You have to zoom in to learn to zoom out — and more UX links this week
A weekly collection of UX links, brought to you by your friends at the UX Collective.
The importance of zooming out in the design process →
Design is the process of zooming in and zooming out of a certain problem, multiple times. The way I operate best in a design project is when I am able to balance these two roles in one: the role of doer (the hands-on designer who is really close to the details), and the role of evaluator (the creative director who is not attached to any particular detail and therefore can make more impartial judgements). But you have to zoom in to be able to zoom out.
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Priority guides: a content-first alternative to wireframes →
Wireframes are so integrated into the accepted way of working that many don’t consider those drawbacks.
A guide to interviewing users →
How to set up an interview and get the most out of the time with interview subjects. By Sarah Khan.
Seven best practices for inclusive product design →
How Pinterest has been redesigned to be more accessible for people who are blind and visually impaired. By Pinterest Engineering.
Vital accessibility design principles →
In the not too distant future, accessibility design will no longer be a nice-to-have in UX design job postings. By Dashiel Neimark.
Biomimicry in UX: learning design from nature →
Designers have had incredible success taking inspiration from the natural world and applying them to design solutions. By Craig Phillips.
From the community
Stories by Vasil Nedelchev, Friedrich Schultheiß, Soo Park, Craig Phillips, Dave Malouf, Lola Jiang, and jeffm8.
- How to be a mediocre UI/UX Designer : a case study
- This is how I turned photos into better experiences
- Evangelizing user-centric culture as a junior designer
- No one designs like you: a call to confidence
- To code or not to code is totally the wrong question
- How I landed a job in UX Design at Google
- Design is not a science — making design great again
News & ideas
- What exactly is this Material Design 2.0?
- How Instagram Stories ruined the one good place we had left
- Un-spiration is a series of posters for pessimists
- Life Faker is a service that makes faking perfection easier
- What happened, Gmail? — a thorough analysis
- Cinephile is a card game for film nerds, movie geeks and cinephiles
- Visual awesomeness: record label logos and midcentury posters
Tools & resources
- Lobe: teach your app to see, read, feel, and understand visuals
- HolaBrief: makes it easy to nail your design brief every time
- Twist: an alternative for teams who are tired of group chats (hi, Slack)
- DesignerJar: matchmaking for designers and employers
- ButtonStates: a Sketch Library with common button patterns
- A List of Awards: design competitions, compiled and sorted
- Plot App: share your work with your team from Sketch in story format
A year ago…
Design principle: the IKEA effect →
The IKEA effect is a cognitive bias that can influence the outcome and perceived value of products to a big degree. People tend to place high value on products they partially have created. Hence, the name IKEA effect. It is derived from the Swedish furniture retailer famous for products that require to be assembled by the customers. By Anton Nikolov.
