UI/UX Articles and Interesting Tidbits of the Week
February//25//2022
Here are some interesting finds on UI/UX of the week!
1.
Risks and Benefits of Rehiring “Boomerang Employees”. Interesting article hailing from “The Fast Company” focused on the topic of rehiring employees who have once quit, but who decide to come back for some reason or another. This article points out that the Great Resignation and the massive disruption in the labor market that has occurred, has also had its fair impact in the relationships and networks maintained by employers and employees, past and present. Understanding how to leverage these employees accrued experiences, while also not alienating the ones who have stayed with the team, is one of the topics this article focuses on, in parallel with other topics such as compensation, and also emphasizing the evolution of the work environment itself. Well worth reading and reflecting upon. Highlight of the article includes:
“When interviewing potential boomerang employees, it is important to practice “radical candor” — acknowledging openly the issues or concerns that made them leave in the first place, and establishing what will be different this time around — from both sides. Though not universally applicable, unresolved issues are a red flag and ignoring the opportunity to find out why employees left could be a big mistake that costs businesses again in the future.”
2.
Why Collaboration is Critical in Building Inclusive Products. Hailing from Shaping By Design, this is another article in the series of Interviews the publication is doing with Design Leaders. This time around, the very pertinent and insightful interview is with Annie Jean-Baptiste, head of product inclusion and equity at Google. The interview touches upon topics such as collaboration, building trust within Design teams, humility of Design professionals, among others. It’s well worth reading for its candor, insights, and for the journey of Ms. Jean-Baptiste herself. Highlight of the article includes:
“Annie Jean-Baptiste is the head of product inclusion and equity at Google, where she leads strategy, research, and development processes to ensure that all of Google’s products, like the Real Tone camera released on the Android Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro last fall, are inclusive. Jean-Baptiste is the author of Building for Everyone, a practical guide to building inclusive products, based on the strategies and experience of her team at Google. She is also a founding member of Chief, a San Francisco-based think tank that advocates for women in roles of executive leadership.”
3.
Atomic UX Research. Another article from the Marvel Design Blog and author Daniel Pidcock, focused on a case study which documents how research was structured, distributed and leveraged in a large organization Mr. Pidcock worked with. It’s an insightful view of how the teams organized Research findings, and made them usable by different personas within the organization, based on a strategy anchored on the trifecta: Facts/Insights/Conclusions. While the article is also a plug for a Research Tool the author worked on, it nonetheless highlights the importance of Research findings being easily accessible and also democratized across different teams. It’s well worth a read. Highlight of the article includes:
“Last year I was working for a FTSE 100 tech company. The issue we were trying to solve was how to store and distribute the UX learnings in a way that everyone in the business could use and benefit from them. As it stood, the UX team, BAs and PMs would run experiments, write up what they learned and how they used that knowledge. These were normally produced as PDFs, Google Docs or Slide-decks and then were filed away in Google Drive. That’s all fine until someone else came to work on a feature and needed to find out what we already knew, and it was hard to use those findings for another project.”
