Smart Interface Design Patterns

Children are rarely invited to take part in design.

Stakeholder interviews aren't just about gathering requirements or aligning expectations.

What icon is the most reliable to show expansion and collapsing for accordions?

Big-bang legacy relaunch is usually the worst way to improve legacy UX.

There's been a lot of confusion and panic this week about "huge fines", "drastic measures" and "sweeping new AI rules" in the EU.

Chances are high that you are working on a challenging, complex product.

What's the real source of truth in your design system — the components in Figma, or the code in Storybook?

AI-generated prototypes often don't deliver consistently decent results because of tiny inconsistencies scattered all across a design system.

When you work in B2B or Enterprise, typically you can't freely speak about a project you've spent years on — not the client, not the findings, not a single screenshot.

Every other week I hear from colleagues that they've just had their first job interview run entirely by AI.

There's so much talk about AI and productivity these days.

Many companies silently assume that everybody wants more AI in their lives.

Not every modal is the same.

Good design needs a good taste and a strong point of view.

How do we display data in our products?

Earlier this week I was pointed towards Jamie Mill's excellent new Free Product Design Skills AI Pack, a helpful little AI skills pack to direct AI tools to walk through all seven layers of product design, so the decisions underneath the screen actually g…

Many companies think they know fairly well what their users want and need, and how they make their decisions.

Imagine that you need to improve the UX of a legacy system.

We often see design principles as rigid guidelines that dictate design decisions.

We often assume that the safest way to build user trust is through transparency.

So we design and ship a shiny new feature.

As designers, often we can't speed up interactions for technical reasons.

So what's the difference between combobox, multiselect, listbox and dropdown?

Design is often an exercise in resilience.

Many brainstorming sessions are an avalanche of unstructured ideas.

Meet Inclusive Design Patterns For 2025, a free 3h 30mins-workshop with yours truly on accessibility — with all videos, slides and examples, recorded yesterday.

As the new year begins, I often find myself in a strange place — reflecting back at the previous year, or looking forward at the year ahead.

When we think about people who are deaf, we often assume stereotypes, such as "disabled" older adults with hearing aids.

You've been there before.

Many dashboards aren't actionable enough to be useful.

A while back I stumbled upon an honest, practical guide on how to scale a design team in a high-growth company, including a team's evolution, roles, meetings, processes and systems.

Many years ago, I assumed that simply by doing good design work, my efforts would be noticed, my work recognized, my attention to detail appreciated — and then surely I would get noticed, resulting in some sort of a promotion, or new projects, or more imp…

For years, "UX strategy" felt like a confusing, ambiguous and overloaded term to me.

In the early days of my career, I believed that nothing wins an argument more effectively than strong and unbiased research.

Friendly note: get a friendly UX bundle for Smart Interface Design Patterns 🍣 and Measuring UX 🍎 — with live UX training coming up.

UX research doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming.

When talking about job interviews for a UX position, we often discuss how to leave an incredible impression and how to negotiate the right salary.

Friendly note: get a friendly UX bundle for Smart Interface Design Patterns 🍣 and Measuring UX 🍎 — with live UX training coming up.

Friendly note: get a friendly UX bundle for Smart Interface Design Patterns 🍣 and Measuring UX 🍎 — with live UX training coming up.

In times when we are figuring out how to design AI interfaces, it’s important to stay focused on what truly matters — people.

You can find techniques for UX strategy in Measure UX 🧭 — with live UX training later this year.

Earlier today I stumbled again upon a wonderful short piece on Sad Truths On What It’s Like To Be A Designer by Michael McWatter.

In many companies, data, findings and insights are all used interchangibly.

So we want to set up a new design system for our product.

Think about your past projects.

🔥 UX & Design Files Organization Template (Google Doc + .zip-file), with an overview of little helpers to neatly organize UX assets in sensible folders ↓ UX & Design Files Organization Template, by Courtney Pester Full folder structure template (Google Do…

When you design an interface, which pronouns do you usually use to address your users?

When it comes to URLs, there’s a common assumption that most people don’t pay attention to them.

With AI upon us, companies have recently been turning their attention to “synthetic” user testing — AI-driven research that replaces UX research.

User journey maps are a remarkably effective way to visualize user’s experience for the entire team.