Ryan O'Connor

Why it brings so much joy to see big guys fall? "Companies looking for help making their websites WCAG compliant must be able to trust that products do what they are advertised to do,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Overstating a product’s AI or other capabilities without adequate evidence is deceptive, and the FTC will act to stop it.” How many "accessibility companies" deceive their trusting clients with what they can actually do just to get a brief revenue? Real and trustable accessibility companies are powered by real people, passionate about what they do. Accessibility can be subjective, and the more you learn the more you realize (as everything else in life) that it's meanly made of grey areas rather than black and white certainties. Which is why it is impossible to replace humans with any overlay, bot or AI. In your face, AccessiBe!

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Here's a slide from my October 2024 talk about triaging UX, showing a word cloud of several things we can do to help drive the discipline forward. Which ones stand out to you? #ux #realuxtalk #uxtriage

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"For increased readability, we’ve rewritten sections of our privacy statement with simpler, more consistent language." Is there a better summary of the benefit of UX Writing for privacy related work? Well done, Amber and Heather.

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My pal Vitaly Friedman is second-to-none when it comes to delivering thorough, thoughtful, and actionable design advice. He's released a few courses that are really valuable for practicing designers and design leads: 🧠 Smart Interface Design Patterns: https://lnkd.in/e-v-jsCG 📏 How to Measure UX Impact: https://measure-ux.com/ #design #ux

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Is Detailed Design Anti-Agile? https://lnkd.in/dbpShVPz A CERM Risk Insights article by Howard Wiener, MSIA, CERM. Discover the benefits of agile and detailed design for systems development projects. Learn how it can save time, reduce errors, and increase flexibility.

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Thoughtful breakdown review about eBay Playbook!

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Trouble Shooting or Shooting Troubled Projects https://lnkd.in/gGP3dcha A CERM Risk Insights article by Malcolm Peart. Troubled projects? Learn how to identify the signs and take action to fix them. Discover the role of a troubleshooter in project management.

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Let’s be real: The "DIY, throw it up there, and hope for the best" approach is not cutting it. Design requires intention, strategy, and an understanding of user behavior to make a real impact. 3tone Approach: We regularly conduct usability testing throughout our design process. This helps identify pain points, allowing us to make informed adjustments based on data that will improve user experience. #websitedesign #figmadesigner

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The Non-Designer's Design Toolkit 👨‍💻 (or “just my observations”) I'm sure many of you have faced (and continue to face) the challenge of differing 🤦‍♂️ design visions between marketers and designers. 🚨 Spoiler alert: this is perfectly normal and will likely never change entirely. As the digital space continues to evolve, the visual component becomes increasingly 🚀 essential, playing a significant role and growing impact on network users. This makes it crucial for marketers to possess some design sensibilities and vice versa for designers to understand marketing goals. After all, the key task for both, in the context of business objectives, is to achieve the desired outcome from potential users 😎. But what if you're a marketer without a dedicated designer on your team❓ By understanding the task at hand and your target audience and equipping yourself with the right tools, you can effectively solve this problem. ⬇ Here's my go-to toolbox as a marketer for creating impactful "non-designer designs": ❇ Creative Idea Don't underestimate the importance of a clear concept! Great design starts with a well-defined idea, like legendary songs written on budget guitars. ❇ Canva This user-friendly platform offers a wealth of templates and features for crafting banners, social media posts, presentations, and more – all in a snap. ❇ Behance Get inspired by browsing stunning design projects from top creators. ❇ Unsplash & Pexels High-quality stock photos and images at your fingertips, perfect for adding visual punch to your designs. ❇ Flaticon Your one-stop shop for discovering and customizing icons to elevate your visuals. ❇ Figma The industry standard for design, Figma offers powerful yet intuitive tools (though some design knowledge might be helpful here). ❇ Color Hunt Feeling color-challenged? Color Hunt provides beautiful color palettes and combinations to take the guesswork out of design. There you have it 🔥 With these tools and a little creativity, you can conquer the "non-designer design" world 🙃. So, what are your favorite tools for creating impactful visuals without design knowledge? Share them in the comments below (if u want 😈 ) #design #marketing #toolkit #tools

