Archive for the “Design” category
The UI Layer as Experimentation Layer
by Lance on April 24, 2012
The key thing to remember is everything must be in service to the user’s experience. It’s way to easy to forget this and get in an endless cycles of finessing the UI – which I must remind you might not (…)
What Startups Need to Know About Design?
by Lance on April 17, 2012
It’s getting harder and harder to differentiate based on tech talent alone. Designers like Jonathan Ive at Apple, Joe Gebbia at Airbnb, and Dave Morin at Path (to name a few) are changing the world today – not entirely because (…)
Designing Objectively
by Lance on March 2, 2012
It’s a common misconception that art and design are one and the same. But although design can be artful, the process behind it is quite different. Artists engage in the manipulation of a particular medium to produce an aesthetic and (…)
What Makes a Good UX Designer?
by Lance on February 26, 2012
The big difference between someone who is a UX professional and someone who isn’t comes back to that word: responsibility. When your job is to provide a positive user experience, you have to do whatever it takes to get it done, (…)
Windows 8: Reinventing the Basics of File Management
by Lance on August 24, 2011
We wanted to do an early Windows 8 post about one of the most used features, and one we have not improved substantially in a long time. With the increasing amount of local storage measured in terabytes, containing photos (in (…)
UXMovement on Dialog Button Placement
by Lance on May 30, 2011
There are certain platform design conventions that are widely used today because they work for users. But the point here is that platform design consistency should never satisfy a designer as the sole reason to do something. A true designer (…)
Riding the Flux: Design is changing in myriad ways. Are you?
by Lance on April 29, 2011
I find this quote by Virgina Postrel about the design profession funny and striking: (Design as a profession have) a peculiar combination of arrogance and insecurity. One minute, they’re declaring that they have uniquely appropriate skills for every problem, and (…)
Dear Designer, You Aren’t That Special
by Lance on March 17, 2011
Creativity isn’t ours. Just because you can draw better, doesn’t make you a better thinker. Design isn’t just aesthetics, it’s more than that. Even if the shiny stuff we do is what gets the most attention in our industry, it’s (…)
What’s your excuse as a Designer?
by Lance on March 11, 2011
From Wilson Miner’s post Optimizer Some people are idea people, some people are artists, some people think in systems, some people have a more organic approach. Everybody is wired up to naturally tune in on one or another of those (…)