Rae Helsel

• The software function or feature should create a “romantic” feeling from the user’s perspective and have a story and special feelings that captivate the user, fulfilling an emotional need. • The software structure should be “classic” so that our software can last for a long time. People who continue to work on it can understand and develop it further because the structure is not so complicated that each person can interpret it in their own way.

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The most poignant and well-written take I’ve read on AI in Design. A must read. https://lnkd.in/gVjkBFaf

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🪴 How To Make Sure Teams Follow Design Guidelines? (https://lnkd.in/ewF4F4a8), a practical case study by Linzi Berry on how the Lyft team enforces design quality by clearing time for designers, distributing ownership and pushing design QA early in the process. 🤔 Sprints are often 100% packed with features, no time for QA. 🚫 Following guidelines takes time designers often don’t have. 🚫 If guidelines are launch requirements, they aren’t prioritized. 🚫 Some guidelines will always be missing in the design system. 🚫 Checklists often gather dust in forgotten fringes of Sharepoint. ✅ People ignore guidelines created without their involvement. ✅ Checklists work if PMs protect designer’s time to do them. ✅ Guidelines must be embedded early in the design process. ✅ Guidelines should be ways of working, not recommendation. ✅ Best guidelines live within UI components themselves. ✅ Set guidelines as ready-to-use-templates and examples. ✅ Embed design QA as a step in the product design process. ✅ Better sprints: 80% time tasks, 20% quality improvements. ✅ Sprinkle a bit of design QA all over your product teams. I see many teams trying to mandate design guidelines by blocking launch unless the design meets every single criteria on a 4-pages-long checklist. While this might work to ensure consistency, often it breaks the team’s spirit as guidelines feel heavily, rigorously enforced — often without exceptions. Instead, try to make sure that designers have a strong sense of ownership over the guidelines that they personally shape and develop. These guidelines are seen as an evolving document that everybody is encouraged to contribute to. Naturally everybody then shares the accountability for following the guidelines. Ultimately, the guidelines shouldn’t be a compliance check at the end of the process. The earlier they are a part of conversations between designers and engineers, the more likely they are to be considered in early review sessions. And most importantly: make time and space for designers to set and follow the guidelines. They might not need stricter rules or mandates; they need time, trust and autonomy to make good decisions on their own. Useful resources: Why Design Systems Fail, by Karen VanHouten https://lnkd.in/eMYjfTzh How To Keep Your Design Documentation Alive, by Slava Shestopalov https://lnkd.in/gfvKgCwj How To Align Stakeholders and Designers With Guidelines, by Daniël de Wit https://lnkd.in/eJXY-akC Design Debt and Why You Should Treat It Seriously, by Michal Mazur https://lnkd.in/dJq8ZG7U Paying Off Design Debt, by Alicja Suska https://www.debt.design #ux #design

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I'm considering breathing life back into wireframes—or monochromatic, super low-fidelity prototypes—as a standard artifact to use in conversations with stakeholders. I keep walking into discussions that easily shift focus to UI inconsistencies with written or visual language—elements that are obviously in play due to a designer feeling the pressure to rush and be as comprehensive as possible in their Figma prototypes. We've already instilled framing that includes task flows to illustrate conditional scenarios within the context of workflow while illustrating data shifts, such as bounces. That has helped reach alignment on conditional scenarios prior to walking through the interface. This is the last step, I guess. I'm secretly hoping we get to the point where highly annotated state diagrams return—I'll be in full flex mode. 💪 💪 💪

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Today's Design Career Tip💡 Today's design job market is just too competitive to NOT be including analytics of what your contributions were at previous jobs on your resume. This is one of the most important things hiring managers and recruiters look for in your resume so make sure to include these facts and figures as best you can. Here are a few ways to approach that if you don't know how to ↓ #UXdesign #productdesign #jobhunting #designjobs #uxui

