UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
June//17//2022
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Building Handoff. Hailing from the Marvel Blog, this article from author Oleg Tsaplin details how Marvel crafted the handoff component of their product experience. While it is indeed an overview of their perspective and integration with well know Design tools such as Sketch, on a higher level this article is illustrative of how Product Design departments, and Organizations in general, need to remain agile in order to change direction when needed. It’s a well documented case study from a company and a product suite solidly crafted. Worth reading. Highlight of the article includes:
“The initial version of the Marvel Design API when we started was heavily tied into our design tool — containing only the most basic properties and elements, and slowly being developed by the design tool team solely for that purpose. We immediately saw an opportunity to build it out and make it accessible for other services to integrate to. We compared what we had in our API with the structure of Sketch documents, and got to work introducing support for things like masks, gradients, image fills and more advanced typography properties. This allowed us to open up a larger conversation about design systems, pattern libraries and assets — all of which are now in the roadmap for our Design tool.”
2.
Agile is a Compelling Way for Organizations to Work. Great article from The Fast Company and authors Mike Dargan and Stefan Seiler on how agility (or the Agile Method), that is typically associated with Software development processes, can and should be applicable to Organizations in general. The article showcases examples of how UBS (where the authors work), has for instance adopted the POD structure, to better create team integration, and rapidly craft MVPs that are sensical to the market. The authors mention that at UBS in order for this shift in strategy to be successful, it also implied a fundamental re-alignment of their focus, namely, on technology and people. And as this is a paradigm which continues to solidify itself, this is indeed a very interesting article worth reading. Highlight of the article includes:
“The pod we assembled included members from the entire value chain: designers, developers, business analysts, software architects, and testers; marketing, product, and content specialists; and legal and compliance experts, just to name a few. This enabled the pod to be fully self-sufficient, make decisions quickly, progress work rapidly, and connect ideas for a holistic solution. They created a minimum viable product (MVP) to deliver value to clients as soon as possible, incorporating regular client feedback and adjusting the product accordingly. This agile approach enabled fast decisions, effective prioritization, and speedy delivery. And the end result? We’ve seen higher client activity and engagement and received positive feedback from clients. As for employees, they described their experiences as “collaborative,” “challenging,” and “rewarding.””
3.
15 Years of iPhone. Interesting article from Sneha Mehta for Shaping Design, which chronicles the main chapters in the iPhone’s existence, since its debut in 2007. While this device now seems as a synonym of modernity, but also every day life, it hasn’t always been so. This article showcases the journey that product has experienced, and how it has revolutionized how users consume information, how they perceive technology, and fundamentally, how their every-day lives has been perpetually altered. Worth reading through. Highlight of the article includes:
“For all its technical brilliance, the iPhone as we know it today would be nothing without the App Store, the innovation that arguably redefined the course of personal computing. Launched with the iPhone 3G in 2008, the App Store became a hub where users could download apps from third-party developers to do everything from playing games, scrolling through social media to calling a taxi. In its first weekend, it reached 10 million downloads; the numbers today exceed over 50 billion downloads. The App Store transformed the way software was designed, used, and distributed.”
