Erich Schmidt

Most designers are trained to present work to our peers, but as your career matures, your audience expands to include many other departments who don’t speak “design”. This article resonated with me and offers some sage advice about the use of storytelling and a “business lens” to craft more compelling presentations. #ProductDesign #Storytelling #UserResearch #BusinessObjectives

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Great advice. Remove all friction when sending your portfolio. Keep it simple and remove all restrictions.

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My top 3 project selection tips for design leaders doing portfolio presentations: 1. Pick projects that have a good mix of what you did directly plus what the team did. Very rarely is anyone looking for a pure people manager while hiring a design leader. Your personal contributions need to stand out in your work. It doesn’t have to be IC work (but if you do that, show it). It could be a doc you wrote, an insight you uncovered, a strategy you formulated etc. Differentiate between what you did yourself, what you directed the team to do, and things the team might have driven independently. Make this distinction clear as you present your portfolio. People want to see you can do smart stuff yourself, can direct a team well, but will also build a high functioning team that does good work. Also, if you would like I can do a separate post in these 3 modes of operation for any design leader. 2. Pick projects based on the role you’re applying for. It doesn’t have to be and most certainly won’t be a 100% match. But for example, if what the team needs is scaling a successful product, pick examples where you enabled scale. This needs to be deeper than “I’m applying for fintech so here’s another fintech project”. Your project selection should show you understand the challenges for the company and have transferrable skills. 3. Pick projects where you can show both macro and micro user insights. Scale the macro according to your seniority and level. For example, if you’re applying for a Director role, you better have projects that show you driving user insights at Director scale (for instance something that drove resourcing decisions). At the same time, the project should also show micro insights appropriate to role. For example, key interaction design flows redone by your team for the goal. Or even things like font/color selection and how that drove impact. Use these guidelines and apply the filter for what fits with your past experience and this new role. If you have the same portfolio presentation for completely different roles, something is off somewhere. You only need to present 2-3 projects in a presentation, pick the most appropriate ones. If this sounds complicated and like a lot of work, it is. Project selection is THE foundation for how your presentation will play out.

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⏱ “Just in time accessibility docs” I think I’ve been doing it all wrong. As we build out our design system, we’ve been continuing to add lengthy accessibility documentation to each of our components, check. But is it actually helpful? → W3C Guidelines are verbose and many of the guidelines become redundant once the component has been built. → Text based documentation can be hard to visualize without examples or access to assistive technology. → While components may test accessible in isolation, new issues come up when components are used in context. 👏 Some folks who are doing it right that we're trying to learn from at Exygy → Carbon design system from IBM provides context specific tips for both designers and developers. The guidelines they provide act as quick implementation checklists. https://lnkd.in/gbmeJe5F → GOLD Design System by Design System AU is really unique in the way that it provides accessibility previews of components. I really dig how they simulate keyboard navigation and color blindness! https://lnkd.in/gDBgUiyN → USWDS from GSA goes above and beyond any system that I have seen by providing accessibility testing documentation that can be used when doing QA of components in the wild. ...whoa https://lnkd.in/gYP2ptrR 💎 A couple of things our team has taken away from these amazing resources that might be helpful to others: → Focus component documentation on the most "actionable" implementation details for both designers and engineers. → Reserve verbose technical setup requirements for the initial component acceptance criteria. → Experiment with ways to easily preview accessibility options and outputs. → If possible, document how someone could test issues that could come up during ongoing product feature development and QA. 🧙‍♂️ This post was in part inspired by a talk from Dan Mall at the last Figma Config when he referenced "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince" to describe the "notes in the margins that help Harry improve his potion skills" as a way to describe better "just in time" design system documentation. If you do actually need the verbose stuff for component acceptance criteria you can always get it here: → W3C Authoring practices guide https://lnkd.in/g_MUENbn #accessibility #designsystems #documentation #ui #uidesign

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I get asked pretty often what resources are out there that help people break into the UX field. Ryan's great and could offer some really good well informed insights. if you're curious about some interview prep, give this a look

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Anyone who claims that graphic designers can't do UX, are full of crap. They have ZERO idea what they are talking about. Over three decades, I have worked with and hired UX designers with backgrounds in graphic design, industrial design, architecture, industrial engineering, coding, history, and anthropology. I have also mentored people with diverse backgrounds to become UX designers. While it is true that not everyone can make the jump; with the right mentoring, training, and project experience many with the burning desire can do so. After all, this is not frickin' rocket science, sub-atomic physics, or medicine we're talking about here.

