About
Design, creativity, technology, etc.
8 min readApr 19, 2020
This is the blog of Joanna Ngai. I frequently write about design, creativity, technology, and share anything that I believe might be of interest for others. You can always read the latest here.
If you’re feeling generous, buy me a coffee 🍵
Books
- UX for Beginners
- Understanding Design Thinking
- 7 Behaviors that Kill Good Teams
- A Designer’s Guide to Enterprise UX
- Upgrading your Design Portfolio
- Design Questions: 75+ questions to help you combat your own biases
- Good Design: Principles, ethics and how to approach the design process
Want to learn more? Get 3 months free on UX courses or book a career call.
Latest
- How to Design Post-Pandemic Work
- 5 Books to Help Designers to Think Differently
- Please Create a New Password
- Timesaving Resources to Improve Your Design Workflow
- 5 Books on Design Classics
- 5 Effective Presentation Tips from a Toddler
- Dabbling with DALL·E
- 7 Books to Ponder Design Futures
- An Open Letter to Whoever is Removing Headphone Jacks
- Feelings
- Daily UX Inspiration (Part 7)
- This is a Standard Identity Verification Process
- Summer Thoughts
Popular
- Top Three UX Mobile Design Trends
- The Best UX Design Tools in 2019
- What UX Designers Can Learn from Psychology
- Ultimate Resource List for Mobile UX Design
- Should UX Designers Join the Dark Side?
- Top 5 Graphic Design Trends in 2018
- Designing with Data
Notable
- 7 Books Every UX Designer Should Read
- 5 Practices to Enhance your UX Design Process
- How to Level Up Your Design Skills
- Diversity and Design
- Tech needs a conscience
- 7 deadly sins for teams
- Designer Cheat Sheet
3D
- A Beginner’s Guide to Pixel/Voxel Art
- The Ultimate Guide to Learning 3D
- 15 Best Tools for 3D Modeling Software
Getting started with UX
- How to Prepare for a UX Design Interview
- How to Get Your First UX Design Job (And What to do Next)
- How to Get Started with UX (Part 1)
- How to Get Started with UX (Part 2)
- 5 Common Mistakes Designers Make (Part 1)
- 5 Common Mistakes Designers Make (Part 2)
UX
- Design Fictions
- On Brand Quality
- Listen, Simplify, Edit
- Intro to Accessibility
- Design That Empowers
- What Design Has Taught Me About Life
- Why Consistency is Underrated
- On Design Simplicity
- How to Ask Better Questions
- Putting accessibility in perspective
- 3 UX Strategies for Enhancing Product Design
- 5 Best Practices for User Onboarding
- Top 5 Design Mistakes in Enterprise UX
- A UX Guide to Upselling and Cross-selling
- Icon Design Tips | Mobile App UX
- Three Lessons for Design-Driven Success
- Why UX Matters
- Transforming Users into Fans
- Essential Lessons on UX
Career
- Career Stages
- 7 Takeaways, 7 Years
- Constraints and Choices
- Weighing Career Decisions (in Tech)
- How to Navigate Your Career
- Q+A with a UX Designer
- Tips for Design Graduates
- A Question of Time
- 7 pitfalls that hold back UX designers
- Thoughts on a Creative Career
- Toward Lifelong Learning
- 50 ways not to get hired
- Don’t Follow Your Passion
- The Business Case for Gender Equality
- To Remove Barriers to Biased Performance Discussions, Ask “So What?”
