Oversimplifying design results in unhappy Engineers and confused users — I got my first taste of Tesler’s Law when my designs were rejected for being “Too Simple.” As a Designer, it sounds weird to hear that. We often aim for designs that are “Simple, intuitive, and easy to use.” Yet not only can you oversimplify a design: but doing so…

How designing for value can lead to greater user engagement — Designers can learn one of the most essential Product lessons from the myth of a naked man in a bathtub. As the story goes, Archimedes was trying to solve a particularly challenging problem when he got into the bath and saw the solution: the water that was displaced by his…

The most important question designers need to ask is what value are we providing to users? — Designers play a more significant role in creating a good Minimal Viable Product (MVP) than you might think. Part of becoming a Product Designer is re-learning terms I thought I knew. MVP is one such term: in product terms, it's a minimal set of features you build to attract customers…

Stakeholder analysis allows you to figure out how to approach a team with strong opinions — Sometimes, it’s not just the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO) you must watch out for. When you design for long enough, eventually, you’ll find yourself on a team with strong opinions about the design. These team members may often have conflicting opinions that could pull your design in multiple ways. …

The Highest Paid Person’s Opinion (HiPPO) can often destroy a good design — Part of becoming a Senior Product Designer is learning how to persuade people who have the power to destroy your designs. Few things can ruin the design process (and companies) more than the Highest Paid Person's Opinion (HiPPO). The Highest Paid Person's Opinion (HiPPO) problem occurs when decision-making is dominated…

ChatGPT creates amazing first drafts of design documentation — ChatGPT won’t create design documentation for you, but it can quickly generate a great first draft. Despite creating a weekly UX article for the past two years, creating design documentation isn’t my favorite task. It often involves flipping between a Figma file and a Word editor, deep research into formatting…

A popular design niche among startups can you find the right design solution — It wasn't until I began designing onboarding processes that I truly felt like a Product Designer. Onboarding is an area where the interests of UX, Product, Data, and Business stakeholders collide. From a pure UX perspective, it's all about introducing the website's features and the necessary actions as seamlessly as…

5 things UX professionals need to know about working for startups — If you're looking for your first job in a recession, look towards smaller businesses and startups for better opportunities. That's advice I received from the Recession Proof Graduate by Charlie Hoehn, and it's allowed me to have the UX career I have today. I've spent half of my decade-long UX…

Understanding why UX is not enough and three ways to augment your skills — My job title recently changed to Senior Product Designer instead of Senior UX Designer, and it's part of a trend I've been seeing everywhere. There's a rallying cry that's occurring right now, which is that "UX is Dying, and Product Design is going to replace it." My reaction to that…