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+1 to all of this, especially being an education major -> graphic designer -> logo/brand designer -> visual designer -> UX designer -> design systems practitioner Spoiler alert: the teaching degree has been the most helpful "role" to date, and every role after that was basically the same (simply with different problems to solve and artifacts to make)

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This article came up in discussion today with our UX Team and I feel like there's a bit of "blaming the victim" going on here... 🤔 Most of the cases the author points out are misuses of placeholder text (e.g. using instead of labels or help text) or poor design choices, like the styling looking too similar to typed values. I would argue that designers abusing the component does not make the component itself harmful for usability. We've used placeholder text to inform users when e.g. a field offers typeahead functionality or will perform a search, and I think that's helpful for the UX rather than harmful. What are your thoughts? https://lnkd.in/dGKM5iMn

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As designers, we get asked about our opinion on the quality of a digital experiences pretty regularly. Much of the time there’s a lot of variables that make it difficult to give people a straight answer. Other times, the experience actually does have some standards of what you should expect from it. Data tables are an absolutely vital enterprise UX pattern - so the P&P crew actually assembled some standards you can use to assess your UX for data tables. We recently created a web page for our UX checklist for data tables, so I wanted to share it (it’s in the comment below). I hope it’s helpful! #enterpriseux

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🍿 Who doesn't love a good debate on hypotheticals? I don't think there is a magic ratio of designers and developers that can apply to every company, like 1:5 or 5:1, and I don't suppose Jared does either (literally) but I appreciate the sentiment that he'd rather have more researchers than designers if he had to pick one extreme or the other. However, I can say that hiring *and empowering* SOME designers and SOME researchers are much better than trying to build, release and maintain products or services with product and engineering alone, for example. I understand budgets are tighter, but true expertise in UX research and product design is not something to skimp on, one way or the other, if you want happy _________ (users, customers, employees, partners, etc) and long term viability.

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Hey Designers, Just a quick reminder: your NDA isn’t just a piece of paper—it’s a legal obligation. Sharing password-protected portfolios without permission isn’t just risky, it’s illegal. Here's a hypothetical but all-too-real scenario: what if your competitor needed some insights? They reached out to designers at rival companies under the guise of potential job opportunities. As UX designers, we work on ideas and projects that may not be implemented today but in years to come. Imagine your company’s long-term strategies being exposed, some user research data shared, and performance and accessibility KPIs revealed. Sketchy, right? For Recruiters: If a candidate says their portfolio is under NDA, respect that. It shows they value confidentiality and will protect your info too. If they’re willing to break an NDA for you, what’s stopping them from doing the same to you down the line? Remember, many designers work on projects that are never meant to be displayed publicly. Let’s keep things above board and respect each other’s legal boundaries. Remember the Golden Rule: treat others as you would want to be treated. Thanks for understanding!

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How do design system teams prove their value? Finding hard metrics around the impact of design system teams has historically been a challenge. A year ago, I met the design system team at Eventbrite who could confidently say that they saved 534 days of engineering effort with their design system. Here's their calculation: Time spent to develop a component pre-design system - time spent to install the design system component = Time saved In order to extrapolate this number, though, you need to know how many times a component has been used. And, that used to require a savvy dev on the team to build something custom. That's no longer the case. We built something at zeroheight that will allow you to track component use in a single repo or across all of your repos. This should help teams show how valuable they are, plus do things like: see which components to prioritize based on use see which product teams are adopting As an added bonus, anyone using the new feature set can also monitor design system packages, allowing them to quickly see which teams are using outdated packages. On a personal note, I'm hoping with data like this, more teams can confidently quantify their impact. And along the way, we'll get better as design system practitioners at identifying the right things to work on. This new feature set is in beta and totally free. Even if you aren't using zeroheight to document your design system, you can use it. Takes like 15 minutes and you've got rich data. Here's the sign up:

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Designers (and friends) who come back over and over….these are the the best reviews I could possibly shout from the rooftops! 📣 If you plate is full, it's time to upgrade to you 2.0 (meaning...it's time and it's ok to get a helping hand). Your deserve it! Head here if you need help getting your client's sites up, because it's time for you to feel like a star! ⭐ https://lnkd.in/g5HtXQ8x . . . . . #WomenInTechnology #TechForWomen #GirlsWhoCode #TechGirl #DigitalDesign #WomenWhoLead #HerBusiness #FreelanceToFreedom #SmallBusinessBigDreams #SmallAndMightyBusiness #ThisGirlMeansBusiness #FreelanceLifestyle #FreelancingFemales #TheFutureIsFemale #BusinessWithPurpose #CreateLaunchGrow #WebsiteCare #NextLevelWebsite #DeveloperForDesigners #WebDevForDesigners #WebsitesThatTransform

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🌟The Power of Sketching in UX Design: Elevating Concepts to Solutions 🌟 Exciting read about the importance of sketching in the UX design process! Here are the key takeaways from the article "Real Designers Sketch" by Nate Schloesser: 🚀 Idea Exploration: Rapidly explore multiple concepts to reach innovative solutions. 📚 Communication: Use sketches as a universal language to convey complex ideas effectively. 💡 Concept Over Visuals: Focus on the concept, encouraging open discussions and reducing tension. 🔄 Agility: Enable quick iterations for rapid design evolution based on feedback. 🤝 Collaboration: Foster a collaborative environment by democratizing the design process. 🔍 Problem-Solving: Visualize pain points and solutions with powerful sketching tools. It's time to debunk the misconceptions around sketching and embrace it as a versatile and essential practice in UX design. Remember, sketching is not just for artists - it's a tool for all designers to transform initial ideas into clear and innovative solutions. Let's elevate our design work from pixel-pushing to true design thinking by incorporating sketching into our process! Share your thoughts on how sketching has impacted your design work and let's start a conversation on the power of sketching in UX design. Keep sketching, keep innovating! 💭💡 💬 Share your thoughts on how sketching has influenced your design process! #uxdesign #productdesign #sketching #designthinking --- Incorporate sketching into your design process today! 🎨💡 #designthinking #uxdesign #productdesign https://lnkd.in/eSVHDCJB

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✏ Here's a really rough map of Design-related career clusters that I've been sharing in some recent high school visits. Some of these students are aware of design, some are not. Most are wondering where art and design will take them. I'm trying to get across that there are a lot of design-related careers and interesting paths for them to follow. What would you add to this map? What would you change? - - - I zoomed in on the clusters in the comments below. - - - #designeducation #careerpaths #creativecareers #design #arteducation #artcareers

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In my 20+ years of design experience the term "pain points" has been consistently used and understood by designers, strategists, PMs, and developers on functional and collaboratives teams. It has NOT stood for the narrow definition that is described below. When someone didn't understand or mis-defined the term, the team would educate them and we would be aligned again. In my opinion, the statement below is another example of folks outside of our process co-opting design language, misunderstanding, and mis-using it. Why is the first response not to correct, educate, and take back ownership of our terminology? Why must we always be told we need to change our language because others corrupt and degrade it. I'm so frustrated by this trend. It is telling stakeholders that they have no obligation to try to educate themselves on design - a practice they want/need to be involved. It's sending a message that design is not a serious discipline, we are not experts, and that we can/should be pushed around.