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Gail Swanson's Chicago Camps presentation on Design Safety: A Trauma-Informed User Research Guide is so well done - I kept rewinding sections to take more detailed notes. Based on her civic tech experiences (think FEMA disaster relief and government SNAP benefits), she offers actionable steps to facilitate research with vulnerable populations. A few of the highlights are: - Establish concrete expectations with participants of what will happen in the study, what they are expected share, and how their data will be used and protected (preferably with documentation distributed in advance). - Always double check in the moment/at the end that you have explicit consent to share direct quotes/photos, because while participants gave permission at the beginning, they may not have expected to share sensitive information that might put them at risk. - Offer a buddy system where participants can bring a friend/family member, to create a safer, more comfortable environment. - From initial contact through to follow-up, are there resources you can offer at-risk populations related to your study? For example, while conducting a study in the world of foster care, they offered additional materials that might be helpful to foster parents. The presentation is less than 45 minutes and completely free (seriously, Chicago Camps is the best), and you can watch it here:

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I’m hiring a Mid-level Product Designer! 🎉 Here are some of the details: 👇 💼 Company: nCino, Inc. 📍 Location: Lehi, Utah 🏢 Office requirement: Onsite, Monday – Thursday. 👥 Design Team: Nearly 30 designers, mostly in Utah 🤝 Product Team: The PM and tech lead for this role are on site in Lehi, UT, and several engineers are remote 🏭 Industry: Banking, Analytics, B2B, SaaS ⚒️ Tools: Figma, User Interviews, Dovetail, Slack, Jira, etc… 💬 Manager: You'll report to me ➡️ Start date: We’re ready to go when you are! Here's what we'll offer you: ✨ 100% paid premiums for medical, dental and vision, as well as disability insurance and life insurance. ✨ 39 paid days off each year (including volunteer days and holidays). ✨ Company-funded HSA account and 401K with employee match. ✨ Employee stock purchase plan with 15% discount and look back period. ✨ 4-12 weeks of childbirth parental leave. ✨ Career growth opportunities, frequent design team trainings, design critiques, collaboration sessions, team summits, etc... ✨ A manager and team who really care about you as a person. The product space and what you’ll do: 👉 nCino is broken into several business units, including the Portfolio Analytics business unit. The Portfolio Analytics product hasn’t had a dedicated designer before, so you will work with me to lead a transformation in this product space. 👉 This transformation will include auditing a product with a legacy interface, understanding who the users are, helping redefine the information architecture and product vision, and moving it towards our “One nCino” vision, design system, and UX team best practices. 👉 Since this is an analytics product, you’ll be designing several dashboards, charts, reports, tables, navigation menus, and dense data interfaces. Here is who is not a match: ❌ Lives outside the U.S. Unfortunately, this role is only setup to hire within the U.S at this time. ❌ Unable to live or relocate near one of our headquarters in Lehi, UT ❌ Unable to come onsite Monday – Thursday. This is our company’s most recent policy. ❌ Someone who passively waits to be told what to do or needs micromanaging. ❌ Agencies, freelancers, consultants, or recruiters. Now is not the time. ⚠️ Disclaimer: Because of the overwhelming response I typically get for our open roles, I won’t have the capacity to respond to every direct message. But if you apply, I will make sure our hiring team reviews every application! If this role sounds right for you or someone you know, then tag them below or apply! Application link is in the comments 👀 #ux #design #productdesign #userexperience #hiring

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It’s not always easy to understand what #accessibility compliance means in a specific geography and/or sector, and how you ensure your company and products adhere to the relevant regulatory requirements. For companies that are offering software and services for governmental customers in the U.S., Section 508 compliance is critical. We wrote a guide to help you understand the details.

