Matt Conway

As a design leader, you work for your team—not the other way around. Learn how to keep your #UXteam happy, creative, and always on schedule. https://lnkd.in/eksZbUXM #DesignLeadership #TeamManagement #UXDesign #Productivity

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Have you ever wondered what makes independent UX design studios stand out in the competitive digital landscape? Having worked with both Fortune 100 giants and small startups, I've seen firsthand how independent UX design studios can provide efficient, creative solutions tailored to client needs—solutions that truly enhance user experience and foster innovation. In my latest article, I dive deep into why independent studios often outperform larger agencies and in-house teams when it comes to UX design. Here are some of the key highlights: ✅ Flexibility and Agility: Without the layers of bureaucracy, independent studios make swift decisions and adapt quickly to client feedback. Imagine getting changes implemented within 24-48 hours instead of the lengthy wait typical in bigger agencies. ✅ Specialized Expertise: We bring deep, diverse knowledge to every project. Our team members have worked across different industries, which gives us the ability to tackle UX challenges from fresh perspectives—something that in-house teams can sometimes struggle with. ✅ Personalized UX Solutions: We don’t believe in one-size-fits-all. Each client has unique needs, and our personalized approach ensures the end product not only meets functional requirements but also resonates deeply with users. ✅ Freedom to Innovate: Independent UX studios operate without the constraints of corporate hierarchies. This independence allows for a creativity-driven environment where we challenge norms and propose innovative solutions, benefiting our clients with impactful, user-centred experiences. If you’re considering enhancing your digital product or need an agile partner to bring your UX vision to life, this article is for you. Dive in and discover how partnering with an independent UX studio could be your best strategic move. Read the full article here: https://lnkd.in/eWTvXdea #UXDesign #UserExperience #IndependentStudios #Innovation #Agility #DesignThinking #AIinDesign #LeanUX

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“Be who and where you are.” I’m still processing all of the amazing insights that came out of Clarity: A design systems community conference last week but several themes have been bouncing around in my head since then. → Get smaller and connect - Dan Mall and others talked about a trend towards smaller core design systems with surrounding layers of shared patterns like recipes, all being consumed by teams managing their own local libraries. This results in teams being able to move faster and eliminates the need for design systems folks to feel that have to be a bottleneck. → Be who and where you are - John Voss and others talked about building the system that your users and team need rather than conforming to what larger companies are putting out there or the oversimplified “stereotype” you yourself have unintentionally created for your product. → Listen - Ben Callahan and others talked about the need to reset our current mental models for how design systems teams see our roles and responsibilities. How do we move away from our perceived tactical responsibilities towards more listening and validating of the needs of our consumers and users? 💎 My personal takeaways from all of this have me reframing my own journey with my team from "a series of mistakes" towards "the necessary growth to become the team we are today." → When we implemented that now outdated framework, tried to centralize everything into a single bloated design system, or wrote all of that verbose documentation, we were doing what we needed to do to mature and are a better team as a result. → What my team is going through, we're all going through. The role of design in general is changing across the industry, not just in my organization. How lucky are we, that we have the opportunity to learn from each other as designers? → As team roles change, I’m curious to pivot my default stance away from “defend the designer's role”, and would be curious to see how I can facilitate “design” activities regardless of whether they are done by a designer, product manager, or engineer. I feel so very fortunate to be a part of such an amazing community and love the reminder that when you get a bunch of systems thinkers together in the same room, you're going to see patterns. Thanks again 🖤 Jina A. and all the speakers last week. #clarity2024 #designsystems #design

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**yells into the void** Advice to designers creating your design portfolios (or presentations) Start with the "actual" designs, discuss how you collaborated with the team, what was your responsibility and how beliefs or user feedback shaped it. Don't just skim over and show design or sketch at the end but discuss what interactions or features you explored, and how you evolved the design to solve the problem given the goals and constraints. aaaand if you want to land people understanding your design skills- start with the magic- share videos, click-throughs and prototypes and what would you do if you had more time? Process? Share enough process to provide context. Have the rest in your back pocket to back it up. (We can't read those post-it notes anyways)

