Brandon Carter

Today's issue is dedicated to Amie. Check out the issue to see some cool interactions from Amie's desktop and mobile app. Comment what you liked the most! Take a look here: https://lnkd.in/gk49_3Nx

27

Hey gang! I could use a win, and it seems like I might not be the only one 😊 I've noticed there's a lot of airing of grievances in the #UX community this year, and I get it. But focusing on "solving problems" can sometimes lead to seeing ONLY the problems. (Guilty! 👋) SO! Let's share some successes! 🎉 What's an unexpected product success you uncovered recently while scoping a problem? Or a story you have about realizing the shift needed was your own or your teams' mindset? How about a fix your users engineered for themselves that you were able to implement product-wide? Or a design decision battle you won AND it worked!? Or any number of other things going right for you, your team, or company lately? Share it! Let's celebrate together. #productdesign #userresearch

6

3 Comments

Great advice. Remove all friction when sending your portfolio. Keep it simple and remove all restrictions.

9

1 Comment

In my conversation with Sanjay Raval we discussed hiring practices for design roles in tech firms, including recent change in hiring pattern, assignments, and the issue of ghosting. If you’re interested in understanding the hiring process from a recruiters perspective, you should watch this video. https://lnkd.in/ggwSgGuw For a more efficient viewing experience, I recommend watching it at 1.5x speed.

24

As part of the current hiring process for the UX Designer role, I’ve reviewed over 200 portfolios. Here are 8 things to avoid in your portfolio: 1. Not having visuals 🎨 A portfolio without visuals fails to engage. Also if you have visuals, then make sure they are high-quality. 2. Not explaining the process 🧩 Most of the portfolios I reviewed were just UI designs on Behance or Dribble with no context to what problem they were solving. It's important to explain your design process. Simply showing some UIs isn’t enough. We want to understand how you arrived at your solutions. 3. Not showcasing any user research 🔍 Portfolios that skip user research or testing phases miss the mark. Highlight how you gathered and applied user feedback. 4. Not mentioning the exact role you played 👤 Most of the Behance case studies I encountered had multiple owners. If you worked on a team, then specify your role in each project. Vague descriptions can be confusing and it will diminish your contribution. 5. Having irrelevant projects 🗑️ Most portfolios had included work they had done previously like designing a logo, some other form of graphic design or high school projects they did 5 years ago. Again, this diminishes your value. I even saw a Behance project in one portfolio showing images of different kinds of contraceptives, which was very weird, to say the least. 6. Overloading with information 📝 Avoid overwhelming the reader with too much text. Select a few key projects and describe them with the right balance of text and visuals. 7. Not checking the navigation 🧭 Make sure your portfolio is easy to navigate. A poor user experience in your portfolio can reflect poorly on your UX skills. 8. Not showing impact or metrics 📊 Saved the best for last - whenever possible, include metrics or qualitative feedback that demonstrates the impact of your designs!! - - - Disclaimer: This post reflects my experience after reviewing 200 portfolios for the UX Designer job application in Sri Lanka. There’s no one right way to do things, and I also believe a portfolio is a very limited way of assessing a UX designer’s capabilities. This is why I thoroughly dive into a candidate’s UX design expertise and experience during the interview. This is your portfolio, so do what you think best represents you. ♻ Repost for someone who might find this useful #uxportfolio #uxdesigner #hiring

