How to design happiness

To design happiness, you need to keep a few things in mind. First, happiness is the anticipation of an event or the memory of it. Second, you need a moment of transition to escape the unhappy real world. Third, bureaucracy is anti-happiness, people need to feel empowered to be happy. Fourth, surprising people is the key to delight, and it is mundanely easy. And fifth, it’s important to remember that we come from nature and it knows happiness best.

Salience: The psychology of an experience

Salience explains how emotion provoking something is. Salience Bias says, the brain notices the salient elements of an experience. There are a bunch of things which can make something salient like luminance, texture, contrast, scale etc. Salience can help you drive a user’s attention where you want to be. It is a very effective tool which is often used by great companies to enhance user experience.

Bringing a social change through design

For better or for worse the community we live in is impacted beyond anyone’s possible imagination by its design. Be it law enforcement, education, health disparities, wealth gap, employment, economic development- it is all by design. In order to create better design, which serves the community better, the human centric approach taken by many UX designers can be applied. The design process can bring social change.

How Netflix uses psychology for better experience

In the past decade Netflix has transformed itself from a microscopic movie rental service to a global phenomenon. It’s no debate that Netflix offers a remarkable UX for its users to enjoy. But to roundoff their customer experience Netflix goes the extra mile by using three simple yet effective psychological tricks. These tricks give its user base reasons to stay while adding to it in thousands daily.

Perfect the design-development handoff

A handoff is a point in the product development process where developers implement the finished design. Having a successful handoff is a critical part of creating a great product. However, with many people involved in the product creation, it is vital to maintain excellent communication and collaboration between the different sides. This little guide goes over the best ways to avoid handoff failure and make sure every team member is working towards the same goal.

6 soft skills to make a better designer

Soft skills are paramount to a designer’s skill set. Some of these are: Curiosity - helps avoid stagnation; Holistic Thinking - considering the whole over some parts; Humility - helps to learn everyday from everyone; Community building - engagement and good rapport with growth minded people; Depersonalization - making it more about others than self, and finally Sense of Humour - resolves conflicts, breaks tension and energizes others.

Optical Effects in User Interfaces

Our eyes are weird and often mislead us. But if you know the peculiarities of human vision, you can construct better designs. Not only do type designers utilize optical tricks for creating readable and well-balanced fonts, but it’s also helpful for designers who craft user-computer interaction. This article explores how to make optically balanced icons, correct shapes alignment, and perfect corner rounding.

Art vs Design – A Timeless Debate

How do we decide what is art and what is design, and why is the relationship between the two so fractured? Is it the difference between what is functional (design) and what is non-functional (art) that creates the dissension? But in the end it is not art versus design, but the unity of the two that is at the core of any superior design. In other words, good design incorporates art.

Applying Marie Kondo’s decluttering method to design processes

A simple Google search for 'UX design methodologies' can return hundreds of results. Wading through all that information is guaranteed to cause you a headache whether you've just perfected your design resume and are new to UX design, or if you're in a hurry. The KonMari method of decluttering, created by Netflix star Marie Kondo, is a full-on embrace of minimalism. Her method eliminates distractions from a place until just what is left is free to bring delight to the person(s) who occupy it.

Our 15 favorite design podcasts

Real-life experiences, current events, mentors, and, of course, industry podcasts are all sources of inspiration for designers. One of the best ways to stay on top of the creative industry is to listen to design podcasts. Through your headphones, they can provide you with insights from some of the world's most talented people and introduce you to a world of fresh ideas.

8 Cities That Show You What The Future Will Look Like

A century, plus or minus, after human beings started putting their minds toward designing cities as a whole, things are getting good. Cities are getting more environmentally sound, more fun, and more beautiful. The cities of tomorrow might still self-assemble haltingly, but done right, the process won't be accidental.

The Designer’s Responsibility to Keep Up with New Technologies

Designers often play a central role in mediating how people end up experiencing new technology; they define interfaces, interaction models, and user flows. So what is the designer's responsibility when it comes to new tech? Are there evergreen approaches that designers can rely on when working with cutting-edge technology? And how can designers keep on top of things when they are changing so fast?

How digital technology is influencing the world of design

It's interesting to combine different areas of technology that perhaps they haven't met before, and you can see how it can be a collaboration between the ideas of the designer and different types of technology. While technology plays an important role in the workings of Front's designs, the art of collaboration is where they are truly innovative.

TourBox Elite turns digital editing into a gaming experience

The plug-in editing console replaces the traditional mouse and keyboard setup to offer unprecedented speed over digital media creative projects. Following a successful launch of the original TourBox in 2018, a plug-in editing console intended to be used with editing software, to speed up a professional's workflow. Now, the company is back with its follow-up: the TourBox Elite.

The Secret Lab Where Nike Invented the Power-Lacing Shoe of Our Dreams

"What about a shoe that would essentially come alive when you put it on? It would sense you. It would become the shape of your foot, and when it came alive it would light up. Wouldn’t it be great if shoes could do that?” Check out wired's exclusive of Nike's secret underground labs.

One area of industrial design that’s often overlooked is the evolutionary or biological perspective. The way we perceive product design and use the tools around us is largely influenced by leftover survival mechanisms. As competition for attention becomes more and more fierce, companies are motivated to tap into our most basic primordial instincts in order to earn our business.

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