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Mobile App vs. Web App – What to Design?

Mobile App vs. Web App

Deciding between launching a mobile app vs. web app isn’t always an easy decision. There are many factors to keep in mind before making the call – from user experience and technical constraints to cost-effectiveness and scalability.

We’ll explore web design vs mobile app design. All so that you can make an informed decision about which approach is best for your project. Follow along our tips and sign up for a free trial at UXPin. It’s an end-to-end prototyping tool that allows you to build advanced prototypes that look and behave like a mobile or web app you’re about to develop. Try UXPin for free.

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What Is a Mobile App?

Mobile applications are tools designed specifically for portable, mobile devices. They come in various forms. From small, single-function applications to more complex, multi-functional mobile platforms, each should provide users with a quality experience.

Apps vary significantly in their purpose and scope, allowing people to engage in activities ranging from gaming and leisure to business and professional pursuits. 

When it comes to developing an app, product development teams often need to consider the screen size and operating system of the device they are creating the app for. As mobile technology advances rapidly, many apps are now built with cross-platform compatibility in mind so users across various devices and platforms can enjoy them.

The types of mobile apps available today include:

  • Native – native mobile apps are usually developed for one platform or operating system (iOs or Android apps),
  • Hybrid – hybrid apps leverage reusable code to provide a native-like user experience for less effort and money,
  • PWAs – it’s short for Progressive Web Apps, PWAs are mobile web apps built with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other frameworks. they should function on desktop and mobile, standards-compliant browsers.

Pros of mobile apps

  • They work efficiently (they’re created natively for mobile devices)
  • They can work offline, without the Internet connection
  • They offer better analytics, i.e., more accurate data collection and conversion tracking.

Cons of mobile apps

  • They’re expensive to design, more so to maintain
  • You need to build a separate app for iOS and Android 
  • You’re in charge of maintaining privacy and security.

What Is a Web App?

A web app is an application that users can access through the web on any device with an internet connection. It runs in a browser, reducing users’ need to install and keep track of a separate application on their PC, which increases its accessibility.  

What’s great about using web apps is that you can create more interactive user experiences in comparison to traditional websites. All thanks to powerful front-end frameworks such as AngularJS or ReactJS. They allow app developers to quickly build dynamic single-page applications, which provide smooth transitions between different views and respond quickly when user input is received.

Web apps are a popular solution since they offer incredible performance and scalability without compromising security. 

Pros of web apps

  • They work on any platform – a web application is hosted on a server and delivered over the internet through a browser interface.
  • Since it’s stored on a remote server and supplied online via a browser interface, users don’t need to install updates.
  • Easy to maintain by web development team

Cons

  • They require internet access to be used
  • They might be slow to load – if a server is overloaded, the contents of your app won’t appear quickly, which can severely affect the user experience. Or, worse yet, cause the user to leave the app before it loads.
  • Not as easily discovered by target audience – web apps are not promoted in app stores because they are not listed there. Product Hunt, Capterra, and app review sites can be a decent way to promote your web apps, but their discoverability is nowhere near as robust as in Apple and Android app stores.

Discussing the Differences Between a Mobile App and a Web App

direction process path way

Let’s now take a quick look at how mobile apps and web apps differ.

  • While web apps can be accessed via virtually any browser, mobile apps must be downloaded from the app store.
  • Differences in screen size requirements. Mobile apps can’t be accessed on desktop, and are created solely for smaller screens. This, in turn, implies lesser pixels. Meanwhile, web apps can be accessed on both mobile and desktop.
  • Mobile apps can be used without internet access, while web apps can’t. 
  • Since web apps need access to internet connection and rely on web browsers, they tend to be slower than mobile apps. 
  • Most people use computers while sitting. App users may be commuting to work or even jogging while using their phones. As a designer, you must account for these different scenarios to ensure high usability and accessibility standards.
  • Mobile apps have more advanced security than web apps. Therefore, mobile app development should cater to this by creating two-factor authentication or other means that improve safety. 

Effective Ways to Help You Choose Between a Mobile App and a Web App

lo fi pencil

Here are the top considerations while deciding between a mobile app vs. web app.

Determine user context and purpose

The web offers an abundance of resources and information to users, who typically access it from a comfortable seated position. Mobile devices offer a unique opportunity for users to search for and quickly obtain information on the go.

When designing for mobile UX, navigation should be simple and easy to follow, with well-structured code written concisely, and visually prioritized. The goal is to ensure maximum accessibility of the desired information in the least amount of time.

User experience designers must pay close attention to design elements such as:

  • natural gestures, which are most intuitive for users on small screens
  • simplicity in menu selection options
  • clear visual pathways
  • consistent user interface elements like fonts and colors
  • easily clickable and accessible buttons and links
  • and other interactive elements that make user navigation easier.

This must also be paired with relevant accessibility standards, to ensure that all users can use the app to its full advantage and functionality. 

Verdict: Web apps are great for longer user sessions and don’t compete with mobile apps. A mobile app may be suitable if your product can be used regularly in shorter periods, such as habit or meal tracking app, mobile eCommerce app or social media app.

Assess your product or service’s required screen size

Many B2B tools are now web-based, allowing users to access them from their phones, tablets, or other mobile devices. This is advantageous for several reasons:

  • It enables the user to access information quickly and conveniently regardless of their device.
  • It allows them to view content more clearly and in more detail on a larger screen.
  • If any PDF downloads or exports need to be done regularly, it’s much easier and more efficient for the user to do this on a desktop computer than on a mobile device. This is because PDFs can take up considerable amounts of data space on mobile devices, and saving them frequently could result in the device becoming bogged down. Not to mention, it’s not exactly the most convenient screen size to peruse these files.
  • Users may prefer their files to stay on one machine rather than having them spread across multiple devices. For businesses to get the most out of their B2B platform, providing web-based access is essential since it gives customers both convenience and flexibility when interacting with the company.
  • By allowing users to access the app on a larger screen rather than solely on mobile – where content may not always be visible clearly – companies can ensure that their clients always have a good user experience.

Verdict: Web apps are suitable for complex (often work-related) apps, where there are plenty of charts and analytical data. These types of apps usually require a lot of jumping back and forth between screens.

List device-specific features

If you sell beauty products, for example, it is much more beneficial to develop a tailored beauty app for mobile devices since that’s where people tend to spend most of their day.

This platform provides you with a larger audience and allows you to take advantage of multiple features not available on computers, particularly the higher-resolution phone cameras. When it comes to these kinds of products, image quality is essential for market success. 

Although designing a web-based application that is accessible via mobile view can enable the use of the device camera, some other features are only accessible through mobile hardware and functionalities. Think of things like your phone’s built-in gyroscope or GPS, which would have been essential if you were to create a runner’s app, for one.

Also, when designing the UX/UI design for a mobile app, make sure to always include device-specific elements like larger interactive buttons and simple navigation. Furthermore, make sure to work hand in hand with your software development team to ensure all third-party apps integrations work flawlessly. The types of integrations depend on your product – these can be those with social media, online payment methods, and push notifications.

Verdict: Mobile apps come with the added value of device-specific hardware and features like GPS and high-resolution cameras.

Check your competitors’ choices

Businesses should analyze the competitive landscape prior to launching a new product or app to make an informed decision as to what to develop.

If it turns out that many of the top players in the market are web-based solutions, it’s probably the best way to go. They’ve created a solution for a platform users find convenient to use, and the UX they’ve created allows them to complete their goals (after all, otherwise these apps would not have had this level of market success).

Let’s not forget that users appreciate familiarity in products from the same category – it will make it that much easier for them to start using your app, if they were to switch to you from a competitor. Thoroughly researching competitors can help identify opportunities and potential risks before investing in a project. 

Verdict: If your app’s goal isn’t to revolutionize your category, it’s worth going with the platform others are finding success with. That’s where your target audience can be reached.

Mobile or Desktop App? Design it in UXPin

responsive screens prototyping

It’s our hope that after reading this piece, you can now pick a winner in your mobile app vs web app dilemma. Use the considerations above to understand how user context, screen size, and your competitor landscape can contribute to your app’s success.

With UXPin, you can create advanced prototypes and quickly share them with stakeholders or developers – regardless whether you’ve decided to go with a web app or mobile app. Ready to take it for a spin? Try our tool on a free trial.

And with our free trial, nothing is stopping you from trying it out for yourself today. So what are you waiting for? Try UXPin and streamline product design and development process. Start your trial.

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What is Contrast in Web Design? [+7 Tips How to Use it]

Contrast in Web design 1

When it comes to web design, the concept of contrast is often discussed in terms of aesthetics and visual appeal. However, the truth is that contrast plays a much more important role in the overall usability and accessibility of a website. We’ll explore the basics of contrast in web design and show you how to use it to improve the user experience for all visitors, regardless of their abilities. 

Test website design tips right away. Design a website using contrast advice from this article in UXPin, a tool for building advanced prototypes that simplify design-development workflow. Try UXPin for free.

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What is Contrast in Web Design?

Contrast in web design refers to the relationship between two or more design elements, such as text and background that stand out in relation to one another. It is about emphasizing the differences between these elements rather than their similarities.

The degree of contrast is inversely proportional to the level of similarity. The less similar two items are, the greater the contrast between them. High-contrast elements are very different from each other, while low-contrast elements are more similar.

Contrast plays a crucial role in making the design elements on a website stand out and be more easily noticed by the viewer, making the design more aesthetically pleasing and user-friendly.

Types of Contrast in Web Design

There are several types of contrast that can be used in web design to enhance the visual appeal and user experience of a website.

  • Color contrast is the difference in light between the font (or anything in the foreground) and its background. This type of contrast is essential for ensuring that text is easily legible and that other design elements stand out.
  • Size contrast relates to the multitude of different sizes in a graphic interface. By leveraging it, you can emphasize certain elements, as well as generate a visual depth and create a sense of hierarchy.
  • Space contrast, also known as negative space, is the emptiness around an element, whether created by white space or any other type of visual spacing. This type of contrast highlights the contrast between the element’s background and the design details surrounding it.
  • Foreground and background contrast refers to the visual relationship between an element in the foreground of an image and the background behind it. In web design, this type of contrast is unique in that the background can change dynamically as the site visitor interacts with it.
  • Shape contrast is achieved by making things notable by their difference in physical shape compared to other things on the page. This type of contrast can be used to create interest and to guide the viewer’s eye.
  • Elements contrast refers to the different types of media that can be used in web design, such as photographs, illustrations, or hand-drawn sketches. The choice of media can have a significant impact on the overall look and feel of a website. It should be chosen based on the website’s goals and the type of content being presented.

Why is Contrast Important in Web Design?

Contrast affects more than just aesthetics. It has strategic and usability purposes.

  • Supports visual hierarchy. Emphasizing the difference between two design elements supports intuitive design. It also helps users hone in on the important actions and elements.
  • Ensures accessibility. Heavily contrasting colors or elements can be very helpful in making your design more accessible. The goal is to make sure no one – particularly those with visual disabilities – is blocked from using a website.
  • Compliance with local & international web regulations. There is an international standard, which outlines these rules for contrast accessibility in web design – the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). There are also governmental ones, like compliance with the USA’s Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Lack of ADA-compliance has resulted in thousands of federal lawsuits against non-accessible websites. So, it’s imperative to adhere to best practices for accessibility.

Contrast in Web Design – 7 tips 

Contrast in web design is a crucial element in creating visually appealing and user-friendly websites. However, it’s not always easy to know how to effectively use contrast in your designs. Here are a few tips you can follow. 

Check your text contrast ratio 

This is an important step in assessing the overall contrast in your web design. One of the best ways to do this is to use a contrast ratio calculator.

The golden rule is to keep the 4.5:1 ratio for text and text-based images. However, there is an exception for logotypes and large text, such as headings. In these cases, using contrasting typefaces for headlines versus body copy can help create hierarchy and improve readability. This helps readers skim or search through your page for the information they need.

One tool for this is the UXPin built-in contrast checker, which you can try out for free.

Source: McSaatchi

Create large spacing to bring attention to detail

Creating large spacing, also known as negative spacing, is a powerful design technique that can be used to bring attention to specific elements on a website. This is achieved by strategically placing large amounts of empty space around a particular element, which serves to highlight the contrast between the element and its background.

By creating a sense of emptiness around a design element, you create visual tension and the element will stand out more. The viewer’s attention is naturally drawn to the element that stands out in the emptiness. Negative spacing is also effective in creating a sense of hierarchy within the design, which can make it easier for the viewer to navigate and understand the content.

This technique can be achieved by using white space, or by using other types of visual spacing such as margins, padding, or line spacing. It is also highly useful when creating call-to-action buttons, separating different sections of your web page, and creating visual interest.

Look at these two examples from Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 14. Notice how both images have a copious amount of space around them, bringing the visitor’s attention to underline the key message, i.e., the phone has a great camera and superb battery life.

Source: Apple

Use sufficient color contrast 

When text contrasts poorly with its background, it makes reading more difficult, especially for people with impaired vision, or even strained/tired eyes. The same goes for icons and situations where highlighting is used to draw attention (such as the hover effects on links).

Source: HBR

This example shows two color combinations: one that has a low contrast ratio and one that has a high contrast ratio.

Here, in the case of text, make sure that the contrast ratio between text color and background color is at least 4.5:1. There are color-contrast tools that can help you test color pairs for contrast and adjust the values as necessary.

Such a contrast checker is built into UXPin, so you can easily check the values as you work on your prototypes. It also features a color blindness simulator – so, you can make sure that the color contrast you put the effort into building out is genuinely seen by all user groups.

With that in mind, it’s advisable to avoid very high contrast. Be aware that for some people, especially people with dyslexia, a very high contrast color scheme can make reading more difficult. It’s a good idea to choose an off-white background color rather than a white background to aid on-screen reading.

Use a background with vivid imagery 

If you are creating a page for a travel agency, for example, you can always choose to put a background that represents some of the travel destinations where you offer tours to.

Always keep in mind how the different background types will affect such other important factors as loading speed and site performance. Awesome video backgrounds might have a huge impact on the overall design, but if they take too long to load, they may defeat the sole purpose of engaging the user.

With UXPin, you can fill your prototypes with real data. Make your prototypes look and feel more real. Fill them with auto-generated names, cities, and even images. It just takes two clicks using UXPin’s built-in data. That’s right, no more lorem ipsum or searching for images on stock sites. 

Let the size variation be noticeable

When all elements in a design are the same size, it can be difficult for the user to understand which ones are most important and where to focus their attention. Size contrast can be used to create emphasis on particular elements. 

By making certain elements larger or smaller than others, you can draw the viewer’s attention to specific parts of the design. This technique is especially useful for headings, calls-to-action, and other important information that you want to stand out. Additionally, it can be useful to make sure that the font size of the text is easy to read and accessible, to follow the general design principles.

Scale is also a powerful tool for creating a dynamic and interesting layout. By using different sizes in elements, you can create a sense of depth and movement, which can add drama to a design and make it more engaging for the viewer.

It is worth noting that when using size contrast, it is important to keep the overall design in mind and make sure that the size variations used are proportional to the other elements on the page. Size variations that are too extreme can be distracting, and it could cause issues in the overall readability and accessibility of the website.

