Our time and energy are increasingly used to manufacture demand, exploit populations, extract resources, fill landfills, pollute the air, promote colonization, and propel our planet’s sixth mass extinction. — We have helped to create comfortable, happy lives for some of our species and allowed harm to others; our designs, at times, serve to exclude, eliminate, and discriminate. Many design teachers and professionals perpetuate this ideology; the markets reward it; a tide of imitations and “likes” reinforces it. Encouraged in…

Corita challenged both the church and the art world with her expressive creations, stirring a remarkable disruption, and offered fundamental principles, tools, and techniques to enhance and encourage artistic creativity. Corita’s work reflected her concerns about poverty, addressing key themes of racism and war. Her messages of peace and social justice continue to resonate with us today. — Corita Kent (1918–1986), born Frances Elizabeth Kent and also known as Sister Mary Corita Kent, was an artist with an innovative approach to design and education. At age 18 she entered the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary, eventually teaching and then heading the art department…

Design is an art form that requires skill, creativity, and most importantly, knowledge. Knowledge plays a vital role in our lives in that it reflects how we understand the world around us and thus determines how we act upon it. In this sense, knowledge is of particular importance for designers…

Designing products without a thorough understanding of your target audience, goals, and constraints can lead to misguided solutions. While new features in tools like Figma are exciting, they must be accompanied by effective product discovery methods. 5W2H framework is a useful method for defining any problem. Stupidly simple, and incredibly…

In our increasingly digital world, spatial user interfaces have emerged as powerful tools for designing immersive experiences. With virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) technologies becoming more accessible, designers have a unique opportunity to craft interactions and environments in three-dimensional space. Let’s explore the principles, challenges…

A forcing function is a constraint where the user “is forced” to complete a task based on a limited, paired-down set of features or controls. Forcing functions help streamline, simplify, or minimize how a user interacts with a design. Designers benefit from this interaction design technique by reducing navigation redundancy…

The intersection of psychology and technology forms the foundation of User Experience (UX) design, where the focus is on creating designs that have a true impact on people’s needs and preferences. Many psychological principles that impact UX are straightforward and you can grasp the fundamentals of human behavior to design…

When the principles of design place a greater emphasis on optimizing efficiency over nurturing craftsmanship, a notable shift occurs toward industrialization. — During this transformative phase; the age of creative machines where AI is more and more performing tasks that were once the sole domain of designers, now our unwavering commitment and abundant resources are purposefully directed toward the fulfillment of manufacturing demands.

Today, UX (user experience) has grown into an important design discipline that continues to grow and evolve. And while it’s fairly new, its multidisciplinary history can be traced all the way back to the Renaissance — if not earlier. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that Don Norman made the…