Top 50 Design Blog Articles and Sites From 2017

It’s nearly the the close of 2017. Lots has happened and I’ve been reading about UX, Design Thinking, Design Systems, Agile, Block Chain, Crypto currencies, Machine Learning, AI, Startups and plenty more. 2018 seems to be shaping up to be an exciting year for digital! (and maybe we’ll stop asking ourselves, why didn’t we all buy Bitcoins 5 years ago?)

Trends running into 2018

  • Better personalisation (Machine learning, AI) – With tech coming to the forefront we need to made experiences individual
  • Better Security all over – We need to prevent those Cryptocurrencies form being stolen!
  • Wider adoption of design processes in product management (Design Systems, Design Thinking leading to better product design
  • The new breed of disruptors taking on AI, Machine learnings and Cryptocurrencies
  • Chat Bots & Speech – More and more popping up as people test the benefits

Top 50 Design Blog Articles and Sites

The Ultimate Guide to Minimum Viable Product

You’ll know exactly what MVP is, how to do it and what tools to use.

Topics: mvp, lean startup, product management
Read time: 7 mins

The Most Important Rule in UX Design that Everyone Breaks

The psychological phenomenon discussed in this article is known as Miller’s Law.

Topics: ux,design
Read time: 5 mins

How to promote a blog post: the ultimate guide

you’ve written an awesome blog post that provides lots of value…now what? How do you get it in front of the right eyes, and as many pairs of eyes as possible? Promoting your blog posts the right way is just as important as writing amazing content.

Topics: blogging, content marketing
Read time: 10 mins

The non-techie’s guide to machine learning

So, machine learning. Is that like… AI? Dive in to the fundamentals of Machine Learning

Topics: machine learning, tech
Read time: 5 mins

Design Systems Handbook – DesignBetter.Co

A design system unites product teams around a common visual language. It reduces design debt, accelerates the design process, and builds bridges between teams – Check out this 7 step guide

Topics: invision, design, design systems
Read time: 7 mins

Running in Circles

Why Agile Isn’t working and what we can do differently

Topics: waterfall, agile
Read time: 6 mins

Certbot

Automatically enable HTTPS on your website with EFF’s Certbot, deploying Let’s Encrypt certificates

Topics:web development, https, ssl
Read time: 2 mins

Artwork Personalization at Netflix

Given the enormous diversity in taste and preferences, wouldn’t it be better if we could find the best artwork for each of our members to highlight the aspects of a title that are specifically relevant to them?

Topics: netflix, recommendations, personalisation
Read time: 11 mins

Design Principles

This site is an open source resource created to help us understand and write Design Principles.

Topics: design, principles, design systems
Read time: 5 mins

How artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the news business

Reuters is scooping its rivals using intelligent machines that mine Twitter for news stories.

Topics: artificial intelligence, news, trust
Read time: 6 mins

A brief guide to psychology principles in UX design

Discussing various psychology principles and their relevance in UX design

Topics: artificial intelligence, news, trust
Read time: 2 mins

Machine Learning for Marketers

A comprehensive guide to Machine Learning

Topics: marketing, startups, artificial intelligence
Read time: 7 mins

What is Blockchain Technology?

Few people understand what it is, but Wall Street banks, IT organizations, and consultants are buzzing about blockchain technology.

Topics: blockchain, bitcoin, beginners
Read time: 7 mins

Wireframes, flows, personas and beautifully crafted UX deliverables for your inspiration

Here are a few examples of UX deliverables that are well polished, legible and simple to understand

Topics: ux, deliverables, wireframes
Read time: 11 mins

The Font-end Checklist

The Front-End Checklist Application is perfect for modern websites and meticulous developers!

Topics: front-End, checklist, website design
Read time: 11 mins

Six Steps to Superior Product Prototyping: Lessons from an Apple and Oculus Engineer

Tips and advice to make your product prototyping strategy better

Topics: prototyping, product management, product
Read time: 15 mins

An Introduction to Scrollama.js

Scrollytelling can be complicated to implement and difficult to make performant. The goal of this library is to provide a simple interface for creating scroll-driven interactives and improve user experience by reducing scroll jank.

Topics: javascript, scrollytelling, waypoints
Read time: 3 mins

First Round Search

The best tactical advice in tech

Topics: startups, advice, news
Read time: 3 mins

20 Product Prioritization Techniques: A Map and Guided Tour

Although it’s not what we are hired to do, it’s something that we have to do to achieve our real goal: creating successful products that bring value to our customers and to the business.

Topics: product management, prioritization
Read time: 4 mins

How to Stop UX Research being a Blocker

Fitting research into agile teams

Topics: ux, research, agile
Read time: 7 mins

Fontjoy – Get smart font pairings in one click

Generate font combinations with deep learning

Topics: fonts, typography, design
Read time: 2 mins

The 8pt Grid: Consistent Spacing in UI Design with Sketch

Spacing is everything in UI design.Forget colour, forget typography. Nail the spacing and you’re half way there. Why?

Topics: grid, sketch, 8pt grid
Read time: 4 mins

Another Lens – News Deeply x Airbnb.Design

A research tool for conscientious creatives

Topics: design, design thinking, research
Read time: 6 mins

Haiku – design meets production

Craft imaginative UI components that snap into any app.
Code optional.