Source: Medium

Use textures and patterns 

Textures and patterns can help you create high-contrast designs when their characteristics are significantly different from each other. For instance, pairing a rough textured background with smooth foreground text would add contrast to the design.

Textures give designs character. Rough, grainy textures will give your designs vintage qualities whereas a subtle noise texture will help create a natural variation similar to one you’d find on printed newspaper. Similarly, photographic textures give realistic-looking results and are another popular way of adding contrast to your designs.

Source: secretstache

As it takes trial and error to get the textures and patterns right for your web design project, it’s worth using a prototyping tool that will enable you to save and repurpose the ones that work. UXPin lets you incorporate them into your design system and repurpose the components in your future work – and this means a faster product design process. 

Experiment with shapes: organic vs. geometric, edges vs. corners

Most shapes can be categorized as either geometric (rectangles, triangles, circles, etc.) or organic (fluid, nature-inspired). 

Here, a label design incorporates organic, almost abstract shapes that complement and enhance the straight, clean lines of the typographic choices.

Source: Canva

One more way you can subtly use shape in your design is on the edges and corners of your design elements, whether typography, boxes, or buttons. If you use a more rounded shape, you’ll get a softer, more friendly appearance. Sharper shapes, on the other hand, create a more ordered and crispy style. You can contrast these qualities against each other, as in the example below.

Source: Canva

Using Contrast in Web Design

Using contrast in web design is a powerful tool for creating visually appealing and user-friendly websites. The types of contrast include color, size, space, shape, and elements. By using them effectively, designers can create designs that are both aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate.

One important aspect of contrast in web design is ensuring that text and text-based images have a ratio of 4.5:1. The only exceptions are logotypes and large text-like headings.

Creating large spacing is another technique that can be used to bring attention to specific elements. And the use of size contrast can also help create hierarchical relationships between elements, making it easier for users to understand their importance. 

To ensure proper web design contrast, use a prototyping tool like UXPin – not only will you be able to create visually appealing prototypes; you’ll also have access to a built-in contrast checker and real-life interface texts. Create a web design using UXPin. Start a free trial.

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6 Storybook Tutorials for Product Development Teams

Storybook Tutorial 1

There are so many Storybook tutorials that it’s difficult to know which is best for your needs. We’ve summarized the five best Storybook tutorials to help get you started with this component-driven development technology.

Take UI components directly from Storybook, Git or through npm and drag n’ drop the coded components to create your layout faster. Discover UXPin Merge.

Design UI with code-backed components.

Use the same components in design as in development. Keep UI consistency at scale.

What is Storybook?

logo storybook

Storybook is a Javascript-based, open-source collaborative development environment for front-end engineers to build UI components in isolation. The platform works with several front-end frameworks, including React, React Native, Angular, Vue, Ember, and HTML, to name a few.

The intuitive user interface makes collaboration more accessible for UX designers, product teams, and stakeholders to interact with UI elements, share feedback, and approve for release.

One of Storybook’s primary use cases is developing and maintaining design systems. Cross-functional teams use the platform to build components, create documentation, run multiple tests (visual, interaction, accessibility, code, etc.), and publish directly to GitHub for distribution.

How does Storybook work?

Front-end devs create components as they would with any project but include a “story” (in the form of a .stories.js file) for each one to appear in the Storybook UI. Within the stories file, devs create controls using arguments, or args for short (the equivalent of React props). These controls appear in the Storybook UI so teams can change a component’s properties, states, interactions, etc.

Read more: What are Storybook args?

The benefit of this file structure and workflow means Storybook runs outside yet parallel to your primary application. So, there’s no need to add any Storybook code to your component library’s files.

Why would you use Storybook?

Sharing, testing, and collaborating on UI components is challenging if you don’t have technical skills. You must set up a local environment and connect your IDE to a shared repository. This workflow is simply too complicated for UX designers, product teams, and non-technical stakeholders.

With Storybook, devs can host their component library on a server for everyone to access as they would any website. Everyone has a user account, allowing them to collaborate and share feedback without writing code or installing extra software.

Read more about Storybook’s benefits: How Storybook helps developers with design systems?

6 Storybook Tutorials

code developer design 1

Storybook’s Official Tutorial

One of the reasons devs and product teams love Storybook is its comprehensive documentation and community. The Storybook team has created an excellent 10-part tutorial on how to get started setting up the environment and making your first story.

The official Storybook tutorial will give you a foundational understanding of the platform and its features but maybe a little technical and concise for inexperienced front-end engineers.

That said, there are two reasons why you should start with this Storybook tutorial before looking at alternatives:

  1. Like any technology, Storybook is constantly releasing updates. The official documentation is updated regularly to reflect these changes. Some Storybook tutorials are outdated, particularly if they use addons that have been updated or no longer exist.
  2. Most Storybook tutorials focus on one framework, usually React. Storybook’s docs cover six front-end frameworks: React, React Native, Vue, Angular, Ember, and Svelte. Additionally, these tutorials are available in 11 languages, so it’s an excellent resource for multinational teams.

Atomic Design and Storybook

Brad Frost created the Atomic Design principles many organizations use to develop their UI libraries. Atomic Design and Storybook describes how to apply these principles when building components and stories. There’s also an interesting one-hour discussion between Brad Frost and Michael Chan about the history of component libraries.

The Atomic Design and Storybook tutorial is a fantastic resource for anyone who wants a systematic, scalable approach to building UI libraries in Storybook. Brad breaks down an Instagram post to demonstrate how atomic principles apply to a real-world user interface.

React Storybook Tutorial

Codevolution’s step-by-step Storybook tutorial will take you from novice to expert within a few hours. If you like video code-along style tutorials, then Codevolution’s course is an excellent option.

The tutorial covers every facet of Storybook, including:

  • Setting up a Storybook environment
  • Writing stories and story hierarchy
  • How to use Args
  • Storybook addons
  • Accessibility and testing
  • Environment variables

Judging by the comments, by the end of this 20-video tutorial series, you’ll have enough knowledge to build a Storybook from scratch or start collaborating on an existing project.

Codevolution offers many free React courses on the same YouTube channel, including Node.js, npm, and Typescript, which you’ll need for setting up your Storybook local environment.

React Storybook Crash Course

Web Dev Simplified is one of the most popular developer channels on YouTube, with over a million subscribers. Kyle aims to explain technical concepts, tools, frameworks, etc., with simple examples and tutorials.

Kyle’s React Storybook Crash Course is one of the best tutorials to understand the fundamentals of creating and managing stories. He doesn’t take you through the setup process but focuses on the code and file structure.

The 17-minute tutorial covers the following:

  • Creating a basic story
  • Adding interactivity to Storybook stories
  • Creating multiple stories for a single React component
  • Advanced tips

Storybook in Vue 3

Storybook supports several front-end frameworks, including Vue. The quick tutorial will show you how to set up a Storybook project using Vue 3 and create two stories for a button and card.

LogRocket also explains several Storybook features and how you might apply them to your project, including:

  • The template section
  • Named exports
  • Addons
  • Testing
  • FAQs

Prototyping with Storybook components

So far, we’ve focused on Storybook for development. While designers and product teams can collaborate in Storybook, the platform doesn’t provide the features for prototyping and testing like they would using a design tool.

UXPin Merge integrates directly with Storybook, so that designers can use the component library for prototyping. These fully interactive components look and feel in UXPin, like in Storybook or the final product, allowing designers to build fully functioning prototypes.

Learn How to Import Your Components into Storybook and Use Them in UXPin in this step-by-step tutorial. Sync once, and Merge will automatically update the component library in UXPin and notify design teams of the change.

Sync Storybook to Design with UXPin Merge

Integrate Storybook with UXPin Merge and create a product development workflow that supports a cross-functional collaborative environment where everyone uses the same UI library, eliminating inconsistencies and drift while reducing time-to-market. Discover what UXPin Merge is about.

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Free Report on Design Systems and DesignOps in the Enterprise

800x400 Whitespace ebook 1

Between December 2021 and January 2022, UXPin and Whitespace interviewed Design Systems Managers from nearly twenty enterprise-level organizations. We compiled this research in a free ten thousand-word report titled Design Systems and DesignOps in the Enterprise.

Download the report for free. Head onto Design Systems and DesignOps in the Enterprise.

This outline provides an introduction to the report and what you can expect to learn from our research. We learned that in an ideal world, organizations want a common set of tools, documentation, and governance–but currently fail to achieve these results effectively.

The Purpose of This Report

user search user centered

Our team at UXPin wanted to understand how organizations use design systems and what role DesignOps plays in facilitating and streamlining this usage.

Through this report, we wanted to understand organizational challenges with design systems and identify tools and solutions to solve these issues. 

Research sources

UXPin partnered with Whitespace to interview 19 enterprise organizations from seven countries, including the United States, Switzerland, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, and Australia.

These companies serve several industries, including technology, health care, transportation, retail, and government.

Topics covered

We covered six key topics when interviewing each organization:

  1. Design system journey to date
  2. Design system maturity
  3. Governance and processes
  4. Designer/developer cooperation and challenges
  5. Roadmap and milestones
  6. Comparisons to the existing market research

Quick view

Here’s where most companies stand regarding design systems:

  • A “single source of truth“ is the primary goal, but silos and poor documentation stifle progress toward this ideal outcome.
  • Design system governance lacks support, and team members waste resources trying to demonstrate ROI for their work.
  • Design system adoption is a challenge for many organizations.
  • Design system maturity varies widely across organizations and industries, often hinging on support from leadership and stakeholders.

Download the report for free at Design Systems and DesignOps in the Enterprise.

A Brief Overview of Each Chapter

designops picking tools options

Design Team

The Design Team Chapter discusses the organizational structure, cross-functional collaboration, and its influence on design system adoption.

Even in cases with leadership support, design system adoption is slow and challenging due to silos and poor communication channels. The report outlines several solutions, including:

  • Transparent communication between teams
  • Establishing a single source of truth
  • Setting measurable goals with KPIs to track progress
  • Assigning accountability across teams toward a common goal

Design Process

The Design Process Chapter looks at working standards, the handoff process, and team aspirations. We learned that designers like to create new things, while developers prefer to reuse as much as possible.

Many design system workflows and components are outdated. Updating component libraries, adding elements, and making changes overall are some of the companies’ biggest areas of concern.

Another challenge is the design handoff. Most organizations voiced concerns about their current design process but didn’t have a clear path to making it more effective. Even with a solid design system, the transition from design to development is challenging. Teams adopt tools to simplify this handoff process, often introducing fragmented communication and inefficiencies.

Tooling

We explore how the tools used during design and development impact a design system’s adoption and success. 

Many organizations recognize they need intuitive tools that provide a single source of truth–but switching tools is a heavy lift requiring time and resources to change people’s mindsets.

Design System Documentation

One of the most daunting tasks of managing a design system is keeping every part of it up to date. Documentation is a valuable resource helping designers and developers model their efforts to deliver consistent user interfaces.

file folder

Organizations have learned that successfully designing and delivering products is nearly impossible without adequate documentation. But, the bandwidth required to maintain design system documentation is challenging, particularly for small teams with fewer resources.

The right tools can help facilitate design system maturity while providing structure for documentation. Learn more about the tools from the report: Design Systems and DesignOps in the Enterprise.

Design System Adoption

Design system adoption requires continuous evangelism and outreach to ensure that stakeholders understand its value and how it can improve efficiency.

Effective adoption requires top-down support combined with change management from HR and DesignOps teams. An adoption strategy must be measurable so organizations can monitor progress and identify successful initiatives.

A Vision of the Ideal Model

We put together a vision for the ideal design system model using insights from our research. While the ideal design system framework differed between organizations, one distinct commonality was “to create more effective workflows for better product development.”

Organizations implement design systems to achieve several goals:

  • Create design and development work at scale with greater efficiency and the ability to replicate elements and components
  • Reduce strain on design resources
  • Create a unified design language
  • Create visual consistency across products, channels, and departments
  • Serve as an onboarding tool with clear standards, processes, and documentation

How to Use This Report

designops efficiency arrow

This research demonstrates that organizations share similar struggles with product development and design systems. Through sharing our findings, we hope companies can model solutions based on how others have solved (or plan to solve) similar challenges. We also hope it will feed the discourse around design system maturity and the future of product design.

Download the report for free. Head onto Design Systems and DesignOps in the Enterprise.

A Complete Website Checklist for Quality Web Design

website check list

From creating high-quality visuals to making sure all the web pages are intuitive and responsive, website design requires a combination of technical know-how and artistic vision.

To ensure your website is successful in both areas, you’ll need to do your due diligence and follow a website checklist. In this article, we’ll describe the qualities of a good website and how to work with a team of web developers. We’ll also outline tasks to follow if you want to make your website functional in addition to being aesthetically pleasing.

If you’re creating a web design, use UXPin. It’s an end-to-end prototyping tool with which you can create an interactive prototype of a website, share it with others, and use it for user testing. It’s the only prototyping tool that allows you to test true experience of a website. Sign up for a UXPin trial.

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What are the Top Qualities of a Good Website?

A website should be more than just functional; it also needs to look aesthetically pleasing and consistent in portraying your brand. In short:

  • It should answer your target audience’s questions,
  • The content should be organized and accessible to all users, including those with disabilities,
  • It should be optimized for mobile devices,
  • It should guarantee the highest security standards (have an SSL certificate and more).

These are just a few of the qualities of a good website that must be taken into account during the web design process. If you are looking for a full list of website design elements, this web development checklist can be very useful for webmasters and web designers.

A pre-launch website checklist for creating effective web designs 

Interview stakeholders

team collaboration talk communication ideas messsages

Stakeholder interviews have a major impact on the final product. They help gather valuable insights that would otherwise be difficult to obtain. Here are a few things you need to do to prepare for a stakeholder interview:

  • Pinpoint your research objectives: What outcomes are you seeking? It’s best to devise a script or list of questions that will assist in uncovering vital information.
  • Identify the stakeholders: Depending on the project you are working on, the people who have a say in it may be from different parts of the company, like management, engineering, marketing, or sales. A stakeholder is anyone whose job will be affected by the product.
  • Define the setup: For any stakeholder interview, be sure to have all the essential tools on hand. Understanding the website’s objectives, functionalities, and timeline help you structure the interview.

Stakeholder interviews are a great way to learn about what people want. They help you understand how users behave, what limits them, and what problems they have.

Research competitors

To compare your website to others, you need to first identify who your competitors are. You can find this information in three different sources:

  1. Well-known direct competitors in your industry. This complete detailed guide on competitive analysis for UX should help you out.
  2. Identify your most relevant keywords and conduct a Google search. Search the results and see which websites are appearing.
  3. Take the time to research related companies on Capterra and G2. Arm yourself with knowledge of what potential customers look for to craft the perfect content and structure when planning your website. This information can give you insights into both the features and services that will make it stand out.

An ideal way to kick off an analysis of the competition’s design is by evaluating their website performance. When rating each website, assess its performance using a scale from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest score).

  • What is the site performance?
  • Is the layout easy to navigate?
  • Is the font easy to read?
  • Are the images properly sized and have alt text?
  • Is the website responsive?
  • How would you rate your new site’s usability?

