Career Advice

Thriving in an era of scarcity.

What does it mean to be a designer?

Whether we want to admit it or not, a large part of design work is convincing other people it’s actually good, and the right thing to do in the context of a project.

About 3 years ago around late 2020, I came across a few reels of designers working on their desks.

An unreliable guide for you to survive what you’ve gotten yourself into

Since October 2023, as a senior product designer seeking new roles, I’ve interviewed with about 20 companies, encountering numerous…

Issue 183: A renewed focus on the work

There I was, sitting in the dark, behind the messy desk in my unfinished home office, head in my hands. The only light in the room was coming from the scree ...

Or why your cookie-cutter portfolio doesn’t cut it and how to fix it

How to deal with being a UX team of one or working with vague stakeholders

Design should be experienced. Not just explained.

Yes, that is the bear from Jakob’s clearly spurious alternative text example and yes, that is The Fonz after jumping the shark. If you have been following the saga of Jakob Nielsen, there a few quotes I could use here: Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster (Nietzsche).…

UX practitioners are being gaslit by people inside and outside of UX. It’s time to recognize it, stop believing it, and internalizing it.

When you show your visual design to people, they might ask questions or challenge your decisions. Here are some notes on how to make your visual design easier to defend.

Don't suffer and merely survive, aided by your noise cancelling headphones. Optimising for individual happiness can result in less of the joy that people find in teams that achieve great things together.

The silent suffocation of real designers and what design teams can do about it.

Explore Figma’s report on job satisfaction among designers in the era of remote work, revealing increased happiness and new challenges.

Working in the same field for several years is hard, and I still need to learn what burnout is. It’s more than just a lack of desire to do…

Spoiler: don’t bring your whole self to work

Note: This article is from my personal experience of 17 years working in design. I’d love for others to share their experience in the…

Navigating the different career levels, as a designer, can be extremely difficult. With no standardisation across the industry, it’s like…

Glassdoor included UX/UI Designer roles in their list of 50 Best Jobs in America. Based on the Indeed data, the average salary for a User…

Imagine being in a room full of inventors, each holding a mysterious box. Some are nervous, others confident, but all are eager to reveal…

We all measure success metrics when it comes to our designs, but have we stopped to think about measuring success for our very own design…

What you and your biggest work adversary have in common; the magic incantation in times of conflict; and 5 steps for disagreeing…

“Hey there, I often mentor and consult with junior UX designers, and I’ve noticed some common mistakes that come up in their work. Today…

Stop dreaming about working at an ideal company, be employed and start building your own ideal environment instead.

Stop saying that design is a team sport. No other domain at our company declares that their department or work is a team sport.

CARDIO is a simple method for evaluating the quality of a UX design case study.