UX Design

December 2025

• Dec 22, 2025TechnologyEffective Dashboards: Design for Actionable InsightsA working dashboard starts from three constraints: one primary audience, one decision, and the frequency at which that decision gets made. Everything else, chart choice, metric count, layout, follows from them. George Miller's 1956 paper on the limited span of immediate memory is why the practical ceiling sits at roughly 3 to 7 primary metrics, with the rest pushed into drill-downs. Vanity metrics that only move one direction drive no decisions at all.22 MIN64.2k

June 2023

• Jun 18, 2023Work SkillsGame Designer: Roles, Psychology, and Career PathsWhat game designers actually do, and how indie economics really distribute. Stardew Valley, built by a solo developer, generated over $30 million in revenue while the median Steam release earns under $1,000 in total lifetime sales, so indie income is project-dependent and wildly variable. Designers write the rules and systems rather than code or art, and the core skill is turning a vague playtest reaction such as a level feeling unfair into a specific, testable change.14 MIN12.7k

February 2023

• Feb 25, 2023TechnologyWhat Is User Experience (UX) DesignDon Norman coined the title User Experience Architect at Apple in 1993 because usability alone did not describe the whole quality of using a product. The discipline runs on evidence: Nielsen's work found five participants surface roughly 85 percent of a design's usability problems, and WebAIM's 2022 audit of the top million websites found 96.8 percent had detectable WCAG failures on their home pages. Covers affordances, signifiers, the Double Diamond, and salary bands.21 MIN8.7k
• Feb 12, 2023TechnologyMobile-First Design: Building for Small Screens FirstAn HTTP Archive audit found the hidden elements still average 22 percent of page weight, so mobile users pay for them in data and load time and receive nothing. Genuine mobile-first starts at 375px and expands with min-width queries, and the discomfort is the point. Grip research also matters, since about 49 percent of users work one-handed with a thumb, which puts the top corners out of comfortable reach.17 MIN1.6k

November 2022

• Nov 4, 2022TechnologyBehavioral Design: Creating Products That Change HabitsHow behavioral design works and what the core model claims. BJ Fogg's model, formalized in a 2009 conference paper, holds that behavior occurs only when motivation, ability and a prompt are present simultaneously, which is why making a behavior smaller and easier is usually more reliable than trying to raise motivation. Oulasvirta and colleagues documented in 2012 how phone use becomes habitual checking triggered by external prompts rather than conscious intent.15 MIN7.9k
• Nov 3, 2022TechnologyWhat Is Inclusive Design: Building for EveryoneWebAIM's scan of the top million sites found 96.3% of home pages had detectable WCAG failures, led by low-contrast text at 83.6% and missing image alt text at 58.2%. These are ordinary design choices, not obscure technical defects. The curb cut effect explains why fixing them pays wider dividends: ramps built for wheelchair users serve strollers and luggage, and captions built for deaf viewers are now used in noisy rooms and by language learners.14 MIN7.5k

September 2022

• Sep 17, 2022TechnologyUnderstanding Dark UX: The Impact of Deceptive DesignWhat dark patterns are and how regulators responded. Harry Brignull coined the term in 2010 and catalogued twelve pattern types, each exploiting a specific cognitive vulnerability. Princeton researchers analyzed over 11,000 shopping sites in 2019 and found dark patterns on 11.1 percent using a deliberately conservative method that counted only unambiguous cases. The FTC's Click to Cancel rule, finalized in October 2024, targets exactly the roach motel pattern.21 MIN3.6k

July 2022

• Jul 29, 2022CultureMinimum Lovable Product: More Than MVPWhat an MLP is and why the term exists. Laurence McCahill of The Happy Startup School coined minimum lovable product around 2013, observing that teams used the MVP label to avoid the harder work of crafting experiences people actually wanted. An MVP tests whether a product can function; an MLP tests whether it can inspire loyalty, making it the smallest thing you could ship that someone would recommend to a friend without reservation.18 MIN4.7k