Use this scale to make sure each page is graded the same way. This will help ensure that your assessments are accurate. Be sure to take notes as you go along. The goal is to look at each page and see what it has, how it works in different areas, and what’s missing. The most important part is seeing how you can do better than the other pages.

Do user research 

user search user centered

User research is very important in the process of making a website. In short, it helps you design something that your target audience will like, understand what consumers want, and, ultimately, help your business grow. 

Once you’ve gained a rough understanding, do additional research to check if your initial assumptions align with the people you want to reach. They will give you important information about what design to use. You can learn more by doing things like diary studies, interviews, and focus groups. This way you will know if your design meets your users’ needs.

Creating website personas is another helpful way to identify the brand’s tone. By building personas, you can gain a better understanding of the website user. Personas are fictional characters created to represent website users. They help you understand how users behave, how they think, and what website features will engage them. 

Check if there are any functional constraints

Construction of an app or website requires three essential components: desirability, viability, and feasibility. All must be carefully considered to ensure a successful new site launch.

This point centers on the feasibility of this initiative. For example, if you are planning to design and develop a website with Webflow, partnering with one of the best webflow agencies can help you fully understand the platform’s capabilities. By discovering what can be accomplished with it, you’ll have greater control over your digital project and create an incredible end result.

Tap into a current design system or craft your own for maximum impact

design system abstract

A Design System is a shared vocabulary for product teams that allows them to communicate more effectively and efficiently.

By having this common language, designers can create consistent experiences across different platforms with clarity and cohesion. It makes the design process go faster and helps teams communicate better so they can make products. This article goes into more depth on Design Systems.

Plan information architecture (IA)

code developer design 1

Interaction design, which includes information architecture (IA), takes into account content, context, and users for a more efficient user experience. To create a user-friendly experience, it’s essential to consider users’ needs, business objectives, search engine’s requirements, and the site pages involved.

To start your information architecture plan, you will need a few things from the IA starter pack.

  • Craft your content to meet the needs of your audience in an organized manner
  • Use headings to create content structure
  • Start making a map in your head and planning how people will move around your website.

Ultimately, you want people to convert or take the desired action. By developing website content that caters to your website visitors, you can create an enhanced user experience and increase website conversions. You’ll need to structure website content and create labels that are meaningful, consistent, and user-friendly. 

Build a prototype of a new website

mobile screens pencils prototyping

When deciding which prototyping tool to use, it is essential to consider how product teams work, exchange information, and gather feedback.

Here’s where a tool like UXPin will be immensely useful. It allows designers to use coded UI components to create fully interactive prototypes that feel like the end product while removing silos and miscommunication during the design-developer handoff stage. 

Test with users

testing user behavior pick choose

User testing involves observing real users interacting with homepage, contact page or any other site pages and seeing how they complete certain tasks, such as filling a contact form. It’s best to start running the tests when your design drafts are complete, but also for initial wireframes.

When you are designing something, establish when it’s time to move from sketching to low-fidelity mockups to high-fidelity prototypes. 

UXPin lets you create interactive prototypes filled with real data, and easily share them with all your stakeholders. This makes design testing and feedback gathering more effective.

Iterate

testing observing user behavior

Use a tool that will help you be more productive when you are working on multiple design iterations. The best way is to use one tool for both making a model of your idea and collecting people’s opinions about it.

For example, PayPal’s Senior Manager for UX, Erica Rider, says it used to take her half a day to roll out a new iteration. Ever since she’s turned to UXPin, she can do so in as little as 30 minutes.

Hand your project over to the development team

design and development collaboration process product communication 1

Now is the time to equip your developer with all of the digital assets they need to begin working. Some tips to make the handoff process easier for you include:

Create templates: To make the handoff process simpler, create a template for each task and all deliverables associated with it. This template will change to match your needs and how you work. That way, when you need to hand something off at a moment’s notice, these templates will be ready.

Prevent clutter: Make sure your designs are easy to understand. This will make it less frustrating for people who are looking at them for the first time. Make sure everything is organized and labeled clearly. This way, you can easily find what you are looking for and won’t have to waste time searching. In addition, you should give developers access to all documents before they start working.

Review your work: Before you hand your work in, review every aspect of the deliverables. Double-check that all of your links are functional and accessible. To ensure that each section is presented clearly, double-check for errors in spelling and grammar as well as the appropriate use of visuals.

Run design handoff meetings: Gather both the design and development teams for a meeting. Demonstrate how each deliverable will be included in the handoff. Be prepared to answer any inquiries that may come up and convey as much insight as possible during this meeting.

Takes notes and explain: When you are done with designing, it’s a good idea to write down why you made each decision. This will help you remember your thought process later on. These annotations explain how the product is supposed to work and what it is supposed to do.

UXPin allows you to work with your team anywhere. No more endless file swapping. You can share your work and collaborate with your team on one prototype. No plug-ins, and no third-party handoff apps are necessary. You can use it to create contextual documentation. 

Leave perfectly detailed descriptions of elements on your designs, down to the smallest detail, for anyone involved – especially developers. Describe when and how certain elements should be used. You can even include accessibility guidance.

What to do post-launch?

timer

Website launch checklist doesn’t end with the first launch. You need to constantly monitor your site using website analytics tools, such as Google Analytics or Google Search Console. Websites are prone to have problems with pagespeed, indexing, or broken links. It’s necessary to monitor your site’s health and SEO.

Plus, the best websites stay on top of their conversion rates. We have a separate article about improving site conversion, but to be brief, you need to test your call-to-actions and implement other best practices that set up your site for success.

Follow this website checklist during web design

Creating website checklists and collecting feedback on a new site design are important steps. Use it to ensure that your website meets all of the qualities of good website design. Iterate your designs with a tool like UXPin to save time and be more productive.

Finally, hand your project over to the development team by creating templates, holding design handoff meetings, annotating and explaining your web design decisions, avoiding clutter, and ensuring that you review your own work.

By following these steps, website design will become a much smoother process for all involved. With the right tools and processes in place, website design can be completed quickly, efficiently, and easily.

Create the prototype of a website right away. Use the steps we outlined in this article and create your website design in UXPin. Sign up for a free trial.

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Code to Design vs. Design to Code – Which is Better?

Code to Design vs Design to Code

Just completed the final iteration of your prototype? Great! Let’s send the design to the development team, so they can translate it to code. Here the question pops up: is design to code really the best direction you can hope for? Actually, there’s a second model of working: pushing code to design and working with coded UI components.

In this article, we will discuss design-to-code model and why design teams cannot eliminate inconsistencies and lack of collaboration without changing their tools. Luckily, with UXPin Merge, designers still enjoy an intuitive design tool’s user interface; all that changes is what’s behind the components that they use for prototyping.

Ready to experience code-to-design technology? Request access to UXPin Merge and obtain a single source of truth between design and development. Read more about UXPin Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Design to Code 

Design to code describes a typical product development process. Designers use design and prototyping tools to design user interfaces and hand these off to developers to code.

Over the years, the design-to-code process has evolved, but there is still a big gap between design and development. Designers still create static vector user interfaces, which engineers must translate into code.

mobile screens pencils prototyping

Due to the lack of fidelity and functionality, design teams must include documentation, annotations, and explanation about what designs and prototypes are supposed to do.

Many designers use GIFs and videos to demonstrate animations and transitions because their tools lack interactivity, which requires significant time and resources. It also fragments design files and documentation, confusing developers and stakeholders.

Read more about it in our article about image-based vs. code-based tools.

Benefits of design to code

The design-to-code process is comfortable for designers and engineers because it allows each party to work with familiar tools, workflows and using familiar vocabulary that’s comprehesive to them.

Design tools are built for ease of use and speed. Experienced designers can create a screen mockup really fast using an image-based design tool.

Limitations of design to code

Unfortunately, the limitations outweigh the benefits–which is why so many companies seek ways to improve and update their design processes.

Misalignment between design and development

Fidelity and functionality are massive limitations with current design-to-code workflows. Image-based prototypes don’t look or function like the end product. Even with documentation, annotations, and handover meetings explaining prototypes, designers still complain that engineers haven’t met their expectations. Conversely, engineers struggle to articulate technical limitations to designers, creating friction.

Design system challenges

Even with high-quality design systems, design to code creates challenges for handoffs, scalability, and maturity. The design system team must manage two design systems:

  • UI kit for designers
  • Component library for developers

Additionally, they must maintain documentation for both systems.

design system abstract

Describing this workflow as a single source of truth is a fallacy. As the German-based software development agency dotSource points out in this article, 

“Most design system releases require updating in at least three places:

  1. The design system’s codebase (component library)
  2. The design team’s UI kit (design tool)
  3. The design system’s documentation

Instead of a “single source of truth” that gives “three single sources of truth” for every UI component–this seems counterintuitive and increases errors. If the design system’s update process and technologies don’t align, the team ends up with redundant work because a single change requires three updates.”

Duplicated work

When engineers get the final version of design, they need to translate it to code. Thus, their work takes much longer than it could if the team didn’t need to push design to code.

Code to Design

Code-to-design is a workflow pioneered by UXPin using Merge technology.

collaboration team prototyping

Designers still use a design tool with the same familiar UI and features, but the designs render production-ready code instead of vector graphics.

Many design tools try replicating this system with plugins and extensions, but the code is rarely usable for engineers. Merge is different because it syncs components from a design system’s repository to UXPin–engineers can use the code because they wrote it.

Designers use the same component library during the design process as engineers use for development.

Benefits of code to design

Single source of truth

Code to design solves many product development problems, but the most significant benefit is a true single source of truth–everyone uses the same component library from the same repository. Any changes to the repo automatically sync to UXPin, notifying design teams of the update.

Merge’s Version Control allows design teams to change to earlier releases and only update an existing project when they choose.

design and development collaboration process product communication 1

If devs are using UXPin’s Storybook Integration, they update documentation simultaneously with every release. This single source of truth solves many DesignOps challenges, allowing team members to focus on high-level tasks.

Another significant benefit of a code-to-design workflow is smoother design handoffs. Engineers import the component library’s package, add the components, and copy JSX code from UXPin to complete frontend development.

Component-driven prototyping

Merge components appear in UXPin with the same properties and interactivity as the repository. Each component’s Props (Args in Storybook) appear in UXPin’s Properties Panel, allowing designers to make changes according to the design system–i.e., colors, states, sizes, etc.

These ready-made UI elements facilitate rapid component-driven prototyping, where designers simply drag and drop components and patterns to build fully functioning prototypes.

Ultimate consistency with zero design drift

These ready-made components eliminate inconsistencies because everyone uses the same UI library with the same limitations and constraints.

Designers can only change elements via the properties available in UXPin’s Properties Panel. There are no overrides, thus eliminating the possibility for changes, resulting in no drift.

Better governance

These limitations improve governance and design system integrity. The design system team has absolute control over the repo; therefore, everyone must follow the correct procedures to promote new patterns and components.

Scalability and maturity

Merge facilitates the highest design system maturity stage with every team member using the same component library–no designing or developing from scratch to release products. Using this technology, organizations can achieve this level of maturity significantly quicker than following a design-to-code workflow.

screens prototyping

With everyone using a single codebase, it’s easier to scale a design system following technological and market changes. Whenever the design system team adds new components, patterns, or templates to the repository, they’re immediately available for the entire product development team.

Enhanced testing

Better prototypes mean better testing. Designers can solve more issues and find better opportunities during the design process with prototypes that accurately represent the final product experience.

Usability participants and stakeholders can interact with these prototypes like they would the final product, resulting in meaningful feedback and actionable data-driven insights.

Limitations

Code to design requires a component library

Code to design can only work with a component library. You can use an open-source UI library if your organization doesn’t have a design system. For example, PayPal’s internal product development team uses a customized Microsoft Fluent UI design system.

Designers can also use Merge’s npm integration to import components from open-source libraries available on the npm registry. This method requires no technical skills. Instead, designers use the Merge Component Manager to import and manage UI elements.

Designers rely on engineers

Code-to-design requires designers and engineers to work closer together. Most organizations have a dedicated design system team, so this won’t be too different from standard governance procedures.

Less flexibility

A code-based design system is less flexible than a UI kit that designers can quickly assemble. Designers have limited or no possibility of changing or manipulating components once uploaded into the design tool. This inflexibility is necessary for design system governance and integrity, but some might argue that it restricts innovation and creativity.

design system components

UXPin functions like any other design tool, so designers can develop new ideas and patterns to present to team members. With UXPin Patterns, designers can combine existing design system elements or import open-source libraries to create new components, patterns, and templates.

With this in mind, code-to-design creates more opportunities for creativity and innovation because designers can leverage the best parts of open-source libraries to develop new patterns.

Companies Using Code to Design

Our diverse client base proves that code to design works for multinational enterprises, agencies delivering white-label software, and startups. Here are three great examples of code-to-design in practice.

PayPal

PayPal’s internal UX team revolutionized its product development process by switching to a code-to-design model. Since the switch in 2019, PayPal’s product teams deliver releases 8X faster with no design drift or inconsistencies. PayPal’s new product development process has improved cross-functional collaboration, with everyone taking responsibility for user experience.

Merge also improved PayPal’s prototyping and testing, with better feedback from test participants and stakeholders. 

“One of the significant impacts of UXPin Merge is our ability to create higher-fidelity prototypes. There’s a lot more confidence from everyone (including designers, C-suite, directors, and developers) about what the final product will look like, the user experience, and interactivity–giving us higher quality feedback from stakeholders.” – Erica Rider, UX Lead EPX at PayPal.

TeamPassword

TeamPassword is a 5-person startup (as of Feb 2023) operating in the highly competitive password management market. The startup doesn’t have a UX team, requiring engineers to prototype and test new releases.

Before switching to Merge, TeamPassword’s engineers would develop each prototype–a time-consuming process for a company with limited resources. In 2022, TeamPassword changed to Merge and synced a custom MUI design system.

Since changing to a code-to-design workflow, TeamPassword’s speed-to-market has drastically improved, and the product has no usability issues or inconsistencies, making the company more competitive.

Ready to overhaul your design-to-code workflow with a revolutionary code-to-design solution? Visit our Merge page.

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App Engagement – 7 Ways UX Design Can Increase it

app engagement 1 1

Mobile app competition is fierce, with millions of digital products vying for people’s limited attention. Increasing app engagement is a high priority for many product development teams, constantly looking for innovative ways to retain and entertain.

UX designers play an essential role in keeping app users engaged using various design and psychology techniques. Prototyping and testing are vital for helping designers fix usability issues or business opportunities that could lead to higher engagement.

Test your design ideas with the world’s most advanced design tool. Create immersive prototypes that look and function like the final product. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s features today.

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Why is App Engagement Important?

App engagement is a crucial business value metric because it influences many other factors, including revenue, brand loyalty, retention, and, most importantly, a company’s valuation.

Here are four reasons why app engagement is essential:

  • Revenue: whether your app uses an ad or paid model, higher engagement typically results in higher earnings.
  • Retention: higher engagement is a good indication that users rely on your product in their daily lives, leading to increased retention and customer lifetime value (CLV).
  • Brand affinity: higher engagement leads to increased brand affinity, which impacts key business metrics like Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT). Improving these scores indicates that customers will share product experiences leading to free exposure.
  • Data and research: increasing engagement enriches data analytics, allowing product teams to understand user behavior better and optimize for growth.

