership, business fluency, and influence that lasts.

646

59 Comments

Today's Quant UX Blog post discusses "things I'm hearing about UX research", especially from senior UXRs. I hear many takes about the UX research situation and job market in the course of organizing the Quant UX Association, and in generally keeping up with colleagues and friends. Lately, I've been surprised at the consistency of the themes, related to: ⏺️ The unpredictable job market ⏺️ Mismatch between candidates and hiring manager expectations ⏺️ How UXRs are unhappy with colleagues or management What I hear is undoubtedly filtered, given the kinds of roles and engagement I have ... but I also hope the reflections, sharing, and recommendations will be useful to other UXRs. The full post is: https://lnkd.in/dhXNQryB Cheers and I'd be interested to hear what resonates (or not!) #uxresearch

128

13 Comments

Figma which today completed one of the most successful IPOs in years, has made design everyone’s business. CTO Kris Rasmussen talked to me this morning about what makes the design and prototyping platform used by Uber and Google Maps unique. One key: it puts design at the center of software and product. That process is just beginning, he said, comparing the current stage of text-based AI to the MS-DOS era at the launch of the PC. As AI comes to life, design is crucial. “It’s going to be really important that companies think about not just what they’re creating but how users are experiencing it,’ he said.

60

1 Comment

Is UX dead? No - human centered design is just repeating the same boom and bust cycle of the last 125 years. I know many of you think UX is only a few decades old, but it isn't. The reason you think it is only a few decades old is this boom and bust cycle. 🌅 You see an amazing woman named Lillian Gilbreth was studying for her PhD in psychology about 125 years ago. She had the radical idea that people were better workers when they were happy. Because of the industrial revolution, much work involved technology. So she and her husband created a consultancy to improve the productivity of workers with the tools of behavioral science. It became known as "scientific management." Her work led to the word usability being used in an advertisement in 1934(?) for a Frigidaire refrigerator. There work was so popular that 100s of consultants copied their techniques. The great depression though led to most of this work disappearing. 💣 Then WW2 broke out. WW2 was different than all previous wars for many reasons - but part of it was technology. Airplanes, submarines, radar, computers all were being used. But the technology wasn't necessarily making armies more effective. So psychologists were brought in to figure it out the "human factor" of technology. From their work design principles for these new technologies were developed. After the war, most business folks learned of these Human Factors Engineers and employed them to assist with all the great post war innovations. Human Factors jobs would decline after awhile, but then a terrible tragedy would occur that was caused by user error, and they would be hired again in force. 🛜 Employment of human factors remained in these small cycles until the DotCom bubble. Then Usability folks were hired in huge numbers. Until the dotcom bubble burst. Then most of the usability folks were let go. ⌚ In 2010 for a wide variety of reasons UX folks were hired en masse. The career kept growing and growing and growing until very recently. We are again in a trough. Many people in UX will suffer during this trough. I have no idea how long this trough will last. But in some period of time folks who are experts in behavioral science particularly as it relates to technology will be hired en-masse again. There will be another name change and another boom. Folks will again think the discipline was just created. And the cycle will repeat again and again.

156

16 Comments

Your lack of a design handoff process could be costing your team 6 hours every week. It’s not laziness. It’s not egos. It’s systemic breakdown. Here’s where devs say they lose the most time: Missing states, everywhere → No error handling → No loading indicators → No empty states → No accessibility specs (96% of websites still have accessibility barriers, via WebAIM) Unusable files → Layers named “Rectangle 9” and “Frame 55” → No semantic structure → Components scattered across pages → No interaction documentation Technical feasibility ignored → Breakpoints? Missing → Performance? Unchecked → Accessibility? Assumed The shift? Stop treating devs like implementation resources. Start treating them like strategic partners—the ones who can flag feasibility before design calcifies. 🧠 Developers: What’s the #1 thing that makes a handoff smooth for you? 🎨 Designers: Which of these 5 steps are you skipping? Let’s make this less painful. #uxdesign #designsystems #devhandoff #accessibility ⸻ 👋🏼 Hi, I’m Dane, a UX designer and mentor. ❤️ If you found this helpful, a 👍🏼 would be thuper kewl. 🔄 Share this to help others (or for easy access later). ➕ Follow me for more like this in your feed.

