Articles

Here's me roasting the very first ChatGPT user interface you see when you sign up, and showing you how I would make it better. 

Good design doesn't have to be expensive or difficult. Paying attention to some simple rules and using the tools available to you can make all the difference.

What happens to product design when we start including LLM/AI in apps from the ground-up? What do designers need to consider when moving beyond simple veneers over chatbots, or quick-and-dirty integrations with existing apps? 

The lexicon of UX is peppered with terms like pain, frustration, sentiment and delight, and we build mood maps to capture what users are feeling.

Why is emotion so valuable to UX, and how can you understand and take account of it?

Plugins to AI have the potential to perform highly advanced tasks based on a mere text prompt. What are the implications for a team researching and designing user interfaces? 

You are not your designs. They do not embody you. Learn to let go.

In this article, I want to share three important lessons I’ve learned over the years spent designing digital products.

When explaining my job, I tend to say I’m a product designer for software, but even then I still get some blank looks. But I may have stumbled on an analogy which most people will understand. 

You've probably heard the mantra - don’t give the user what they ask for, give them what they need. 

Here’s a practical example of why that matters, taken from my own daily life. Hopefully it’s relatable.

There is no right or wrong with UX, but there is an overwhelming supply of opinions on the internet about how you should proceed.

Guess what - it doesn't matter. Here's how to get back to design purity and ignore the noise.

Transport for London are updating the world-famous tube map, replacing one overground line with six (hopefully) distinct threads.

In this article, I discuss the potential benefits and drawbacks from a user perspective.

We haven't yet reached the point where you're asked to give feedback about your experience of giving feedback, but surely that can't be too far away. 

This article tells my story of encountering a feedback form which literally prevents you using an app.

Although UX research and design are now accepted industry practice, specialisms in UX roles are yet to be universal. 

This article introduces the concepts of 'focused' and 'diversified' UX specialist roles, giving several examples of each.

It’s all well and good measuring statistics and KPIs for your product, but how do you combine that with other factors to deliver a clear and simple measurement of the effectiveness of your UX efforts?

An interesting new opportunity has emerged in recent times. Or an existential threat to UX design. Right now, it’s hard to tell which it is. AI bot plugins are definitely going to change UX; here’s how I think it might play out.

Stereotyping users isn't always helpful, but there are some shared behaviours users exhibit when you're explaining your product to them. Here's how to recognise 3 of the most common, and how to account for - or even take advantage of - them.