💥Design Brief #98: Accessibility of Emails, Voice UX Prototyping, Behavioural Design, Mac, Iconic Icons, Empty State, Code in Design, Dark Patterns and Microinteractions

A Beginner’s Guide to Voice UX Prototyping

As voice technology becomes more and more prominent, we’ll need to design more and more voice apps. The author presents a general overview for those who are unfamiliar with voice prototyping. It’s not a complicated process, but it is a little different than the typical UI prototyping we often do for website or app. Read more

How to Test Accessibility of Emails

Testing for accessibility in your emails doesn’t have to be a chore. Making accessible and inclusive emails will increase your target audience and have other unintended benefits, known as the Curb-Cut effect. What are curb cuts? How can you make your emails more accessible and how provide a more inclusive experience? Read more

How to Apply Behavioural Economics to the Design Process

Behavioural Design is all about creating the right environment for people to make a decision or take action towards their goals. It can be applied to encourage a desired behaviour, to stop unwanted behaviours, as well as to form habitual routines. Radina Doneva, a Hyper Island alumnus, shares insights and lessons learned from the workshops. Read more

The Story Behind Susan Kare’s Iconic Design Work for Apple

Susan Kare’s icons and fonts for the original Macintosh were revolutionary. This month she received an AIGA medal, an award that celebrates a career spent searching for the right amount of simplicity and abstraction. Her most iconic designs found the perfect balance between these two extremes. Want to know the story behind creating them? Read more

Downplaying Empty States in Design

Empty states, known as first use states, user cleared fields and panes, 404s, and error messages, typically do not carry a lot of meaning through what they showcase visually. Yet they are parts of the user journey, which makes them fully functional elements that can improve UI. Empty states can boost engagement, build consent, educate, delight, and entertain users. How? Read more

The Technical Designer

Wells Riley, designer at Envoy, learned to code midway through his design career, and it’s helped him in many ways. It’s made him more scrappy, more consistent, and it’s given him the perspective to set his design team up for the future. He believes that designers are more than pixel pushers. That’s why they they should be familiar with at least the basics of coding. A great story on how learning to code can help in a designer career. Read more

Dark Patterns and Aggressive Persuasion – 3 Reasons to Avoid!

Dark patterns are user interface elements that have been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things they might not otherwise do. Many have argued that the use of dark patterns and aggressive persuasion in web design is unethical. They do work, but they are not the most effective approach. Here are 3 reasons from a business perspective on why to avoid them. Read more

Improving User Experience With Microinteractions

Microinteractions are what happens when people use small pieces of functionality that exist in place of larger features. Facebook’s “Like” is an example of a successful microinteraction. They are all these little moments that can be really vital to the UX of your product. You can use them as an opportunity to connect with your customers. How? Read more