Curated design news.
350 articles from top design & tech sources, updated every 6 hours.
The Site-Search Paradox: Why The Big Box Always Wins
Success in modern UX isn’t about having the most content. It’s about having the most findable content. Yet even with more data and better tools than ever, internal search often fails, leaving users to rely on global search engines to find a single page on a local site. Why does the “Big Box” still win, and how can we bring users back?
Smashing Magazine ↗Design for Amiability: Lessons from Vienna
Today’s web is not always an amiable place. Sites greet you with a popover that demands assent to their cookie policy, and leave you with Taboola ads promising “One Weird Trick!” to cure your ailments. Social media sites are tuned for engagement, and few things are more engaging than a fight. Today it seems that people want to quarrel; I have seen flame wars among birders. These tensions are often at odds with a site’s goals. If we are providing support and advice to customers, we don’t want t
A List Apart ↗Design Dialects: Breaking the Rules, Not the System
"Language is not merely a set of unrelated sounds, clauses, rules, and meanings; it is a totally coherent system bound to context and behavior." — Kenneth L. Pike The web has accents. So should our design systems. Design Systems as Living Languages Design systems aren't component libraries—they’re living languages. Tokens are phonemes, components are words, patterns are phrases, layouts are sentences. The conversations we build with users become the stories our products tell. But here’s what we'
A List Apart ↗An Holistic Framework for Shared Design Leadership
Picture this: You’re in a meeting room at your tech company, and two people are having what looks like the same conversation about the same design problem. One is talking about whether the team has the right skills to tackle it. The other is diving deep into whether the solution actually solves the user’s problem. Same room, same problem, completely different lenses. This is the beautiful, sometimes messy reality of having both a Design Manager and a Lead Designer on the same team. And if you’re
A List Apart ↗From Beta to Bedrock: Build Products that Stick.
As a product builder over too many years to mention, I've lost count of the number of times I've seen promising ideas go from zero to hero in a few weeks, only to fizzle out within months. Financial products, which is the field I work in, are no exception. With people’s real hard-earned money on the line, user expectations running high, and a crowded market, it's tempting to throw as many features at the wall as possible and hope something sticks. But this approach is a recipe for disaster. Here
A List Apart ↗
User Research Is Storytelling
Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated with movies. I loved the characters and the excitement—but most of all the stories. I wanted to be an actor. And I believed that I’d get to do the things that Indiana Jones did and go on exciting adventures. I even dreamed up ideas for movies that my friends and I could make and star in. But they never went any further. I did, however, end up working in user experience (UX). Now, I realize that there’s an element of theater to UX—I hadn’t really consi
A List Apart ↗
To Ignite a Personalization Practice, Run this Prepersonalization Workshop
Picture this. You’ve joined a squad at your company that’s designing new product features with an emphasis on automation or AI. Or your company has just implemented a personalization engine. Either way, you’re designing with data. Now what? When it comes to designing for personalization, there are many cautionary tales, no overnight successes, and few guides for the perplexed. Between the fantasy of getting it right and the fear of it going wrong—like when we encounter “persofails” in the vein
A List Apart ↗The Wax and the Wane of the Web
I offer a single bit of advice to friends and family when they become new parents: When you start to think that you’ve got everything figured out, everything will change. Just as you start to get the hang of feedings, diapers, and regular naps, it’s time for solid food, potty training, and overnight sleeping. When you figure those out, it’s time for preschool and rare naps. The cycle goes on and on. The same applies for those of us working in design and development these days. Having worked on t
A List Apart ↗Opportunities for AI in Accessibility
In reading Joe Dolson’s recent piece on the intersection of AI and accessibility, I absolutely appreciated the skepticism that he has for AI in general as well as for the ways that many have been using it. In fact, I’m very skeptical of AI myself, despite my role at Microsoft as an accessibility innovation strategist who helps run the AI for Accessibility grant program. As with any tool, AI can be used in very constructive, inclusive, and accessible ways; and it can also be used in destructive,
A List Apart ↗I am a creative.