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For an organization committed to the practice of user experience design, the Interaction Design Foundation doesn’t seem to value their own ideology. I’ve been a member for years and recently served as a local leader (of which I resigned a year ago and they have yet to remove me from the role). I’m finding their billing processes to be on the verge of questionable UX practices: ·     My membership increased 31% with no notification before billing. I was told that a single notification had been sent a year ago buried in an email with a subject line of “We have updated our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and Pricing Structure.” Do they not realize that subject lines such as this are white noise in people’s inboxes and begs to be deleted without reading? ·     To prevent the upcoming charge, the user must contact the main office and have them remove the store payment details. There is no ability for the user to do this themselves. ·     There is also no option to opt out of recurring charges. This is akin the dark practice of subscription services that lure users with trial period in hopes the user will forget to cancel before the period expires.   ·     The user can cancel their membership. However, the user loses access to all materials, content, and account details even though the user has prepaid for the upcoming year. This entices the user to delay cancelling only to encounter the same pain points the following year. ·     User is sent an invoice AFTER the charge has been applied. No notification of upcoming billings. ·     When asked to refund the membership charge, the admin basically responded with “The reason we’re unable to offer a refund guarantee on the renewal of memberships is that we already have a money-back guarantee after sign-up . . . we’d have to charge higher prices if we offered unlimited refunds and that’s why we make our policies crystal-clear, doing everything in our power to ensure members understand our fair terms.” This statement basically has the overtone of: It’s not that our communication and user experience is insufficient, it’s the user’s fault. IDF needs to reassess their membership and billing practices if they want to maintain any integrity in the field. As a hiring manager, I do not look at organizational memberships as having any influence in hiring decisions.  My advice for those wanting to increase their knowledge and break into design, rather than pay a yearly $264 membership fee, there are many free resources, podcasts, and articles that will help you achieve the same results. Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

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10 basic lessons of a design system. Being someone who has worked within and created many design systems, brand guidelines, and UI libraries, I've encountered many bumps along the way. What would you add or remove from this list? #designsystem #UX #lessonslearned #basics https://lnkd.in/evFxwP79

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🚀 Exploring AI & User-Centered Design: Where UCD Falls Short 🤖🔍 AI is transforming our world, but is User-Centered Design (UCD) keeping up? In my latest blog, I dive into my experience and challenges of integrating UCD with AI, covering key points like: 🔹 The Dilemma of Unknown Unknowns: How AI introduces new, unpredictable issues. 🔹 Data Gaps: The impact of missing data on inclusivity and fairness. 🔹 Big Data Complexity: Why designers need new skills in data analysis. 🔹 End-User Complexity: Making AI understandable for users. 🔹 AI Behavior: The need for ongoing maintenance and refinement. Drop your thoughts and experiences in the comments—I’d love to hear your perspective! 👇📢 https://lnkd.in/g9yAHQ5p #AI #Design #UserCenteredDesign

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Over the years I've tried many approaches to design critiques with the teams I've managed. Without fail these 4 simple principles impact the effectiveness of design critiques greater than anything else when established as ground rules. For presenters: ✦ Describe the problem you're solving ✦ State the target audience* ✦ Specify the feedback you're seeking All of the above can be done in less than a minute, either verbally or in written format. For participants: ✦ Ask questions before comments "I think you should go with blue instead of red" is less effective than first asking "Why did you choose red for this?" The additional context that comes from asking questions will lead to more effective feedback. Design critiques are the easiest and most important thing design teams can do to improve design quality. Alone they are not a silver bullet. But they are the foundation for all other improvements to design quality. If you're not holding regular design critiques (usually weekly), this is step 1 for improving design quality. If you're already holding regular design critiques but not doing the 4 principles above well, this is step 1 for improving your design critiques. Better critiques. Better quality. * "Everyone" is rarely acceptable as the target audience. Even if the feature being presented is intended for everyone, 99% of the time there's a specific segment or archetype you're aiming for. #design #critiques #quality