What is a Good Engagement Rate For an App?

Determining a good app engagement rate will depend on many factors, including the product, industry, niche, market, and users. Researchers use UX benchmarking to calculate the correct app engagement industry standard and measure this against the product’s performance.

The formula for calculating app engagement rate is simple:

  • monthly active users / total users X 100

You can use the same equation for daily engagement by replacing monthly active users (MAU) with daily active users (DAU).

What is the UX Team’s Role in Increasing App Engagement?

UX designers play a critical role in app engagement and user retention. Intuitive UIs and well-designed features that enable users to complete tasks and solve problems efficiently create an enjoyable experience and increase engagement.

During prototyping and testing, designers can identify roadblocks and streamline user flows to make products more intuitive and easier to use.

App Engagement Metrics for UX Designers

designops efficiency arrow

Here are some key performance indicators (KPIs) UX designers can use to measure performance:

  • Retention rate: the percentage of users who continue to use an application
  • Churn rate: the number of users who have stopped using an application
  • Average session length: the average time users spend using an app during a single session 
  • Daily active users (DAU): the number of users who open an app on a single calendar day
  • Monthly active users (MAU): the number of users who open an app over 30 days
  • Stickiness: a radio or percentage indicating how often users return to an app
  • User engagement rate: how many active users complete a specific action in an app
  • Push notification open rate: the percentage of app users who open notifications–expressed overall and per notification type
  • App reviews: the percentage of users who leave a review in app stores or on platforms like Trustpilot

Design teams must measure these app engagement metrics before and after design projects to demonstrate how design decisions create business value and deliver a return on investment.

How Can UX Designers Help Increase App Engagement?

user search user centered

Progressive disclosure

Progressive disclosure is a design technique that only shows users the most critical features or options to complete a single task or action. For example, many eCommerce stores often hide a product description and other information behind accordions to minimize cognitive overload, allowing users to choose when and if they need to see it.

Progressive disclosure increases app engagement by:

  • Making products easier to learn and navigate
  • Places less important features on secondary screens so users complete tasks quicker
  • Reducing errors, creating a more enjoyable user experience

Streamline the app onboarding process

It’s no good looking at app engagement if users struggle with the onboarding process. Designers must aim to eliminate roadblocks so new users can start using the product and experiencing its benefits as soon as possible.

Here are some ways designers can streamline app onboarding:

  • Allow users to sign up using popular social media accounts like Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, etc.
  • Use simple product walkthroughs explaining features when users log in for the first time to reduce checking the documentation.
  • Ensure form fields have practical helper text and error messages that enable users to solve issues quickly.

Incorporate gamification

Gamification is a tried and tested method for increasing customer engagement. Many products use badges and points, but there are subtle ways to reward users for engagement.

Grammarly sends users a “Weekly Writing Update” newsletter showing their productivity, mastery, and vocabulary in relation to other users.

gamification in grammarly for increasing app engagement

The great thing about Grammarly’s Weekly Writing Update is that it’s uncomplicated and uses product analytics–making it cheap and easy to implement. The update only exists in email for premium users, so it doesn’t add unnecessary data to Grammarly’s UI.

Create personalized user experiences

App personalization makes users feel like designers created the product specifically for them. Personalization goes beyond adding someone’s name to a user interface. If you’ve ever visited YouTube using a browser’s incognito mode, you’ll get a wide range of recommendations–most of which you have zero interest in ever watching.

YouTube and other social media platforms use personalization to recommend content based on your browsing history–which is why no two homepages will ever look the same. Presenting users content and features that interest them increases engagement because everything they need is right in front of them.

Here are three tips for creating personalized app experiences:

  • Show users recently visited features or content on the home screen to continue incomplete tasks or return a project they were working on.
  • Use browsing history to anticipate what someone might want to do–i.e., a budgeting app might encourage users to add expenses for the day when they open the app in the evening.
  • Allow users to customize user interface layouts and widgets to prioritize and organize content–for example, a user might want to regularly reorganize their project management dashboard to align with new projects and tasks.

Using microinteractions to create immersive user experiences

Designers use microinteractions and animations to engage and entertain users. For example, double-tapping an Instagram post and seeing a red heart appear–so addictive!

Some examples where microinteractions increase app engagement include:

  • Progress bars display progress, encouraging users to complete tasks.
  • Helpful push notifications that remind users of incomplete tasks, in-app messages, or items requiring their attention.
  • Infinite scroll or swipe animations that keep users engaged while exploring content.
  • Short celebration animations reward users for completing tasks, encouraging them to continue using the app or move on to the next task.

Using scarcity and FOMO to engage users

When the social audio app Clubhouse launched in 2019, it was an invite-only application. Each user had a limited number of invites they could send, creating scarcity and FOMO for those who wished to join.

This scarcity also kept users engaged because they wanted to be “there” for the most popular conversations so they could talk about the experience firsthand to friends or followers on other social platforms.

Many dating apps limit the number of likes a user can complete on their free plan. This scarcity works twofold:

  1. One, it keeps users who wish to stay on the free plan more engaged because they’re more careful about conserving their swipes, increasing their session length and opportunities to present ads.
  2. Two, limiting like actions means users are more likely to sign up for a paid plan–ever seen your dream match on the very next profile after your free likes run out? This isn’t a coincidence.

Improving app performance

There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for an application to load. Users quickly lose interest, stop using the product and find a competitor with better app performance.

While engineers typically have the most control over optimizing app performance, there are four ways UX designers can help:

  • Optimize asset files by reducing file sizes and dimensions
  • Minimize content per screen to reduce load times
  • Create loading interactions to momentarily distract users for big system tasks
  • Keep animations short and only use them to help users

Increasing App Engagement With UXPin

UXPin is an end-to-end design tool enabling designers to build prototypes with final product like fidelity and functionality. 

These fully interactive prototypes give design teams meaningful, actionable insights to improve and iterate on ideas, solve more problems, and identify valuable business opportunities–like app engagement. Designers can test prototypes in the browser or optimize mobile app engagement via the UXPin Mirror app (iOS & Android). 

Build prototypes to test and improve app engagement with these four UXPin features:

  • States: create multiple states for a single component and build complex UI patterns like dropdown menus, steppers, carousels, accordions, and more.
  • Interactions: use Triggers, Actions, and Animations to design immersive prototype experiences. Designers can also use Conditional Interactions to create dynamic interactivity that responds to user actions.
  • Variables: collect data from user inputs and use it elsewhere in the application. Designers can use these variables to personalize user interfaces and give real-world app experiences.
  • Expressions: design form validation, computational components, dynamic error messages, and more. When combined with States, Interactions, and Variables, Expressions enable designers to create functionality comparable to code.

Improve app retention and engage more users by solving more issues and identifying more opportunities during the design process with UXPin. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced prototyping features.

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The Persona of a Great Design Leader

design leader

Design leaders champion the design team, user experience, and, most importantly, an organization’s users. They create the company’s design vision and clear a roadmap for designers to achieve its goals and milestones. 

This article explores the design leader’s role, including advice from two highly experienced industry experts who have worked in leadership positions at UXPin, Microsoft, Google, Yammer, O’Reilly Media, and GitHub.

Lead confidently, knowing your designers work with the world’s most advanced digital product design tool. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s features and start building better user experiences for your customers.

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What Does a Design Leader do?

Design leaders (Head of Design) guide the design team’s vision and strategy within an organization. They establish and uphold the organization’s design principles and standards while ensuring the design team delivers high-quality work.

A design leader’s responsibilities vary depending on the organization, product, and design team’s needs, but generally, they are strong design advocates who work closely with a company’s leadership team and executives.

Here are some examples of a design leader’s responsibilities:

  • Setting an organization’s design vision and UX strategy
  • Ensuring designers maintain a human-centered mindset focused on solving user needs
  • Mentoring and coaching design team members on design thinking, problem-solving, and career development
  • Maintain a positive user experience and understand how this impacts the overall customer experience
  • Cross-functional collaboration to integrate UX across the product development process
  • Working with senior leadership to align design goals and business goals
  • Setting design principles and standards while ensuring design teams apply these correctly and deliver their best work
  • Managing the department’s budgets and resources
  • Overseeing the recruitment, hiring, and retaining of design talent
  • Leading design projects and initiatives from concept to launch
  • Create effective and efficient workflows for successful, high-quality project delivery

What is the Path to Becoming a Design Leader?

Becoming a design leader typically involves several years of design experience and a track record of delivering successful design projects and initiatives.

Here are a few key steps organizations typically want when hiring a design leader:

  1. A strong design foundation: A bachelor’s degree in a design-related field such as graphic design, industrial design, or user experience design.
  2. Design role experience: working in various design roles will help you gain the knowledge, perspective, and expertise necessary to lead the department.
  3. Skills development: design leaders never stop learning. From early in their careers, they’re constantly studying to develop further skills and expertise–most notably, developing design, technical, management, business, and leadership skills.
  4. Demonstrate leadership potential: to become a design leader, you must demonstrate a desire and track record for leading teams and projects. You must be proactive, informing leadership and management of your ambition to become a design leader so they can give you more opportunities to prove yourself and help with skills development.
  5. Climb the ladder: once you have a strong design foundation and some success leading teams, you can begin applying for promotion to design manager, director, and eventually design leader. Beyond that, you can aspire to VP and C-suite positions.

What are the Qualities of an Effective Design Leader?

In 2017, UXPin’s founder Marcin Treder (now a Senior UX Design Manager at Google), penned his thoughts on what makes a great design leader.

Marcin wrote the following in 2017…

An African proverb says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. Maintaining unity without disrupting efficiency is the pinnacle of work for a design leader.

The end game for a great leader is a successful team. A team that then consistently delivers valuable user experiences to the market.

Design leadership greatness comes in many flavors, but at the core lies a common set of experiences and skills.

Great design leaders help teams and users meet their goals.

We might work in completely different organizations and with entirely different products, but some aspects of being a design leader remain the same:

1. Great design leaders are seasoned practitioners, ready to give up the craft

I imagine a great design leader who is not a designer at all–someone who can lead with a love for design and their team. A person with a clear understanding of the design process and the determination to create a vision to help users.

Leading designers without experience is an enormous challenge in building trust and respect, making part of the job challenging–namely, giving tactical feedback or helping designers upskill.

While I’m sure there are great non-practitioner design leaders–I’ve yet to meet one. Typically, great design leaders are experienced practitioners who discover that they do their job better by scaling through a team.

team collaboration talk communication ideas messsages

Instead of directly designing user experiences, design leaders do it indirectly by shaping amazing teams. Growing their design skills becomes secondary to the help they can offer to their teams. They gradually give up the design craft to develop the organization’s design efficiency.

Design leaders design indirectly – through the work of their teams.

Having said that – most design leaders, including yours truly, continue to tinker with small weekend side projects. Why? Because we absolutely love it.

2. Great design leaders are empathetic and generous with their time

A design leader’s primary function is firing themselves from a design job–they need to get out of the way so others can do great work. The best design leader must become the worst designer on the team.

Growing the team’s abilities is the shortest way to scaling design in an organization. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy task. It requires time and a saintly amount of empathy. You have to be there for your team and help them become much better than you are.

3. Great design leaders are preachers and listeners

In my experience, designers are typically more preachers than listeners. Even when we listen, we listen for our turn to comment. And when we comment, we want to be right.

Being a successful design leader requires much more.

In a way, we have to apply the practice of user research to our teams so we can truly understand the problem. We have to listen. And our preaching becomes something completely different.

To make the voice of design heard loud and clear in an organization, we have to be outspoken. But it’s not our voice that the organization needs to hear. It’s the voice of our team.

Great design leaders listen to preach and preach to listen.

Design leaders should serve as loudspeakers for the team to amplify their message. At the same time, design leaders should coach the team to listen to others and be empathetic.

4. Great design leaders are goal-oriented fighters

Great design leaders are fighters tirelessly fighting for the team and users. Both groups need strong advocates in an organization. Both groups want a superb experience. It’s a design leader’s job to remove all obstacles.

The Design Leader Persona

When I realized there’s so much that design leaders have in common, I decided to use a very familiar concept to illustrate it. I created a design leader persona.

Feel free to use this persona to shape your design leadership program, promote and hire design leaders, or use it as a conversation starter about design leadership.

design leader persona sheet

Design Team Leadership best practices

We chatted with Design Leadership expert Cindy Alvarez who shared six best practices from her experience in leadership roles at Yammer, GitHub, Microsoft, and O’Reilly Media.

Here is Cindy’s advice in her own words:

1. Demand objectives from the people you’re working with

Your job as a designer is to solve problems–not to make things look pretty. To do your job, you need to understand the who, why, when, what, where, and how.

People will try to hand you a spec or a list of requirements and say, “I’ve already thought about this a lot; just design it.” Don’t accept that. Insist, politely but firmly, that they tell you what the main goals of this project are.

For any project, one can say, “if it doesn’t achieve X and Y, then we’ve failed.” Are you trying to sell or educate? Reassure or challenge? Are you encouraging exploration or optimizing for speed? Is this a one-time signup or an everyday task? Is the audience skeptical or already enthusiastic?

designops efficiency arrow

People will suggest that you just use a lightbox, the same styling we used for feature Q, or just copy what Company Z is doing. These might be the best solution, but you won’t know unless you push back to the defined objectives.

“OK, I like how Facebook uses that design element to solve X problem. Are we solving X problem, or is our situation different?” or “Yes, using that green button style would be consistent with what we’re doing on screen Y. But on screen Y, the user is completing a one-time configuration; in our case, we’re trying to make a common task as fast as possible. Does it make sense to force consistency for different behavior types?”

2. Shine some light on the design process

I also call this “don’t be magic.”

If you’re a skilled designer and an intuitive listener, you can combine what people are saying and not saying, deduce what they’re hoping to end up with and make it magically appear on your screen. Voila! People will love you for this. It’s a critical skill for early-stage startups and design emergencies.

It’s also terribly non-scalable. It allows people to believe that they are communicating clearly when they’re not. It will enable people to think that design is “just drawing” and that the thousands of implicit decisions you make about visual priority, color, scale, and ordering are arbitrary.

You need to translate out loud: “So it sounds like you’re asking for X and Y, and you like how Company Z solves this problem because they have these similarities to us. And you’re looking to solve problem Q. Is that right?”

You need to explain your design decisions: “I’m using this style because it emphasizes element A, which is the most important action a user must take. I’m deliberately not copying what we do for feature B because the target user is completely different.”

3. Fight for what you believe in (pragmatically)

In past jobs, I’ve worked with designers who were at opposite ends of this continuum:

“Tell me what to design, and I’ll crank it out” < — — — — — > “change 1 pixel, and you’ll destroy my masterpiece.”

Neither is productive. And it’s incredibly hard to learn where on that spectrum is the most effective for you, your personality, and your organization. But you’ve got to try.

If you believe adding that fourth link will clutter the UI, speak up and explain why. Feel free to express your doubts and the risks. And then, if your stakeholders disagree, pick your battles. Sometimes it’s worth it to fight to the death. Usually, it’s not.

