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To members of my Slack community, this will not come as a huge surprise (if you wanna join, just click this link - it's free and we're friendly), but I'm leaving Substack.

Why?

This year I finally made the decision to invest in my brand by doing what I should have done a long time ago, hiring a brand designer. This is still very much in progress (although you can see a sample in the header of this email), but it has made me evaluate my brand and what it ultimately stands for. What my values are (I love these from Offscreen).

Thinking about what makes me, well, me and what I enjoy about running my own business has made me reconsider a couple of things. I was also reminded of this post that I wrote on May 12, 2015 - nearly eight years ago. I'm sure this is a new post for some of you, so be sure to check it out. I think it still holds up!

Hello!

I can’t believe January is almost over and this is the first time I’m emailing you in 2023. I’ve been busy? I think we both know that is an excuse, but a poor one. I’ve started working with Loom, which is a lot of fun. It’s also a product that I’m trying to incorporate more and more in my work. Perhaps next time I’ll include a loom for all of you! If I did, what would you like me to cover?

This week’s post highlights some interesting thoughts I’ve had recently about how design systems are so vital to the success of products we use today and how the lack of them in the past definitely got in the way of great solutions. BUT. A design system isn’t a magic bullet. It’s not going to make you more organized or effecient by itself. Think of a a design system like a calendar or a tool like Notion. Sure, they can help you be more organized and efficient but, they can also create an even bigger mess!

Hi!

The year is coming to an end, and I’m, like everyone else, it seems, down with the flu.

Jay Acunzo @jayacunzo

Everyone I know has the flu, covid, RSV, or no kids.

10:30 PM ∙ Dec 16, 2022

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23,791Likes1,677Retweets

As those of you who have been around a bit know, I always like to share a year-end message with you all. This year has certainly been an adventure through work, life, and experiences that have helped me stay true to many things dear to me. Take a look at this post (or scroll down) to learn more about my year and get a peek at a few pictures - including my new puppy, Taylor!

Hello,

It’s December, and just a week ago, we lived in a winter wonderland, but we’re long back to the usual South of Sweden winters with rain and constant gloom. I’ve been watching season 2 of The White Lotus, dreaming myself away to Sicily.

Here’s something that I’ve been thinking of lately, also available on my blog.

Read online

Hey!

As you may know, I always tend to tweak and tinkle with the newsletter and its structure. So this will be one of those emails without a major new post, but instead, some of my unfinished thinking. Throughout my career, I’ve found that some of the best things stem from voicing unfinished thinking aloud.

This brings me to this quote from Sir Jony Ive that I recently read:

I wrote my first post on this blog on April 9, 2013. To put it in perspective, that’s nearly a decade, and I’ve published an article at least once a month. Perhaps it’s not strange then that I occasionally think I’ve run out of things to write about. But even if that IS true, it doesn’t mean there’s nothing new to tell. So for the coming weeks - or even months! - I’m going to try something new. Rather than me doing all the thinking and talking, I want to invite people I work with, people I admire, to share their thinking. You see, I’ve been fortunate to work with some insanely smart people with views on many different topics. So I invited them to tell me - and you - more about their work through their unique and valuable lens.

Another reason I want to do this is actuation because of one of my most popular posts. In “Working as a UX Lead”, I was able to share what I do and how I approach doing it. I’ve heard from others who had recently been promoted to UX Lead that it can be pretty ‘muddy’ as to the expectations of the role, even for the company they’re working for! So these next couple of posts will be me talking candidly to people about their role(s) and what that actually means to them and their companies. First out of the gate is Matthew Woo, Head of Product and Co-Founder at Summer Health. I’ve been fortunate enough to work alongside Matthew for the last few months, and he embodies something that I rarely experience. If you make a venn diagram of really smart people and really empathic people - Matthew is in the center of that diagram. Read on!

Hi!

First of all, apologies for not being able to share the interview with Matthew Woo yet. The reason is quite simple, we’ve been very busy with Summer Health, so we’ve had to reschedule our call on a couple of occasions. But this does allow you to still email me questions! Find out more here.

I wanted to share two things that have been going through my mind lately.

1. I’m currently reading “How the Future Works” and I’m really enjoying it. I’m trying to get back into reading (again) so every evening ends with (at least) 10 minutes of reading. Anyway. One thing that I’ve thought about, and the book highlights this as well, in regards to remote work, flexible work, WFH - call it what you will - is that it’s not primarily about where you work, but when you work. The thing that most of us truly enjoy about not having to go to an office is the freedom it gives our schedules. Yesterday I went grocery shopping in the middle of the day. Today I was at the gym at 11 am. We’ve been fixated on the location when it’s actually more about breaking free from the 9-5.

2. One thing that I enjoy with being back on Substack is that there are better possibilities to interact with you. Well, primarily perhaps for you to interact with me (so if you like my writing, please ‘like’ a post every now and then - I’m thirsting for validation just like the next man). Cameron replied and sent an interesting question a couple of weeks ago:

   
   My question is how do you see the Product Designer’s toolkit evolving in the next 10 years or so? Do you think 3D design will become more and more prioritized in digital contexts with the advances in VR and AR technologies?
   
   First of all, I think with the speed things are progressing today, 10 years is an impossible time frame to give any kind of realistic POV on. As for 3D design, I think it’s going to impact visual designers more than product designers. What I do think product designers will have to think about more though is z-index/depth with more and more devices and surfaces to consider. This will surely impact product designers - not their toolkit but certainly their mind!

   
   I enjoyed the question so wanted to share a more thoughtful reply here (and hear your thoughts).

Hello!

