Design Notes

“Should designers continue to privilege users above all others in the system? What would it mean to design for participants instead? For all the participants?”

“What does your design snap to? It snaps to the business model.”

“If most of the big design decisions are made by people who you think are bad at design, or are unethical, you need to broaden what you think design is. The VP, the PM, the engineer, if they’re making decisions that “should be yours” or are “terrible”, then they’re designers too and powerful ones. This means there are only three reasonable choices:

• Move into a role where you make the important decisions.
• Become better at influencing decision makers.
• Find a place to work that has higher standards (or start your own).”

A detailed and practical guide on how to better understand problems through observation.

Keep them up-to-date.

Determine when a problem is occurring, rather than just why. This gives more insight into the actual problem that may be hidden.

“Articulating forces separately from solutions untangles design debates into three manageable strands: problems, solutions, and fitness.”

An overview including how to actually get it done in your organization.

Consider how your design affects the larger system outside the user.

Help make decisions about how, when, and why to collect and use data about people.

“Don’t get stuck designing only for your Ideal State and tacking on the other states.”

“How the design of forms can decide an election, affect racial profiling and shape identity”

A good interview filled with helpful resources.

“A lot of accessibility is usability, but it matters even more. It makes a bigger difference. It has a stronger benefit. Wayfinding helps you—but it’s essential for some people, or else they can’t function. Color contrast helps you in the sun, but it’s essential for some others.”

“Our designs should go beyond including—they should affirm and validate.”

“Here’s the playbook: 1. Pick two points of progress in someone’s life 2. Break down what happens “in between” 3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 for the gaps between each of those points”

Great case study on how Etsy gathered feedback and thoroughly tested a redesign.

“…each time we begin again, we do so with the knowledge and lessons we learned before, increasing our potential for success in each new effort.”

Use surveys to gather questions for more personal interviews. Avoid them for gathering actionable data.

“While the tools, mental models, naming conventions, ordering of properties and more can create a great system in a vacuum, collaborating with your team members is the most important part.”

“…one of the most important, yet overlooked, aspects of all great product teams, are the relationships between the designers and engineers on your team.”

• W3C ARIA examples
• Inclusive Components
• Reach UI for React JS
• Accessible component library list

Too much to remember.

“Focusing on the high-level, user-experience goals rather than jumping directly to what may be simple to track is critical to meaningful measurement.”

“How many people are really using your product? You need a metric that specifically answers this.”