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Federated design systems are great. In theory. But reality is a little more complicated. There are challenges associated with quality, consistency and follow through. In our latest episode, Davy Fung and I discuss the highs and lows of federated design systems. What's worked, what hasn't and how to come out the other side in one piece. Listen here: https://lnkd.in/g4W3SYqR #designsystems #podcast

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“Where am I?” As our design system matures, things move around. We’re trying to invest in ways that allow feature designers and engineers to locate where they are within a design system, and where to find what they need. → Multiple design libraries can be hard to track and become confusing when designers and engineers aren’t aware of what does and doesn’t exist in each library. → Every component and pattern has a varying degree of specificity from generic to a specific business context or content pattern and deciding what goes where is confusing. → Theming in Figma is great, but... the current nature of variables can make managing multiple modes across multiple brands challenging. Here’s how we’ve been trying to get our head around reducing complexity for our team and consumers 🏗 Figma file architecture - Having a clear plan for structuring your design system libraries is critical for folks to find stuff. Our early attempts at a highly modular system with numerous smaller libraries were too unwieldy. We’ve landed into a Tokens, Components, Patterns, and Features structure that streamlines the process for everyone. It was super cool to stumble on these Figma docs that deep dive into various strategies for organizing your files https://lnkd.in/dGyN-SQw 🚦 Wayfinding elements - Once designers and engineers are in the files themselves, it's still easy to get lost. We’ve implemented consistent color-coded “file covers” distinguishing design system files from feature files, “getting started” pages outlining file dependencies, and consistent page naming conventions indicating iterations from elements that are ready for development. Thanks to Vitaly Friedman for the reference to Saurav Rastogi's post on Figma file organization which is packed with insights. https://lnkd.in/giBs_Jgn 🎨 Multi-brand variables - Our team has worked hard to figure out the most intuitive way to allow for white-labeling our design system for custom theming. We currently leverage modes at multiple layers of the design system based on their specificity from global to semantic to component to pattern. Romina Kavcic has endless resources for teams who are looking to build out their token strategy. https://lnkd.in/deiMGCe9 💎 Wayfinding within design systems is hard but a couple of things that help folks understand where they are and what they can do → Partner with engineers on an architecture that maps somewhat to their mental model making things more intuitive → Setup wayfinding documentation within your Figma files that orient users to where they are within the system → Map your tokens and variables across your system so that it is clear how to layer modes to achieve custom themes #designsystems #figma #uidesign #tokens #components #patterns

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Simple portfolio presentation tip for design leaders today: Include something about why this job. Why do you want it? What do you like about it? Don’t overcomplicate. I added one slide at the end when I applied for the Maps role. Idea is it helps you confirm what you think this role is going to be about. AND, it tells the interviewers you understand the challenges and the landscape.

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New Video: Navigating Ambiguity with Design https://lnkd.in/eNTXYc-T In the design world, we all face ambiguity—it’s part of the journey. But how do we keep moving forward when the path isn’t fully defined? In my latest video, I dive into practical ways to navigate uncertainty using human-centered design principles: Viability, Feasibility, and Desirability. These pillars help turn ambiguity into a structured process, allowing us to: • Set clear goals that align with business needs • Embrace experimentation and learn through iteration • Use data and collaboration to create solutions users truly value Whether you're a designer or a business leader, this approach can help you see ambiguity as an opportunity rather than a roadblock. If you’re curious about transforming the unknown into actionable steps, I’d love for you to watch and share your thoughts. Let’s discuss how embracing ambiguity can drive better, more creative solutions. #DesignThinking #HumanCenteredDesign #Innovation #Ambiguity #Creativity #DesignProcess #ProductDesign #DesignLeadership