4. Be clear on what you will deliver and when

These are the questions that people will have but usually don’t ask:

  • How likely are these designs to change?
  • How final are the details like fonts, icons, and images?
  • Are you going to illustrate the interaction, or will this be static?
  • Are you illustrating the core use cases, multiple edge cases, and usage scenarios?
  • Will everything be done, or ‘enough to get started’?

You’re better off listing what you’ll deliver in writing, with the above questions answered and a date. It will feel like overkill. It will prevent a lot of misunderstandings. Use it as a checklist.

5. Recover and compensate

If something comes up (and it will) and you cannot deliver what you promised, immediately reach out and offer a plan for getting back on track.

Ask to make sure that’s the most convenient/effective plan for the people on your project.

Do not let a deadline slip without a word. Do not go off without a word; work in silence, and re-emerge three days later with all the work done. Speak up immediately, so no one has to wonder or go looking for you.

6. Always be thinking about how we could be doing things better or smarter

Our process is not there to constrain you; it’s there to help the team work more effectively. If it’s not working, chafing at it and making yourself miserable will not help. Trying to sneak around the rules won’t help, either. Complain constructively so we can fix it.

If you find yourself doing the same task repeatedly, stop and ask if there is a way to automate or simplify it. If you feel like your work is wasted, stop and ask why.

Or, if you did something extraordinary, stop and teach your peers what you did. Share successes. Rehash good meetings and projects, not just bad ones. Analyze why things went well, and try to reproduce.

Thank you to Cindy for sharing these tips from her professional career. You can learn more about Cindy via her website or connect with her on LinkedIn.

Go From Good Design to Great Design With UXPin

UXPin is the world’s most advanced end-to-end design tool, enabling design teams to create prototypes that look and feel like the final product.

Here are four key features that set UXPin apart from traditional image-based design tools:

  • States: create multiple states for any element, each with separate properties and interactions.
  • Variables: capture user inputs and take action based on the data to create dynamic, personalized user experiences during testing.
  • Conditional Interactions: create “if-then” and “if-else” rules to execute different reactions to user actions and inputs.
  • Expressions: design functions to perform complex operations traditionally only available with code, including form validation, computational components, simulate password authentication, and more.

Take your design team to the next level with advanced, interactive prototypes that look and function like the final product. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s features.

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Design System Maintenance — How to Keep Design System Up to Date?

design system maintenance

Building a design system is no small feat–but that’s just the first step. Design system maintenance is a continuous operation requiring human, time, and financial resources to evolve and mature it.

UX, technology, regulatory, product, and organizational changes require the design system team to manage and update many facets of the design system. This article provides a high-level overview of maintaining a design system, including its governance, audits, roadmap, and maturity.

Optimize your design system’s operational challenges and reduce maintenance with UXPin Merge. Sync design and development to create a single source of truth, reduce debt, and eliminate drift. Request access to Merge.

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Treat Your Design System Like a Product

In a Medium article, Nathan Curtis, founder of UX and design systems agency EightShapes, said, “A Design System isn’t a Project. It’s a Product, Serving Products.” 

Framing your design system as a product means the design system team must manage several key aspects:

  • Marketing: increasing design system adoption, update/release announcements, news, etc.
  • UX: creating a good design system user experience (for designers, engineers, product teams, etc.)
  • Engineering: writing and maintaining scalable, error-free code
  • People management: building a successful design system team–even if it’s a team of one
  • Operations: procedures, systems, tools, etc.
  • Governance: process and protocols for maintaining and updating a design system
  • Customer service: logging support tickets and helping users solve problems with component/pattern recommendations
  • Communications: talking to users, advocates, and stakeholders

Effective design system maintenance requires the DS team to create systems and protocols beyond updating pattern libraries to increase the product’s adoption and lifecycle.

design system components

For example, if you have an amazing design system with beautiful code and UI elements, but no one is using it, or it doesn’t deliver a return on investment, stakeholders will likely sunset the project or replace team members.

Start With Governance

Maintaining a design system requires good governance. It’s best to define these before launching your design system so that you’re ready to handle any issues and requests.

These are seven key areas your design system governance must address:

  • Bug reporting and fixing: how do users report bugs, how do you keep a backlog, and how does the team fix these issues?
  • Introducing elements: what is the procedure for adding new components?
  • Promoting patterns: how does the design system team decide whether a new pattern is a one-off or best new practice?
  • Reviewing and adapting patterns: procedures for ensuring new patterns meet design system guidelines and principles.
  • Design system releases: defining a consistent release schedule and quality assurance procedures.
  • Design system auditing: how often do you audit the design system, and what are the methods for analysis and reporting?
  • Documentation: procedures for updating documentation.

Codifying Your Design System

Design system codification organizes a design system’s UI components into a searchable archive or hub with guidelines, principles, documentation, tutorials, governance procedures, and more.

design prototyping collaboration interaction

Here are 11 things to consider when codifying and maintaining your design system’s documentation hub:

  1. Display your design principles and values on the design system’s homepage to remind users whenever they visit.
  2. A brand style guide is essential for maintaining design and copywriting consistency.
  3. The writing style guide provides instructions for all copy, including content, marketing, ALT text, and UX writing–i.e., voice, tone, grammar, slang/jargon/joke/language policies, structure, messages, and labels.
  4. Your design system’s best practices include a list of methods, tools, and processes–for example, how to use image assets or which design tool to use.
  5. Your design system’s website/hub must have easy, searchable navigation so product teams can find components and documentation.
  6. The DS team must provide clear governance for contributing and bug reporting. For example, adding forms on your design system’s website or creating specific Slack channels.
  7. The component library must include an example of each component, a code snippet, interactivity guidelines, use cases/implementation, dark/light variations, dos and don’ts, and variations (size, shape, colors, etc.).
  8. Your color palette must include a swatch and relevant color codes for each platform (iOS, Android, Web, etc.).
  9. Include a complete list of your product’s icons and variations, i.e., outline, circular, color, etc.
  10. Display approved fonts with examples for the various styles, like bold, semibold, regular, light, italic, etc.
  11. Include a list of tools for design, development, accessibility, and cloud storage.

Correctly codifying your design system will reduce errors, increase adoption, and streamline onboarding.

Design System Audits

Design system maintenance starts with a comprehensive audit–if you don’t know what’s wrong, how can you fix it? Design agency Ramotion provides a step-by-step approach for auditing a design system. This audit will assess the following:

  • The design system’s quality
  • Identify gaps
  • Assess resources
  • Analyze consistency
  • Update documentation
design and development collaboration process product communication

It’s important to schedule regular and consistent design system audits. This schedule will depend on the size of your design system and available resources. 

  1. Step one – Create clear audit goals: where will your audit focus, and what are the desired outcomes (reporting, recommendations, actions, etc.)? Over time, you’ll want to develop frameworks for different outcomes to maintain consistency.
  2. Step two – Analyze your resources: the necessary budget, time, and human resource allocation to achieve your audit goals.
  3. Step three – Conduct a design inventory: the design system team catalogs the component library’s UI elements, patterns, and templates, including the corresponding documentation. They also catalog policies, principles, brand guidelines, and other parts of the design system.
  4. Step four – Categorize UI elements: group UI elements and patterns by categories as they appear in your design system, i.e., buttons, icons, forms, etc. Placing everything side-by-side in categories enables one to visualize the entire design system.
  5. Step five – Identify redundant and missing components: completing step four helps identify duplications, redundancies, and missing components easier. For example, you may notice two buttons with slight variations, which could be redesigned into one element to serve both purposes.
  6. Step six: – Analyze the visual and typographic elements: this step includes all visual elements beyond your components and patterns, including color palette, images, fonts, etc. Does the system apply these properties correctly, and are there any inconsistencies?
  7. Step seven – Perform an accessibility analysis: design system accessibility is the foundation for building accessible user interfaces. Auditors must review accessibility policies and confirm these have been applied correctly across the entire design system. They may also check Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) for updates and ensure the design system and its digital products remain compliant.
  8. Step eight – Consider the branding guidelines: auditors must assess components and copy to ensure the entire design system meets brand guidelines.
  9. Step nine – Create a roadmap for the future: use your findings to create a plan and roadmap to fix any issues from the audit.
  10. Step ten – Present your findings: the final step is to present your findings to stakeholders, which may include requesting buy-in for resources to execute your design system roadmap.

Create and Share Your Design System Roadmap

A design system roadmap outlines tasks, milestones, timelines, and deliverables as they relate to:

  • Recent releases
  • What the DS team is currently working on
  • What they will work on next
  • Future releases (6-12 months)

At the end of every audit, the design system team must update this roadmap to align with any updates or changes. For example, the product might be undergoing a redesign, so the team must update the component library. The audit will determine which elements the team must update and how long it will take.

A design system roadmap will influence two other important aspects of its ongoing maintenance:

  • Changelog: chronologically-dated releases and notes
  • Version control: the ability for teams to switch to any available version of the design system

Measuring Your Design System

The DS team must use KPIs to measure the design system and its impact on product development. These KPIs also identify problem areas and where to focus.

design system atomic library components

For example, if adoption remains stagnant, the team must market it better or interview non-users to understand why they’re not using the design system.

 Some design system KPI examples include:

  • Adoption: % of users using the design system and its growth over time
  • Debt (UX & Front-end): the design system’s impact on debt
  • Efficiency: measure how long it takes for teams to build products using the design system vs. not using it. Also, measure how this efficiency changes over time.
  • Time to market: how the design system impacts time to market–again, with the design system and without, and how this changes over time.
  • Writing code: how does the design system reduce writing code, and how this relates to adoption over time.

Design System Maintenance – Michael Todd’s Frequency of Function

Design systems Manager Michael Todd describes his “Frequency of Function” in a Medium article about maintaining a SaaS design system with a small team of two.

Daily tasks:

  • Lead UI design decisions
  • Design system advocacy
  • DesignOps facilitation

Weekly

  • Collaborate with front-end engineers
  • Facilitate design pattern compliance
  • Run a design pattern guild
  • Tracking and reducing UX debt
  • Meet with various stakeholders
  • Maintain and improve design tool libraries

Monthly

  • Consult on the product’s UI design direction
  • Mentor UX designers on systems thinking
  • Anticipate future design system needs

Quarterly

  • Update style guides and documentation
  • Network with product leads and stakeholders

Annually

  • Update the design system’s goals and roadmap

Streamline Design System Maintenance With UXPin Merge

One of the biggest challenges with maintaining a design system is managing and updating separate systems for designers and engineers. Designers use UI kits for design tools, while engineers work with a component library hosted in a repository.

UXPin Merge bridges the gap between design and development by syncing a design system from a repository to UXPin’s design editor, so designers use the same UI components during the design process as engineers use for development.

This single source of truth offers several key benefits for design system maintenance:

  • Managing one component library–no more image-based static UI kits.
  • No designing from scratch–Merge components include properties and interactivity defined by the design system. Designers drag and drop components for an efficient product design workflow.
  • Less front-end development work–engineers already have the same pattern library, properties, styling, and interactions.
  • No design drift–significantly reducing UX and front-end debt.
  • Built-in version control–versioning automatically synced between design and development. Designers can choose when to update and switch to any earlier version of the design system.
  • Seamless handovers–enhance workflows to demonstrate the design system’s value, thus increasing adoption while winning resources from stakeholders.

Reduce operational and maintenance redundancies with UXPin Merge–the world’s most advanced end-to-end design tool with sophisticated design systems capabilities. Request access to Merge.

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Website Design Ideas for Practicing Design

website design ideas

We’ve put together some of the best website design ideas to delight and inspire you. We’ve also created a seven-step process to generate ideas based on your target audience’s needs and business goals.

Whether you’re a design agency, startup, small business, or solopreneur looking for inspiration, this article will guide you through the best web design trends and how they solve users’ problems.

Prototype and test your website design ideas with UXPin–the world’s most sophisticated design tool. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced features and create better user experiences for your website’s visitors.

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How to Create Website Design Ideas

For most businesses, the goal is to attract customers using your website. While aesthetics and visual design are essential for great website design, a user-centered mindset is crucial for your website’s success.

This seven-step process will help determine which website ideas and features work best for your target audience.

Conduct thorough user research

User research includes gathering data about your target audience, their needs, goals, and motivations. UX designers use various methods to collect this data and create user personas, including interviews, surveys, usability testing, and focus groups.

Identify the website’s main objectives

Use your research to determine your website’s primary goals and how it will serve users. It’ll also help you create the messaging and language. For example, a website targeting a teenage audience will look very different from one designed to attract retirees. These users will have different needs and priorities, which is why step one is so important.

Create a user journey map

A user journey map is a visual representation of the steps users take to achieve their goals on the website. It helps to understand the user’s perspective and identify potential pain points and areas for improvement.

Generate design ideas

Use your user research and journey maps (you may have several user flows) to brainstorm design ideas that can help users achieve their goals and solve any pain points identified. UX designers often use sketches and paper prototypes to generate many ideas quickly.

Refine and prioritize the ideas

Review your ideas and select those that align with the website’s objectives and offer the most value to the users. Prioritize the ideas based on their importance and feasibility.

Create wireframes and prototypes

Use the best ideas to create website wireframes and prototypes. Wireframes help visualize the website’s structure and define the information architecture.

You can use the wireframes as a foundation for high-fidelity prototypes to test your ideas and gather feedback from your target audience, other designers, and stakeholders.

Iterate and refine

Use the feedback to make changes and refine your designs. Repeat this process until you have a final website that meets user needs while achieving your business goals–i.e., more signups, sales, blog views, etc.

5 eCommerce Website Design Ideas

Creative hover effects

Ukrainian-based brand Mr. Pops uses a clever emoji hover effect for its product images. This small design choice surprises users while creating a fun and positive brand impression–perfect for an ice cream store.

Key takeaway: be detail-oriented and find subtle ways to be creative and engage users. These small details help brand awareness and encourage people to buy from your online store.

On-brand color palette

Popcorn eCommerce brand Popcornopolis uses bright colors to increase brand awareness and highlight each page’s most important features. Designers have also done a fantastic job of keeping the most important content and CTAs (call-to-action) above the fold on product pages, enabling users to get to the checkout and complete a purchase fast.

Key takeaway: your color scheme is one of the most critical brand elements, but it must also help users complete their goals. It’s also vital to prioritize content and display the most important design elements above the fold to reduce scrolling–this will get users to complete purchases faster.

Bold minimalist typography

Wukiyo uses bold minimalist typography to make text easy to read. The website also uses oversized buttons with a bright blue for the most important CTA–”ADD TO CART.” The blue stands out from the website’s otherwise muted color palette.

Key takeaway: choose a legible font that’s easy to read. You also want to prioritize content, so you only present enough for users to make decisions. And lastly, always make sure your most important CTA is prominent using size and color.

Shopping cart drawer

Premium soda brand Perfy uses bold colors and UI elements to reinforce its brand and product range. A drawer opens when someone adds a product to the cart, revealing the shopper’s basket with a CTA to checkout.

The drawer also provides important messaging to help alleviate any hesitation, including Perfy’s shipping and refund policy. Below that, there are recommended products to increase business value.