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Censorship is just one of many ways policing manifests in design and research. 🔹️Designers implement features of surveillance which gather and log personal information, location data, etc. User profiles are often set to automatically opt in without informed consent. 🔹️Developers engineer algorithms that determine what content gets moderated, without transparency in how content moderation decisions are made. 🔹️Researchers gatekeep participant contributions and interpret insights based on what fits their immediate need. Policing is one of 10 dimensions of coloniality in design and research that we will be diving in to at our session on Deconstructing Coloniality in Design and Research. Understanding how coloniality manifests through our work is a critical first step in creating more liberatory, relational and responsible practices. Join us in July to learn more. Info in comments

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For decades of working as a freelancer this was the bane of my life, clients wanting designs created before they have any of their content or copy. Now, years later and working in Product Design for a large company it’s still melts my brain just how often people will try to jump right in to trying to design a thing before they have thought about content, copy, or what they want to communicate. Listen to Lizzie. Your words are the most important thing. #contentdesign #cooywriting #productdesign #contentcomesfirst

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How we helped a Pediatric Physical Therapy clinic get 100+ 5-star reviews in 5 months (...and increased impressions from 13k to 90k): Local SEO is CRUCIAL for multi-location businesses. Here's the exact process we used: 1️⃣ Optimize Google Business Profiles — Fill out ALL details, use relevant keywords, and add high-quality images showing your target audience. 2️⃣ Create location-specific website pages — Optimize each page for local keywords, services, and programs offered at that location. 3️⃣ Implement a review generation strategy: • Train staff on asking for reviews • Use NPS surveys • Send review request emails • Place in-office flyers • Create friendly competition between locations 4️⃣ Respond to ALL reviews — Thank positive reviewers and professionally address negative ones. 5️⃣ Build citations — Use tools like Yext to increase directory listings for each location. The results? - 100+ new 5-star Google reviews - Impressions skyrocketed from 13k to 90k - Massive increase in customer actions and website traffic - 5 locations went from poor ratings to 4+ stars - PS We boosted one client’s sales from $5k- $100,000 in just 6 months with conversion-focused SEO. Want to double your leads? Let's chat.

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A very insightful study on homepage navigation usability of portals. I am surprised that navigation, which is a basic factor in the usability of a website is ignored in the majority of websites. 76% of studied websites performing poorly is unacceptable and does not reflect highly on UX professionals.

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Let's talk paywall design. Beautiful or not… I challenge you to test an ✨ugly paywall✨ I know the name doesn't sound appealing, but I encourage you to try what you may define as an ✨ugly paywall✨. I’ve seen this work before, and I have some theories why this is: Simplicity 🙏🏼 When I say ‘go ugly,’ that will usually result in ‘going simple.’ Maybe you remove the beautiful photo or the flashy design, leaving a clean, focused message… Clear value prop 🧠 Less clutter means a clearer value proposition. Users focus on the offer, not the aesthetics, which could lead to better conversions. That’s why you may see apps that opt for a trial-info paywall without even listing the features. Surprise Factor 💡 If the rest of your app is beautifully designed and full of animations, a bold, simple paywall can stand out. The contrast grabs attention and makes users focus on the offer itself. Sometimes, simplicity cuts through the noise. Would you dare to try an ‘ugly paywall’? 😏 #wie #convertXwie #speakup #paywalldesign #appdesign

