Design Process posts

Designers do not simply decorate, they create an experience of moving through content. There are various strategies available that align the client and team in creating content that will result in better designs.

Join us on a journey through the annals of design history, and test your knowledge of famous logos along the way.

This week’s guest on Toptal Design Talks is Nick Disabato who discusses value-based design, an expansion of the design process that focuses on specific business needs.

Intuition and experience without UX data lead to a dangerous assumption: Designer knows best. We’re drawing a line in the sand: If it’s not based on user research, it’s not UX design.

Improving workflow and maintaining consistent design standards throughout a product can be achieved using Sketch and Atomic Design.

For decades, a design diploma was the golden ticket to career opportunity. As this path now faces scrutiny, we examine the issues plaguing design institutions and offer radical solutions for change.

Data-driven UI design is both art and science. Understanding how to collect and analyze data and implement designs based on it is an important skill for beginner and expert designers alike.

What makes a winning UX portfolio? More than a showcase of skills, a UX designer’s portfolio is an opportunity for them to create an enjoyable user experience as well as demonstrate their UX mastery.

On this week’s Design Talks we discuss research in action with Caitria O’Neill, a UX researcher at Airbnb. She studies people’s relationships with technology and how they behave with digital products.

How do product teams avoid wasting months of valuable time building something no one wants? Apply the iterative validation principles of Lean UX and create products that their end-users actually need.

Human-centered design is about solving problems, not implementing solutions. This guide provides an overview of HCD, a process that ensures optimum user experiences, effortless interaction, and ultimately, business benefits.

Billions are lost by businesses due to poor UX. This article outlines key UX statistics and insights that stress the importance of “knowing your user” (with infographic).

UI components are about modularity and reusability. A/B testing can be employed very effectively during a lean product development process to test components that make up an application’s UI.

Creating a dynamic, organized, and collaborative workflow between design and development teams is essential to building great digital products. This tutorial outlines how Sketch, working in tandem with Zeplin, can facilitate this collaboration seamlessly.

Design critiques are a key part of the product design process that encourage collaboration and improve ideas. This guide will help designers conduct productive, efficient critiques for actionable feedback.

Learn the value of minimum viable prototypes (MVPr), a quick and affordable way to create, launch, test, and improve digital products based on real-world insights.

When looking for inspiration, designers should consider what they can add to the work of others. Where can they make it better? More useful? More elegant? More efficient?

There are many types of UX projects, and while each tends to have its own unique flavor, there are common challenges. Advance planning can help less experienced teams dodge problems.

Gestalt’s guiding principle, that our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole, is a very useful and powerful design technique [includes infographic].

Even exciting product ideas can flop without an understanding of the user problem to solve. A design problem statement is an essential step in the design process for creating products that truly matter.

Poor client management can cost designers work and damage reputations. By proactively managing project expectations and responsibilities early, designers can build great relationships with their clients.

If a freshly minted app is getting low ratings, bad reviews, and complaints about its usability, or the website is not generating the expected conversions, it may be time to bring in a UX expert.

UX designers often need to convince company executives on the ROI of a UX redesign initiative. Here are some real-life B2B redesign case studies a UX team identified in order to make a compelling case.

Travel gives a fresh perspective, inspires creativity, and improves our empathy for people around the world. By making the globe your office, you can benefit from new insights and become a better designer.

Two Toptal designers engage in a lively debate about aesthetics, objectivity, and the definition of art and design.

A design sprint is a methodology used to validate ideas through design, prototyping, user testing, and collaboration in only five days, offering a more structured, effective approach to creative thinking.

80% of businesses fail in their first year—a majority of these casualties are due to a lack of customer research. Effective customer development interviews can help validate product ideas before moving forward.

Great emotional design creates a bond between the consumer and the brand—creating an emotional connection to your target market translates into conversions and sales as well as online and offline interactions.

Conversion optimization doesn’t simply boil down to using trendy colors on CTA buttons. Leverage usability data to improve customer experience that will make a larger, more lasting impact on conversion than any fad.

UX testing is a crucial step in the design process but is often overlooked for tight budgets or deadlines. You do not need a formal lab to do quality research—just the right tools and a clear plan.

Human cognition is complex, and many factors play into instant impressions. Design psychology is coming to the forefront as more and more companies are using neuroscience to design better user experiences.

UX designers must understand the needs and goals of potential users, their tasks, and context of use. User research will shape and define the guidelines for creating a product with great user experience.

Successful products and experiences offer more than pure functionality. They are designed to engage human emotions and motivate users to forge ongoing interactions that are both meaningful and memorable.

Here are a few exercises that can help get your creative juices flowing, whether you’re trying to get started on a new project or find yourself stuck in a creative rut.

For designers, working in enterprise is a challenge because of all the different stakeholders and moving parts. This guide reviews the collaborative design process for working better in that environment.

Conducting UX analysis as part of an iterative process provides valuable, actionable insights into enhancing and optimizing a product’s user experience.

Whether we need a logo for an app, a startup, or brand positioning, following trends is not enough. A carefully considered design process is needed to design an impactful logo and brand.

Product innovation happens at the intersection of desirability, business viability, and technological feasibility. Design thinking—with a proven ROI—integrates all three and delivers business value.

Customer journey maps are a visual storytelling tool used to help designers empathize with users and identify actionable opportunities for providing a better user experience.

