Tagux

🔖 Designing in the open (archive) by Kjell Reigstad

When participating in conversations on open source project your technical background or history in the company doesn’t matter as much as how you conduct yourself and the value you provide in the discussion.

With open source work you have to let strangers look at your initial sketches. This forces you to articulate and present your work better — clearly explaining ideas and anticipating questions.

By designing in the open you expose yourself to multiple perspectives and ultimately the work is better for it.

🔖 Building empathy in a product team (archive)

Product teams should always keep their customers in mind so that the changes they make doesn’t affect UX negatively. Ideas about making changes to the product should be based on empathy, not assumptions. Empathy means:

  • Understanding the users perspective
  • Not placing blame, rather understanding the cause of the problem
  • Realizing the emotional impact of the problem

While design researchers can communicate some of this, real empathy is felt by seeing users interact with the product first-hand. This empathy leads to a shared understanding of the problem and a motivation to work towards a common goal.