Startups frequently use surveys as a cheap and easy way to get feedback from users. But the resulting data will only be as good as the survey itself. I often see products with surveys that have easy-to-fix mistakes like misleading questions, improper sampling, and skewed rating scales. That’s a shame — these teams could be collecting better data and making...

When designing for the web, you can analyze usage data for your product and compare different interfaces in A/B tests. This is sometimes called “data-driven design”, but I prefer to think of it as data-informed design — the designer is still driving, not the data. To make this work in practice it’s important to use the right metrics. Basic traffic...

When I first started designing interactive products, it was a struggle. Small projects were fine. But when the interactions got more complex, I noticed that tools, team communication, and even my own thinking started breaking down. I see many startups facing these same problems today. So I wanted to share some of the ways that I’ve changed my design process...

Many years ago, I worked on Microsoft Encarta. For those too young to remember, Encarta was sort of like Wikipedia, only instead of on the Internet it was printed on shiny plastic plates called CD-ROMs. Each year, when the new version of Encarta was finished, Microsoft would hire an agency to design the box. Looking at the finished product, they’d...

One of my favorite parts of my job is interviewing a huge variety of people about their habits, needs, attitudes, and reactions to designs. I like the challenge of quickly getting strangers to talk freely and frankly about themselves, and to try figuring out new designs and products in front of me. User research shouldn’t be like the boring market...

It’s easy to spot a beautiful portfolio. Designers know that looks sell, and many people sell themselves that way. Of course, the ability to make something that looks good matters, especially for visual designers. But the challenge is that great images say nothing about what it will be like to work with someone, or whether they’ll be consistently able to...

“It’s too hard to find users for usability tests.” Startups often point to recruiting users as one of the biggest reasons they’re not regularly talking to their users. The process can seem mysterious and time-consuming; just a big hassle. But it’s actually pretty simple and straightforward when you know how. Follow the steps below and you’ll soon have people to...

Why did you click on this blog post? Right now, you’re probably able to answer that question with relative ease. Micro-surveys are short and to the point. Similar to the question above, they only have one or two questions and they’re extremely targeted. This means that they’re not only easy to answer, but easy to create, implement, and analyze. If...

I’ve been working with a startup for the past three weeks. We just finished a round of product design work, so we knew what features we wanted to build. Most of the time, teams in this situation jump to mockups and start coding features right away. Once the features are launched, you can start to measure and learn if they...

If you’re the stereotypical “technical” or “business” founder of a startup, partnering with a designer co-founder can give you an important advantage and help you achieve early success. Let’s talk about the characteristics of designer founders, scenarios where design is particularly important, and how to spot designer founders in the wild. Characteristics of a great designer founder Designers come from...

Now that we’re past hunting for unicorns, and we know what design roles are needed at a startup, it’s time to get into the gritty details: the design interview. I wasn’t really good at interviewing designers until I had a few dozen interviews to compare. So if this is your first time interviewing a designer, I highly recommend finding a...

As a designer at engineering-centric companies for the last 10 years or so, I spend a lot of time working with engineers. These collaborations are the most functional and fruitful work relationships I’ve had. Designers, you can create these kinds of relationships with engineers too — you just need to cut through the personal biases of both designers and engineers...