Tag: UX

  • Digital Dadaism

    Dada: a movement in art and literature based on deliberate irrationality and negation of traditional artistic values Merriam Webster Key dates: 1916-1924 Key regions: Switzerland, Paris, New York Keywords: Chance, luck, nonsense, anti-art, readymade Key artists: Hugo Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Hans (Jean) Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Hannah Höch, Man Ray, Francois Picabia Key characteristics: Humoristic, tending towards the absurd, satirical attitude towards authority…

  • Adoption Marketing

    Adoption Marketing is a concept I have been working on for over 10 years, but for some reason never blogged about it. Warning: This is a long post because it’s a big topic. Sorry. Adoption Marketing is the effort to influence existing users to adopt the new features you design and develop. Glen Background At…

  • Interactive Tree Component in Figma

    Figma (much to my sadness) has no built in UI components like a tree or a table. These are UI elements I use every day. So I have been experimenting with how to make these in the most efficient manner using auto-layout, and interactive components. . I just published my interactive tree component to the…

  • Designers: Master your tools

    I’ve been speaking with many junior designers trying to hire someone. One question I ask them is how good they are at their design tool. (Figma, Adobe XD, etc) The answer I have been getting is about 7/10. This is really shocking to me, especially considering they are graduating from prestigious design colleges. What are…

  • How to Speak in Metaphor

    One thing people who know me say is that I use more metaphors than the average person. It has become the way I speak, especially at work. Someone recently asked me how that works and how the metaphors come to me. The technique starts with an understanding of how your mind works. Based on several…

  • Rules for a Good Figma Design System

    The Design System or Library in Figma is a critical tool in scaling your operation beyond a single designer and project. Like everything, it can be done well or poorly. It’s all about the details. My best version of this was at Treasure Data where it was the backbone of all designs. Tiffany Trinh led…

  • Applicant Tracking Systems

    I’ve used three systems (that I can remember) for applicant tracking. This is a brief summary of each. Lever.co I used Lever at two different companies. It was not a perfect system, but after using others, I think it’s the best I have experienced. My summary: The chrome extension for LinkedIn is actually very useful.…

  • Product Prioritization Framework

    Often an organization argues about what the feature priorities should be. There is a simple framework that you can use to sort features in a backlog. This works best when you have a large backlog of features and limited engineering bandwidth. (So basically everyone) Backlog items A backlog item is usually a story or epic…

  • Drag and Drop Order UX Pattern

    This has been covered pretty extensively, but I often find myself wanting to have some stuff compiled for easy access. Drag and drop patterns are different depending on what you are doing, but I generally put them into two camps. Grid drag-drop The two most obvious examples are a spreadsheet and a Tree. GMail uses…

  • Restaurant Marketing

    Marketing should not include shenanigans. Marketing should give you value, not trick you. When you read this promotion, it makes you think “Oh good, half off my order!” No, read the last part. It’s only up to $10. Keep in mind that Doordash is not free. It costs alot to have it delivered. So this…

  • The Logic of Differentiation

    I’ve covered differentiation in detail before. There is one thing about it that I didn’t cover. I talk to design candidates about this all of the time. Premise: 100 people are looking at your product or site or portfolio. Case 1: It’s the same If everything you have is the same as the competition, then…

  • Hiring: Junior Designer 2021

    Over the years, I have had excellent luck hiring people right out of school and training them to design with my approach. With this in mind, I have a new job opening for a Junior Designer. Referral Fee: If you introduce me to someone who we hire, I will send you a $500 gift card…

  • Keeping in Touch

    I’ve been talking with a few people about the concept of keeping in touch. Like most things, it gets more interesting the more you look at it. Keeping in Touch means meeting over video, phone, or in person at least once per year. Glen’s arbitrary definition There are multiple categories, I think. Personal, Professional, and…

  • Windows and MacOS

    After three years of using MacOS, I have finally switched back to Windows. There are things I remember fondly and there are other things I feel Windows has not kept up. My laptop is a brand new Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360. It’s very lightweight and powerful with a beautiful screen. It supports tablet mode,…