Key takeaway: design ways to get users to checkout effortlessly while anticipating and addressing any hesitations. Make sure you use clear, succinct language so users can comprehend messaging quickly and make a decision.

Above the fold product page

Like Popcornopolis, Verve Coffee Roasters uses an above-the-fold, 3-column product page layout. Ample whitespace surrounds the primary CTA with price and quantity selection to help the most important prominent. The product details use keywords rather than lengthy descriptions so that users can make a decision quickly.

Verve’s cart drawer informs shoppers about free shipping while recommending related products to increase transaction value.

Key takeaway: optimize product pages for scannability and reduce the need to read whenever possible by combining text and graphics. Less is always more–don’t be afraid of using white space to make important content stand out. eCommerce web design must incorporate opportunities to increase transaction value with upsells and cross-sells.

5 SaaS/Digital Product Web Design Ideas

Minimalist pricing page design

11Sight’s pricing page uses a black-and-white design with bright green accents to highlight important content and actions. Designers also use a contrasting layout to draw attention to the product’s premium plan, which offers the most value to users and the business.

Key takeaway: design pricing pages that are easy for 

website visitors to understand with minimal text and distractions, and prominent CTAs.

Draw attention with white space

Agorapulse’s homepage uses a single-column design with lots of white space, instantly drawing your eyes to the title and CTAs. Designers also do an excellent job summarizing the product’s key benefits from a user’s perspective. While there are two CTAs, it’s obvious which one is the most important with its bright background and light text.

Agorapulse uses a sticky header navigation bar to keep these CTAs visible as users scroll, so they can take action whenever they’re ready.

Key takeaway: if you have more than one CTA, always ensure the primary action is more prominent than the other. Highlight your product’s benefits over features as high on the web page as possible so your site’s visitors know precisely what your business can do for them.

Tell your story

Venture capital firm Nordic Eye uses video for its homepage hero to tell its brand story and connect with website visitors immediately. Video and visuals are excellent ways to tell users who you are and what you do. Short product demos, walk-throughs, etc., allow users to explore your product and determine whether it solves their problems.

Key takeaway: video is a powerful medium for creating instant connections and demonstrating your product/company’s strengths. Learn about the video optimization tips for user experience.

Speak to your target audience

Investment app Alinea speaks directly to its target Gen Z audience using relatable, empathetic language. Designers use a clever homepage hero design with a prominent CTA, an app store review widget demonstrating social proof, and leading media publications that have featured the product.

Key takeaway: understanding your target audience and what they value most is critical for successful web design. A homepage hero must describe why your product exists and eliminate any doubts before website visitors will take action.

Cross-functional app website

Many digital products offer web and mobile applications. Weera’s homepage gives users three options to use their family-orientated app–web, iOS, and Android. These choices enable users to try your product using their preferred medium, increasing the likelihood of signing up.

Key takeaway: if you have a cross-platform application, allow users to choose how they want to experience your digital product. Placing these choices as high on the page as possible reduces scrolling while increasing conversions.

Resources for website design ideas

Here are some excellent resources if you’re looking for some web design inspiration.

  • Awwwards: a vast collection of some of the world’s best web designs
  • Themeforest: the world’s largest marketplace for WordPress themes, website templates, plugins, and digital tools
  • Behance: a social network for designers to share UI design ideas
  • Dribbble: a Behance alternative

Build Great Websites With UXPin

UXPin’s advanced design technology enables designers to prototype and test their web design ideas with functionality and fidelity comparable to the final product.

With UXPin, designers get meaningful feedback from end-users and stakeholders to iterate with better accuracy, delivering high-quality results.

Whether you’re designing a new website, landing page, eCommerce store, or cross-platform application, UXPin offers the tools and features to create interactive prototypes that look and feel like the final product.

Take your web development to the next level with the world’s most advanced design tool. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced features.

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6 Design Culture Examples and How to Create Your Own

design culture

The design culture examples in this article demonstrate how design-driven companies create positive customer experiences and enhance overall business success.

Creating a good design culture starts with understanding user needs, encouraging collaboration between departments, experimenting with new ideas, investing in the right tools, and developing design team rituals.

Examples from J&J, PayPal, Rexlabs, Google, Revolut, and Dave Malouf demonstrate how these strategies can lead to better decision-making, improved efficiency, and increased innovation.

Build fully functioning prototypes that look and feel like the final product for meaningful feedback from user testing and stakeholders. Create a design culture focused on solving more user problems during the design process with accurate prototyping from UXPin Merge. Visit our Merge page for more details.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

What is Good Design Culture?

Good design culture is the practice of proactively incorporating design principles into the product development process. Incorporating these principles takes a lot of work and collaboration. Design avocates must actively work to integrate design culture and user experience values into the company’s culture and daily operations.

These five key factors characterize good design culture:

  • Focus on user experience
  • Commitment to researching and understanding customer needs
  • Advocating for UX and user needs
  • Willingness to take creative risks through experimentation
  • Encourage collaboration between disciplines

Creating a good design culture requires commitment from leadership and collaboration between different departments within an organization.

The importance of design culture

Good design culture can significantly impact the success of an organization’s products and services. It allows organizations to create products that are more attractive, easier to use, and better suited for customer needs.

How do you Create a Healthy Design Culture?

Here are five things you can do to build the foundation for a strong design culture.

Focus on collaboration: Design is a collaborative process. Creating a thriving design culture starts with fostering an environment that encourages collaboration between all stakeholders.

Celebrate successes: Acknowledge and celebrate big and small achievements for design initiatives. This acknowledgment helps foster a culture of creativity and innovation.

Foster open dialogue: Encourage an open dialogue between designers, developers, and other stakeholders throughout the design process. An open forum for ideas ensures everyone is in sync with the project’s vision.

team collaboration talk communication ideas messsages

Encourage experimentation: Give designers the freedom to try new things and experiment. Like successes, teams must celebrate experimentation–succeed or fail. This autonomy encourages creative thinking while celebrating the attempt and what the organization learned rather than the result.

Invest in tools: Investing in the right tools is essential for successful design projects. Designers must have the hardware, software, and resources to create great work and push creative boundaries.

Implement DesignOps: DesignOps can reduce operational burdens and break down silos that adversely impact morale and culture. The DesignOps mindset, which we discuss in DesignOps 101, takes the same strategies and thinking for design projects and applies it to your company structure and work mentality. 

Activities to Enhance Design Culture

Design team rituals

Design culture must flourish within the design department before spreading organization-wide. Design team rituals are an effective way to instill UX principles, foster connections, and create design advocates within the department.

Some design rituals include:

  • Design critiques: designers present ideas and designs for feedback.
  • Coffee rituals: scheduled informal meetups to keep designers connected.
  • Weekly 1:1s: Design leader one-on-ones with team members to discuss their challenges, work in progress, career path, etc.
  • Daily stand-ups: an agile exercise where team members share their daily progress and any blockers/challenges.
  • Check-in/Check-out: morning check-in and afternoon check-out rituals foster communication and allow designers to ask for help if needed.

Design sprints

Design sprints foster a culture of experimentation, collaboration, and rapid prototyping. These intensive, focused sessions encourage a diverse team to solve problems using design thinking principles.

Including participants from different departments creates more design advocates while spreading design thinking and user experience principles across the organization.

Design thinking workshops

Design thinking workshops provide an opportunity for non-designers to learn about and practice design thinking methodologies. These workshops encourage a culture of empathy and problem-solving, which are core UX values.

Participating in design thinking workshops teaches team members how to approach problem-solving and innovation with a user-centered mindset, helping to promote design culture within the organization. Design teams can leverage this organizational mindset to encourage cross-functional collaboration for developing ideas for new products and features.

Invite team members and stakeholders to user testing

User interviews and testing are fantastic opportunities to humanize users and create empathy. Usually, only designers and researchers see how users struggle with problems, leaving other departments and stakeholders to question design decisions.

user choose statistics group

Bringing these parties into user interviews and testing sessions allows them to witness problems firsthand and how design teams use design thinking to solve them.

Design Culture Examples From Six Leading Organizations

Design culture through education at J&J

J&J debuted its design system at a “Lunch & Learn” session where the design team demonstrated how they create interactive prototypes using UXPin Merge.

J&J’s team hosts regular Lunch & Learn sessions where they discuss interactive prototyping and encourage team members and stakeholders to develop their own ideas using anything from basic sketches to high-fidelity prototypes–depending on their available tools and skills.

When team members have a concept to test, they bring it to designers to prototype using the organization’s design system and UXPin Merge. This educational process encourages everyone at J&J to develop product concepts, creating a diversity of ideas and more possibilities for innovation.

DesignOps 2.0 at PayPal

In 2019, PayPal completely reinvented its internal product development process using UXPin Merge. The org’s DesignOps 2.0 creates a single source of truth with UXPin Merge while bringing design and development into a single iterative process.

DesignOps 2.0 educates product teams and engineers about user experience and user-centered principles. Now, everyone in the product development team shares accountability for user experience, including a custom tool to measure UX success in delivering products.

Through DesignOps 2.0, PayPal’s small team of designers has increased their sphere of influence and developed a UX mindset for everyone in the product development process.

Designing a Design Culture at Rexlabs

Yolanda van Kimmenade, a Senior Product Designer at Rexlabs, describes how she and her design team designed a design culture at the software development agency.

Yolanda and her team started by defining the values and behaviors they believed were important to them and the organization, including:

  • Collaboration
  • Inclusivity
  • Continuous learning
  • Open communication
  • Giving and receiving feedback

Next, Rexlabs’ designers created systems and processes to support these values and behaviors, which included:

  • Establishing a shared language and set of tools for communication
  • Setting up regular check-ins and feedback sessions
  • Creating a system for sharing knowledge and resources within the team

Yolanda emphasizes that design culture isn’t static. The design team must revisit and adjust the culture as the organization and products evolve. Rexlabs’ designers created a positive and productive work environment by continuously aligning their culture with their goals and values.

Rexlabs’ design team spread these values through a design ritual called “Scribbles.” 

“We meet every Wednesday for ‘Scribbles’ — alternating in-person and remote meetups. We discuss topics of interest, give each other feedback on designs (e.g., user research insights, user flows, or WIP designs), and have a delicious coffee…During one Scribbles session, the topic turned to our frustrations about processes that needed improvements. Anton Babkov (our head of design and CEO, who gives us business insights and support), suggested we document these challenges and decide how we’re going to tackle them.” – Yolanda van Kimmenade, Senior Product Designer at Rexlabs.

This discovery from Rexlabs’ CEO was made possible by the company’s strong design culture that welcomes giving and receiving feedback.

Building a Better Design Culture at Google

Mike Buzzard, a Design Manager at Google, argues that a strong design culture leads to increased innovation, customer satisfaction, and overall business success.

Mike suggests three key strategies for developing a healthy design culture:

  • Establish clear design principles and apply them throughout the company, so team members understand the organization’s design philosophy and how to make design decisions
  • Invest in ongoing design training and education for all team members to foster continuous learning and improvement
  • Encourage collaboration and communication to create a sense of community, so that team members feel invested in the success of the organization’s design efforts

“I do think Google can become more design-oriented. Signals of that would be in the vocabulary engineers use when talking to designers about their work, or even just a top-down, bottom-up sort of comfort in understanding how design influences the company’s products and culture… The number of people working in UX at Google has multiplied over the last 5 years—that magnitude of growth is partly why we created a team dedicated to UX community and culture, to ensure the health and success of UX across all of Google.” – Mike Buzzard, Design Manager at Google.

Creating a strong design culture at Revolut

In a 2020 Medium article, Lucas Vallim discusses how a strong design culture can lead to better decision-making, improved efficiency, and increased innovation.

designops efficiency speed optimal

Lucas says you must first understand the role of design within the organization and how this fits into the overall business strategy. Conversely, the company must prioritize design and invest in design talent and resources. Additionally, the company should foster a collaborative and inclusive design process and encourage open communication and feedback.

Lucas argues that building a design culture on these values helps the organization better understand its customers while creating more effective and satisfying products.

Using Holistic DesignOps for enterprise design culture

In an informative UXPin webinar, long-time DesignOps advocate Dave Malouf describes how a holistic DesignOps strategy creates a design culture beyond the design team.

Dave argues that the foundation for a holistic design culture starts with communication and collaboration, which helps everyone in the organization understand design, its principles, needs, areas of influence, and potential.

Dave describes three pillars for holistic DesignOps:

  • Delivery operations: how to get things delivered by optimizing efficiency, velocity, and cost reduction.
  • Practice operations: The people, spaces, methods, and tools that make it possible for designers to design.
  • Business operations: Streamlining organizational bureaucracy from finance, IT, procurement, compliance, legal, etc.

Revolutionize your design workflows and bridge the gap between design and development with the only design tool built to solve modern DesignOps challenges. Discover Merge.

Discover Merge

8 Most Common Problems in Website Design

what are the most common problems in website design

With so many variables to manage, website design problems often creep in, resulting in a poor user experience and adverse effects on SEO (search engine optimization). Designers and engineers must collaborate to prevent these common web design problems so users can find content and complete tasks with minimal effort.

We’ve identified 8 common web design problems in 2023 and the steps designers and developers can take to reduce or solve these issues.

Design better website experiences with the world’s most advanced design tool. Improve cross-functional collaboration and reduce usability issues with UXPin. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s features.

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Not Using Responsive Design

responsive screens prototyping

The problem

Responsive design is one of Google’s primary ranking factors. The tech giant even has a free Learn Responsive Design tutorial to educate designers and engineers. Why? Because Google wants to deliver the best user experience for every result, non-responsive websites are notoriously difficult for mobile users.

The solution

Designers and front-end developers must follow mobile-first web design principles and progressive enhancement to deliver a seamless user experience across the three primary screen sizes, mobile devices, tablets, and desktops.

Web Accessibility

accessibility

The problem

Many websites still ignore web accessibility guidelines, resulting in poor user experiences, particularly for those with disabilities and challenges. Accessibility doesn’t only apply to disabilities. Users endure situational challenges, like slow internet, temporary injuries, or navigating the internet when someone only has one hand free.

Not every website must be accessible. There are projects where designers push creative and technological boundaries, but everyone must have access if your website aims to serve your target audience with helpful information and resources.

The solution

Designers can use a web accessibility checklist to ensure designs meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Some accessibility basics include:

  • Color: using a color blindness simulator and contrast checker to ensure users with visual impairments can read and interpret content.
  • Use plain language: content must be free of jargon and slang so users can fully comprehend information and instructions. The outcomes for links and CTAs (calls to action) must be obvious and never “trick” users–whether that’s intentional or not.
  • Header tags: only one H1 title tag per web page. Nested headings must follow the conventional order of H1, H2, H3, H4, H5, and H6.
  • Images: use descriptive alt text for every image and never use images to replace text because users with screen readers can’t see them.
  • Forms: use the label HTML tag for every field and include helper text for additional instructions. Error messages must provide explicit instructions to fix an input issue.

Additional web accessibility resources:

Poor Website Usability

process problems error mistake

The problem

Usability is the foundation for user experience. It’s about getting the basics right so users can easily navigate your website and find features. Some common usability issues include:

  • Broken links
  • Poor navigation
  • Too many steps to complete tasks
  • Unfamiliar UX patterns–increases the website’s learning curve
  • Poor website performance
  • Inconsistent UI design
  • Cluttered user interfaces with redundant UI elements

The solution

Designers must reduce and eliminate wherever possible. For example, simplifying and minimizing steps in user flows so users can get to the end goal faster.

