Design

Ever been in a house so nice, you’d like to settle down there for a month...or more? A well-designed product is like that. It’s appealing. It’s functional as heck. And it makes you want to linger for a long time. From UI to UX to teardowns, here are our hard-earned tips on creating this experience

How design helped a cyber security company condense millions of data points onto one intuitive screen

And how that helps the company evolve, differentiate, and deliver even more customer value.

How design helped a cyber security app increase DAU by 62%

Great design isn’t a nice-to-have in the competitive cyber security market. Here’s how it helped one of our clients gain a serious advantage.

What is digital product design? How to boost revenue, retain customers, and build your brand

Design is about way more than making pretty screens. And if you do it well, it can deliver benefits like keep customers, differentiate your startup, and boost your bottom line.

5 examples of no-code prototypes: Invision, spreadsheets, and more

There are plenty of ways to build a prototype without touching any code at all. In this post, we’ve collected five examples (using tools like Invision and Excel) for you to draw inspiration from.

Custom integrations are a total headache. Here's why they're worth it.

What an integration is, how it works, and benefits you probably haven't thought of. If you're non-technical and considering an integration, here's everything you need to know.

Write Your API With UX in Mind

You probably write bad APIs. I’m not saying that to be offensive or inflammatory. I’m saying it because writing good APIs is really hard. Like really, really, ridiculously hard. Take a couple seconds to count the number of APIs you have used that were intuitive and easy to work with. My list fits comfortably on one hand: Stripe, Twilio, and v2 of Sendgrid’s mail API. So you probably don’t write good APIs. If you did, my list would be a whole lot bigger.

Don't Be Bashful: A Designer's Intro to Bash

For anyone who’s new to the command line, starting from scratch can cause the kind of intense fears and paranoia typically reserved for found footage horror films and clown conventions. But worry not. Once you know a few key commands, you’ll be up and running in no time like a true Bash champion.

How to bot... a UX teardown of the Botcamp application

Last night around 3 a.m., I was doing some research into chatbots and the bot ecosystem. Why? Because yesterday I started working on building a bot for an upcoming blog post and I have an addictive personality. On a whim I decided to apply to the Betaworks Botcamp program. Naturally, you apply to Botcamp through a chatbot (how many times am I going to use the word bot in this post?*). So today I thought it would be fun to do a quick UX teardown of their application.

Finding inspiration sitting on the can

How often do you go to the bathroom? If you don’t have health issues and are being honest, your answer is probably every day. When you interact with something that often, it can be difficult to notice brilliant design when you see it, but that’s exactly where I found a bit of great design the other day.

How to use Snapchat for design critique

Yes, that Snapchat. You may be wondering how in the world Snapchat can be used for anything other than sending selfies and showing your friends what you’re eating, which song you’re singing along to in the car and the band you’re watching.

Take it like a designer: How to get the most out of a design critique

Last week, I wrote about how to give an effective design critique. This week, I’m turning it around and focusing on how to get the most out of a design critique. Getting feedback on your work takes time, so you need to make sure you’re making the most of it. Follow these guidelines and you’ll be well on your way to making the best use of design critiques.