Entropy is the increase of disorder over time. Meaning that once something exists, it starts along the path of deterioration or non-existence. It sound’s grim, but when you think about it, it couldn’t be more accurate.

I want to talk about design entropy and how it affects our clients, products, and deliverables. Digital product design, in many cases, is severely impacted by entropy, considering there are often a dozen sprints that pass before we get the initial release of our product out to the world. This means; meanwhile, we are likely finding new and exciting ways to present the information…

If you’re working the majority of your day’s sitting down like myself, you might be finding the odd time that you’re waking up with body aches or even just having trouble sleeping.

Sitting down for 8+ hours a day at a desk can be taxing on your body, and it’s essential to stay active at a minimum level. When your body gets too used to sitting, you run the chance to pull muscles or causing strain when you perform other activities, which could end up in injury.

I’m no stranger to a little hot/cold cream now and then, but I…

Designing often requires an out-of-the-box mindset that puts us in the frame of mind to advocate for our users and show empathy for those who might not think, act or look exactly like ourselves.

Being aware of diversity and making an effort to include everyone in the user experiences you’re designing is part of making informed decisions. Recent research has noted that it’s not just under-represented users who care about product inclusion. Still, most users notice that not all products have a great representation of diversity.

What can we do now?

It’s our responsibility as designers to be inclusive in our work. It’s essential to…

The average user’s attention span around the time smartphones came into play was around 12 seconds. Today we’re seeing the average attention span lowering to about 8 seconds. That doesn’t present much time for you to captivate your user and encourage them to continue interacting with your website.

It can be slightly more challenging for many information-heavy websites to deliver the essential details without losing your readers. But when we incorporate images into our designs, we’re 65% more likely to remember the information than if we had content only.

Determining how you’re going to hold a user’s attention depends on…

I first used Figma about two years ago. As a web designer, I was primarily designing in Adobe programs, and that’s where my comfort was. But having moved into an enterprise-level position, designing with a larger group presented the opportunity to adopt Figma within the team.

Figma is excellent for designers. It allows us to collaborate, work together closely and iterate on each other’s projects with ease. But this platform is so robust and easy to use, it even gives an inspect tool for developers, and that is what I’d like to discuss.

Pre-handoff considerations

We’re finding it much simpler to hand…

When we are browsing the internet, it’s important that we’re finding the experience pleasing. Without an enjoyable experience, we will find ourselves frustrated trying to read content, click buttons, wait for content to load, and so on.

But our user’s experiences are entirely in our control as designers and developers. It might take a little extra effort, but in the end, it’s wholly worth the extra bit of time.

Let’s review the top 6 ways we can irritate our users.

Being a freelancer, regardless of the type, can be challenging to know when to turn down projects. Saying yes can feel amazing, and it’s always exciting to get new clients that want to work with you.

When we take on projects, we’re committing our time to work with our clients to provide the best work possible, but many things can factor into why this could be a problem, so let’s talk more about that.

Considerations for projects

I realize it’s not always easy to say no because I have done it, and it often feels as though I’m letting people down. …

In agile project models, we often notice technical debt. We’re developing functionalities and introducing them into the codebase later in a project. Still, we realize that the code is not as compatible or as up-to-date as required for the new addition.

Design debt is real too

Often as designers in the product world, we experiment with new features and ideas as the project continues. This is great and often the best way to enhance a product’s UI, but with that comes the lack of UX involved in the design phase due to time constraints associated with an agile structure and integration.

Simple aspects of adding…