#UX Posts

In this age of lean startups, designers often find themselves in stretch roles where they are not only in charge of a product’s design but also in charge of coming up with the type of product to build.

A lion’s share of websites and apps in the online media space are powered by content management systems (CMS). The optimal way to design for these applications is putting content first, style second.

UI and UX are two design terms that often get used in the wrong context. Designers who call themselves “UI designers,” or design for trends rather than users, could be harming their reputation.

Polished design wireframes are great but don’t reveal the work that goes into research and content organization. See how a thorough approach to early project planning leads to successful website redesign.

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.

The market share for mobile and desktop browsing is about 50/50. For designers, this means responsive design is more important than ever, as users expect a seamless experience across all platforms and screen sizes.

As several successful big brand products have demonstrated, designers can leverage game design concepts by adopting a game designer’s mindset to design better, more engaging products.

Effective user research doesn’t have to cost a fortune. In fact, there are many low-cost methods available to designers, all of which will put a designer on the road to designing better products.

Sketch plugins can help designers speed up their design process and automate repetitive tasks in Sketch. Learning Sketch plugin development allows designers to constantly improve their workflow.

The wearable technology revolution is shifting our long established patterns of how we utilize data in our daily lives and social interactions. In many ways, it’s a lot more personal.

Learn about information architecture—how designers and product managers build an IA using design principles as well as IA tools and best practices.

Net Promoter Score is a consumer insight method to track customer loyalty, but it falls short in many ways. Applying various user research methods gives a more complete picture of the user experience.

Discover why conversational UIs and voice apps are surging in popularity and learn how to design voice user interfaces (VUIs) for both mobile and smart home speakers.

Some products prove irresistible because they combine psychological design techniques that create an ultimate UX hook: anticipatory, persuasive, and emotional design.

Prototype design is a powerful process detailing how designers do everything required to test, iterate, and develop prototypes, beginning with user flows and ending in functional wireframes.

eCommerce sales are expected to more than double by 2021. eCommerce retailers and designers who pay close attention to user experience and follow eCommerce UX design principles can capitalize on this growth.

New design tools are emerging at an incredible rate, but the future promises a vast array of astonishing tools that will forever change the way designers think and work.

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.

Mobile usability isn’t just about scaling a website or app to fit various devices. It’s about understanding how people use mobile devices and that the mobile experience is as unique as the user.

The explosive growth of eCommerce has created a need for online stores to adapt to mobile experiences. This post outlines the many aspects that make a successful mobile eCommerce experience.

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

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.

New fintech apps are changing how we see our investment goals and interact with financial institutions. This article reviews best practices for building trust without sacrificing fun or usability.

Microinteractions are single interactive moments in a product that enhance the workflow and make a product more enjoyable. This article highlights key parts of microinteractions and patterns.

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.

Landing pages are powerful tools used to convert visitors into leads and buyers. This post outlines the psychological aspects and design considerations that make up a successful landing page.

Great designers help teams and stakeholders make better decisions by using questions to identify opportunities, reveal underlying needs, and understand user context—all of which lead to better designs.

Web design is changing. Minimalist web design has been the reigning approach for years, but brutalist design is gaining in popularity. Despite its inelegant clutter and raw functionality, brutalist design may be taking over the web.

Dashboards are a unique and powerful way to present data-based intelligence using data visualization techniques. This post looks at the fundamental principles that lie at the heart of every successful dashboard design.

By leveraging new and emerging technologies like AI, AR, VR, and MR, designers have fresh and exciting opportunities ahead in designing future products.

Working under a tight deadline? We’ve all picked up design projects that required us to deliver outstanding results under severe time constraints. This article outlines a 30 day branding case study that breaks down the process of how to get it done effectively.

What is UX design? This article dispels the myths and lays bare the many misconceptions surrounding the discipline by looking at what UX design is and what it is not.

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.

Prototyping with real data can be compared to building something out of LEGO blocks: Instead of working with imaginary, loose shapes, we can use existing components from the box and build something real.

This Framer tutorial uses real data and public APIs. Working prototypes and code snippets are included.

Why do we still use buttons in our user interfaces? Technology has come so far and offers so many possibilities, there is no longer any reason to force our users to click the tiny rectangles we call “buttons.”

Dark-themed UIs can be dramatic, stylish and elegant. But despite the many benefits, they come with a slew of challenges and potential pitfalls that every designer would be wise to keep in mind.

Buttons—We use them daily in apps and websites to finalize crucial actions. Digital design develops at an incredible pace, and buttons as one of its most important elements along with it. How has their style developed over the past 8 years? Check the Dribbble Buttons Timeline.

Regardless of the environment or size of a project, UX professionals need a variety of deliverables to help facilitate design communication with various stakeholders and teams, document work and provide artifacts for meetings and ideation sessions. Here are 10 of the most common UX deliverables.

A well-produced, high-quality pitch video can go a long way toward helping a business or individual gain credibility and secure funding. Here are 7 tips.

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.

Designing past mobile or desktop interaction boundaries and into the physical world opens up possibilities to create immersive environmental experiences.

A competitive analysis can dramatically improve customer satisfaction and conversion rates as well as give assurance that you stand apart from your competitors.

A wireframe map is handy as a tool for estimating work at the start of a project and as a checklist to keep you on track throughout the design process.

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!

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

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

These 10 surprising UX books from various disciplines will broaden a designer’s perspective and provide insight into diverse approaches to problem solving.

