Links

1. The Art of Storytelling

   Julie Zhuo talks of the power of story telling, timing and understanding people.

2. Unicorns don’t exist. Generalists do.

   Emmet Connolly from Intercom explains the merits of generalist and specialist designers and who and when to add to your team.

3. The User’s Journey

   Donna Lichaw describes the process of story mapping to discover the “why” of user behaviour and validate design hypothesis.

4. Five reasons why design sprints are the best way to kick off a new product initiative

   Joshua Porter explains the value of research, divergent and convergent design, prototyping and usability testing over an intensive five day design sprint.

5. 8 common dysfunctions of design teams—and what to do about them

   John Zeratsky highlights common dysfunctional practices within design teams and how to go about changing the team culture to build better products.

6. Incomplete List of Mistakes in the Design of CSS

   After battling for roughly two hours with z-index on a responsive navigation layout this list of CSSWG mistakes makes me feel slightly better.

7. Color vs. Contrast

   Piotr Koczorowski explains effectiveness of contrasts in UI design.

8. Outcomes, not outputs

   Ben Sauer on leaving solutions assumptions and baggage at the door, addressing the change not the thing, and suggests how we as designers can stay focused. There’s also a mountain bike analogy, so it ticks all the boxes.

9. The 5 UI States

   Scott Hurff breaks down the five UI states and how, when designed cohesively, it can lead to better user interfaces and experiences.

10. Lowering the barriers

    Charlotte Spencer gives advice on lowing the entry point for your open source projects.