Chris Wood @chriswood@mastodon.design

Hello! I'm Chris.

I'm a UX designer who works with local and central government in the UK.

I post links to articles about UX, UI and service design that I come across which I find interesting.

I'm interested in #opensource tech, #ethicaltech, and using design for positive change in the world.

#introduction

🙋‍♂️ I'm looking for a new UX Design or Product Design role!

If you or your team are looking for a UX designer who can do any of the following things, I'd love to hear from you:

* Wireframing and prototyping
* User research
* Usability testing
* UI design
* Facilitating workshops
* Front-end development

Here's my portfolio:
https://www.chris-wood.design/

And my LinkedIn profile:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-wood-ux-ui/

#getFediHired #lookingForWork #forHire #ux #uxdesign

"Corporate greenwashing is getting harder to spot—here’s how to do it" —Amanda Shendruk & Tim McDonnell

https://qz.com/2189654/what-greenwashing-means-and-how-to-spot-it/

The authors show us common tactics which companies use to appear greener than they actually are, and how to tell genuine efforts to reduce environmental impact from fake ones.

#greenwashing #environment

"Voice Control Usability Considerations For Partially Visually Hidden Link Names" —Eric Bailey

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2022/06/voice-control-usability-considerations-partially-visually-hidden-link-names/

* Making a digital experience work well for one type of disability in isolation can create barriers for people with other disabilities.

* Hidden "screenreader-only" text in links can make them harder to activate for people using voice control software.

* "Shift left" and design for accessibility needs early on.

#uxdesign #accessibility #a11y #ux #design

"The Funnel Technique in Qualitative User Research" —Maria Rosala and Kate Moran

https://www.nngroup.com/articles/the-funnel-technique-in-qualitative-user-research

When conducting user interviews and usability testing sessions, unsolicited feedback is more likely to be the participant’s true opinion.

Start with an exploratory question, probe for more info, then ask any closed questions at the end, to give participants the opportunity to express their views with minimal prompting first.

#uxdesign #uxresearch #userresearch #ux

"Where’s the button? Designing for mode confusion" —Kyle Lambert

https://www.imkylelambert.com/articles/designing-for-mode-confusion

Kyle, Senior Product Designer at Webflow, talks about:
* What a mode is in the context of an application
* Common problems users encounter with different modes
* How to design modes to minimise users' confusion, e.g. if they enter it by accident.

#uxdesign #productdesign #ux #design

"Choosing the right mindset to design complex applications" —Luis Berumen Castro

https://uxdesign.cc/choosing-the-right-mindset-to-design-complex-applications-122a671dfeff

Luis' article discusses:
* The difference between mindset, skills, attributes and thoughts
* How your mindset can help or hinder a complex application's sucess
* The importance of tackling problems as a team and enabling others to contribute.

#uxdesign #productdesign #design #ux

"How can you find time to design? —José Torre

https://uxdesign.cc/how-can-you-find-time-to-design-cc9a4e3a2b5d

José discusses the importance of making dedicated time in your calendar to focus on design work and practical ways to make it happen.

#uxdesign #design #timemanagement

"The UX of security questions" —Corbet Fawcett

https://uxdesign.cc/the-ux-of-security-questions-4edbbb687e83

A case study explaining what's wrong with the user experience of Toronto's public transport card security questions and how it could be improved.

#ux #uxdesign #security

Access Guide is a collection of principles for designing accessible interfaces, made by Alex Chen.

It's created as an introduction to meeting the WCAG 2.1 specifications.

Each principle contains tips on implementation and links to further reading.

https://www.accessguide.io/

#ux #ui #accessibility #uxdesign #uidesign #design #wcag #accessibledesign

CocoMaterial is an open-source library of hand-drawn illustrations by Esther Moreno from Kaleidos. It has around 2000 graphics to date.

https://cocomaterial.com/

They even provide their graphics as a Penpot library, ready to drag and drop into design projects built with Penpot's open-source design tool.

https://penpot.app/libraries-templates.html

#ui #ux #uidesign #uxdesign #design #penpot #illustrations #opensource #opensourcedesign

"The Component Gallery"
— Iain Bean.
https://component.gallery/

The Component Gallery is a huge collection of 50+ components, with links to how 100+ different design systems implement them.

It's designed as a reference for anyone who builds component-based interfaces.

#ui #ux #design #uidesign #uxdesign #design #components #designsystems

"The Surprising Truth About Pixels and Accessibility"
— Josh W Comeau
https://www.joshwcomeau.com/css/surprising-truth-about-pixels-and-accessibility/

This article discusses the different types of units commonly used for typography, spacing and media queries on the web. It details:

• The difference between rem, em and px
• When to use each of these 3 units in design and front-end development
• Code snippets and interactive demos

#frontend #dev #development #webdev #uidesign #ui #accessibility #wcag

"Working from home: forming new behaviours for the future" —Naomi Grant

https://medium.com/graphic-design-to-ux/working-from-home-forming-new-behaviours-for-the-future-932ee4c1c63d

A diary study which monitored 6 people's routines when working from home during the pandemic and what the researcher learned from their behaviours.

#userresearch #research #uxresearch #psychology

"Readability: The Optimal Line Length" —Baymard Institute

https://baymard.com/blog/line-length-readability

This article from Baymard Institute discusses:

• Why 50 - 75 characters per line is the optimal length
• How the length of the lines in a block of text impacts users
• Research insights from their own usability testing

#uxdesign #productdesign #design #ui #ux #uidesign #accessibility #contentdesign

The 2021 Design Tools Survey shows:
- How UX Designers are using digital tools across the globe to do their work
- Which tools UX Designers use for which areas of work
- How they rate them

https://uxtools.co/survey-2021/

#uxdesign #ux