Amy McClure

In my latest podcast interview, Greg Petroff shares insights about the state of design and the opportunities open to designers in these dynamic times. Check it out! https://lnkd.in/gTXpQgjn #UxDesign #Ux #Design #Leadership

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UX leaders: Better understand what motivates designers and how you can help them thrive by taking 3 minutes to read this excerpt from Scott Berkun’s new book “Why Design Is Hard”: https://lnkd.in/ev6XyMss

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❓ I have a question for product designers ❓ How do you understand that you’ve reached a certain grade or level in your career, such as transitioning to a senior role? Do you rely solely on performance reviews, or are there other ways you evaluate your growth? And what if there’s no formal performance review process? I’m asking because I often get questions about assessing one’s grade or level. So, I’m curious — do you have a similar need or interest in this topic? Let me know your thoughts!

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The Jobs to Be Done framework is crucial for product designers, especially as the line between product managers and designers continues to blur. This article can revolutionize how we approach problem discovery and opportunity identification, offering deeper insights during the design phase. It's a must-read for anyone looking to elevate their design process and deliver exceptional results.

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Join me and my guest, Sarah Doody, for Episode 137 of the #DesignThinking 101 #Podcast: Designing Your Career + UX for Small Business. Listen to it here: https://bit.ly/45lUCgN #CareerPlanning #UX #UserExperience

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Here's a slide from my October 2024 talk about triaging UX, showing a word cloud of several things we can do to help drive the discipline forward. Which ones stand out to you? #ux #realuxtalk #uxtriage

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Let’s be real: The "DIY, throw it up there, and hope for the best" approach is not cutting it. Design requires intention, strategy, and an understanding of user behavior to make a real impact. 3tone Approach: We regularly conduct usability testing throughout our design process. This helps identify pain points, allowing us to make informed adjustments based on data that will improve user experience. #websitedesign #figmadesigner

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Designers neglecting cultural sensitivity risk isolating users. Discover how Latina leaders are breaking barriers to create inclusive, meaningful user experiences and learn from their breakthrough strategies. #ux #ui #designthinking #productdesign

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"UX is the Business." Some great thoughts by Troy Parke about his lens on UX and connecting it to the bottom line. This is an interesting read in a time when UX must show business value. https://lnkd.in/g5ec5qUS

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Wow, it is nice to see some of the impact the course I authored with Designlab is having on teams both big and small. Emilyann Gachko thank you for sharing this case study and how it was received by the team at The Home Depot :) If you are interested in increasing your design skills through #usability and #accessibility check out the course. #ux #design #hcd https://lnkd.in/gEdC3NBV

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“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou This truth is especially powerful in product and UX/UI design. While creating a beautiful, user-friendly application might seem straightforward—I've had the privilege of doing it for nearly two decades—the real impact lies in the emotions we evoke. It’s those feelings that turn one-time users into loyal advocates. If you’re curious about how emotions shape user experiences or want to know more about neurodesign, check out this article and others written by @jashsak https://lnkd.in/gtj5JpD6

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Most designers are trained to present work to our peers, but as your career matures, your audience expands to include many other departments who don’t speak “design”. This article resonated with me and offers some sage advice about the use of storytelling and a “business lens” to craft more compelling presentations. #ProductDesign #Storytelling #UserResearch #BusinessObjectives

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I just read Longing for Less: Living with Minimalism by Kyle Chayka, and it got me thinking about the power of minimalism—not just in art and architecture that you hear so much about, but in how we experience the world. Chayka's core message is that minimalism isn't just about reducing clutter—it's about creating space for clarity, intentionality, and deeper meaning... principles that really resonate with me and the UX design discipline. Here are some thoughts looking at Minimalism through the lens of user experience design: https://lnkd.in/gnmJGfyM

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Interesting article from the Shutterstock blog on the topic of color accessibility. Helpful reminders abound. https://lnkd.in/evC2SfhH #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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If we're not talking about design maturity, agile process, or craft, then us designers are probably talking about ✨quality.✨ I certainly see my interviewer's eyes light up when I mention this magical word. "Design is the one that has to hold the quality bar," I tell them. But what if that didn't have to be true? For a truly high-quality product, I don't think it should be design holding the line. It has to be something baked into the organization - everyone holds the quality bar. Even though "quality" is a slippery thing to define, if we can define it and hold ourselves to it, we can reduce the tension in the org and start to think less about the mere baseline quality for the product and more about raising that bar - delighting the user. I very much enjoyed Luke Anthony Firth's take on how they folded quality into their product building process. Have a read! https://lnkd.in/g4SenmYZ #designleadership #productprocess #productdesign #productquality #designquality #opentowork