First, a disclaimer: You may notice I’m back on Substack. I’ve been using the Substack app more and more recently, and I’m becoming more and more impressed with the quality and focus of their tools. When I moved my list back into Substack, there may have been some overlap, so my apologies to anyone who recently unsubscribed and still gets this email. For your convenience, I wanted to include a big Unsubscribe button here, but Substack won’t let me. But if you don’t want to hear from me ever again, just scroll to the bottom of this email and hit unsubscribe.

Still here? Nice! I love you too.

One of the most common questions I’ve been getting lately is this: “What is the difference between UX design and Product design?”. It’s a great question that I found surprisingly difficult to answer. So I thought I would try something new! I’ve decided to try and answer the question with a client of mine who has a TON of experience in product design, Matthew Woo. Matthew is the co-founder and Head of Product at Summer Health. Before founding Summer Health, he was a Product Manager at Meta and WhatsApp.

I had a coaching call yesterday with someone who wanted to get into writing. He reached out to me, as I'm probably most known for my writing by now, despite being a designer by trade. It's been a recurring topic on many coaching calls this last year, so I figured it might be worth sharing some of the subjects I tend to cover when talking about writing.

Years ago, I wrote a post about why I think designers need to write. (I've also written about why I think designers need to speak business, so I guess I demand a lot from designers, apart from designing. But the thing about design as a profession is that you will need to be able to communicate your design. Unfortunately, I've seen too many designers show their designs and expect their beauty to tell the whole story (this is pretty much what Dribbble is, and that's fine, but I think a senior designer needs to do more).

While a wireframe might come across as very straightforward, it showcases a page's features, hierarchy, and layout. But creating great user experiences is just as much about creating an experience to make the user feel something. And unfortunately, wireframes are terrible at conveying feelings. This is where your communication skills come in handy. The best way to improve your communication skills? By writing.

"A core skill of the interaction designer is imagining users (characters), motivations, actions, reactions, obstacles, successes, and a complete set of 'what if' scenarios. These are the skills of a writer — all kinds of writers, but particularly fiction, screenwriting, and technical writing."SUSAN STUART

Not too long ago, people were cautious about buying nearly anything online. Books and DVD’s seemed to be the first things that people began buying using e-commerce websites. I believe that’s because most people were confident they knew what they were getting. A book is a book. You are confident of what it looks like, and its quality, and with its low price point, the buying risk was reasonably low. Probably most importantly, you don’t rely on a book for much of anything as it’s not vital to your everyday life. We must remember that with any transaction online (or not), basic criteria need to be met for you to purchase anything. These are usually based on two things - relevance and trust.

Today’s purchasing habits are a bit different. Online shopping no longer restricts itself to books and DVDs but purchases groceries, clothes, beauty products, meals, and so much more. We’ve even started making major purchases like cars and houses! I wanted to talk about my recent online purchase, my new car from Polestar.

For those unfamiliar with Polestar, it’s a relatively new brand in the Volvo “family” but operates independently. They currently only offer one model, the Polestar 2 - they previously offered a hybrid called Polestar 1 - but Polestar 3-5 are all under production. The Polestar website is very clean and straightforward, just as the UI in their car is - all built on Android Auto, a departure from most car makers who develop their own tech.

As you have probably noticed, I haven’t been great at writing new pieces for you lately. Sure, I can blame some of it on getting a new dog, having a house with a massive garden that needs a ton of attention, or working on creating user-friendly space experimentation interfaces (I never thought I’d write that sentence). But the truth is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to know what topics to cover. So yesterday I asked for topics in my Slack channel that the group would like me to talk about with the promise that I would pick at least one. The selected topic turned out to be something we had been discussing just a few days earlier, but also one that I’ve been reflecting on this year.

For someone that works quite a bit as a consultant, it’s natural to transition in and out of organizations frequently. Even though I’m not often full-time, I spend months in these environments, so if there is a bad culture it definitely can take a toll on my well-being.

It’s like… dating?

You see, it’s tough to evaluate ahead of actually working there so it’s a little like dating. Your interview is basically like a Tinder profile. Everyone wants to look their best and come across as healthy, humorous, and successful, but as time goes by you’ll notice there are cracks in the facade. After all, we are all humans and, at the end of the day, we have flaws.

Hi, How are you? I'm doing well. I had completely forgotten (repressed?) how much work it is to have a puppy, but it's a lot of fun, and I'm blessed to be able to work less these first weeks to make sure she settles in well.

Having the luxury of working from your backyard is something I value.

I'm not playing catch all day long, though; I am still very much working with Titan - and - I've made some significant updates to my website. So let's quickly walk through some of the updates:

1. The work section is back! While the information about each project is brief, I wanted to give you a better understanding of the work I've done these last years and the breadth of clients. It includes work with amazing clients such as Titan, Google, Delio, and many more.

2. There are a couple of new testimonials, including one from Nicole Hampton. Nicole and I first met while working on HermanMiller, we reconnected at Ueno, and finally, we were both in management roles at Product. She is by far one of my favorite collaborators and persons.

3. There is a new Coaching page, including a testimonial from Brian, who has been using my coaching service weekly for a year. I have a few open slots starting mid-August.

4. It has, not much, but at least some, color.

One of the companies that fascinates me at the moment is AirBnB. While I’ve obviously known of AirBnB - as we all have - for years as their design system and tool to sketch interfaces surely stood out. Over this past year, I think I’ve truly gotten a better sense for what kind of company AirBnB has become. For the last few months I’ve even listed part of our house on Airbnb and enjoyed interacting with the platform. It’s clear, easy to use, and cohesive.

