Product Design Posts

There’s much confusion and hyperbole surrounding chatbots. The tech is promising, but the user experience is lacking. We examine five chatbot fails and share practical tips to improve their UX.

Nielsen’s heuristic principles have stood the test of time, and have been revisited to be further integrated with human-centered design for mobile—including clear definitions and design examples.

There’s a lot to consider when choosing a typeface for a digital design. There may not be a formula but designers can use this guide to find and format the right font for a pleasant reading experience.

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.

In the first of our Toptal Design Talks series, futurist Pamela Pavliscak discusses how emotions are deeply integrated into digital experiences and designers are positioned to facilitate genuine relationships through technology.

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.

How can designers move beyond personal insights to understand the problems users face? We introduce time-tested UX research methods that inspire user empathy and lead to better user experiences.

Nearly one in four users will abandon a mobile app after using it just once. Good onboarding makes a great first impression, gives users a guided introduction, and can significantly improve user retention.

Well-crafted words improve UX and provide people with decision-making clarity. We explore the true value of UX copy and provide sensible writing tips for greater user engagement.

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).

Conversational user interfaces are a new frontier that requires thoughtful consideration. The design process should include defining the purpose of the chatbot, and other design considerations to create a successful user experience.

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.

Designers can brush up on solid fundamentals and be inspired by innovative new ideas by reading the great books and free ebooks about design and creativity on this list.

In product design, the jobs-to-be-done framework is a well-known approach that is designed to deconstruct the “job” a customer is trying to get done.

Virtual reality is no longer in the realm of science fiction. Immersive technology desperately needs skilled designers to jump in, get involved, take risks, and create something new. Leap into VR/AR!

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.

Every month, we bring you compelling design news and inspirational content focused on design innovation. Here are six hand-picked pieces of intriguing design news.

AI has become an over-hyped buzzword and the design world is no exception. Instead of resisting it, designers will soon be co-creating with AI. It will make them smarter. (Includes infographic)

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.

UX designers often need to persuade executives on the ROI of a UX initiative. In this example scenario, the UX team presented the projected ROI of a UX redesign to make a convincing 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.

Want to become a phenomenal designer? Take a multidisciplinary design approach and study the methods of other design disciplines.

Every month, we bring you riveting design news and inspiring content focused on design innovation. Here are five hand-picked pieces of design news.

Users form mental models around how products should work through use. In order to design for maximum usability, designers need to understand and leverage users’ mental models.

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.

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.

Every month, we bring you riveting design news and inspiring content focused on design. Here are five hand-picked pieces of design news.

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.

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.

Gestalt principles are an important set of ideas for any designer to learn and their implementation can greatly improve the aesthetics of a design as well as its functionality and user-friendliness.

Every month, we bring you riveting design news and inspiring content focused on design. Here are five hand-picked pieces of design news.

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.

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.

Every month, we bring you riveting design news and inspiring content focused on design. Here are five hand-picked pieces of design news.

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

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.

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

The inaugural issue of Toptal Design World News. Every month, we bring you riveting design news and inspiring content focused on design.

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.

Flinto is a simple and easy to use tool for creating interactive prototypes. This tutorial teaches you how to quickly create mobile dashboard microinteractions in order to improve your prototype.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

The next wave of IoT will connect millions of devices. The skills needed in this new paradigm will shift from component thinking to whole systems thinking.

In this article, Toptal designer Sergio Ortiz writes about the Internet of Things, its design implications, how it will change the way businesses operate, and how we see the world—and how to help make homes, cities, and factories smarter and more efficient.

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.

In apps, the next big thing is almost always initially dismissed as a toy. Things like Snapchat and VR, initially targeting the gaming industry and teen markets, ended up blossoming into disruptive technologies.

We are a throw-away society—products wear out far too quickly or are replaced by something shinier, newer, or more trendy.

In this piece, we look at designs that have stood the test of time and break down what made them successful. No matter what you’re working on, these guiding principles will help you stop designing disposables and begin creating designs that last.

You probably wouldn’t stare at a white screen on a site or app for more than a few seconds without a page load status or time indicator. A well-crafted loading animation helps you stay engaged while you wait. Toptal Design Editor Tidjane Tall will show you how Slack, Trello, and Flickr loading animations can be done with ease. You’ll be able to apply what you learn to create your own branded loading animation from scratch.

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.

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.