Our favorite UX initiatives this year — and more UX links this week
A weekly selection of design links, brought to you by your friends at the UX Collective.
Our favorite UX initiatives this year ›
Every year, as part of our annual trends report, we like to take some time to appreciate and recognize what we consider to be the most relevant initiatives within the Design community. We are big believers in the power of the design community: sharing knowledge, honing our practice, and bringing a critical perspective on our work.
Design Libs: the best design statement methods in one place ›
A go-to reference for how to write and use some of the most common design thinking exercises, practices, and methods.
Design Lib is a project by Alexa Kaminsky in partnership with the UX Collective. Working on side projects that make the design community stronger is a labor of love and dedication.
The problem with feedback ›
Companies and apps constantly ask for ratings, but all that data may just be noise in the system.
The anchoring principle ›
People tend to focus on a single, initial piece of information, which influences how they estimate value and make subsequent decisions.
Designing for interaction modes ›
We humans have developed ways of coping with digital interfaces. We have tactics. We accept shortcomings. We make do.
The chatbot bubble has officially burst ›
Google Allo is the latest casualty of Silicon Valley’s course correction on conversational interfaces.
A design system isn’t one-size-fits-all ›
How to prioritize explorations alongside product needs, by the team at Spotify.
Stories from the community
- Errors, biases, and technology
— by Brian McKenna - How Augmented Reality will change customer experience forever
— by Adam Fard - Making memory loss easier for families — a UX case study
— by Sean Rockwood - Are you going to be the first designer at a start-up?
— by Adil Siddiqui - Building a design system… not just a UI kit
— by Christian Slegtenhorst - Who wins the fight between Figma and Adobe XD?
— by Andy P - Designing for extremes: the Nerd and the Newb
— by Lily Kollé - Demonstrating the value of Design
— by Lauren Chen - The ideal user: thoughts on Umberto Eco’s model author and reader
— by Benjamin John Peters - Reflections on design: our profession, ethics, and responsibility
— by Derek Mei
News & ideas
- Why the new Youtube Rewind is the most disliked video in the platform
- Google Rewind: all the good that people searched for in 2018
- Pixar has a new short film and it’s just adorable
- The best music of 2018, according to NPR
- This company has rethought UX career paths to leverage people’s strengths
- Skim reading is the new normal — here’s how it impacts society
Tools & resources
- UX Tools: survey results show the most popular design tools of 2018
- Newton: an email app for modern-day business communication
- Quire: a visual collaborative platform for your projects
- Pocket Lists: a to-do app with a friendly face
- Stae: create and build with real-time civic data from around the world
- UX Research: 10 diagrams to help you think straight about user research
A year ago…
- Serious products don’t have to be serious ›
By Mo Bashagha. In industries like financial services, we have learned to expect that all communication will be formal, stern and, quite frankly, boring. It’s all insider jargon and confusing acronyms — any sort of personality is a rare sight. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
We believe designers are thinkers as much as they are makers. So we created the design newsletter we have always wanted to receive.