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This! If it takes up more than 1 line, best to err on the side of accessibility and left-align it. This is one of the things I'm always scanning for (and the Oxford comma, of course). #AccessibleDesign #InclusiveDesign #UIDesign #UXContent

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UX designers -- I'm offering a handful of free accessibility-focused design crit sessions this week. Not sure if your design is accessible? Have an accessibility problem and aren't sure how to fix it? Let's dig into it in a session. I spent a decade at leading tech companies helping other designers integrate accessibility into their designs. Often small changes make a big difference. Next month I'll start charging for these sessions, so get 'em while they're free. Booking link is in the comments. #accessibility #design #UX ---- I help SaaS companies stop turning away customers, by making their products work for people with disabilities.

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I’ve put together a comprehensive list of interface design resources on my site, featuring tools, apps, and projects that I’m currently exploring and finding incredibly useful. From design inspiration to practical design tools, these resources have been game-changers for my work, and I’m excited to share them. Check it out and let me know what you think! I hope you find these resources as helpful as I have. 🙌 #InterfaceDesign #DesignTools #DesignResources #UXDesign https://lnkd.in/gpemvTFP

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Today's issue is dedicated to Amie. Check out the issue to see some cool interactions from Amie's desktop and mobile app. Comment what you liked the most! Take a look here: https://lnkd.in/gk49_3Nx

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The Importance of Using UX Research Findings to Make Better Decisions and Take Action In this episode of Pulse by Intuji, Cory Lebson, Principal of Lebsontech LLC, discusses a common challenge in UX research: ensuring that the findings don't just sit in reports but are actually used to inform decisions. Cory highlights, "Making the research the client’s own...sure, it takes more time, but it definitely adds value to get them to buy into involvement." He emphasises that while some findings might be delayed due to cost or other reasons, they need to be queued for future updates. "It sits in a report... but making sure we're going to act on the research is key." This insight underlines the importance of not only conducting research but also having a clear plan for acting on the findings and using it to make better product development decisions. 🎧 Want to hear more insights from this episode? Catch it on Pulse by Intuji and other platforms: ➕ YouTube - https://buff.ly/4cB1E4N ➕ Spotify - https://buff.ly/3J3MQxV ➕ Apple Podcasts - https://buff.ly/4cCnRiZ ➕ Deezer - https://buff.ly/3J3MQOr Stay connected: 👉 LinkedIn - https://buff.ly/3R0fVik 👉 YouTube - https://buff.ly/4cB1E4N 👉 TikTok - https://buff.ly/4aIF3S9 👉 Instagram - https://buff.ly/4bWe85F 👉 X/Twitter - https://buff.ly/3J3MQ0T 👉 Website - https://buff.ly/4aIF3l7 #UXResearch #ActionableInsights #PulseByIntuji #UserExperience #BusinessStrategy #Innovation

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Isn't it strange how the types of process materials in portfolios is different than how real work is done in UX? I talk about what materials we commonly see in portfolios that are never used in real work, then I talk about some that we really do use. https://lnkd.in/g45JT7Qk

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Here are some interesting webinars hosted by Figma to check out. I admit I have been learning a few other programs as of late; however, Figma is becoming more and more powerful by the day. I suggest checking it out. https://lnkd.in/gPa48Kv5

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🚨 Exciting Event Alert for Designers! 🚨 As designers, many of us have faced common challenges such as: • Being excluded from strategic meetings • Lacking confidence to articulate your decisions • Handling pushback from leadership That’s why I’m incredibly honored to have been invited by one of the best design strategists I know,Jacalin Ding 丁嘉丽 to participate in an event focused on advocating for design and improving cross-functional dynamics within teams. 🎨🤝 If you’re ready to grow your skills and confidence in advocating for design, this is a must-attend event. #DesignAdvocacy #design #leadership #confidence #CrossFunctionalCollaboration #DesignLeadership

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💡ICYMI, it took many more episodes to pass for us to realize that contributions to design systems, and the free help that is offered up, may not what it seems. From Ep 60: Federated Help, link to full episode in the comments. #designsystems #productdesign #podcast

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