As more and more companies are requiring employees to return to the office, AirBnB realised that the world had not changed momentarily, but permanently. The obvious step for a company like AirBnB is not only allow a work-from-home corporate culture, but encourage a work-from-anywhere one.

Employees are allowed to live and work in 170 countries for up to 90 days in each location. If you want, you can still go into the office every day.

“Two decades ago, Silicon Valley start-ups popularized open floor plans and on-site perks. Today’s startups have embraced flexibility and remote work. I think this will become the predominant way companies work 10 years from now.”BRIAN CHESKY

This post from Chris Coyier resonated (I'll save you a click, it reads: "The effort-to-engagement ratio for content is unguessable.") with me, so I'll follow his lead;

Last week I saw a tweet from Mr. Bingo that I've been thinking about. I can't possibly stress how true this is. Perhaps even worse for us "seniors" is that we tend to believe that we're the only senior creatives that feel this way. Starting a new role earlier this year in a new industry, I've experienced this more often lately.

It also reminds me of a creative I met at Herman Miller who had never heard of nor experienced the concept of imposter syndrome, and I thought, what a life you must have had.

Something that young people entering the creative world might want to hear: Me and every 'successful' artist/comedian/writer/maker of stuff I know have regular self doubt, creative dry spells, think we're not good enough, crisis of confidence, worry that we've 'lost it' etc 🙃

— Mr Bingo 𓄚 (@Mr_Bingo) May 6, 2022

I’ve been in Los Angeles for an offsite for the past week. It’s the first one I’m attending post-covid (is post-covid even true? I suppose it’s the first I’m attending post-vaccinated?). It HAS been very nice to get together and workshop in the same room for once and I must admit that workshops are much better in-person. Being in LA also meant I had the opportunity to finally meet some past colleagues from Product, like Allen, who was the ECD at Product and left about the same time as me. I hit it off with right from the start with him so it was really wonderful to get together and spend some time talking about our experiences in this industry.

We started talking about how 10-15 years ago, it seemed like there was a new website that got you really excited and inspired every two weeks. Websites that were visually exciting, had interactions you’d never seen before and utilized technology that was groundbreaking. Now, that rarely - actually never - happens anymore. And unfortunately, I think we, UX designers as a whole, may play a part in that.

You see what was fascinating about some, most to be honest, of these websites is that they didn’t have to justify everything. Certain things were just eye candy and that was perfectly fine - in fact, it was exceptional. That’s what made them special, they were the exception from the normal. That made them stand out and grab attention. We UX designers love to quote things like “god is in the details” and use terms like micro-interactions, we’re also very keen on requiring everything to have a raison d’être.

We want to delete friction. Make it effortless. Remove any “noise”. But thinking about these websites from back then, perhaps it was that noise and friction that made them a treat? Perhaps the beauty in it all is that it wasn’t just served on a plate for you, but that you actually had to do some work in order to be entertained? Like the Beastie Boys perfectly put it, fight for your right to party.

Is there a silver lining to COVID? The other day I was discussing exactly that with a colleague and the answer isn’t clear, but it is an important question to ask. Honestly, we should recognize the impact it has had on fast-tracking a unprecedented remote work style that allowed people to choose where to work and - and more importantly - when.

But what I hadn't consider before is the effect it had on my career personally. Now I get it, it's absolutely bizarre to think about benefits to your career while balancing that it has caused so much suffering. Six million people lost. But in this darkest of moments, we also need to search for some light, right?

Before

Prior to COVID and lockdowns, being a remote worker was a bit of a rare thing. I was lucky to have the opportunity to work with SuperFriendly at that time. They realized there was a vast untapped potential in hiring people from all over the world rather than where you are located. It expanding options, views, and skills resulting in better outcomes. Besides SuperFriendly and a couple of other forward-thinking agencies, the vast majority only hired local consultants that would be able to come into their offices. Me being based in the South of Sweden made that very limiting in terms of options for agency work. This can stifle the opportunities for growth and make it more difficult to find fulfilling projects.

Max Back’s “Make Free Stuff” is a post that has been making the rounds on the Internet lately (and well deserved, it’s a great one). Max discusses how the web has changed over the years and how the web he grew up with is different from the one he’s seeing now. I am not sure what age demographic Max belongs to, but I can definitely relate to what he is experiencing. In the early days, the web was, as Max puts it, “I made something, here it is.”

“I made something, here it is”. Sharing things for the sake of showing them to the world. Somebody had created something, then put it online so you could see it. Visit their website (wait for the dial-up to finish), and it’s yours.Max Böck - Make Free Stuff

While at first, it might sound like the web is still like this today, but, if you think about it, it’s clear it isn’t. Websites are designed to collect data, get your email, money, and ultimately the most valuable asset, your time. But, unfortunately, most experiences want more than they will actually give.

If the web back then was this naive, kind child assuming the best of everyone’s intentions, it feels like the web today is the greedy, self-righteous teenager demanding more of everyone else but themselves. I’m longing for the day when the web grows up and turns into the fulfilling, self-respecting adult it has the potential to become.

I was recently exploring my views on what separates a junior designer from a senior one. From the responses I received - as well as my own beliefs - most agreed that it’s not as much about years of experience, but instead about decision making skills. This lead me to consider what I genuinely feel differentiates a junior designer from a senior one (and you’ll be able to see that it has nothing to do with years of experience).

For centuries, most jobs were just about completing tasks. Factory work. Finish this thing and then do the next thing (or the same thing!). But as the world - and the economy - is changing so are the jobs needed. These new jobs aren’t “task” jobs; they’re jobs that require initiative. It’s work that you don’t get assigned, but work you choose to take. These kinds of jobs require a different type of teamwork dynamics and an entirely new set of employees.

