Sketching for UX Newsletter Issue #5 (November 2022)
My favorite resources
Here are the resources I really liked in November:
#1 The Creative Switch
This article by Ralph Ammer beautifully captures the essence of ideation, and why we need to be crazy and then reasonable - and how to switch between these two approaches. I love the illustrations, too!
#2 Conversation Blindspots & How to Uncover Them
A really nice video by Verbal to Visual (Doug Neill): it contains visual notes of the book Thanks for the Feedback.
Visual notes of the book Thanks for the Feedback.
#3 Collection of dark patterns
I published a UX knowledge base about dark patterns some years ago. I listed out 12 different ones. On the Dark Patterns Tip Line platform you'll find more patterns and a lot of examples.
#4 My work with Spotify
Check out Rasmus Andersson's article about designing at Spotify in the early days. He talks about the advantages of sketching, too, and he included some of his sketches. "Sketching on good old paper with a graphite pencil beats all (early-stages) prototyping software I’ve tried. It’s easy to interact with and everyone can join in."
#5 Ballet dancers and shot putters
A great essay about our work as designers. "Sometimes, design is like ballet. It requires a tremendous amount of creativity and skill, and it rewards exploring new and innovative interpretations of well-known problems. [...] Sometimes, design is like a shot put. It still requires skill and effort, but very little creativity."
Why design isn’t always creative, and why that isn’t always a bad thing
#6 Design Systems: Useful Examples and Resources
How to create great design system? What should you include and how? This article contains awesome examples. "We’ll explore how to deal with naming conventions, how motion and accessibility fit into a design system, and dive deep into case studies, Figma kits, and more."
#7 The importance of sketching as part of your UX process
This is a great piece by Maria Taneva. She asks the question: "Is sketching outdated?" Then she lists out many reasons why she thinks that sketching is still a very important part of her design process. "So no, sketching is not obsolete."
#8 Behind the scenes of a sketchnoting course
In the last issue I shared with you the great news that Eva-Lotta Lamm created a sketchnoting course. She revealed some behind the scenes details in her insightful article.
#9 10x Designers community
It is a subscription-based design community by Fons Mans for designers who want to level up (main areas: product, brand and graphic design). I've already joined, and I really like it!
#10 Design Gifts
Feeling festive? Do you like advent calendars and nice gifts and coupons? Then check out this one by Framer and Fons.
+1 Tim Urban - Creator Lab podcast
In a Creator Lab podcast episode, Tim Urban talks about his blog, Wait But Why, and he mentions that: "bad drawings, the badness of the drawings makes it seem authentic". You should check out his style, his illustrations:
How to Pick a Career (That Actually Fits You) - this is a long article full of great illustrations
100 Blocks a Day - this is a shorter one that visualizes one main point
And one more thing: a fellow visual thinker has started a new blog in September, check it out: Eleanor Beer's blog
New UX Knowledge Piece Sketch
My newest sketch is about the Halo effect and why you should be aware of this bias.
Here is my detailed article & sketch
Coupon codes for my Udemy courses
Sketching for UX designers course
Development aspects for UX course
Thanks for reading my newsletter, I hope you enjoyed it!
Btw. I made some progress with my 100-day long UX Visual Library Building Challenge ebook, here is a Figma screenshot of the pages.
Keep on sketching,
Krisztina
P.S.: Have you written or found an interesting design / visual thinking article or other resource lately? Please send me a DM on Twitter! I might feature your resource in the next issue!