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The rare case when you actually WANT to land on a 404 page! Sigma Software Design latest project for ChainGPT shows that even error pages can be delightful. We’ve turned the typical “Page Not Found” experience into something visually engaging and fun! #SigmaSoftwareDesign #ErrorPage #404design #errorpagedesign #webdesign #experiencedesign

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Everyone wants a fabulous logo. It takes a great design process to get there. And that's exactly what we are covering in this series of posts. Yesterday, I covered the preliminary, "discovery phase" or, as some people like to call it, "onboarding." If you haven't read that post and the one before it, I recommend reading both to get full context. I'm breaking out the full brand design process so you know what to do if you are trying to do it yourself, or know what to expect of a really great designer if you are hiring someone. Here we go! The Brand Design Process: Phase 1 - Research This is THE MOST IMPORTANT PHASE. The better the research, the better the strategy. The better the strategy, the better the execution. The research phase is mainly comprised of audits. Compiling lists and comparing data. These are the audits and the data within each that we want to examine if it exists: • Brand - name, messaging, taglines, trademarks, brand manuals • Business - stationary, forms, invoices, business cards • Internal - memos, employee swag, holiday greetings • Retail - packaging, promos, bags, merch • Sales - sales/product literature, decks, investor relations, campaigns • Electronic - social/web, video, apps • Environment - interiors, exteriors, signage, trade show booths I use a checklist and a corresponding file structure to gather and organize all of this data from each client. This can take days, weeks or even months, depending on the size and history of the brand. (DM me if you would like the checklist and file structure) It should be noted that you can use the checklist to also reverse engineer the deliverables that will be created for the brand in phase 4 of this process. Corresponding with this data gathering is the interview. I interview the team that is responsible for branding decisions. The owner, founder, CEO, whoever it may be that is on the team. The interview is comprised of 16 questions that elicit the values, purpose, mission, vision, culture, goals and more. It is recorded, and transcribed and annotated and delivered for the team's digestion. This interview usually goes for several hours and a byproduct is a business/life coaching session where the answers that the team comes up with are revelatory for those being interviewed. I have found that time and again, that interview ends up being one of the most valuable parts of the branding process. The value comes from the clarity that arises for the leadership of the company. Even if the company had plenty of clarity in their business, it's amazing what happens when you get a whole lot more. Once the audits and interview are finished and all of the data is in our hands, the research phase is complete. The next phase is strategy, which is distilling this data down to two one page briefs. The Brand Brief defines the brand personality and the Creative Brief defines where we are going and why. And I have hit the character limit! See you tomorrow!

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I've been doing the work we now know as UX for over 28 years. I have perspectives and sentiments that those with much less experience are not very likely to possess or embrace. Remember that when folks who entered the discipline after 2011 express discontent with the stances I take. • They don't like my constant addressing of UX ≠ UI, but can't really relate and didn't witness the transition of UX's value proposition. • They refer to my outspokenness as "pontificating," but are doing nothing (genuine) to benefit the discipline. They only benefit themselves, many times at the expense of the discipline. • They express concern about what I do, but willingly empower folks that are doing the discipline great harm. • They don't like my stance against UX writing, but can't relate first-hand to observing information architecture and content strategy being swept under the rug. • They don't like my rejection of OOUX, but aren't sensitive to folks trying to make a name for themselves at the expense of the discipline AND don't understand the misdirective nature of someone's adding layers of complexity to today's UX culture that is fundamentals-averse. • They don't like my stance against bootcamps, but simply can't relate to and don't understand the predatory and snake oil factors at work. • They complain about my stance on imposter syndrome, but never say anything to refute the related facts I've shared. • They don't like my constant calling out of the sinister nature of today's UX operation, but only cry out if and when they're personally impacted by something. NONE of those stances negate or disprove what I'm addressing. If they knew what I knew (and they don't), cared like I care (and they don't), and experienced what I've experienced (and they haven't), they'd respond the same way. The things I address simply don't compute due to their biases or lack of understanding, but someone's lack of understanding DOES NOT mean it's not true. That's simply arrogance at its "finest."

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