380

109 Comments

Exciting News for Week 10 of our #HumanCenteredDesign Boot Camp! Dive deep into the design system process step by step! From gaining approval to meticulous discovery, making informed decisions to building cohesive systems, documenting workings, and ensuring maintenance, we cover it all. Plus, we're exploring implementation, usability testing, accessibility enhancements, and the synergy between DesignOps and DevOps. In this session, we thoroughly covered the following design process step by step: 1- Approval: Master the art of presenting your design system proposal to gain the boss's seal of approval. 2- Discovery: Uncover valuable insights through thorough research and brainstorming sessions, ensuring your design system meets user needs effectively. 3- Definition: Make informed decisions about the components, patterns, and guidelines that will shape your design system's foundation. 4- Building: Learn how to assemble these elements into a cohesive and scalable system that enhances consistency and efficiency across all design projects. 5- Documentation: Dive into the vital task of documenting your design system's components, behaviors, and usage guidelines for clarity and consistency. 6- Maintenance: Explore strategies for ongoing maintenance and updates to keep your design system relevant and aligned with evolving design trends and user needs. But wait, there's more! We also delve into advanced topics such as: 🛠️ Implementation of the design system 📊 Usability testing to ensure optimal user experiences ♿ Accessibility enhancements for inclusivity 🚀 The integration of DesignOps and DevOps for seamless collaboration and efficiency Join us to hone your design skills and become a proficient design system architect! Let's shape the future of design together. #DesignMagic #LearnTogether #BootcampExcitement #DesignBootcamp #HumanCenteredDesign #DesignSystem #DesignSystemProcess #Implementation #CustomDesignSystem #UsabilityTesting #Accessibility #DesignOps #DevOps #DesignOpsNeeds #DesignOpsSolution #DesignOpsBenefits #DesignStudio #ExpertsDesk #Lahore #ZulqarnainAnsari #Sundaszahra

12

1 Comment

I recently participated in the design hiring process, allowing me to observe how many designers set up resumes and portfolios. One thing that immediately stood out was the framework some designers used to stand out: setting up the Goal, Problem, and Solution of a portfolio piece. https://buff.ly/3VfdRFp #DesignCommunication #Jobs #ProductDesign #UX

1

🔌 Quick plug for companies and people who know what they're doing when it comes to HCD. 🚼 Since the commencement of my UX career, UX studio has been a top inspiration to designing simple solutions for a complex problem. Now their web dev tool for hosting UX case studies, UXfolio, is simply an evolution of their mastery in the art and science of UX. 🤯 Like goodness, even the email marketing, I've never experience such continually useful emails from a company. I read every single one of them. If that isn't a metric of success, I don't know what is: 🤓 If you're curious about some of my other go-to inspirations for all things UX related, here's a few: UX Collective Blink UX Growth.Design Vitaly Friedman Ha Phan Thijs Kraan Tom Greever: Articulating Design Decisions Jaime Levy: UX Strategy Anthony Conta: The Art & Science of UX Jon Yablonski: Laws of UX #shamelessplug UX studio, if you're looking for another UXer to staff, I'm here for it. #ux #designresources #inspiration #philosophy

6

A little talk from me about designer and developer collaboration. I cover the benefits of working directly on the software, and how spending too much time in Figma leads to slowness and blindness to the true experience. I also cover what makes that hard in a typical company and how to combat it. https://lnkd.in/eTb-78r3

36

9 Comments

How do design system teams prove their value? Finding hard metrics around the impact of design system teams has historically been a challenge. A year ago, I met the design system team at Eventbrite who could confidently say that they saved 534 days of engineering effort with their design system. Here's their calculation: Time spent to develop a component pre-design system - time spent to install the design system component = Time saved In order to extrapolate this number, though, you need to know how many times a component has been used. And, that used to require a savvy dev on the team to build something custom. That's no longer the case. We built something at zeroheight that will allow you to track component use in a single repo or across all of your repos. This should help teams show how valuable they are, plus do things like: see which components to prioritize based on use see which product teams are adopting As an added bonus, anyone using the new feature set can also monitor design system packages, allowing them to quickly see which teams are using outdated packages. On a personal note, I'm hoping with data like this, more teams can confidently quantify their impact. And along the way, we'll get better as design system practitioners at identifying the right things to work on. This new feature set is in beta and totally free. Even if you aren't using zeroheight to document your design system, you can use it. Takes like 15 minutes and you've got rich data. Here's the sign up:

7

4 Comments

Design Technologists, such a good topic, PJ Onori and I wanted to bring on friend Donnie D'Amato BFA., MA. for the convo. Back when we all started, it was a skill set I had dabbled with, but only with HTML/CSS. Donnie and PJ go head-to-head to talk about their roles as different types of design technologist/ux engineer and how this role is essential for product design and XFN growth, specifically if they can sit with design systems teams. #designsystems #podcast #designengineer #designtechnologist #productdesign #react #html #css