Optimizing usability means designers must remove roadblocks and inefficiencies. For example, eliminate UI elements, animations, and content that distracts rather than serves.

Poor User Experience

heart love like good

The problem

Usability is one aspect of a website’s user experience. User experience considers how people might think and feel as they engage with a website and its features. UX also extends to the customer experience, which includes brand perception.

Organizations place a high emphasis on UX because if someone doesn’t enjoy a web experience, it’s likely they won’t convert or return.

The solution

Designers must understand users’ needs and priorities to optimize a website’s user experience. Human-centered design and design thinking principles help designers understand website visitors and how they can best solve their problems. For example, placing contact information in the header for a local small business or prioritizing the primary navigation menu to meet common browsing habits.

Poorly Executed Content Strategy

The problem

Most people visit websites to find answers to their questions. Designers have many ways to answer these questions using content, for example:

When designers assume what’s best for users, they often use incorrect content. For example, GOV.UK’s old bank holiday page was cluttered and difficult to read.

The content design team conducted user research to understand why people visit this page. They learned that most users wanted to know the date for the next bank holiday. The result was a significantly cleaner user interface with the next date in large highlighted text. The following dates were below this in sequential order.

The solution

Recognizing which content to serve requires a deep understanding of users and their needs.

  • Why is someone visiting your website?
  • What content will answer their question comprehensively and efficiently?

Your header and hero section (above-the-fold content) are prime real estate for serving content that meets user needs. Instead of an irrelevant hero image and CTA, deliver content that helps people find what they need fast. That might be a link to your contact page or your store’s hottest-selling product.

Outdated Content & Design

mobile screens

The problem

Using a web template or WordPress theme is a quick way to build your new website, but the result is often generic, with outdated features–like a feature-packed sidebar or performance-killing hero carousel. The biggest mistake is designing a website before researching the content.

Another related issue is outdated content which could damage your brand and user trust. For example, if your eCommerce site is still running winter promos on the homepage in summer, customers might think no one is managing the store and fear placing an order in case no one processes it.

The solution

Designers must design around content rather than fit content into a template or pre-made UI pattern. This approach often involves bespoke WordPress website development to create a custom architecture that supports the specific needs of the content, rather than forcing it into the constraints of a generic theme. Additionally, this approach will also help eliminate redundant UI patterns while delivering exactly what users need in the appropriate format.

Regular UX audits ensure designers spot usability issues, outdated designs, and content so the website is always relevant while providing the best user experience.

Inconsistent Design Language

design system 2

The problem

Design inconsistencies cause confusion, making navigating user interfaces and completing actions difficult. For example, using multiple colors for CTAs or applying different styling (fonts, sizing, colors, borders, etc.) to the same UI elements across separate pages.

These minor inconsistencies require a user’s brain to think and relearn a user interface whenever the components change. 

Design inconsistencies also increase development times because engineers must create new components rather than reuse existing ones.

In short, design inconsistencies create problems for everyone, from users to designers, engineers, and stakeholders.

The solution

Design systems help eliminate design inconsistencies and drift. Reusing the same components, patterns, and templates means engineers can copy/paste existing code rather than designing from scratch.

Most website projects don’t have the resources to develop and maintain a design system. But there are tools designers can leverage to build a design system with minimal resources.

UXPin’s Design Systems feature allows designers to create UI libraries to share with other designers. They can create as many design systems as they like–one for each project if needed. The design system owner can set permissions to avoid unauthorized changes and maintain the library’s integrity.

When designers need to redesign a website, they simply apply new styling to the design system’s components in UXPin rather than starting from scratch.

Saving and reusing these components offers several key benefits:

  • Less designing from scratch
  • Less front-end web development
  • Faster time to market
  • Less drift and inconsistencies
  • Fewer usability issues
  • Enhanced brand and user experience

Unhelpful Errors and 404s

direction process path way

The problem

Errors are bound to happen on every website and digital product. Good UX anticipates these issues and provides solutions to solve them. Most 404 pages try to be comical with a short message, “Oops, looks like this page doesn’t exist,” with a link taking the user back to the homepage. If this is someone’s entry to your website via an external link, it’s a terrible first impression, and they’re almost certain to leave.

Forms are another area where errors often occur, causing frustration for users. When error messages don’t provide adequate assistance, users hit roadblocks, unable to complete tasks.

The solution

404s happen for various reasons, but the one that has the most detrimental effect on bounce rates is when you delete a webpage with no redirect. Users will find your 404 instead of the expected content if that page has external and internal backlinks.

It might seem counterintuitive, but when you delete a page, create a new one explaining that this page no longer exists with links to related content. For example, if you delete a t-shirt from your store, create a custom 404 explaining you no longer sell this product with links to related t-shirts or apparel. You can reuse this 404 for all your t-shirt products or create one for specific categories.

This strategy creates transparency with relevant solutions for users while increasing the likelihood they’ll stay on your website rather than exiting and finding a competitor.

Designers must also create helpful form error messages, including:

  • Highlighting the field with the error
  • Providing helper text with explicit instructions to fix the issue

Solve Common Problems and Reduce Errors With UXPin

UXPin’s sophisticated end-to-end design tool enables designers to build website prototypes with the same fidelity and functionality as developers. These advanced prototypes improve user testing, so designers solve more problems during the design process, resulting in better user experiences and fewer errors.

Solve common issues, enhance designer/developer collaboration, and deliver high-quality user experiences with UXPin. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced features.

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How to Write a Good Design Brief? [+ Templates]

design brief

A design brief is crucial in guiding the design process toward a successful outcome where designers meet client/stakeholder expectations. A good design brief can avoid costly scope creep, missed deadlines, poor communication, and inferior results.

Enhance your design projects with the world’s most advanced collaborative design tool. Create high-fidelity prototypes that look and feel like the end product for meaningful feedback from stakeholders and user testing. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s features and build your first fully interactive prototype.

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What is a Design Brief?

A design brief describes a project’s scope, expectations, responsibilities, deadlines, and deliverables specific to designers. It tells designers what to design, who it’s for, and when to deliver it.

Projects that don’t have a comprehensive design brief risk wasting resources, for example:

  • Unnecessary back-and-forth communication between designers and stakeholders
  • Exceeding budgets
  • Misunderstood deliverables and expectations
  • Missed deadlines
  • Scope creep
  • No accountability

What is the purpose of the design brief?

A design brief serves multiple purposes:

  • Most importantly, it informs designers of the problem they must solve–i.e., what they must design.
  • Defines the design project’s goals and features.
  • Tells designers about the target audience, including pain points and needs
  • It defines expectations so designers know how to approach a project and what they must deliver.
  • Ensures UX design teams allocate and prioritize resources to meet time and budget constraints.
  • Defines timelines and deadlines.
  • Informs designers of key stakeholders, i.e., project manager, client, product owner, technical lead, etc.

What is the difference between a design brief and a design specification?

A design brief outlines what designers must create, while the specifications define specific details, including visual design elements, user flows, assets, file formats, accessibility requirements, brand guidelines, technical limitations, etc. Many design briefs include design specs to provide context and guidance for design teams.

How to Create a Design Brief Template

Creating a design brief template can save time while prompting the right questions before writing one at the start of a project.

Project summary

The project summary provides a high-level overview of the project, whether it’s an existing product or something designers are building from scratch. If the brief is for a design agency, the summary might include client details and contact information. To keep design agency brief from sounding too formal, you can use this tool to paraphrase AI content, which will make the information easier to understand.

The project overview might also include high-level details like:

  • Industry/market segment
  • Competitors
  • Current challenges
  • Relevant product and user metrics

Summaries are essential for stakeholders who typically don’t need too much detail but want to understand the purpose of the design project.

Project overview

The project overview defines the scope and deliverables. Most importantly, it’ll outline the problem designers must solve or the purpose of the design project.

Some points to include in the overview include:

  • Define the problem
  • What must the team design?
  • Is this a new product or a redesign?
  • Who are the key stakeholders, and what is their involvement?
  • Potential challenges
  • What is not within the project’s scope?

UX research & artifacts

If there is any existing research, the brief will list these UX artifacts with links to a shared project folder. Some examples include:

  • User personas
  • Product analytics
  • Mood boards, empathy maps, user journeys, etc.
  • Interviews
  • Competitor and market research
  • Videos or screenshots showing the problem(s)
  • Existing design files (wireframes, mockups, prototypes, etc.)
  • Brand assets (logos, colors, fonts, etc.)

Project goals

The project’s goals describe what the design must achieve. These are typically business or marketing-related metrics like increasing conversions or reducing a website’s bounce rate.

Most importantly, project goals must be measurable using a baseline and KPIs and have a deadline. For example, “we want to increase the current conversion rate from 1.4% to the industry average of 3% by April 10, 2022.” Designers can analyze the current design, research competitors, conduct tests, see why users might be hesitant to convert, and design an appropriate solution.

Target audience

Most redesigns have an existing target audience and user groups with personas and other user research data. The person compiling the design brief will include a high-level overview of this information, with links to any research.

If there is little or no user data, the UX team will have to research the market and competitors to identify the product’s target audience and create personas, empathy maps, user journeys, etc., for the design project. Conducting this research from scratch will take considerable time, which stakeholders must consider when setting deadlines.

Design requirements

The design requirements (design specifications) describe the visual assets, formats, guidelines, and tools designers must use.

Some examples include:

  • Brand assets (logos, fonts, etc.)
  • Brand guidelines (usually an external link or supporting documentation)
  • Color palette
  • Technical information (front-end framework, CMS, APIs, etc.)
  • Existing design files
  • The project’s design system or UI kit

The design requirements will also include the project’s deliverables, but you can have this as a separate section. Some examples include:

  • What format(s) must designers deliver the project for development–i.e., wireframes, mockups, prototypes, etc.?
  • How and where to save assets
  • Naming conventions

Timelines and budget

The project’s timeline and budget are essential for any design brief. This section lets designers plan, prioritize, and allocate the appropriate resources.

Some considerations for the project’s timeline include:

  • Project roadmap and key milestones
  • Stakeholder feedback sessions
  • Prototyping and testing schedule
  • User interview dates
  • Design handoff date
  • Task dependencies
  • Final release
  • Quality assurance

It’s essential to allocate the project budget to specific tasks or disciplines within the project so that team members can take ownership and manage resources accordingly. For example, defining budgets for the following areas:

  • Research
  • Ideation
  • Design
  • Copywriting
  • Testing
  • Tools
  • Human resources

Additional notes and information

You can create an extra session for additional notes and information. Some examples of what to include here:

  • A link to the project in your Creative project management software (Nifty, Trello, Notion, Asana, etc.)
  • Information about the project’s tools
  • Where designers have creative freedom

Design Brief Example Templates

Here are some design brief templates from popular project management tools. 

5 Tips for Writing a Design Brief

designops efficiency arrow

Interviewing clients and stakeholders

Most of a design brief’s details will come from a client or stakeholders. A project manager or design lead’s job is to interview these people and gather the information required to compile the design brief.

Encourage creativity

Designers are experts at finding creative and innovative solutions. A good design brief must guide rather than dictate the creative process. While it’s important to outline your design requirements, it’s just as important to inform designers where they have creative freedom.

Define tasks and decision-makers

An effective design brief delegates tasks and identifies key stakeholders and decision-makers. Assigning these roles at the beginning of a design project creates accountability while eliminating the “too many cooks in the kitchen” scenario. Designers must know who has the final say to avoid adding features or taking instructions from the wrong people.

A succinct way to include these key people in your design brief is by using the RACI project management model:

  • Responsible: who must do the work
  • Accountable: the team leader who ensures the work gets done
  • Consulted: stakeholders who provide input and feedback
  • Informed: stakeholders designers must keep in the loop with high-level progress updates–they do not have any decision-making authority

Effective timelines and deadlines

Many design briefs only include a final deadline, but there are many milestones for a design project. Setting deadlines for each milestone ensures designers prioritize their time effectively and don’t spend too much time in one discipline.

Some critical time milestones include:

  • Project start date
  • Key milestones and timelines–i.e., research, design, prototyping, testing, etc.
  • Stakeholder feedback sessions
  • Design handoff
  • Release date
  • Quality assurance

Plan beyond the scope

Thinking about the future is crucial. There might be a marketing campaign to promote the release or a possible future redesign. Make sure you include these requirements in the design brief.

For example, a marketing campaign will require social media assets. The design brief can instruct designers to provide images and videos in the necessary formats for Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

Getting all the design files, prototypes, and research for future design projects is also crucial because they could save valuable time and resources. Create a shared folder where designers can dump these assets for future reference.

Clear brand expectations

Clear guidelines save time with back-and-forth communication or redesigns because designers used the wrong elements. Create a shared folder or zip file that designers can download and use for the project.

Some key brand assets include:

  • Fonts
  • Logos (dark and light versions in vector format)
  • Brand guidelines
  • Color palette
  • Brand graphics and video
  • Copy

Improve Product Design Projects With UXPin

User testing and client/stakeholder feedback are crucial for delivering design projects. Designers use this feedback to iterate and improve design ideas to deliver great user experiences.

The biggest challenge for designers and stakeholders is poor prototype quality. These inferior prototypes are difficult to interpret, making it difficult to get client/stakeholder buy-in.

With UXPin, designers can build fully interactive prototypes indistinguishable from the final product. They can even connect APIs and use live data to demonstrate the end result accurately. These high-fidelity prototypes get meaningful, actionable feedback from testing and stakeholders, so designers can iterate faster with higher quality outcomes.

Enhance your projects with a sophisticated design tool built for modern UX demands. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced design and prototyping features.

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UX Strategy — How to Create One Effectively

ux strategy

A well-defined UX strategy is as important as your organization’s mission statement. A user experience strategy helps guide UX teams when conceptualizing and designing innovative digital products.

This article is a summary of our free eBook, The Field Guide to UX Strategy, written by acclaimed designer and author Robert Hoekman Jr.

Looking for ways to improve your user experience strategy? Why not try UXPin, the world’s most advanced code-based design and prototyping tool. Sign up for a 14-day free trial and create better user experiences with UXPin.

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What is a UX Strategy?

user search user centered

A user experience strategy is a plan that aligns UX goals with the product and organization. It defines how the organization wants its customers to experience brand and product interactions, so UX designers always consider the business strategy and its users when making decisions.

A company should consider the following when formulating a UX strategy:

  • How the organization defines its user experience in relation to the brand
  • How UX design aligns with product strategy
  • How user experience aligns with business objectives
  • Detailed user personas from qualitative and quantitative data, including behaviors, expectations, user needs
  • Market trends influence the user experience
  • Competitive research
  • Current product performance against future goals
  • Defining, prioritizing, and executing product goals, objectives, and KPIs
  • User research procedures
  • Reporting findings to stakeholders

The Importance of a UX Strategy

A design thinking process focuses primarily on the user, and rightfully so. But, without a UX design strategy, designers forget about the brand and its goals. A UX strategy brings the organization and end-user into a designer’s focus to align product and brand experiences.