It would be easy to assume that junior designers tend to - and should - focus on tasks while an initiative focus is reserved for seniors. Yet over the last decade, what I’ve seen doesn’t line up with this “standard”. I’ve worked with numerous seniors that just want task work. Let me clarify, they don’t just want it; they demand it. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it, but until you do, I’ll sit tight. Similarly, I’ve worked with juniors who go hunting for the next thing as soon as they’ve finished their assignments.

“At Apple we hire people to tell us what to do, not the other way around.”

My friend Femke posted a twitter thread (and a video if that’s your cup of tea, but I’m not one to generally watch videos) about what sets a senior designer apart from a junior one. I was intrigued by the thread because it resonated with me while I simultaneously disagreed with some of the arguments. Although this might be obvious to most of you, I want to note that there’s no right or wrong here. Me agreeing - or disagreeing - with Femke’s point of view is just a case of differing opinions, and that is a good thing!

Small scale vs big picture thinking.
While junior designers may focus on smaller, simpler pieces of a project, senior designers may focus on higher-level information architecture, or the wider product or platform.

In my experience, this is essentially true; however, there’s an asterisk needed. Part of being a senior designer is having a deep understanding of the project’s constraints. While a junior designer may focus on smaller, simpler pieces of a project, it’s also not uncommon that they want to redesign everything.

Reliance on others.
Although both rely on others, junior designers may wait for others to step in and provide expertise. Senior designers are more aware of what they lack, and may be more proactive and strategic in pulling in the people and resources they need.

In my newsletter a few weeks back, I mentioned Matthias' tweet about looking up stuff on your own blog. Well if there's one post that's always worth looking up for me personally, it's this one. My year in review. Last year’s post certainly helps me gain perspective on this year and what has changed... and what hasn’t.

At the very end of that post I looked ahead and wrote, "I’ve met someone that I really like and it’s weird, but fantastic, experiencing new love." Well, it turns out that it was real love and it's been the biggest change in my life in so many ways this past year, but let's save the best for last and use my traditional order of things from 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020.

Projects & Work

In terms of work, this year turned out very differently than past ones. At the end of 2020, I was working with Ueno on a Polish delivery service. But, as you might remember, Ueno was acquired by Twitter at the end of 2020. Little did I know then how that would change my work. At the time, I figured the project would end and I would return to freelancing. After all, I had already been committed to the project for longer than was usual. At the very beginning of 2021, I found out that the project would continue, but with new leadership. Aaron Shapiro (who founded HUGE) would put together a new team and finish the project. I had my first chat with Aaron and he told me his plan was to bring over as many of the team members as possible. Aaron brought in Allen Orr as an ECD as well as my dear friend Nicole Hampton - who I had already worked with on Herman Miller a year earlier.

I am still really enjoying the coaching sessions I run with a couple of different mid to senior designers on a recurring basis. It's fascinates me to see their growth, but I also get to peek in on the work they do and the challenges they face (spoiler: we all pretty much face the same challenges over and over). I keep thinking that I should update the pricing on my coaching page too to better reflect reality... it's actually more flexible than advertised and I will always try and find a price that works for you. Most of the designers I coach today are around $200-$250/hour if they commit to a recurring schedule. If you're a student, BIPOC, or a woman, I'll always do my best to be extra flexible with the rate. Sorry white dudes, but we've had our fair share of fortune already.

Anyway, a few weeks back one of the senior designers I'm coaching asked me a question that I struggled to answer. He asked me how I think one should give feedback and, more specifically, how I do it. Now this is a senior designer with many years of experience, so he already knows the basic rules of feedback - make it constructive, right amount of praise, in a timely manner, etc. This struck me as interesting as most of my work revolves around giving appropriate feedback.

I had to ask him if it was OK for me to think about the question for a couple of days before I got back to him.

What GOOD feedback looks like

I recently travelled an hour and a half up north from Malmö to visit with some friends I haven't seen in a long time (cause, you know). We decided to meet halfway to make traveling lighter and make the night even more special since we had tickets to see When We Were Kings. For those of you outside of Sweden who might not be familiar with WWWK, it's a very popular Swedish podcast with an extremely niche focus on football. They drop one new episode every week and they go all-in! Their episode on Leo Messi? 11 hours. On Bayern Munich? Nearly 5 hours. Even topics like Greece's Euro final win in 2004 is a whopping 3.5 hours and that's more than twice as long as the actual game. Their storytelling is always really excellent, so I was almost just as exciting about the show as I was reuniting with my friends.

This show was focused on Sweden's youth team in 2015 and their Euro win. I had expected a light evening with some laughs and, while I did get that, I also got something I wasn't expecting. You see, if you think about it, football teams are not much different from many other businesses. Today, they can be billion dollar businesses - Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Manchester City and Liverpool are all valued more than $4 billion - roughly the same as a company like Sonos or Zapier.

They also focused on the mental exercises that the team utilized in order to reach the final - and win. From the very beginning, the players were taught how to do HRV exercises. HRV stands for Heart Rate Variable and the exercises are essentially ways of reducing heart rate (stress and nervousness) in order to be able to make better decisions in the heat of the moment.

What really fascinated me though was an exercise they called 'As if'. The idea was really to put the players (or co-workers in our case) in a different state of mind. So the challenge could be to play the ball 'As if you're leading 3-0 over Italy in the final'. The idea, of course, is to challenge the everyday norm and encourage players to make bolder decisions from a more positive mindset. The other week, Liverpool crushed rivals Manchester United 5-0. It was obvious to see how the players started reacting to situations differently as the score line changed. More creativity, more optimism and more determination.

