October 2018 Inside Design Articles

New DSM documentation and usability features to scale your design system

Oct 31, 2018 — Today, we’re excited to announce a host of new features for Design System Manager, from giving more detail and structure to your usage documentation, to helping designers work faster and use the design system even more efficiently.

5 expert product strategists answering big questions

Oct 31, 2018 — In my own journey to becoming a better product leader, learning product strategy has been the hardest part, and I found myself turning to mentors and experts to answer questions—that now I’m going to share with you.

Lightning Design Jams: the exercise that will solve all of your problems

Oct 31, 2018 — his is a magical workshop exercise that you can use for basically anything, with any amount of people. Seriously. The Lightning Design Jam is an incredibly flexible combination of activities, taking the best of the world’s problem-solving processes and crushing them down to their absolute essence.

Making the most out of designer networking events

Oct 30, 2018 — Networking doesn’t have to be hard! Here are a few tips for designers to make the most of networking events.

Why all prototyping is rapid prototyping

Oct 30, 2018 — Learn how to use prototypes to save time and reduce friction in the digital product creation process.

10 Halloween costumes only designers will understand

Oct 29, 2018 — This year, will you go as a design sprinter, zombie stakeholder, or Party Parrot?

How to hire a UX writer

Oct 26, 2018 — There is no clear pathway into a UX writing role. UX writing as a discipline is still in a nascent stage. People come into it from different angles. Apart from years of experience, there’s no definition in the field for hiring managers to gauge the right profile for a UX writer on their team. Here’s what I suggest.

How I changed my mindset to go from freelancer to business owner

Oct 26, 2018 — When I started working for myself in 2014, I didn’t consider myself a business owner; I thought of myself as someone who wanted to pursue my passion on my own terms. The only problem was that I didn’t have a mentor to show me the ropes, which proved to be a blessing and a curse. To save you from making the same mistakes, here’s what I suggest.

5 of the latest trends in UX design

Oct 25, 2018 — UX design is always evolving. From dangerous trends to delightful design, there’s always something new to try. UX design trends also benefit from the fast-paced technology industry, pushing designers to think about UX in new ways. With all the exciting advances made in 2018, here are the five latest trends in UX design.

The DesignBetter.Co library: now available for free download

Oct 24, 2018 — A first-class design education is more convenient than ever: the entire DesignBetter.Co library is now available in ePub format. Download our entire collection of definitive books and explore how the world’s best companies approach product design, design thinking, design leadership, and more.

Halloween design thinking for grumpy children

Oct 23, 2018 — My daughter Jane was suffering from a problem: She couldn’t figure out what she wanted to be for Halloween and had lost hope that she’d ever come up with something. She felt discouraged, downhearted, and stuck. Lucky for Jane, her mom is a User Experience professional. Design Thinking to the rescue!

4 types of research methods all designers should know

Oct 22, 2018 — Design research is a critical step in creating the best user experience. It helps you understand your customers’ behavior and turn it into actionable insights to improve your design. There’s an endless number of ways to collect customer data. Here are four of the most common research methods designers should know.

How Whimsical developed their brand identity

Oct 22, 2018 — In January of this year, I had the exciting opportunity to design the entire brand identity of our new startup, Whimsical. We were starting from scratch: We needed a logo, a color palette, a marketing site, app design. The list goes on. What follows is the journey we took to find our unique look and style.

You’ve been doing design sprints since middle school

Oct 19, 2018 — Design sprints (and the more recent Design Sprint 2.0) use the design thinking process to clearly define goals, validate assumptions, […]

A guide to the Golden Ratio for designers

Oct 19, 2018 — There is a concrete, mathematical approach that can help us get one step closer to creating amazing design experiences every time: the Golden Ratio. In this article, we’ll dive into what the Golden Ratio is, how to calculate it, and how to use it in design. We’ll also share some tools to help you use the Golden Ratio.

10 Halloween costumes only people in tech will understand

Oct 18, 2018 — Will you go as an angel investor, social media czar, or the office dog?

Your skills aren’t enough anymore

Oct 16, 2018 — There’s a certain belief within the design and creative communities: because you have a certain set of skills, you’re insulated from learning unrelated disciplines that could enhance your output. That’s just not the world we live in anymore. If you’re a creative or a producer, you can’t get away with avoiding the realities of your work. Your skills are simply not enough on their own.

Scaling design teams: lessons learned from AT&T and Home Depot

Oct 16, 2018 — Organizations across the world are recognizing how crucial design is to business success. This has led to a rapid growth of design teams. The question on every organization’s mind is, how can you scale a design team? Aarron Walter, InVision’s leader of Design Education, brought in Andrea Sutton from AT&T and Cliff Sexton from Home Depot to share some advice.