25

5 Comments

I get asked pretty often what resources are out there that help people break into the UX field. Ryan's great and could offer some really good well informed insights. if you're curious about some interview prep, give this a look

15

3 Comments

I will never cease to be amazed at today's trends in UX leadership hiring practices. Far too often, I'm seeing people with 3-8 years of actual IC experience (at the most) being thrust into leadership roles they don't qualify for. When someone who's truly qualified applies, far too often we are told that they "decided to go with someone else who aligns better with the position." Eventually, you find out it's one of the aforementioned types of folks (again) OR someone who was inadvertently hired previously into such a role. Someone might think this is sour grapes, but I don't do sour grapes. No time for that. This is just....plain....wrong and the results are the additional proof in the pudding. What are the results of the hiring misdirects? • Poor UX maturity levels (not being managed). • Mid- and entry-level UXers go OUTSIDE the organization to get mentoring. • No growth for team members. • No genuine cohesion with team members. • No proper team representation in the org. Again, not only is it wrong, but it's counterproductive.

33

6 Comments

Hello LinkedIn network! 👋 I'm currently exploring opportunities to participate in upcoming UX design sprints. If you know of any events, workshops, or projects that could use an extra hand in UX design, I’d love to hear about them! Please feel free to comment below or send me a message if you have any leads. Your suggestions and insights are greatly appreciated! #UXDesign #UXDesignSprint #Hackathon

14

The very basics of UX/Product design in 5 minutes Surprisingly -- when I gave this talk at some of the top universities across the US... I found that a lot of students felt like they weren't getting real world examples like this in their classroom I can do a ton more of these, and go deeper into specific topics... So if you want that, comment "make more" -- and if this get's traction I'll start doing that Made with Tella

97

2 Comments

As designers, we often find ourselves needing to defend our design decisions—whether we’re presenting to stakeholders, working with developers, or chatting with our team. You’ve probably heard the question, "What informed this design decision?" especially if you’re in a product-led organization. We get asked this question for various reasons, depending on who's asking. But a key reason is to make sure our design choices are based on real user needs and behaviors, not just personal preferences, assumptions, or gut feelings. Picture this: you’re in a design review meeting for a new feature, and someone asks "What informed this design decision?". The best way to respond from the user's perspective is by using data from the product. Data helps set the right context for the question. This means explaining which metrics were measured, what was observed, where it was observed, any further tests conducted to confirm findings, the insights drawn, and so on—until you can clearly state the goal of the change and its impact on the product and users. Using data to back up design decisions not only strengthens your argument but also builds trust with all stakeholders. But remember, this shouldn't be done in isolation. Make sure to involve everyone on your team. Everyone needs to be on board before and after changes are made. I’d love to hear your thoughts! How has data-informed your design decisions? Share your insights in the comments below! #ProductDesign #Data #Analytics #UserExperience #DesignThinking #ProductAnalytics

13

As a product designer, envisioning a transformative product is always exciting. However, I’ve learned that turning those visions into reality requires more than compelling stories and sleek prototypes. When presenting a North Star design vision to leadership, remember that you’re not just selling them on the vision but also providing a plan for how to achieve it. This approach helps leadership focus on the vision without being distracted by feasibility and technical constraints. It also builds confidence in your efforts and trust in your ability to guide the team. Key elements to include are: 1. Project milestones along a clear timeline 2. Resources and technical requirements for each milestone 3. Testing and experimentation plans 4. Teams you plan to collaborate with

46

7 Comments

Here's the thing about LinkedIn advice... it's often too succinct and generalized to be of any use and can be misleading. If you followed the advice here, you might be a more appealing candidate to the OP, but you would be less appealing to me and many other commenters in the thread. Take it as one opinion and then figure out the best way to tell your story for the job you want. Your portfolio should demonstrate the skill set you will use in the job you want. It will be a little different depending on your level, expertise, and goals, and that's OK.

5

3 Comments