I am a creative. What I do is alchemy. It is a mystery. I do not so much do it, as let it be done through me. I am a creative. Not all creative people like this label. Not all see themselves this way. Some creative people see science in what they do. That is their truth, and I respect it. Maybe I even envy them, a little. But my process is different—my being is different. Apologizing and qualifying in advance is a distraction. That’s what my brain does to sabotage me. I set it aside for now. I c
A List Apart ↗
Humility: An Essential Value
Humility, a designer’s essential value—that has a nice ring to it. What about humility, an office manager’s essential value? Or a dentist’s? Or a librarian’s? They all sound great. When humility is our guiding light, the path is always open for fulfillment, evolution, connection, and engagement. In this chapter, we’re going to talk about why. That said, this is a book for designers, and to that end, I’d like to start with a story—well, a journey, really. It’s a personal one, and I’m going to mak
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Personalization Pyramid: A Framework for Designing with User Data
As a UX professional in today’s data-driven landscape, it’s increasingly likely that you’ve been asked to design a personalized digital experience, whether it’s a public website, user portal, or native application. Yet while there continues to be no shortage of marketing hype around personalization platforms, we still have very few standardized approaches for implementing personalized UX. That’s where we come in. After completing dozens of personalization projects over the past few years, we gav
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设计师作品集封面万用套路！再送500+优秀案例打包！
编者按：本文通过一个设计师作品集封面设计的实操案例，帮你掌握作品集封面设计，附赠500多张优秀案例打包，快来下载！ 往期回顾： 教你快速设计高品质的作品集封面！（附22G实用素材）兄弟们，“金九银十”的季节你们是成功翻身了吗？阅读文章 > 作品集封面是个让设计师又爱又恨的东西，看上去仅仅是个面子工程，但作为作品集的第一页，承担了重要的门面作用。 今天，咱来唠唠作品集封面。备好水，很干，很硬。 一、为什么作品集封面很重要 打个比喻的话，我会把面试官看到作品集封面的过程，比作相亲过程的第一次会面。第一眼的视觉总是会先入为主得产生第一印象。 而这个所谓的第一印象，具体有多重要，可以用首因效应来解
UISDC ↗
做字库超简单！字体设计神器Glyphs系列教程（上）
如果你想做出属于自己的字库？看完这篇文章，你也可以的！ 哈喽！大家好，我是@杨洋 XHM，今天来梳理一下，我近期录制的字体设计神器 Glyphs 系列教程的内容要点。 这套教程有 13 集，分享了我在使用它创作字库时，所用到的全部工具。从基础介绍到案例演示，包括最后字体封装出库都有讲解。而文章我会分上下 2 篇，大家看完如果有帮助，记得点赞+关注哟！ 做字库超简单！字体设计神器Glyphs系列教程（下）哈喽！阅读文章 > 视频版：① 软件介绍 当视频在手机上无法加载，可前往PC查看。 一、软件介绍： 1. 软件 Glyphs 是干嘛的？ Glyphs 是一款 Mac 平台上的字
UISDC ↗
Similarsites超好用！一键搜索相似网站的神器
大家好，这里为大家推荐神器的花生~ 不知道大家有没有和我一样的经历：经常访问的网站很不错，那如何找到类似的网站；之前收藏的网站突然打不开，不得不重新寻找新的替代网站；或是想找的资源在这个网站里没有，想看看有没有类似的网站能找到。但想找相似网站也不是容易的事情——用百度搜索后需要一个个翻看没有相关的推荐，即使有，等打开网站后却又发现并不符合自己的需求，总之就是十分耗费时间和精力。 如果你也有同样的烦恼，那一定要看今天推荐的相似网站免费搜索神器「Similarsites」，它能帮我们一键查找到多个相似网站，并且准确度非常的高，可以有效提升我们的资源搜寻效率。 AI时代设计师如何跟上发展？优设导航帮
UISDC ↗
Mobile-First CSS: Is It Time for a Rethink?
The mobile-first design methodology is great—it focuses on what really matters to the user, it’s well-practiced, and it’s been a common design pattern for years. So developing your CSS mobile-first should also be great, too…right? Well, not necessarily. Classic mobile-first CSS development is based on the principle of overwriting style declarations: you begin your CSS with default style declarations, and overwrite and/or add new styles as you add breakpoints with min-width media queries for lar
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Designers, (Re)define Success First
About two and a half years ago, I introduced the idea of daily ethical design. It was born out of my frustration with the many obstacles to achieving design that’s usable and equitable; protects people’s privacy, agency, and focus; benefits society; and restores nature. I argued that we need to overcome the inconveniences that prevent us from acting ethically and that we need to elevate design ethics to a more practical level by structurally integrating it into our daily work, processes, and too
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Breaking Out of the Box
CSS is about styling boxes. In fact, the whole web is made of boxes, from the browser viewport to elements on a page. But every once in a while a new feature comes along that makes us rethink our design approach. Round displays, for example, make it fun to play with circular clip areas. Mobile screen notches and virtual keyboards offer challenges to best organize content that stays clear of them. And dual screen or foldable devices make us rethink how to best use available space in a number of d
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How to Sell UX Research with Two Simple Questions
Do you find yourself designing screens with only a vague idea of how the things on the screen relate to the things elsewhere in the system? Do you leave stakeholder meetings with unclear directives that often seem to contradict previous conversations? You know a better understanding of user needs would help the team get clear on what you are actually trying to accomplish, but time and budget for research is tight. When it comes to asking for more direct contact with your users, you might feel li
A List Apart ↗
A Content Model Is Not a Design System
Do you remember when having a great website was enough? Now, people are getting answers from Siri, Google search snippets, and mobile apps, not just our websites. Forward-thinking organizations have adopted an omnichannel content strategy, whose mission is to reach audiences across multiple digital channels and platforms. But how do you set up a content management system (CMS) to reach your audience now and in the future? I learned the hard way that creating a content model—a definition of conte
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