📰 3 DESIGN ARTICLES
Why UX Generalists Are a Great Design Solution
- Product designer Pedro Canhenha delves into the rising importance of the UX generalist, detailing how their ability to handle various design aspects, from research to UI, becomes especially valuable in newer companies and those undergoing digital transformations.
- Arguing that continuous learning and adaptation are crucial in a rapidly evolving technological landscape, being a generalist allows designers to be more agile and meet these challenges appropriately.
- “I’d define a UX Design Generalist as a professional who is able to understand and tackle any of the domains that shape the design discipline and practice to be what it is. Meaning, these are professionals who can tackle various solutioning challenges, and understand the roles.”
Become the Manager Your Design Team Needs
- Ken Ouellette, Design Director at Adobe, investigates the evolution from being an individual contributor to a manager within the design industry, highlighting the nuanced responsibilities of fostering team growth and autonomy.
- Ouellette explores the transition into management, the challenges of balancing personal success metrics with focusing on team output, and the importance of cultivating a supportive environment for creative teams.
- “Over the years I've learned that management isn't telling people what they should do or controlling the process of their work, it's helping them evolve and find new ways to be successful. By helping people grow in their creative careers, good managers can build design teams that grow, thrive, and positively affect the product development process.”
Paying More for the Same Purchase?
- UX consultant Peter Ramsey examines how user flows can manipulate pricing to essentially trick consumers into paying more for the same product through purposefully obscured add-ons or fees.
- The article encourages careful consideration when making purchases, reminding users that comparison tables of pricing tier perks or text positioning something as “the best deal available” is often just used to drive towards a more expensive option.
- “Two passengers, same flight, identical seats—yet they’ve paid completely different prices. Why? Because booking platforms use strategic bundling and add-ons to upsell and manipulate your choices.”
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
Jane Kim, a UX Academy graduate, brings bold visuals and playful branding to her responsive redesign work for doggie daycare company Pant Dog Center, where she also adds a layer of user ease by adapting the desktop screens for mobile use. With her end-to-end Opal, she brings to life a graphic design app that centers accessibility, allowing users to easily create content that automatically highlights poor color contrast, hard-to-read text, and more.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- How The Sims Influenced a Generation of Creatives
- Pro Tips For Redesigning Your Career
- Fonts From the Future
- The City as Interface
The more that I deal with the work as something that is my own, as something personal, the more successful it is. — Marian Bantjes (designer and author)
🧪 FROM THE LAB
👞Take the First Step to a UX Design Career on Monday
Our March cohort of UX Academy Foundations launches this coming Monday, March 10th. In this beginner-friendly course you’ll learn visual and UI design basics, gain proficiency with Figma, and fully prepare yourself for admission into UX Academy. The course includes eight 1:1 sessions with an experienced design mentor to make sure you’re supported every step of the way. Seats are limited. Enroll now.
🚀 Other Courses Launching Soon
Prototyping in Figma (Launching 3/14):
- Perfect for: Experienced designers looking to leverage Figma’s advanced prototyping features more effectively
- You’ll learn: How to rightsize your prototypes, work with interaction design in Figma, create seamless animations, streamline developer hand-off, and more
- Course length: Four weeks
Data-Driven Design (Launching 3/14):
- Perfect for: Experienced designers who want to grow their confidence working with data and metrics
- You’ll learn: How to run better experiments, use data to strengthen your design recommendations, present with data, and more.
- Course length: Six weeks
🎤 Upcoming Design Event
Join Monday, March 17th at 6pm ET for "Design as Strategy: From Established Brands to Innovative Startups". Led by Designlab mentor and entrepreneur, Sam Clark, will discuss how design serves as a core part of business, not just a visual layer.
She'll share practical examples from her work with large tech brands like Google and Apple as well as in-house examples from direct-to-consumer brands and her new YC startup, Pointhound, showing how strategic design thinking directly impacts business growth and user engagement.
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