A brand is a promise. This article outlines how illustrations are being used to express brand value and how businesses are investing substantial time and resources into extensive brand illustration systems.

Many a promising project can be stymied by unyielding personalities, inflexible attitudes, and big egos. Learn to navigate these tricky waters with grace and professionalism.

Designers are not mere pixel pushers. They must frame the problem, identify a solution, and engage users while also impacting their client’s bottom line. This article explains how the S.M.A.R.T. framework helps designers stay goal-oriented and increase their success rate.

Working as a remote freelance designer poses special challenges while presenting unique opportunities. Here, some of Toptal’s top designers share their expertise on everything from the remote work lifestyle to expert design tips.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a book contains that and more. To improve your design skills and stay in line with market trends and needs, you need to be continuously learning. This article reviews 19 free ebooks written to help designers grow as professionals and creatives.

In recent years, as designers, we have a growing selection of tools to work with. One of them is Figma – the answer for collaborative work which, nowadays, we do more and more often.

Professional designers discuss giving creative feedback and collaborating constructively to fellow designers on teams.

Sketch is not a complex tool, but it’s array of features can save you a lot of time – especially Symbols. In this tutorial, learn how to nest symbols in Sketch.

What is a heuristic analysis? How do you run one effectively by employing a group of usability experts to dramatically improve a product’s UX?

It is now possible to more accurately shape experiences that dynamically personalize content by coupling behavioral design with data science and analytics.

Discover the top 13 design podcasts that will inspire you in your work and keep you focused and entertained—a nice change from your usual background music!

Framer Studio is a powerful tool for creating interactive prototypes. Learn how to create seven useful microinteractions in no time to improve your prototype.

It’s crucial that designers focus not only on cultivating their abilities with creative tools but also improve their ability to communicate design effectively.

Craft by InVision LABS is a powerful suite of plugins for Sketch. Learn how to super-charge your process and streamline collaboration for your remote team.

Remote UX workshops call for meticulous preparation and the use of proven techniques as complex details make it a challenge with many potential pitfalls.

The relationship between art and design is often misunderstood, and although a design outcome can be artful, the process behind it is altogether very different.

The top five reasons why creating a styleguide early is especially important for startups in spite of the inherent challenges.

In many product design scenarios wireframes may not be necessary and skipping them altogether may cut down on confusion and save a lot of time.

Getting and receiving feedback—without losing your cool—is an art. This article explains how to encourage your audience to give you quality feedback that begins with preparing a killer presentation that highlights the key problems to solve, walks your audience through your thinking, and foments constructive discussion.

Learn to turn Comic Sans and other hated fonts into beautiful logotypes in seven easy steps.

UX and usability testing analysis is a critical skill. How do you go about collecting data and analyze results? Here’s a way to stay sane during the process.

What can be done easily and inexpensively to substantially improve your product designs? User testing. User testing digital product designs is imperative if you are to design “useful” products.

This six-part process by Toptal designer John Roose describes how the insights you gain from observing how actual users use your product are well worth it.

When done well, emotional design increases engagement and can elicit an emotion that will deliver a positive response in users.

We can harness the power of constraints by consciously choosing to place strict limits on design options, and we needn’t look beyond our own smartphones to find compelling examples of how this works.

Like all people, designers have biases about the world. Unfortunately, many of these biases can seriously damage our quality of work before it’s too late to notice. In this article, Toptal Design Blog Editor Michael Abehsera tells us what kinds of biases designers unwittingly hold and how they can overcome them.

Check out a collection of custom illustration inspirations created by different designers from around the world. Toptal Illustrator Waldek Graczyk curated a selection of illustrations that each finds a way to represent its respective brand.

Some of the illustrations are captured from live products, some are still in development, and some are purely concepts designed to push the bounds of what is even considered possible.

Much of the digital design community is locked in debate over whether or not designers should code. Some are in favor of seeking out the unicorns who can design and code, while others claim they don’t exist, or just get in the way.

In this article, Toptal freelance designer Jônatas Vieira offers his own firsthand perspective on this issue. Can learning how to code elevate your career to the next level? Or would such skills go unused?

Without an office manager, or shift supervisor to look over your shoulder, or set your schedule for you, design in a remote setting can be difficult for some to manage. As well, for those who use the freedom that remote work offers, how can one ensure to find a healthy balance between life, fun and of course work?

In this article, Toptal Technical Editor Kent Mundle discusses strategies for designing in a remote setting with Lubos Volkov, Toptal Lead Designer. Lubos explains the importance of good planning, a strong will, but also the ability to break the rules and get outside when the world calls you.

Should usability ever be sacrificed for design experimentation? What is there to be learned from products that challenge the expectations of users? Might portfolio projects be the ideal venue in which to push these boundaries?

In the first Toptal Design Talk, Toptal Technical Editor Kent Mundle and freelance designer Darko Stanimirovic discuss these questions over the contentious online portfolio for the art studio, Ro-Lu.

Freelance designers often work on a project-to-project, short-term basis, a reality that sometimes limits the extent to which they can design products that have a major effect on the big picture. How can designers leverage their abilities to have maximum impact on more significant projects?

Strategic Design Thinking questions the role of design as a discipline, suggesting that it can offer more than the crafting of products and artifacts. Designer Kent Mundle outlines how designers can better communicate their abilities and establish a vocabulary to increase the potential value of their projects for clients.