Design: Experience Design

How many times have you seen design solutions that showcased male chauvinist attitudes or marketing content that exhibited racial or gender biases? The content that designers create represents our social thought, values, and culture. Similarly, any product’s design embodies a value system, clearly indicating the designer’s beliefs and moral principles.

While the biases in some design solutions and content are deliberate and unethical, the creators of other designs and content consciously adopt an ethical stance and reject such biases. The intent of a UX designer to design great products that follow moral principles is ethical design.

In this article, I’ll describe how unethical designs occur, as well as explain the concept of ethical design. I’ll also describe how you, as a UX designer, can create change within your company—merely by following the best ethical-design practices. Read More

In today’s world, changes in humanity, technology, and culture have elevated User Experience to a state of rapid transformation. Unprecedented technological capabilities and heightened human sensitivities are reshaping the relationship between humans and machines, demanding new insights and expertise in product design. As UX designers, we must now shoulder the responsibility of shepherding this evolution, crafting product experiences that embody digital consciousness through more intelligent, immersive, systemic, and ethical interactions.

Each aspect of this transformation reflects a core trait that defines our humanity: thinking, feeling, relating, and valuing. These four areas of transformation constitute the guiding tenets of what I call conscious experience design, and they set the framework for my view of the future of User Experience.

Conscious experience design is a design practice that focuses on humanizing technology experiences in ways that drive positive value for humanity and society.

In this column, I’ll explore each of these four areas of conscious experience design, the technologies that fuel innovation within each of them, and some fundamental questions about their application to new and reimagined products that touch and serve people. Plus, I’ll explore how conscious experience design influences the tools, technologies, and methodologies that affect the professional craft of design. Read More

Something wonderful has been happening in the world of software development for quite some time now: we are seeing an incredibly strong trend among the developers of Software as a Service (SaaS) products who are questioning the need for passwords for Web applications. Gartner anticipates that 60% of large, global enterprises will implement some kind of passwordless authentication method by 2022. The percentage of mid-size businesses making this prediction is even higher: 90%, making this an essential consideration when you’re rethinking your application’s log-in and sign-up flows.

The elimination of passwords challenges cybersecurity’s status quo, reduces bad friction, and enables businesses to enhance their products’ user experience. What is wrong with passwords? What are the pros and cons of passwordless authentication. How can apply this approach to your next product? Let’s find out. Read More