Viewpoint

Making good component design decisions in react when it’s hard to see how an existing component can still be reused

Disney’s 12 Principles of Animation is one of the inestimable guides when traditional animations are considered. It was put forth by Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their book – The Illusion of Life. These principles were originally designed for traditional animations like character animations. However, these principles can still be applied in designing interface animations. So, this is just… Read More ￫

Design is no longer subjective. Data rules our world now. We’re told all design decisions must be validated by user feedback or business success metrics. Analytics are measuring the design effectiveness of every tweak and change we make. If it can’t be proven to work in a prototype, A/B test, or MVP, it’s not worth trying at all. In this… Read More ￫

When you think about the best websites, apps, and designs you have ever seen you will probably think of designs with a western structure. But have you thought about how the same website would look for an Arabic audience? Designing for an Arabic audience is not just about translating. A language is not only a way to express ideas for… Read More ￫

What is conversational design? The concept of conversational design is about looking at human conversation as a model for all interactions with digital systems. Using the principles of what makes everyday human interactions productive, it’s possible to create a better and more natural dialogue with systems. The conversation is how humans interact with one another — any two strangers who… Read More ￫

Most of the times we think as complexity as something bad. And I tended to fall in that pitfall myself. Until one day when I was having a conversation with a product manager, and he was showing me how the flight schedule of Schipol Airport in Amsterdam was organised. He was showing me all the tables and data, and how… Read More ￫

The saying that “good design is obvious” is pretty damn old, and I am sure it took different shapes in the previous centuries. It referred to good food, music, architecture, clothes, philosophy and everything else. We forget that the human mind changes slowly, and the knowledge you have about human behaviour will not go old for at least 50 years… Read More ￫

As a general rule, to build something great is not about more hours and resources thrown at a problem, but less bullshit. I tended to believe that with all technological advancement, we will work less, smarter and better. But with years it seems that we add more mass to our process and decision making which in the end is reflected… Read More ￫

Mechanical keyboard — considered one of the best types of keyboards due to its tactile feedback. Ever watch people entering an elevator and repeatedly push the Up button? Or repeatedly push the pedestrian button at a street crossing? Or hit a refresh button many times because the loading bar keeps spinning and nothing happens? What is missing in all these… Read More ￫

Richard Thaler, the Nobel Prize winning economist, talks about a mythical species that is real only to an economist. The Homo Economicus — he calls them Econ for short. An Econ is an extremely rational being and believes in maximizing utility with every decision they make. This is what a prototypical Econ looks and behaves like: I believe when we… Read More ￫

‘How do people actually use our product?’ is a fundamental question that every product creator must answer. In order to answer this question, product designers need to understand the essence of the whole experience from the user’s perspective. User journey mapping is an excellent exercise that can shed light on that. What is a user journey map? A user journey… Read More ￫

As designers, we are all problem solvers. And from the view of building out the problem space, there are different roles to perform. Exact details can vary depending on your team and the project, and the following is a general definition of these roles. As a Lead Designer, you are expected to discover a new problem seed and lead others… Read More ￫