- The Iceberg Model — Negotiations at Work
- How to Level Up your Career Development
- 10 Things I Learned From The Corporate World
Conferences
- Top Ten UX Design Conferences/Events
- Recap from Adobe MAX 2020
- Recap: Adobe MAX 2021 Keynote
- A Sneak Peek Behind Upcoming Tech at Adobe
- Voices From the Grace Hopper Celebration
- Things I learned from IXDA 2017
- How to Choose a UX Conference (That Fits You)
- How to Attend a Virtual Conference and Actually Enjoy it
Data
- Designing with Data
- 3 Tips for Better Dashboard Design
- UX for Complex Data Design
- 24 Data Viz Sites to Improve Your Next Data Design Project
- Design Tips for Awesome Charts
- On Data Literacy
Inspiration
- Daily UX Inspiration
- Daily UX Inspiration (Part 2)
- Daily UX Inspiration (Part 3)
- Daily UX Inspiration (Part 4)
- Daily UX Inspiration (Part 5)
- Daily UX Inspiration (Part 6)
- Daily UX Inspiration (Part 7)
Level Up Your Design Skills
- Part 1: UX Portfolio
- Part 2: Presenting Your Work
- Part 3: Re-framing Your Users
- Part 4: Foundations in Interface Animation
- Part 5: Brand Voice
- Part 6: Working Well With Others
- Part 7: How to get out of a creative rut
Book Lists
- Best Books for Mobile First Design
- Want to Dig into UX Research?
- 23 Best Books Every Designer Must Read
- 5 Books on Design Classics
- 5 Books for a Surprising View of the Internet
- 5 Books on Subtraction
- 5 Books to Grow Your Design Career
- 5 Books to Shape Your Design Career
- 5 Books for Nurturing New Ideas
- 5 Books Every Designer Should Read to Communicate Effectively
- 5 Principles of Successful Design Leaders
- 5 Books Every UX Designer Should Read
- 5 Books for Bringing Analytics into the UX Process
- 6 Books for a Better Digital Future
- 7 Books Every UX Designer Should Read
- 7 Books to Build Highly Creative Teams
- 7 Books on Logos and Visual Identity
- 7 Books to Improve Your Design Toolbox
- 7 Books for Designing with Data
- 7 Books for Justice in Theory and Practice
- 7 Books on Digital Minimalism
- 7 Books on Managing Change
- 7 Books to Ponder Design Futures
- 7 Books to Renew Your Design Inspiration
- 7 Books for Every Kind of Designer
- 5 Books to Help Designers to Think Differently
Learning
- Design Mentorship Programs
- How to Learn
- What UX Designers Can Learn from Psychology
- What UX Designers Can Learn From Video Games
- What UX Designers Can Learn From Storytelling
- What UX Designers Can Learn From Comics
- What UX Designers Can Learn From Architecture
- What UX Designers Can Learn From Filmmaking
- What UX Designers Can Learn From Behavioral Economics
Presentations
- Effective Design Presentation
- Giving Effective Presentations as a Designer
- 5 Effective Presentation Tips from a Toddler
Process
- Downgrading Tech, Upgrading Humanity
- 6 Barriers to Working in a Multi-disciplinary Team (and How to Address Them)
- The Trouble with Creativity
- On Design Critique
- 5 Concepts to Master Your Design Critique Process
- How to Overcome Creative Roadblocks
- 6 Practical Skills for UX Designers
- 7 Tips to Improve Your UX Strategy
- 7 More Tips to Improve Your UX Strategy
- On Cultivating Creativity
- 7 Things Nobody Tells You About Being Creative
- The Secrets of Effective Design Teamwork
Productivity
- Timesaving Resources to Improve Your Design Workflow
- 50 Simple Ideas for Productivity, Better Habits and Creativity
- The Time-Pressure Paradox
- Challenging Creativity
- Productivity & Creativity
- 5 Productivity Tips for UX Designers
- 10 Hacks for Successful Time Management
- Beyond Paper and Pen: Top Note-taking Apps
Product Reviews
- Review: Figma vs. Adobe XD
- Review: Clubhouse vs. Discord
- Review: Instagram Reels vs. TikTok
- Dabbling with DALL·E
Research
- 10 Takeaways from Jan Chipchase’s Sensemaking For Impact Masterclass
- 13 Helpful UX Research Tools
- 12 Tools to Make Remote UX Research Less Painful
- 5 Habits to Improve UX Research
- UX Research Guide [For Beginners]
- Why Make a Customer Journey Map?