Interaction design principles form the bedrock of awesome UX. Truly great interaction design relies on a set of conventions, standards, best practices and rules-of-thumb.

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.

Reflections on the disappearance of web forms. How mobile biometrics could unlock a personal data vault that provides what’s necessary, killing forms entirely.

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.

Every blog publisher hopes to turn their blog into an effective marketing and sales tool. But how do you design a high-conversion funnel for your blog?

Toptal designer Peter Davis offers some helpful examples and describes a series of steps you can take to make it a success.

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.

Two eCommerce sites were losing customers due to poor UX. A small set of UX improvements were made that greatly enhanced the sites’ usability and boosted sales.

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.

Flipkart, India’s leading eCommerce marketplace, questioned why they were losing customers and asked themselves: How do you build a loyal customer base, increase engagement and solve the issue of app uninstalls? What behaviors should be studied to come up with a winning solution? The answer lay in designing a habit-forming experience.

Often, designers make the mistake of designing apps for their own vanity, focusing on the veneer instead of designing a great user experience. As Steve Jobs once said, “Most people make the mistake of thinking design is what it looks like.”

In this article, Toptal UX Designer Miklos Philips discusses Jobs’s point of view and clarifies the importance of designing for people.

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.

Anticipatory design is the UX technique of simplifying processes and responding to user needs one step before they actually express those needs, simplifying user decisions and leading to magical experiences.

A client just hired you to design a landing page for their new offering. They want more than just a beautiful design – they want a page that converts. What do you do?

You read this post, which teaches you seven conversion rate optimization (CRO) tips for designing highly effective landing pages.

Check out a collection of mobile eCommerce inspirations created by different designers from around the world. Toptal Designer Cai Cardenas curated a selection of designs that each delights their users.

Some of the screens 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.

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 analytics dashboard design inspirations created by different designers from around the world. Toptal Designer Santiago Baigorria curated a selection of designs that each offers insightful analyses.

Some of the designs 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.

Most designers know that feature creep is a big time problem, but knowing is only half the battle. How do we stop feature creep from smothering our projects?

In this article, Toptal Designer Luciano Vizza guides us through the steps to recognize and dispel feature creep in your next project. One extra feature might not sink the ship. But, it doesn’t take long for one feature to become 20 features, and before you know it, Captain, you are going down with the ship.

Designing across cultural boundaries has broader implications and more challenges than Google Translate can solve. Designers must consider not just language differences, but also cultural tendencies, values, and taboos.

In this article, Toptal designer Jônatas Vieira gives us the tools to navigate cultural boundaries and shows us one of his own projects that taught him the value of cross-cultural design.

Designers too often work for their ego and choose to redesign the next billion-user start-up to boost their career, rather than doing something that will really help them grow. We receive no substantial criticism when publishing portfolio work online, but when we design for reality we put ourselves in a position to learn.

In this article, Toptal Lead Blog Design Editor Michael Abehsera shows us how to kill our egos, design for the small and local, and to always be students.

Most people know that the world of digital products, and how we design them, is changing every day. The question that we must ask then is: how will this affect the role of designers in the future?

In this article, Toptal designer Bree Chapin gives us an overview of user interactions today and how they are changing for tomorrow. Keep reading to learn how designers have to pivot and redirect their foci to create products and services that can adapt for the future.

UX sketching is a crucial, yet often overlooked, aspect of user-experience design. Sketching is a very efficient way of communicating design ideas while allowing designers to try out a multitude of options and iterate them before settling on one.

In this post, Toptal Freelance Designer Nick Vyhouski explains UX sketching step by step and outlines a range of tips and techniques used by leading designers.

Everyone from designers to clients to users desires meaningful products, but how much do we know about what it takes to make consumer experiences meaningful? Can the psychology of consumer experience inform our UX design strategies?

In this article, Toptal Freelance Designer Kaushik Ghosh shows us how to design products that connect with users beyond basic needs and functions. The process of “Meaning Making” through appropriate design interventions can lead to significantly higher engagement, passion, and commitment from users.

Toptal Freelance Designer Danielle Reid presents a number of exciting technologies and various interfaces to interact with them, while taking a historical perspective on interactions with man-made objects that have evolved with us to where we are.

From typewriters to touchscreens and beyond, UI design is constantly evolving to improve user experience and boost productivity. Find out what the next generation of connected devices will bring to the table.

Many modern web trends offer a lot of visual appeal and the temptation to follow them blindly is quite real. These trends are not always bad, but they can be dangerous if not implemented with caution. In this article, Toptal designer Bojan Janjanin discusses some of the most common UX mistakes and some insights on finding the balance between what looks nice and what is actually usable.

For some people, front-end design and development can sometimes start to seem like a chore, and can be monotonous and time consuming. Through a modular design approach, it is possible to both save time and streamline the design and development process.

With an ever-growing device landscape, it is becoming increasingly difficult to design consistent user interfaces across all devices. Using paper and pencil, or design tools that do not properly mimic the dynamic nature of web browsers across multiple platforms and screen sizes, can sometimes lead to obvious inefficiencies. However, the web browser can be used as a critical and efficient tool for designing websites and interfaces.

Great design has a knack of perfectly guiding us to a delightful result. It encompasses a whole experience as we interact with a product or service. Great design appears simple, but it’s only through a deep understanding of people and deciding to challenge complexity that great design is achieved. Travel helps us unravel that complexity by giving fresh perspective to ideas, as well as helping us experience issues that affect the world on a global scale - or even those tiny details which we might miss out on while sitting in a regular office.