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If your org can't muster the empathy just yet for accessibility work, maybe they'll listen to dollars. Here's a cost-benefit analysis from Deque Systems, Inc of baking accessibility work into the beginning of the project, known as shifting left, instead of saving all of the accessibility work for QA or even later.

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Design Leaders - do you have an Operating Plan? If so, do you use it to articulate how teams are working? Or do you use it as a diagnostic to identify areas to start/stop/continue working in certain ways? Have you created a version that you update as you learn, focusing on a future state? I find Design Leadership Operating Plans to be most useful for teams when they're aligned to the key principles of org design: Systems, Strategy, Groups, and Links, and utilized when moving from strategy to planning (and back) and visualizing staffing + capabilities. Yet many leaders either don't have one, have one that they started to use but stopped, or haven't quite landed on something that accurately reflects their company/org/team. This is an area I've spent a lot of time on in my in-house and advisory roles. Last month, I spoke about it at DMI Design Management Institute's Design Leadership Conference in Cambridge, and next month, I'll share more at Product Design Week in London. If you're interested in learning more, my cohort-based course Design Leadership at Scale: Operations covers this topic in depth, along with building and activating high-impact teams and identifying and addressing common team challenges. There are a few spots remaining for my Q4 cohort. Apply now: https://lnkd.in/g77qEbTJ #dls #designleadership #designops

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The Non-Designer's Design Toolkit 👨‍💻 (or “just my observations”) I'm sure many of you have faced (and continue to face) the challenge of differing 🤦‍♂️ design visions between marketers and designers. 🚨 Spoiler alert: this is perfectly normal and will likely never change entirely. As the digital space continues to evolve, the visual component becomes increasingly 🚀 essential, playing a significant role and growing impact on network users. This makes it crucial for marketers to possess some design sensibilities and vice versa for designers to understand marketing goals. After all, the key task for both, in the context of business objectives, is to achieve the desired outcome from potential users 😎. But what if you're a marketer without a dedicated designer on your team❓ By understanding the task at hand and your target audience and equipping yourself with the right tools, you can effectively solve this problem. ⬇ Here's my go-to toolbox as a marketer for creating impactful "non-designer designs": ❇ Creative Idea Don't underestimate the importance of a clear concept! Great design starts with a well-defined idea, like legendary songs written on budget guitars. ❇ Canva This user-friendly platform offers a wealth of templates and features for crafting banners, social media posts, presentations, and more – all in a snap. ❇ Behance Get inspired by browsing stunning design projects from top creators. ❇ Unsplash & Pexels High-quality stock photos and images at your fingertips, perfect for adding visual punch to your designs. ❇ Flaticon Your one-stop shop for discovering and customizing icons to elevate your visuals. ❇ Figma The industry standard for design, Figma offers powerful yet intuitive tools (though some design knowledge might be helpful here). ❇ Color Hunt Feeling color-challenged? Color Hunt provides beautiful color palettes and combinations to take the guesswork out of design. There you have it 🔥 With these tools and a little creativity, you can conquer the "non-designer design" world 🙃. So, what are your favorite tools for creating impactful visuals without design knowledge? Share them in the comments below (if u want 😈 ) #design #marketing #toolkit #tools

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Why it brings so much joy to see big guys fall? "Companies looking for help making their websites WCAG compliant must be able to trust that products do what they are advertised to do,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Overstating a product’s AI or other capabilities without adequate evidence is deceptive, and the FTC will act to stop it.” How many "accessibility companies" deceive their trusting clients with what they can actually do just to get a brief revenue? Real and trustable accessibility companies are powered by real people, passionate about what they do. Accessibility can be subjective, and the more you learn the more you realize (as everything else in life) that it's meanly made of grey areas rather than black and white certainties. Which is why it is impossible to replace humans with any overlay, bot or AI. In your face, AccessiBe!

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