Why users “like” or “don’t like” something — should you care?
Rockstar designer, UX designers versus software developers, a Uber case study, and more!
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[ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS]
Why I no longer care what people “like” or “don’t like”
I got click-bailed by this article again because I’m like, “whutttttt?!”
But there’s a strong takeaway: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING.
- Physical context
- Social context
- Internal context
- Technical context
- Task context
- Temporal context
You want to ask your users questions to understand where they are coming from with their response to why they like or dislike something. Sometimes, you may need to guide your users to where you want them to be — that might mean asking them what stands out to them first, what their feelings are looking at it, what might be missing, and where things might have fallen short.
[SOMETHING FUN]
When you are the only rockstar designer in a startup
[UX QUOTE]
“You can find more problems in half a day than you can fix in a month”
- Steve Krug, a quote from Rocket Surgery Made Easy
[WATCH THIS]
Questions we get asked…
You know you’re getting old when you watch TikTok videos on Youtube instead of TikTok… But at least I don’t have to make an account and get all my personal data stolen 🤡
Anywho, people like to know the difference between UX Designers and Software Engineers, and chunbuns delivered.
[ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS]
7 steps to become a UI/UX designer
Tips and resources to help you get started (from 2017 but lots of still relevant content)
- Familiarize yourself with UI principles
- Learn the creative UX process
- Develop your eye for design
- Read design articles everyday
- Design fake projects
- Learn the latest web design tools
- Mentor and get mentored
[BOOK RECO]
A More Beautiful Question
How can we get better at asking the right questions in order to solve the right problems? I turned to this lovely book which promises just that.
When starting any design project, you’ll have many questions on your mind. The problem you’re thinking about might not be the same as what your users are encountering.
I learned from this book that good questions:
- Encourage respondents to answer beyond single-worded responses like ‘yes’ or ‘no’.
- Offer users the ability to tell a story and describe their experience
Check out A More Beautiful Question to enhance this core life skill.
[DESIGN TOOL]
Build your team a file automation plugin in Figma
This one’s for advanced Figma users & teams.
Designer Josh Hardwood explored how to roll your own file automation plugin to do stuff like the following:
- Create your document page structure
- Insert a cover component with dynamic user information and date
- Insert an optional page heading component, with title and description
This would simplify your setup process so you can jump into designing versus manually setting up your Figma file each time. Can be a big time saver, especially for larger design teams that need to stay consistent.
[DESIGN CASE STUDY SPOTLIGHT]
Perfecting the Pickup
Designer: Simon Pan
Case Study: Perfecting the Pickup
This case study is about how Uber transformed from a black car service for 100 friends in San Francisco to a global transportation network.
Why this case study is awesome:
- Screen evolution — you can see the changes that improved Uber through the years
- Designer involvement — Simon explains who was a part of the team and how long the project was worked on
- Research and details — there’s an overwhelming amount of research and detail written in this case study… Just WOW.
Simon Pan previously worked as a designer on Uber and Amazon Prime Music. This case study about Uber was super extensive and you get to learn so much about all the different decision-making points that go into the known and loved app today.
Since it was so long, it’d be lovely if there was a way to return to the top of the case study page or have a floating size nav with the sections hyperlinked. I had to scroll a bunch to skim through the content!