When running an agency, there's a constant battle between focusing on profitability or building culture.

On one hand, it's easier to focus on profitability at first because it's necessary for the company to survive. What's the point in focusing on culture if the company won't be around in 6 months? However, focusing only on profitability creates a culture where profitability is the only thing that matters and, while we're all different, I wouldn't enjoy working in that kind of environment. Even if Axe Capital focuses heavily on profitability and has built a culture around it, the billions that have followed the series can easily see that there's also a culture - a comradeship.

In contrast, focusing on culture in the beginning is great because there's this blank paper right in front of you. With a strong, clearly defined culture, it's easier to not just attract talent, but attract the right talent. These talented individuals will not only get the work done excellently, but can create an ecosystem where 1+1 can actually equal 3.

We can see that there are also similarities in how we should look at UX when creating products. It's never really about this one thing, but rather the balance between all of them.

If you've followed my writing for some time, you'll know one of the things I keep repeating is that UX shouldn't be seen as an isolated process or deliverable. Team mates will know I can get extremely frustrated if someone references "delivering UX" as part of a project. UX is part of every process. Everything from the very first strategy sessions to final development and all the ongoing processes as customer feedback starts rolling in. What color combinations or typefaces the visual designer chooses can heavily affect the UX as does the tech stack the developer chooses. What features will be included in the MVP matter just as much as whether a button reads "Submit" or "Hit me baby!" Not saying one is better than the other just that both of them will influence the users' experience. In fact, back in 2016, I wrote a post about the most overlooked feature when it comes to UX (spoiler: it might not be what you think it is).

I was reminded about this while I was reading Derek Sivers book, Anything you want. If you're not familiar with his writing, I highly recommend it. Derek's writing is to-the-point and very thought-through and has always been a huge influence on me. We need to keep things as short as needed rather than aiming for the idea that a book "has to be a certain set of pages". Anything you want is 84 pages and you can finish it in about an hour (just like my two books, both of which I recently redesigned for better readability!).

In the book, Derek shares how one of the small things he changed running CD Baby was an email. Like most businesses, CD Baby sent an email every time an order was shipped and it was, you know, like most shipping confirmations. "Your order has shipped today, here's the tracking, yada yada". Nothing exciting, just purely transactional. Derek then spent 20 minutes crafting this email:

Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved "Bon Voyage" to your package on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Friday, June 6:th. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as "Customer of the Year". We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!!"Derek Sivers

During a coaching call with a senior designer the other week, we were discussing his goals for our sessions. This designer is a very determined and mindful, so I was intrigued when he said one of his goals was to become one of the best UX designers in the industry. I had never really stopped to reflect over what that could entail, so I was curious to hear his meaning of "best". It turns out he wasn't really sure what "best" meant to him either, so I asked who he thought were the "best" now. His list included many familiar names including Brad Frost, Mike Monteiro and Dan Mall. I know Dan personally, I know of Brad through SuperFriendly, and I've read most of Mike's writing. What's interesting about this short list is they three very different profiles. I'm not entirely sure any of them would actually see themselves as a UX-designers - and if so, certainly not one of the best in the industry. Instead, what I think they all have in common is that they are very skilled communicators and all of them possess strong personal brands.

My "best"

This conversation led me to think about my own career, my personal brand, and what are my strengths? What helped me get to this point in my career? I was recently interviewed by Maze and they asked the me, "What do you think you're most known for?" Despite being a designer per trade, I do think I'm most known for writing rather than designing. For voicing my opinion, which could be done through design too, but I think more elaborate thinking requires words. So just like Dan, Brad, and Mike, I've built my brand on having an opinion, on encouraging discussion, and - perhaps most importantly - on educating. I try to connect with everyone that reaches out and attempt to connect with anyone looking for help transitioning into the field of UX.

What I believe has served me well is something that's often overlooked when you think about being the "best" - being easy to work with. I'll try and stay off tiring football references, but even someone like Zlatan realises that in order to succeed, you need to be a team player. I've worked with countless designers, developers, and managers throughout the years that were possible the best in their fields, but were terrible to work with.

Hi again!

How’s it going? Work is ramping up again and it kinda feels like summer is coming to an end? This morning as I was walking to the local bakery it was a mere 12c (50F) degrees 😳.

I thought it was time for another deep dive into what makes a successful digital organization tick. Today we're looking at design systems and why they are so important and what happens if you overlook one. Believe it or not, a design system is fundamental to having a well-rounded, efficient, scalable organization.

Take a look at this week's post to learn more about how design systems can work for you!

Hi,

How you’ve been? I’m doing well, thanks for asking. This weekend the Premier League kicks off again and I’m (fingers crossed!) looking forward to a season with crowds back in the stands.

As promised, I have more articles coming your way so I hope you like this one too.

The market presses on us. It has an urgency. We are told that the first to market is who succeeds. They are the ones that corner the market. That may be true - in the short term - but they rarely have staying power since they didn't plan properly for the future. What does that mean for the design process? It means that if we want our organizations/clients to actually succeed we need to slow down, be intentional, and support design systems.

Hi!

After writing many posts talking about the importance of Design Principles, I realized that I haven't really defined the what and why of them. They are, honestly, fundamental to creating strong solutions (apps, website, etc) to serve your user. Without deciding on and allowing principles to guide you, you can get lost pretty quickly.

Look at this week's post for more information!

Talk soon again,

One of recurring topics of this blog over the past year has surely been Design Principles. I've helped form Design Principles for the projects I've worked on, I've held classes at Hyper Island on Design Principles (although I kinda pivoted it to Design Process), and I've helped coach other designers on how to form actionable Design Principles. But I never really dove into what they are and why they are important.

