UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
April//19//2024
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
50 Best Large Workplaces to Grow one’s career in the US. The supreme irony in listing this article on this newsletter, and the title itself of the listing, lies of course on the fact that many of the organizations listed in this article have either gone through recent layoffs or have some planned out of in the near future. The volatility of the job market has increased exponentially, and not necessarily in a way where value is being reintroduced to the economy. It begs to ask the question: who exactly is benefiting from these rounds of layoffs, and how far do people’s memory actually go, when (and if) these places start hiring again. The job market is indeed comprised of a series of exchange of services, and that of course works both ways, but here’s hoping that professionals learn something from what has been happening in the last two years, and look out for their interests moving forward. Highlight of the article includes:
“This year’s honorees are proving that investment in the employee experience is vital in today’s workplaces. Whether it’s launching upskilling initiatives or offering flexible working arrangements, these are the companies leading the way in not only attracting workers, but retaining them in our ever-changing world of work.”
2.
Building Strong Cross-Cultural Remote Teams. Very relevant article hailing from The Next Web on the topic of Cross-Cultural Teams. And more specifically on doing so remotely. The article by Fernanda Troncoso Fernández, though told from a European perspective, has great insights and recommendations on bring further integration between diverse teams. The author highlights aspects such as Mentorship, Embedding Intercultural Sensitivity into the workplace (guess what, learn how to pronounce people’s name properly, be mindful of the type of questions that are posed at times), and of course adhering to the company’s Culture. It’s a fascinating article with very pertinent recommendations, worth reading through. Highlight of the article includes:
“Another step both employees and managers can take is to adopt a mentor, either from within or outside of your organisation, that comes from a different cultural background than yours. While this may sound easy, adopting a mentor from a different culture — or mentoring an employee from a different background than yours — would be going against the grain, considering that 71% of executives mentor employees that share their same race or gender. According to Khelifi, team members and managers can gain immense knowledge by working with cultural mentors that can be handy in the workplace. For instance, understanding current events, work-life balance priorities, important holidays and technological barriers in countries where your co-workers reside can sensitise and help prepare you to react when challenges arise.”
3.
Monitoring Google Core Web Vitals. Interesting article from The Smashing Magazine and author Matt Zeunert on the topic of Core Web Vitals. Just as a reminder, those consist of LCP (Largest Contenful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). They measure, respectively, Loading Performance (LCP should occur 2.5 seconds of when a page starts loading), Interactivity (FID should be of 100 milliseconds or less), and Visual Stability (pages should maintain a visual stability of 0.1 or less). While this may seem a bit like a niche topic, it once again reinforces the need for consistent quality tracking to occur on digital products. Worth reading through. Highlight of the article includes:
“Continuously monitoring Core Web Vitals lets you see how website changes impact user experience and ensures you get alerted when something goes wrong. While it’s possible to measure Core Web Vitals using a wide range of tools, those tools are limited by the type of data they use to evaluate performance, not to mention they only provide a single snapshot of performance at a specific point in time.”