108

43 Comments

#UX mistake 13 Language Selection When you have a multi-language interface, you instinctively want to translate every single text. But there is one exception: the interface that helps the user choose the language. It’s always easier to find the option you are looking for in your own language. Better do this ↓ Make sure you don’t translate the language selection. Use an icon that helps users find the selection without reading. ◼ Like and follow for more UX mistakes

136

38 Comments

New, from me: Hiring for Creativity in a World of UX Design Systems https://lnkd.in/gJY-Efdn Leaders depend on designers who can work within system constraints that demand assembly‑level consistency, yet when hiring, they value candidates who challenge assumptions, reframe problems, and propose unexpected solutions. Portfolios, however, often show neither, a gap many managers attribute to the rapid‑training pipelines of contemporary bootcamps. Managers express concern that the systems enabling efficient production may be narrowing the range of skills they see when hiring, leaving a profession caught between creative ideals and the industrial machinery shaping modern product design. Citations (and thanks) to Josh Therese Joe Matic Rahul Jeff Joshua Elizabeth Jude Emma Craig

83

3 Comments

Check out this absolutely SICK case of UX in the wild... What looks like a simple guided walking legend spotted in Tokyo is exactly that, but did you know what's powering the design underneath is the usability heuristic [𝗠𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱]? Here it is for reference: Match Between the System and the Real World The design should speak the users' language. Use words, phrases, and concepts familiar to the user, rather than internal jargon. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order. This just means your design should be goofy simple. Like dummy simple. Like anyone could understand it, even a 5th grader. What I absolutely love about this design is multiple layers here. It's language agnostic. With 20MM visitors to Tokyo along each year, it's increasingly more important that important wayfinding is accessible in language agnostic communication. It's color coded. Even without language, after using this system 1 time, you'd be able to glance and uknow which way you need to go. The use of icons. Because there's no language to grab hold of, the pictograms / icons do the talking. Without even saying a word, you know which line takes you to the stairs, the elevator, and the escalator. This is just one of the many reasons i absolutely love being a designer. Good products and service experiences are all around us. Design has the power to make the human existence easier, and more helpful. It's the reason why I became one. I want to create beautiful things, and help people. Wbu?

438

42 Comments

UX had its moment. AX will define the future. For years, User Experience meant one thing:   Build an interface. Make it smooth. Help humans get from A to B. But AI changed the map. Now there’s a new layer: AX – Agent Experience. And it’s not just about people anymore. It’s about humans, AI agents, and digital coworkers all negotiating the same systems. Here’s the shift: In UX, you clicked a button → something happened → done. In AX, the system thinks, decides, and even acts on its own. Agents track goals. They learn your patterns. They suggest the next step before you even think of it. Success is no longer about finishing a task. It’s about building trust, shaping habits, and creating value that lasts. We aren’t just designing screens anymore. We’re designing rules, incentives, and relationships. And that raises new questions: → How do AI agents learn, collaborate, and improve over time? → How do we keep them aligned with what humans actually want? → How do we create systems that evolve, not just react? The future of design isn’t static. It’s agentic. And the AX era has already started. Are you designing for it or being designed by it?

421

61 Comments

🤖 Ever built an AI experience that technically worked… but left users a bit confused about what just happened? In my new blog post (part of my #Dreamforce talk this year), I share six UX design tips for making AI feel trustworthy, transparent, and easy to use. Helping teams design experiences where users stay confident and in control, even as AI takes a more active role. Read it here 👇 https://lnkd.in/egFSrgKy #salesforcedesign #salesforce #

59

6 Comments

Design systems aren’t component libraries—they’re living languages. Rigid adherence to visual rules creates brittle systems that break under contextual pressure. Fluent systems bend without breaking. Michel Ferreira shares The Way of Design Dialects in today’s A List Apart. https://lnkd.in/eVdTmimM #design #designsystems #fluent

23

Most design systems today still rely on variants. But variants don’t scale. Every new dimension multiplies complexity. I show in this video how to rebuild your components with variables: 5 control points (size, shape, intent, state, primitive) No explosion of frames Direct design to code alignment Ready for dev binding and AI workflows This is how to treat your design system as an API, not as static assets. Watch here: https://lnkd.in/dRQ4UUa2 #Figma #DesignSystems #DesignOps #UX #UI #ProductDesign #Variables #ParametricDesign #NoVariants #DesignEngineering #SystemThinking #VariableVisualizer

129

3 Comments