Definition

The website Design Principles (touché) clearly states principles as:

Design Principles are a set of considerations that form the basis of any good product.Design Principles

Hi!

Sorry for the radio silence. Since we last spoke, I took some time off from work and it only made sense to take time off from the blog too. Also, we bought a house!

I’m back and I have a couple of great posts (if I may say so myself) lined up for the next couple of weeks.

Here’s the first one.

I wrote this for the Product blog.

In The Simpsons episode “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”, Homer is asked to design a car for a company run by his long-lost brother. Homer, to no one's surprise, fails so miserably that he drives his brother out of business. One of the things that makes this Simpson's clip so interesting is that Homer has real dreams for the car that are perfectly reasonable. As designers, our job is to figure out people’s problems and desires and then translate those into great products.

• Homer wants a large car, since he is a family man with three kids and two pets, but he doesn't want to be distracted by his family and pets while driving

• Homer wants places to put his drinks.

• Homer wants an easily recognizable care as he struggles to find his car when he parks in a large parking lot.

• Homer wants a car that is pretty quick because he wants to feel alive every now and then in his suburban dad life.

All reasonable requirements, right? User feedback is something that should be considered in the design of every product. Honestly, the biggest requirement for any product should be that it solves actual problems.

Hello!

I’m currently enjoying a day off due to Independence Day Observed. Why? This week’s post will tell you all about it…

This letter is going to be a surprise for most of you. You KNOW I'm the BIGGEST advocate for one-man companies and mastering freelance. It's interesting how sometimes opportunities come along that you just have to try - need to experience. I'm going through this right now myself. The word full-time has entered my vocabulary and I'd love to tell you more about it.

Read post

For readers of my newsletter, I hinted at some exciting news I wanted to share. Something that has come as a huge surprise to the people I've shared this news with and while the reactions have all been positive, everyone have been curious to know... why. I'm happy to share that I've decided to join Product Inc full-time as their Director of User Experience. As many (most) of you probably are not familiar with Product, let me share a back story first.

About a year ago, I started freelancing for Ueno. Historically, I was never a fan of freelancing for agencies. The agencies I had worked with previously all seemed to do 'gimmicky' products and spent a lot of time pursuing ideas that would get attention (but not actually solve actual problems) or design stuff that merely looked great (knowing deep inside that they're never going to launch). With Ueno, I finally experienced something different. The team was extremely skilled and I quickly realised it was a team I enjoyed working with. But as you might know, Ueno was acquired by Twitter in January. Our project wasn't quite wrapped up yet and since most of us on the team were freelancers, the project kept running under a new umbrella. Well, the person who initiated that umbrella was Aaron Shapiro (who once founded the agency HUGE). The project ultimately kept going and as Product, I realised I enjoyed working with the team even more as I was reunited with some old favorites like Nicole Hampton whom I had worked with on Herman Miller about a year ago. The new team also includes my visual counterpart, Creative Director Allen Orr as well as some of the people I really enjoyed working with from day 1 with Ueno, Louise Dreier, Amanda Chessa, Lee Simpson and many more. To top it all off, I've been reunited with my favorite producer Jessi Hall and the amazing designer Isabel Sousa.

I guess why I decided to try full-time is pretty obvious at this point - all because of the team I get to work with. We're spread out over the world (Sweden, Russia, Portugal and both east and west coast in the US) meaning a remote-first mindset in everything we do.

A couple of years ago I read an article that outlined what humans need from their work in order to feel fulfilled:

Hello!

Last week we explored what ethical design is in our class on Design Ethics. This week, we take a close look at what it means when things are designed to be intentionally harmful. Do these designers always know what they are doing? Not always, but whenever the company's interests are placed above the user, there is a problem. There are ways to serve the user without manipulating, guilting, trapping, or otherwise forcing them to do something that they wouldn't have naturally done. Take a look at this week's post (if you want to, of course!) for more about this.

Read Design Ethics - Class 2

Talk again soon,
Anton

I’m currently leading the “Design Ethics” class for Hyper Island’s UX Upskill Program. This is part 2 out of 2. Part 1 is here.

Last week, we looked broadly on ethical design - well, primarily unethical really - and the benefits of ethical design. This week, we'll look at the more practical side of things. How unethical design is created and why it's necessary to become advocates for a user-first policy. After all, we need to be able to clearly identify patterns of unethical design even as it becomes more difficult to do so.

Dark patterns & Nudging

If you've used any digital tools from the last decade the chances are high that you've been exposed to 'dark patterns'. From trying to cancel a subscription to browsing available hotel rooms, designers use these dark patterns to lure users into what benefits the business rather than what would benefit the customer.

Hello,

How are you? I’m loving the warmer weather in Sweden.

So, I'm currently leading a Design Ethics class at Hyper Island and I can't help but share it with you. I think the way we are engaging in discussions of ethics will guide us as we go into uncharted territory of decision making in product or service design.

Do we take time to consider the human using the product or are we simply looking at the KPI's associated with "success"? It's one of the most important questions we can ask ourselves during the development process. Take a look at my summary of this class (part 1 of 2) and let me know what you think! 

Hi,

I just got my first COVID-shot so here’s to that! 🎉

Anton Sten @antonsten

Finally got 5G. #TeamPfizer

9:11 AM ∙ May 4, 2021

Now onto this week’s thoughts…

Hello again,

This week's Design Principles class takes a step away from the actual design process and, instead, focuses on SELLING what you've created. This could be communicating your product to your coworkers, boss, board, or - gasp! - the customer. The last thing you want is for them to be yawning mid-pitch. Half of selling your product is realizing that it's not really about the product. It's about the result. After all, who actually wants a vacuum cleaner? What we want is a clean room. The vacuum is what makes that happen! Learn more here!