A UX strategy ensures the organization and its stakeholders also have a say during research, design process, and usability testing.

Here are five reasons why it’s essential to have a UX strategy.

  1. Keeps stakeholders updated on user experience and the benefits of UX design
  2. Outlines UX research and design processes
  3. Defines how to measure UX successes
  4. Gives the entire organization an understanding and importance of user experience design
  5. Aligns the brand’s promise with the user experience

Where to Start With a UX Strategy

team collaboration talk communication 1

Developing a UX strategy starts with a discovery process of researching data and interviewing the relevant people, including:

  • Primary stakeholders
  • Secondary stakeholders
  • Current users
  • Beta testers
  • Subject matter experts
  • Users of competing digital products
  • Industry Data

Primary Stakeholders

Your primary stakeholders are the people in charge of the product. Primary stakeholders will be the CEO and CTO in most startups, while more established businesses may have several C-suite members you must engage.

Primary stakeholders generally want to know how the user experience will impact growth, cash flow, business value, and profits.

Examples of questions to ask primary stakeholders:

  • Why have we chosen this revenue model?
  • What do you see as the biggest concerns concerning the user’s experience, and why?
  • What do you think is working well?
  • How do you believe this product compares to its competitors?
  • What metrics would you like to see improved?

Pro tip:  Do your research about what each primary stakeholder is most focused on and ask questions relevant to their role in the business. This understanding will give you meaningful feedback during the discovery phase.

Secondary Stakeholders

Secondary stakeholders are the people responsible for managing departments and executing the organization’s objectives. These stakeholders are important because they understand the company’s constraints and challenges—which ultimately impact the user experience.

Secondary stakeholders include product managers, marketing leads, lead researchers, executives, and other department heads that influence or rely on a product’s user experience.

When interviewing secondary stakeholders, first outline the C-suite’s expectations and concerns. That way, you can explore ways to improve the user experience that align with high-level directives. You should also focus on each secondary stakeholder’s role and responsibilities and how that affects users.

Make sure you keep your questions in line with the stakeholder’s area of interest. Anything outside of that carries a high risk of misleading information and perspective.

Current Users

testing observing user behavior 1

If your product already exists, you can interview current users to get a customer’s perspective of real-world use.

Try to avoid offering compensation for these interviews; this might influence the feedback and opinions they share. Try to keep your interactions to a minimum—preferably one call/meeting under 20 minutes.

When contacting users, explain your role and that you’re researching ways to improve the product.

Tips for interviewing current users:

  • Set up meetings with at least three users. After five or so, you’ll start to hear all the same things the first four said.
  • Invite other team members. For example, another designer or researcher can help take notes while you focus on follow-up questions. Marketers and developers can also benefit from a firsthand understanding of the user’s background and behaviors.
  • Build rapport by asking how they found the product and what features they use most.
  • Instead of asking only about feelings and preferences, ask about behaviors. For example, “What do you do when…” instead of “How do you feel when…”. Open-ended questions provide more meaningful feedback compared to binary yes/no questions.
  • Prepare a list of questions to use as a guideline, but don’t stick to a rigid script like you would during user research or usability testing. Leave room to deviate and explore feedback you might not have considered.
  • Ask lots of follow-up questions when you start discussing the product. No answer is cut and dry. If a complaint starts but then goes nowhere, chase it. Find out what’s causing the grief. Do this for anything that piques your curiosity.

Beta Testers

Interviewing beta testers is often the most challenging part of a UX strategy discovery because these people are less invested in a new product than users of more established products.

A beta tester might be frustrated with bugs or the new product’s lacking features. So, you’ll have to get past those issues to find the actual struggles and problems your product is trying to solve.

Be empathetic. Ask the user about their usage so far, their problems, disappointments, and product wishes. Stress that your purpose is to improve the product experience, and you can’t do it without them.

Subject Matter Experts

Subject matter experts can help provide context to complicated market, product, or user data. Examples of subject matter experts include:

  • Experienced visual designers
  • Programming/technical specialists
  • Behavioral psychologists
  • User researchers
  • Data scientists
  • Project managers
  • Successful startup founders
  • Business consultants

Make sure you prepare well for expert interviews and only ask questions relevant to your product, users, and organization’s goals. Make sure you understand what they are explaining explicitly, and don’t cherry-pick the information that best supports any narrative or bias you or your company holds.

Users of Competing Products

It’s important to understand your competitive advantage and how that impacts your UX strategy. You can do this by researching what users want and how they feel about your competitors’ products.

A quick and easy way to find user pain points is by reading your competitor’s reviews. There are three valuable resources for finding competitor reviews:

If your product has a browser extension, also check the browser stores, like the Google Chrome Web Store.

Look for parallels with your product and make notes of common complaints. Also, check out the positive feedback to see what delights customers. 

Industry Data

Comparing analytics data with user feedback can give you context into patterns and behavior. 

testing compare data

For example, if you have a lot of drop-offs during signup, and users say they battle to navigate the signup flow, then there’s a clear correlation between feedback and data.

Event-tracking tools like KISSMetrics and predictive behavior tools like MadKudu can help determine what user feedback is most meaningful.

At UXPin, we use MadKudu to map user behavior for our purchase flow to find ways to optimize the process and remove any roadblocks.

6 Tips for Creating a UX Strategy

Not sure where to start with your UX strategy? We’ve created a set of free UX Process & Documentation Templates, including a UX strategy template.

Here are six tips to consider when creating a UX strategy.

Maintain a User-Centered Approach

Always stay user-focused when setting goals for your UX strategy. The point of a UX strategy is to align the company’s goals with UX design, not find ways to enrich the business at the user’s expense.

Prioritize Users Over Profits

The user experience should always be transparent. While the business must make money, ensure your UX strategy doesn’t put profits over users. For example, don’t hide or make it difficult for a user to cancel or opt-out of a service.

Define the Company’s User Experience Roadmap

Use stakeholder interviews and user interviews to define the company’s long-term roadmap for UI design and user experience.

Create Specific & Realistic Goals

Use your UX design strategy discovery to identify your product’s design aspirations based on:

Be explicit about your UX strategy’s goals and avoid broad or vague aspirations. Instead of “increase user signups,” define a specific objective, “increase user signups by 15% annually.” Make sure these goals are realistic and based on actual data rather than intuition.

Define Circumstances of Use

Define the circumstances and environments where customers use your products (Who, What, When, Where, Why). Don’t hesitate to detail as much about your end-user and their environment as possible—this will help designers empathize with users when thinking about the user experience.

Remember to consider that the customer experience extends beyond the product to other touchpoints, including ads, messaging, policies, user agreements, and customer support interactions.

Review & Update Your Strategy

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” This statement couldn’t be more true for the fast-paced tech and UX industry.

Great UX strategists consider adapting to new technologies, market shifts, new legislation, and other forces that disrupt their plans.

Review your UX strategy annually to see where you are and whether you’re on course to meet your long-term goals. Based on the previous year’s performance, you may update these goals or set new ones.

Don’t forget to get your free copy of The Field Guide to UX Strategy, which will help you define, document, execute, and test your UX strategy with methods proven through practice.

How UXPin can Enhance Your UX Strategy

“UXPin’s mission is to enable the best user experiences by merging design and engineering into one world of better, faster product development.”

UXPin’s high-fidelity prototypes feature states, code-based interactions, conditional formatting, variables, data capture and validation, functions, and more to create an accurate replica of the final product—features you cannot get with a vector-based design tool!

These high-fidelity prototypes improve usability testing because participants get the same user experience as the final product. You also get fewer errors which means a faster time to market.

UXPin’s high-fidelity prototypes also significantly improve design handoffs. Thanks to automated design specs, CSS, style guides, and the ability to create documentation inside UXPin, engineers know what each prototype should do—minimizing the back and forth communication we often see between product teams, design teams, and developers during design handover.

Ready to experience how code-based design can improve your company’s UX strategy and reach your user experience and business goals faster? Try UXPin for 14-days to see what code-based design can do for you!

Try UXPin for free

What is Design System Theming? [+ 4 Use Cases]

Design System Theming

Building a design system is expensive. Whether an organization develops from scratch or adopts an open-source design system, theming is crucial for customization. This customization could be as simple as creating a dark mode or a multi-brand design system to accommodate a product suite.

Design tokens and variables are crucial to design system theming, allowing teams to make significant, global changes by editing a few lines of code–sometimes a single digit or letter.

Sync your multi-theme design system to UXPin using our Git Integration for React component libraries. Visit our Merge for Git page for more details and how to request access.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

What is Design System Theming?

Design system theming is a process of making a design system flexible to stylistic changes. These changes are made possible through design tokens or stylesheet variables, where engineers make a single change to impact the entire cross-platform ecosystem.

Some examples where organizations use design system theming include:

  • Dark mode: essential for accessibility in modern product development to accommodate users with visual impairments.
  • White labeling: open-source design systems use theming to allow users to customize the component library.
  • Multi-brand design systems: organizations with a suite of products use theming to change a single design system rather than develop multiple component libraries.
  • Marketing campaigns: theming allows product teams to make stylistic changes for marketing campaigns, like green, red, and white for Christmas, red for Valentine’s Day, or red, white, and blue for July 4th.

What are the benefits of design system theming?

A themeable design system enables organizations to reuse a single design system for multiple products or purposes. For example, MUI is one of the world’s most widely used open-source component libraries. MUI’s theming enables brands to customize the library to meet their specific requirements. So, two or more products using MUI can look completely different.

Theming saves product teams considerable time and resources because it allows them to make many changes with minimal effort. The benefit for organizations is that designers and engineers spend more time on product development than messing with styles or designing and programming from scratch.

How Does a Design System Theme Work?

Products use design tokens or variables to represent a specific property–we’ll use color to explain how design system theming works.

color sample library

A design system’s color palette typically has several essential colors:

  • Primary
  • Secondary
  • Error
  • Warning
  • Info
  • Success

For websites and web applications, engineers use a six-digit HEX code to define each color. These HEX codes appear many times across multiple components in the design system. If engineers need to make a change, they must find every instance where the HEX code appears and revise it–which could be hundreds, even thousands of changes.

Using variables

Theming provides a global solution for applying these changes. Engineers assign properties to a variable they use in place of fixed values. So, a primary blue value of #1976d2 becomes “primary” or something to that effect, depending on the design system’s naming convention. A button component may look something like this:

<Button color=”primary”>Submit</Button>

If engineers want to make a global change, they change the primary variable, updating every instance where that variable appears in the product’s stylesheets. Instead of hundreds of changes, they make one.

Creating theme stylesheets

To create multiple themes, engineers only have to update the stylesheet with the variables and give it an appropriate name. For example, a multi-brand design system may have three brands, each with dark and light modes, resulting in six different variable stylesheets:

  • Brand A Light (brand.a.light)
  • Brand A Dark (brand.a.dark)
  • Brand B Light (brand.b.light)
  • Brand B Dark (brand.b.dark)
  • Brand C Light (brand.c.light)
  • Brand C Dark (brand.c.dark)

This button component’s code would look the same for every theme, but the primary variable would reference a different color code.

<Button color=”primary”>Submit</Button>

To apply Brand B Light, engineers import brand.b.light into the component’s file and apply it using a theme property.

What Can You Change With Theming?

Theming happens within a product’s stylesheet, meaning you can create design tokens or variables for any CSS properties. Common theming properties include:

When to Use Design System Theming?

Should you use design system theming? And how much theming will you allow? You also need to consider factors specific to your product and business, including:

  • Framework constraints
  • Platform-specific requirements
  • Supported tech stack
  • Technical requirements and limitations
  • Budget and human resources

Dark mode

Most organizations will only use design system theming to switch between dark and light modes. This type of theming should only impact your design system’s color palette.

dark mode as a theming option for design system

Designers will need to test how these colors appear across many styles, including:

  • Font colors
  • Background colors
  • Borders
  • Shadows
  • Gradients
  • Icon colors

Color contrast is the most important thing designers must focus on for light and dark modes. Contrast significantly impacts users with visual impairments.

With UXPin’s built-in contrast checker and color blindness simulator, designers can test colors for light and dark modes without leaving the design canvas.

Multi-brand design systems

Multi-brand design systems are another reason organizations use theming. Product teams and engineers need more flexibility than color to meet each brand’s requirements. But greater flexibility impacts more properties, meaning more customization.

multibrand design system is when design system theming comes in handy

For example, one theme might use square corners while another uses rounded ones. They may also use different typefaces and font styles. Changing fonts will impact other properties like padding, spacing, margins, line heights, etc.

Cross-platform design systems

Many devices and operating systems have specific styling, or components products must use. For example, you might want to use the system typography for iOS (San Francisco) and Android (Roboto). Each of these would need a different theme to accommodate the fonts and any additional styling, like padding, sizing, line heights, etc.

White-labeling

Software developers often use white-label design systems to deliver products to multiple customers more efficiently. This design system theming requires a lot of customization to meet many scenarios, platforms, brands, and use cases.

If you’re building a white-label design system, you might want to use variables in place of every value to offer complete customizability and flexibility–i.e., everything has a variable.

Design System Theming Resources

Here are some resources to help with your design system theme:

Multi-Theme Design System Prototyping With UXPin Merge

Multi-theme design systems are challenging to develop for engineers but require even more effort for designers. Every theme requires a separate UI kit to use in image-based design tools.

With UXPin Merge, you can sync your multi-theme design system to UXPin’s design canvas, so designers and engineers use the same component library. Any changes to the library, including adding a new theme, automatically sync to UXPin and notify designers of the update–a true single source of truth saving your DesignOps and DevOps teams countless hours of work and collaboration.

Higher-quality prototypes and testing

Theming is currently only available for React with Merge’s Git Integration, which syncs directly to your component library’s repository. Merge components are fully interactive and include properties (via React props) defined by the design system.

Component props appear in UXPin’s Properties Panel so designers can make changes and switch themes with a few clicks. They can also combine components or save multiple versions as Patterns to streamline prototyping and testing by simply swapping Patterns instead of adjusting properties.

These Merge components function as they do in the final product, allowing designers to create exact prototype replicas resulting in accurate, meaningful results during user testing.

Erica Rider, UX Lead EPX at PayPal, describes how UXPin allows her team to iterate faster during testing, “It’s been so helpful for us to have these high-fidelity prototypes built with UXPin Merge. We build high-fidelity prototypes much quicker, and we get immediate feedback after the session. If there’s something we can fix immediately, we make that change before the next participant and get feedback much faster than before.”

Streamlined handoffs

Design handoffs are smoother, almost non-existent with UXPin Merge. Engineers already have copies of every component, so it’s a matter of importing them from the repository, copying JSX changes from UXPin, and replicating the design team’s layouts.

Since switching to UXPin Merge, German-based software developer dotSource enjoys “seamless collaboration between design and development,” including some other key benefits:

  • No inconsistencies or design drift
  • One change automatically syncs design and code
  • Documentation is always up to date

Switch to the only design tool that automatically syncs multi-theme design systems between design and development for a powerful single source of truth to reduce DesignOps burdens while optimizing product development workflows. Visit our Merge for Git page for more details and how to request access.

Discover Merge