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Config last week was packed with amazing sessions. Here are 5 of my favorite quotes and takeaways 👇🏻 🎙️ Pitching Accessibility like a Pro “Designers aren’t as empathetic as we say we are. If we were, our products would be accessible.” - Tregg Frank Tregg challenged us to empathize with our entire user base, as well as our stakeholders and teams, to promote value and adoption of accessibility best practices within our organizations. 🎙️ A new opportunity to make great software “All around you there are things that may feel solved, but could you do it better if you did it differently today? - Henry Modisett Henry called us to view AI not just as an add-on to top off your processes, but as a reset button to reevaluate the foundation of your processes. 🎙️ How pigeons led to emergency room optimizations “Who do we prioritize - the happiness of our supply or doing what’s best for the citizens? We do what’s best for the citizens.” - Zulhilmi Icksan Zulhilmi inspired us to radically design our products, especially government products, for the public good to impact lives. 🎙️ Unlocking opportunities: building your brand with side projects “The value of side projects doesn’t often come immediately, but in the opportunities that it creates and the personal growth that it ignites.” - Matt D. Smith Matt encouraged creatives to pursue passionate side projects for both the foreseen and unforeseen outcomes they lead to. 🎙️ Defining the relationship (between humans and AI) “The future and things we can create [with AI] is still up for grabs. We can think of something perhaps even better than what we’ve seen in media.” - Sam Whitmore, Jason Yuan Sam and Jason gave us hope that thoughtfully designed AI products can preserve and empower our humanity. You can watch all the Config sessions online here → https://lnkd.in/gXdWy-Ch What were some of your favorite learnings from Config? - - - - - I’m Brendan, and I talk about what it means to be a UX designer, in and out of the 9-5. Follow to join the conversation! #uxdesign #uxui #productdesign #design #figma #config2024

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It’s Thursday! Let’s talk about DESIGN DISCOVERY and how to make it PRACTICAL. Discovery is an essential part of the design process. In discovery, designers build a shared understanding of the problem and the design direction, establishing a foundation for all future design decisions. What does that foundation look like? In PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY, I describe three kinds of things to put into this foundation: → Principles: Enablers that help you make decisions → Concepts: Ideas that establish a big picture or north star → Models: Representations of the user experience When you draw a conclusion from user research, that’s a principle. When you say “our product is like a concierge for kids activities,” that’s a concept. And when you sketch out a flow chart or wireframe an important screen, that’s a model. Each of these contributes to the foundation that informs further design decisions. You’re not just creating these for yourself. The other people on your team – product managers and business stakeholders and developers – need to contribute to this foundation. These things – principles, concepts, and models – are the way you draw others into the discovery process. Sometimes managers tell designers to cut principles and concepts out of their process. I get it: Models are accessible because they are tangible representations of the final product. Even a flow chart is easier to react to than an unmoored design principle or a big idea. In discovery, however, you can’t model every aspect of a product. The point of discovery is to set the direction. Models provide enough of a view into the final product to get buy-in on that direction. But they’re not the whole picture. Principles provide guidelines for making decisions that the models do not cover. They establish constraints on the design process. Concepts align everyone around the product’s purpose or essence. They paint a picture of what the world looks like with the product in it. Both are helpful for decision-making. You don’t need to break the bank creating principles or concepts, or even models. Use a text file to capture statements as they jump out during the design process, like “never show a data visualization without context or explanation [a principle]” or “this is a mash-up between a to-do list and a calendar [a concept]”. Use models to illustrate principles and concepts. When folks provide feedback on the models, ask them about the concepts and the principles. “You said you were worried about the fields on this screen, but it aligns with our principle of ‘only ask for information when needed.’ Are there circumstances when the principle doesn’t apply?” Every part of the foundation – principles, concepts, and models – is a hook for a conversation with the entire team about the direction of your product. Looking for more ways to refine your discovery practice? Grab a copy of PRACTICAL DESIGN DISCOVERY! https://lnkd.in/dtar-e2

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☄ Does your product seem off the rails because the team cannot align on the WHY your product exists and the WHAT you are doing to reach your north star? ⭐ Have you considered writing a mission or vision statement for a product or feature? They are not just for aligning at the organization level. Jen BlatzChatz talks about the difference between a mission and a vision and why your team needs one NOW. 🎉 Bonus footage: 3-part framework to easily write a vision TODAY! https://lnkd.in/gdrxBT2E

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