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AI is the buzzword of the day, but it's simply the next step in our technology evolution. Evolving generative AI interactions are repeating human-computer interaction history. Remember those green screens and books filled with computer prompts, or learning how to use a search engine? Perhaps you do, maybe you don't, but either way AI has modified the way we do this by using natural language! #AI #technologyevolution #naturalanguageprocessing

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Love this thoughtful and balanced argument for resetting expectations for what design (lowercase d intentional) and design leaders can and can't fix from Sarah Gallivan Mitchell. Andy Polaine, in his response (https://lnkd.in/eC959VEc) to the some of the same rhetoric Sarah responds to, has likened the growth of the design industry in the past 15-20 years to the Cambrian Explosion. It bears considering that the real Cambrian Explosion was followed in relatively short order by multiple mass extinction events. Some species that were less well adapted to the changing conditions for life on Earth didn't make it, but this allowed new forms of life to develop and flourish. My hope is that some evolutionary selection may take place over time in regards to which voices are anointed to speak for All of Design, so that voices like Sarah's may, too, be heard and flourish. #design #designleadership #futureofdesign https://lnkd.in/eQ-PGgBM

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Really looking forward to Product Design Week this year. I'm doing a talk - Why Talent & Culture Are Still Your Greatest Asset - on Day 1 of Design Leaders + (12:30-1:00 on November 11th). https://lnkd.in/gH_YVJR8 Anyone working in customer experience, design, product or strategy right now will know that we are living in - ahem - interesting times. The challenges facing leaders within brands, agencies and consultancies are more complex and fast-evolving than ever before. The experience design road has never been a smooth one, but it feels particularly rocky, potholed and full of hidden hairpins at the moment! Watching the conversations play out on LinkedIn you might safely assume that many are currently feeling pretty doom and gloom. But look at any disruptive cycle of technology-led adjustment in history and you will always see growth and positive progress right in there with the painful stuff. Personally I think that real opportunity can be found in the intersection between innovative, enabling technologies and the design of human-centred experiences - and after 30 years in the digital experience business I'm still convinced that's right where it's always lived. Teams who can combine the ability to deliver compelling customer experiences with the competencies to harness data, AI and genuine insight are going to be the real unlockers of value. And organisations that are able to access and attract those people - and provide the right environment and culture to empower and retain them - will achieve true competitive advantage and return on investment. My talk on the 11th is going to focus on those factors. Ultimately, technology comes and goes. It arrives all shiny and shouty, then it gets all habitual and legacy on you. What doesn't change is the importance of the skilled talent that can build magic from base metals - and making sure that that talent is supported by an environment in which it can create and deliver that magic. Hope to see you there! #PDW24 #Talent #Culture #Experience #Design #Leadership #Technology

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Highlighting my new article on the timeliness of the Design Process and the standards that drive its evaluation. https://lnkd.in/ee_X-kqP #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui #ai #genai 

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No one talks about the part of design leadership where you are just managing software licenses and renewals. It's this thing where you spend an unnecessary amount of time and mental capacity un-doing the effects of deliberate dark patterns to make sure you don't accidentally spend the equivalent of a new car just because someone in sales clicked on your design wrong. It's made worse by the fact that every vendor wants a "relationship" to meet and chat and "get to know one another" and "understand how my business goals align with the product" and I'm like, "Nah, I just want a tool, k?" I'm gonna pitch a conference talk on this, How to Manage Software Vendors and Still Do Your Job (working title...)

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Had to share this thoughtful article about the conflicting feelings we have as designers with new AI tools.... made me consider the threat of too much standardization over innovation, or letting your own creative instincts atrophy. Check it out and lmk your thoughts

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If you're a designer and new to AI, I highly recommend watching this video (only 20 mins long if you watch at 1.5x speed), which provides a great primer for the topic of AI in UX. I find the content very well organized and easy to follow. It touches on the concept of AI at a super high level, various use cases, important considerations when designing with AI, and how Booking.com leverages AI to enhance their user experience.

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