Anton

Design Principles: Class 4

I'm currently leading the "Design Principles" class for Hyper Island's UX Upskill Program.. This is part 4 out of 4. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2 here. and Part 3 here.

We spend a lot of time talking about tools, processes, and creative thinking in creating products. The crucial part that sometimes gets ignored until it's too late is the final part - presenting your idea. Tons of great features and ideas never see the day of light, not because they weren't great ideas, but because people failed to explain their idea in a simple and digestible way. All that time testing, designing, and iterating is wasted.

Whether it's presenting to your co-worker, your team, investors, the board, other stakeholders, or potential clients and agencies - you will need to be able to SELL your work.

Luckily for you and me, all of these groups share similarities:

I'm back with the next session of our Design Principles class.

This week we are talking more about interfaces and what is necessary to making a product pleasurable. The concept of pleasurability is fairly novel to speak about directly, but absolutely necessary to creating a product that is usable. Keep that word in mind too... Usable is NOT equal to useful. 

An iPhone (the hardware) with buggy, semi-operational iOS version is not only not an iPhone. It may work, but it's usefulness is diminished. This is why Apple is so careful to design clear and intuitive interfaces. 

Join me in exploring how to design user focused interfaces.

Talk again soon, 
​Anton

Design Principles - Part 3

What I've rea​d

I'm currently leading the "Design Principles" class for Hyper Island's UX Upskill Program.. This is part 3 out of 4. You can read Part 1 here, Part 2, and Part 4 here. This session was held by Patrick Sundqvist, a very seasoned designer whom I have the outmost respect for. These are my thoughts and reflections based on his session.

For a long time, moving from wireframes to visual design was considered the 'making the thing pretty' stage. The reality is, taking wireframes into visual designs is not about making things pretty, but rather about making things a pleasure to use and interact with.

As we define requirements and constraints, we're making sure that what we're building will be functional and reliable. When creating wireframes, we order and arrange each feature in a way that's logical and user friendly so the product will be usable (note that usable and useful aren't the same thing).

During the visual design stage, we can make our product even more usable, but it also gives us an opportunity to make something that's a pleasure to use. It's important to remember that adding visual design doesn't me that the product will automatically be a pleasure to use. After all, everything we use have visual design (even wireframes have visual design, just... 'less' of it).

Hopefully you enjoyed last weeks post about Design Principles and the meaning of UX. This week we move on to part 2 and look at what designers really do and how their decision making process isn't all that different than a "non-designer". 

Also, we are going to talk about wireframes and how they fit into the design process (especially in communicating with clients!) - even though I said they weren't necessary less than a year ago (oops!).

Enjoy your Monday, 
Anton

What are Design Principles - Part 2

What I've rea​d

• A simple process beats a perfect process

• Avoiding Bad Decisions

I'm currently leading the "Design Principles" class for Hyper Island's UX Upskill Program. This is part 2 out of 4. You can read Part 1 here, Part 3, and Part 4 here.

When people ask what I do, I tell them I’m a UX-designer or that I lead UX. The reality is, these are not titles I’m a fan of. It’s true that I help companies design user experiences. While you’d think the title would be suitable, it also suggests that I am solely responsible for the complete user experience. As we talked about last week, the user experience is much larger than most assume and something impossible for one person to create.

Today we're going to start off by talking about the other half of the term UX-designer, namely designer. I hear a lot of people saying they don't know anything about design (even accomplished designers say this!). Years ago, I was listening to Erika Hall give a talk (I've since then had the honor of working with Erika, she is an amazing researcher) and she had this a slide that stuck in my mind ever since.

Design is a series of decisions.

Teaching at Hyper Island has afforded me opportunities to not only share what I can about UX, the industry, and how to access it, but also allows me to stay current with the changing landscape of UX. 

Changing landscape, you ask? I think a better way to say that would be to put it like this... UX isn't changing, but the way we define it is. It is maturing and becoming more widely understood due to people like Jesse James Garrett and Don Norman. 

Curious what they have to say? 
Check out this week's post that sums up my first part of a series I teach at Hyper Island called Design Principles.

Read: Design Principles, Part 1

I've moved the newsletter away from Mailchimp to EmailOctopus. I don't know if it's a permanent move yet, but what I do know is that I won't track open or click analytics anymore. 

What I've rea​d

I'm currently leading the "Design Principles" class for Hyper Island's UX Upskill Program. This post is part of my introductionary talk about what UX is and through what lens we should look at UX. This is part 1 out of 4. You can read Part 2 here, Part 3 here and Part 4 here..

The baseline of this class is Design Principles, but we'll be focusing more on the fundamentals of the design process. By first focusing on the steps in the process, you'll be able to identity what's needed to create a great user experience.

One of the challenges about running a blog like mine is surely coming up with topics to write about. Previously, I was extremely strict about always sending a newsletter every two weeks with a new post like clockwork. As soon as I gave myself some breathing room I decided that it's OK not to write or send a newsletter if I don't have anything to say. Downside? I basically stopped writing altogether. This, however, allowed me assess how much I really value what I had to say previously..

Then early this year I stumbled upon a post from Brian Lovin that resonated with me - Reasons you aren't updating your personal site. One of the tips Brian suggested was to keep a list in Things about potential blog topics. I had previously done something similar, but housed my list in Notion. For me it was easier to have it in Notion as it's where I do my writing. The disadvantage was (and this is crucial) adding the idea to Notion is more difficult than adding it to Things.