Crafting a brand identity post-acquisition

Oct 15, 2018 — Our brand was retired when our company was acquired last year, so how did we persuade the business to invest time in creating a new brand identity? How did our team shift from a reactive state to owning our brand strategy? What techniques did we use along the way? We’ll walk you through our process of crafting our brand identity.

An interactive episode of ‘Black Mirror’ is coming

Oct 12, 2018 — Is it time for interactive TV to become a mainstream experience?

Untangling wicked digital problems

Oct 12, 2018 — The digital world has created its own unique set of wicked problems: issues that plague teams no matter the size of the budget. There are four key wicked problems, and while each is a problem on its own, when all four come together, it’s a recipe for catastrophe. Read along to learn more.

Meet the new InVision mobile app

Oct 12, 2018 — Now with Studio mirroring and Freehand on mobile and tablet to help you design better, faster, together—on the go.

Making Houzz a home for flexible design

Oct 12, 2018 — ouzz is the world’s largest home remodeling and design platform, engaging more than 40 million unique monthly users and over […]

Jake Knapp encourages purpose over productivity in Make Time

Oct 11, 2018 — Author Jake Knapp talks to the DesignBetter.Co Podcast about his new book, Make Time, in which he encourages using design sprint thinking to focus on purpose over productivity in your life.

How Gap Inc. learns by using fast feedback

Oct 11, 2018 — What’s Gap Inc.’s design superpower? Learning with fast feedback helps Gap Inc. experiment and iterate, creating great experiences for their customers, both online and in-store.

Dunkin’ drops ‘Donuts’ in recent rebrand

Oct 10, 2018 — The new branding will officially roll out in January 2019.

Flippers aren’t about swimming: Innovating with Jobs to be Done

Oct 10, 2018 — For many product managers and UXers, Jobs Theory makes powerful arguments that disruptive product innovation prioritizes first discovering and solving a Job to be Done. Which brings me back to the flippers.

Creatives: How much does what you wear to work matter?

Oct 9, 2018 — We spoke with several women designers about how they use personal style strategically in their work lives, what challenges they face, and how perceptions of workwear differ for corporate designers on the East and West Coasts.

Jake Knapp – Make Time

Oct 9, 2018 — What if you could set aside a distraction-free space to accomplish one meaningful thing in your life each day? How […]

Learn from Jake Knapp: The keys to a great presentation

Oct 9, 2018 — These days, it’s not enough these days to just be a great designer. You’re often also expected to champion your case, at a minimum to your own company. For those dedicated to the future of design, you may need to do so in front of others as well. So what makes a great designer a great presenter? It has less to do with slide graphics than you might think. Read along as Jake Knapp teaches us how to be great presenters.

How to turn your day job into your dream job

Oct 5, 2018 — There’s an easier way to find career happiness without leaving the job you already have. It’s called job crafting. The idea is that you can “craft,” or redefine, your job to incorporate your motives, strengths, and passions and make the most out of the position you do have. Read along to learn more about job crafting and how to make the most of it.

Steal these ideas from the Sprout Social design team

Oct 5, 2018 — We sat down with the team to hear about their day-to-day, the best way to get buy-in, and how to run meetings that don’t suck.

How to give designers feedback they can actually use

Oct 4, 2018 — Design leaders from Uber, Reddit, Zendesk, and more share their best advice for giving constructive, actionable feedback.

5 UX job ads that will help you hire great designers

Oct 4, 2018 — How can you avoid the problems that come from bad hires? It all starts with the job description, and for specialized roles like UX designers, it’s even more important to paint the right picture with your job description. Here are some tips and examples that should help.

Cutting the jargon out of your creative work

Oct 2, 2018 — In UX and creative circles, we tend to use jargon more often than not. It’s getting in the way of bringing new people into the fold and collaborating effectively. I fear we’re getting to the point where UX jargon is becoming a stand-in for actual knowledge. Read on for my suggestions about eliminating jargon in creative work.

Mailchimp’s new, whimsical look

Oct 1, 2018 — Freddie looks dashing in Cavendish Yellow.

Next stop, Sydney: InVision is coming to APAC

Oct 1, 2018 — Digital transformation and the focus on designing great digital product experiences continues to be a global phenomenon. The Asia Pacific region is no exception. That’s why we’re putting roots down in the area and have established a regional hub in Sydney, Australia.

How to start your UX career as a student

Oct 1, 2018 — You’re a college student, and you’ve heard about UX design: a career that lets you find and solve problems in a way that’s never boring. Luckily for us, UX design is a career that’s in high demand. Read on for a few steps that could make the path to UX designer a bit smoother.