Topics: animations, sketch, ui
Read time: 3 mins

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide

If you own, manage, monetize, or promote online content via Google Search, this guide is meant for you.

Topics: seo, google, basics
Read time: 10 mins

A/B tests that do more than validate – Inside Intercom

A/B tests provide more than statistical validation of one execution over another. They can and should impact how your team prioritizes projects.

Topics: a/b testing, best practices
Read time: 2 mins

Material Design and the Mystery Meat Navigation Problem

In March 2016, Google updated Material Design to add bottom navigation bars to its UI library. This new bar is positioned at the bottom of an app, and contains 3 to 5 icons that allow users to navigate between top-level views in an app.

Topics:navigation, web design, android
Read time: 9 mins

UXmas – Wishing you a great experience through the festive season!

An advent calendar for UX folk

Topics:ux, articles
Read time: 5 mins

How to Build a Successful Team

Building a successful team is about more than finding a group of people with the right mix of professional skills.

Topics:management, team
Read time: 11 mins

1000 different people, the same words

What hiring language from 25,000 recent job descriptions tells us about corporate cultural norms

Topics:hiring language, job descriptions, corporate culture
Read time: 2 mins

The Role of the Founder/CEO: You Have One Job

Most people have a certain image in their minds when they think of a founder/CEO.

Topics:startups, expertise, leadership
Read time: 5 mins

8 simple rules for a robust, scalable CSS architecture

This is the manifest of things I’ve learned about managing CSS in large, complex web projects during my many years of professional web development.

Topics:css, architecture, scalable”
Read time: 15 mins

Intro to Framer

Design and code animations with Framer

Topics:prototyping, design, animation
Read time: 7 mins

Action vs indecision – Inside Intercom

One of the most expensive parts of running a startup isn’t the new feature you shipped that nobody used or the marketing experiment you ran that failed. It’s indecision.

Topics:principles, management
Read time: 1 mins

12 Things Product Managers Should Do in Their First 30 Days

Here are some tips for how to approach that first month. Emphasize these three areas: People, Product, and Personal:

Topics:product management, product
Read time: 4 mins

A Primer on Android navigation

Before digging into common navigation patterns, it’s worth stepping back and finding a starting point for thinking about navigation in your app.

Topics:navigation, android navigation, android
Read time: 11 mins

The Guide to Mobile App Design: Best Practices for 2018 and Beyond

So what exactly can be considered as “good experience”? Let’s explore the six fundamentals of mobile app design.

Topics:mobile, app, design
Read time: 6 mins

How to Create Influencer Roundups: Tips and Tools for Bloggers

n this article, you’ll discover a four-step plan to create effective influencer roundups.

Topics:outreach, content, blogging, influence
Read time: 7 mins

The Role Of Storyboarding In UX Design

In order to create better products, designers must understand what’s going on in the user’s world and understand how their products can make the user’s life better. And that’s where storyboards come in.

Topics:ux, research, storyboard
Read time: 11 mins

Best Tools for Web Designers to Use in 2018

The design world moves fast and there’s always new tools coming out. To stay ahead of the game requires an ear to the ground at all times.

Topics:tools, ux, ui
Read time: 7 mins

Looking to Horizon: Why We Built A Design System

Feather’s mission was to provide consistent and thoughtful experiences at scale. As the number of Feather’s components, patterns, and internal customers grew, this once-Hackathon passion project evolved into a well-supported team.

Topics:design system, twitter
Read time: 3 mins

Jobs-to-Be-Done in Your UX Toolbox

People want a quarter-inch hole, not a quarter inch drill

Topics:jtbd
Read time: 12 mins

Motion design for the web, iOS & Android with Haiku

JTBD provides a different way to think about solutions that compete for the same job:

Topics: android, animation
Read time: 3 mins

Lottie without After Effects

We designed Haiku from the ground up for animating UI components. Like Sketch, it is a simple tool with a specific purpose, and like AE, it is compatible with Lottie.

Topics: animation
Read time: 3 mins

I don’t care if you love red: how to work with your UX team, not against them

As a designer, I’m passionate about creating the right user experience. A great product should take you on a journey. It should feel seamless, clear, and fun.

Topics: ux, research, product
Read time: 7 mins

Team Alignment Map

An agile template to boost alignment in cross-functional teams: concrete discussions that bring concrete results.

Topics: collaboration, tool
Read time: 1 mins

8 Customer Discovery Questions to Validate Product Market Fit for Your Startup

During a typical diligence process, we will interview customers and might ask them questions like these…

Topics:product market fit, validation
Read time: 1 mins

Where Do We Put The UX Tasks?

I’ve seen teams try these three options to remedy the situation

Topics: ux, agile development
Read time: 3 mins

Where should designers sit? Making cross-functional design teams work

Traditionally design teams have been centralized, such that all designers worked on the same team and would take on projects together.

Topics: design, cross-functional, teams
Read time: 5 mins

Why Design Systems Fail

I’d like to go over a few considerations to ensure design system success and what could hinder that success.

Topics: design system
Read time: 10 mins

Published by

Max Stanworth

I am the creator and editor of Design Shard, I created this blog to post my inspirations, work and free resources. I hope you find them as interesting and useful as I do. By day I am a UX focused product designer.