UX Insight

Bits of information experienced, acquired, refined, derived, stolen and collected. They get me through product design projects.

  1. Deep appreciation for simple

    UX Design
  2. It's not UX unless you start the conversation with who and why.

    UX Design
  3. Change is the only constant.

    Life + Software
  4. Good design is Simple, Fast, Smart and Delightful.

    UX Design
  5. “Consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds” Ralph Waldo Emerson

  6. Organize your ideas.

  7. If you cannot organize your ideas how are you going to organize an application?

  8. “Without data, you are just another person with an opinion.”

    UX Design
  9. You cannot think outside of the box when you are working in the box, go for a ride

  10. Find and focus on primary objective

  11. If you are not failing, you are not learning.

    UX Design
  12. Scope things based on impact

  13. Plan

  14. When you have an idea, always sketch first

  15. Don't drill into the detail before you generate lots of ideas.

  16. It's cheaper to fail with a prototype than an application.

  17. If you are not upsetting somebody, you are boring everybody

    Focus
  18. “Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative” Oscar Wilde

  19. “Yeah. That is really intuitive once you showed it to me.”

    Usability
  20. Always. Code your own prototypes. Just learn HTML, CSS and some JS!

    UX Skill
  21. “Software needs to be opinionated.” My friend Steve

    Product
  22. The journey is more important than the destination.

    Life
  23. In the history of apps, nobody started or stopped using an app because of color or logo.

  24. If people nit-pick your solution, you didn't spend enough time framing the problem.

  25. Get to the point

  26. Sell your own ideas, don't expect anybody to buy into it

  27. Constantly balance priorities

  28. Use animation to orient before using it to delight. UX

  29. Innovation is creating solutions not features

  30. Design is an iterative process

  31. Keep it simple

  32. Make it beautiful

  33. Never pitch from the tools you use to design

  34. “If we amplify everything, we hear nothing” Jon Stewart

  35. Manage the viewport. Think layers. What is fixed? What scrolls? UX

  36. I don't have the answer. I have a process to find it.

    UX Design
  37. A prototype can be the tool that aligns the CEO, CTO and CMO.

  38. Stop thinking feature. Start thinking problem to solve.

  39. If people cannot get excited about your vision, adding the details doesn't help.

  40. When you hit a wall, try going back a step in the design process and anchor the project

  41. When you hit another wall, go to sleep

  42. Understand the players. Interview people.

  43. Stay happy, kiss your family, ride your bicycle and go to yoga

    Life
  44. Constant sharing of design direction.

    Communicate
  45. Don't put everything into one project and ignore the world.

    Balance
  46. The flip side is equally important, don't tune on the entire world and scatter.

    Balance
  47. Always have a long term vision, don't lose sight of where you are going.

    Product
  48. High quality design is functional and beautiful

  49. What people say. What people mean. What people do. Three completely different things.

    People
  50. A usability test helps you understand what people will actually do.

  51. Without the Why and Who, we create nothing for nobody.

  52. You work on a team. Are all the players convinced?

  53. Design discovery is the most important step.

  54. Discovery is who, why, value, competition, constraints, trends, landscape and data.

  55. Spend more time in discovery

  56. Don't sacrifice clarity for brevity.

  57. A designer knows something about everything. A developer knows everything about one thing.

  58. A good designer isn't afraid to throw away good ideas

  59. Being process-oriented, not product driven, is the most important and difficult skill for a designer to develop.

  60. Beauty is derived from the utility of the experience.

  61. Beauty is the harmony of elements.

  62. Less is more.

  63. Less is a bore.

  64. It is simple when your users think it is simple, not when you think it is simple.

  65. It might take some seriously complicated code to make something simple

  66. Design is form and function. If you don't have capacity for both then you are an artist or an engineer.

  67. UI design is enabling humans to talk to the machine. UX design is motivating humans to talk to the machine.

  68. Make your own list.