💥Design Brief #128: Startup Designer’s Failure, Font Metrics, Advantages of the JTBD over Personas, Interface Copy, Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling, and Designing for Conversions

I failed as a Designer at a Startup

Nick Groeneveld, a user experience consultant, shares his failure story as a designer at a startup. He claims that being a designer at a startup is not easier or more difficult than being a designer at an accomplished, more mature company, and that the pros and cons are the same. That said, the work pace is really high, so you have to adjust the processes you would normally follow. How? Read more

Font Metrics

Font metrics are a low-level implementation detail, but they’re far from boring. Font files contain a wealth of information about a typeface. Whether you’re a designer or a developer, learning more about how fonts work can open new doors in how you work and what you create. And embracing the raw anatomical features of type could enable you to create designs that are precise, resilient, readable, and maybe even original.

Good typography is hard, but it can be easier with good tools. If Sketch features or CSS properties don’t fit your needs, luckily, you can build some of this yourself! Read more

The Pitfalls of Personas and Advantages of Jobs to Be Done

This article provides a detailed discussion that focuses primarily on the advantages that the JTBD (the Jobs to Be Done framework) perspective affords over personas. JTBD advises that you focus on what the user wants. The foundation of pursuing concrete directives makes the JTBD Jobs Atlas not just easier to create than a persona but also easier to use for the purpose of design decision making. Read more

Interface Copy Impacts Decision Making

The language used in interfaces has an impact on the decisions that our users will make. A manipulative copy will nudge users towards making choices that are against their best interests. And although they may bring a few conversions here and there, it won’t boost customer satisfaction. It’s important from a user-experience and business perspective to write an interface copy that supports the decision-making process instead of undermining it. An honest and direct presentation of choices evokes trust and positive emotions, which in turn shape the associations that users will have with a product. Read more

Pixar’s Rules of Storytelling Applied to Product Managers & UX Designers

Shahed Khalili reflects on his learnings as a product person, and a storyteller, which he claims he is in his job. Khalili formulates seven habits of great storytelling for product managers & UX designers,  based on Pixar’s rules for their productions. He encourages breaking away from the habit of writing user stories and bulleted lists of acceptance criteria. Stop demoing features and listing benefit statements. Telling a good story will help you end up with a passionate team who works on a product your customers will love. Read more

Designing for Conversions

Measuring the success of creative work doesn’t have to stop with a feeling. In fact, we can assign numbers to it, do math with it, and track improvements. Measuring tangible things like conversion rate not only helps your client or business, but can also give a new purpose to your designs and creative decisions. It’s a lot easier to push for your creative decisions when you have hard data to back up why they’re the best choice for the client or project. Thus, designing for conversions will not only make you a more effective designer or copywriter, it will make you much more valuable to your clients, and that’s something we should all seek. Read more