One method I use to get new topic ideas is to ask my newsletter community about what they're interested in. A couple of weeks ago I did just that and got a ton of interesting replies and questions! Many of them were so well articulated and complex that they deserve more thought and research before I even attempt to answer them.

One really interesting one that came in was when Edvin asked about what my home office setup is like and how I think about the balance between work and private life. It might strike as a bit weird that I've worked primarily remotely for the last 10 years but I've always had an office - even during this pandemic. When I was looking for a new apartment I knew I wanted to find a place that would allow for a dedicated office in my home - something I've never really done. So in January, I moved to my new apartment in Malmö and finally began working from home like most of the rest of the world.

This week I'm turning 40.

I thought that was a big enough sentence to stand on its own. However, I won't spend this post trying to share words of wisdom from what I've learnt about life so far because if the last couple of years has taught me anything it's that I don't know much about what's actually going to happen. And besides, whenever I'm looking for long-term life advice, I still think Sam Altman's "The days are long but the decades are short" has far better advice than I could deliver.

What I do want to talk about is context switching and why I think it's important for perspective and future growth. I designed (and coded the HTML) for my first professional website in 1997 (although the first snapshot at web.archive.org is from 1998 but I made that version too). I've been designing websites for the last 24 years and it does feel like a long time. I've spent about 60% of my life perfecting my craft so, by most standards, I'm considered to be senior in my profession. But this post isn't about looking back, it's about looking forward. Fingers crossed, I'll be able to live a long and healthy life meaning I'll work until I'm at least 65-70 years old before I can retire. If we look at my career from that point of view, I haven't even made it to the halfway point!

Albert Einstein famously said "The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know" - ironically: one thing that I have learnt though is to take quotes on the Internet with a grain of salt - and it's a quote I can relate to. I do think though that it's not as much about realizing how much I don't know, but rather being OK with not knowing.

Hello,

I haven’t written a new post yet, but I wanted to tell you a bit about what’s going on in my life. It’s always fascinates me that when I share an update like this without an article 5% choose to unsubscribe and 5% reply and tells me how they’re doing. Which 5% are you? Honestly, either is fine with me. I want to curate this list to a community and that takes time.

So about a month ago, I moved into a new apartment right in the middle of Malmö. I’m really enjoying living here so far and working from home is starting to feel more natural (yes, I’m still getting dressed every day). I’m still missing some furniture, but just like anything of value, creating a home - and office, I guess - takes time.

You may remember that Ueno was recently bought by Twitter and our project as well as part of the team moved over to a new company. Just like moving to a new apartment, being part of forming a new agency is actually exciting because everything feels like a new possibility. There are no set rules, no history to take into account.

It’s a bit ironic that my most popular post from last year was “Why wireframes are becoming obsolete” considering that I’ve spent the last… like 4 months just designing using wireframes. I guess it’s time to revisit that post, huh? Wireframes can be a valuable deliverable. Working on a project with a lot of different scenarios and edge-cases, wireframes become the go-to tool allowing us to purely focus on flows and content. Actually, I do realise that this is exactly why people have always done wireframes. I shouldn’t act surprised (here’s a secret though… I still think they are obsolete!).

Stay tuned. I’m hoping a couple weeks from now, I’ll be able to share an exciting update AND a new post!

That’s the quick update from me. How have you’ve been?

Cheers,
Anton

What I’ve read

1. The One, Simple Secret To A Successful Career

2. How to have better one-on-ones

3. Teacher to UX designer: A roadmap

Hi,

I’ll be the first to admit that my days have been flipped all around thanks to 2020. The pandemic, a divorce, relocating, and entering a new relationship has caused my “typical day” to be not so “typical”. However, I see the need to have a routine and how it can benefit our work, our health, and our ability to accomplish goals. So, lately, I’ve been striving to find a set routine and certainly have found a ton of benefits. I want to share this with all of you! Check out the post from this week about my day and you’ll get a peek into the secret world of Anton. (it’s probably a bit more boring than I’m making it sound 😆)

Talk soon,
Anton

ps. Thanks for all of your suggestions and questions around upcoming blog posts! Keep them coming!

What I’ve read

1. Hey designers, it’s time you learned how the rest of the sausage is made

2. 5 academic research papers every designer should read

3. Validation is a mirage

I was recently tagged by my friend Sara Soueidan to describe my typical day. It's a trend going around on Twitter, but I enjoy reading these kind of posts from other people, so perhaps some of you will find this interesting too. You can read about Sara's typical day, Dan Mall's, or Chris Coyier's.

As much as everyone - especially freelancers - like to say they don't have a typical day, I think I need to preface this post with some context. I think most people have a "typical day" in one way or another. As humans, we're always looking for structure and familiarity, so no matter what we like to think of ourselves, we have days that would be "typical". That said, the last year has seen me going through a divorce, moving into an apartment in a new city, and meeting someone new. For the first time in a very long time, I'm living by myself and also working from home. I'm also currently on a project where we have team members in Europe, US East coast and US West coast so that certainly affects my planning for the day. Needless to say, it's not that I don't have typical days, it's just that I might not really know what they look like quite yet.

6.30 - 8.00 AM - Around this time is when I usually get up. I'll make my breakfast and start the day pretty slowly. I'll have some coffee and just ease into the day. If it's summertime, this is when I do my workout, but during the winter, it's usually later in the day. At this time of the year, it's still pitch dark outside in Sweden.

8.00 - 11.30 AM - First work session. I've noticed that this is when I do my best, most focused work because there's usually no distractions at this time of the day. This is when I attack tougher problems or tasks that need more detailed structure.