- How to build research from the ground up, research ethics, and more
Tools
- Startup Toolkit Resources
- 10 Development and Design Tools
- 12 Future of Design Tools (Part 1)
- 10 Future of Design Tools (Part 2)
- 8 (Free/Paid) Design Portfolio Website Builders
- How to Get Paid as an Artist
- The Short Guide to Generative Art & Creative Coding
- 7 COVID-19 resources for designers
- Top Mobile Prototyping Tools
- The Best UX Design Tools in 2019
- Designer’s Guide to Prototyping [2018 edition]
- Designer’s Guide to Prototyping [2017 edition]
- Designer’s Guide to Prototyping [2016 edition]
- Fast, Good and Cheap (Design Tools)
- Top 5 Design Collaboration Tools
- Best of: Design Toolkit Links
- 24 Best UX Links to Learn Design
- Best of UX Links of 2016
- Tools to Enhance Product Team Collaboration
- Ultimate resource list for mobile design
Trends
- 4 Web Design Trends in 2020
- Top 5 Web Design Trends in 2018
- Top 5 Graphic Design Trends in 2018
- Top Three UX Mobile Design Trends
- 3 Insights Shaping Technology Trends in 2018
Work From Home
- This is an Out of Office Message During the Pandemic
- How to Improve Focus (While Working Remotely)
- 7 Ways to Be Insufferable in Your Next Remote Meeting
- 5 Tech Predictions for 2021
- 5 Sitting Postures (While Working From Home)
- The Original WFH Personality Test
- Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream Flavors [Quarantine Edition]
- 5 Tips for Coping with Stress [Pet Dog Edition]
Humor
- Please Create a New Password
- Feelings
- This is a Standard Identity Verification Process
- Summer Thoughts
- Eating Habits of CEOs
- Ways to Get to Inbox Zero
- How to Name a Startup
- 5 Tech Predictions for 2022
- The Original Heat Wave Animal Test
- 10 Ways to Make a Terrible First Impression
- How Life During the Pandemic is Like Being an Astronaut
- Pre/Post Pandemic Phrases
- Security Check Required
- This is a Company Memo
- This is an Automatic Reply Message
- New Workplace Emojis
- Designer Problems Bingo
- UX Research Problems Bingo
- A recruiter sent you a new message
- This is a Message You May Have Seen Recently
- Why Documentation is Unpopular
- How to Master Newsletter Signups
- This is a Website You May Have Visited Recently
- 5 Practical Books for UX in 2020
- 7 Types of Awkward LinkedIn Posts
- This is an Email You May Have Received Recently
- If People Talked To Other Professionals The Way They Talk To Designers
- This is a Job Posting Targeted At Young Designers
- 10 Tech Buzzwords Explained
- Corporate Buzzwords Explained
- 6 Phases of a Meeting With Too Many People
- What to Wear When You Work in Tech
- Designer Problems
- Startup Cheat Sheet
- Program Manager Cheat Sheet
- Designer Cheat Sheet
- Designer Cheat Sheet — Part 2
- Business Cheat Sheet
- Meeting Cheat Sheet
- Design Client Cheat Sheet
- Customer Feedback Cheatsheet
Humor / Inventions
- 5 More Inventions Which May or May Not Improve Your Life
- 7 Unnecessary Inventions Which May Make Your Life Easier
- Work-Related Inventions Which May or May Not Improve Your Life
- 5 Top Stories on Innovations in the Tech World
- 5 Top Stories on Innovations in the Tech World (Part 2)
- 5 Top Stories on Innovations in the Tech World (Part 3)
- 5 Top Stories on Innovations in the Tech World (Part 4)
- 5 Top Stories on Innovations in the Tech World (Part 5)
Art ❤ Code
- Adding Serendipity for Creativity
- Building Furniture and (Not Boring) Apps
- Building Tiny Internet Projects
- Making ‘Dumb-smart’ Things
- Merging Technology and Design to Create Interactive Environments
- Next Generation Tools for Musicians and Listening Experiences
- Building Software That Puts Ethics and Accessibility First
- Mixing Design and Programming for Interactive Digital Art
- Creating Beautiful Vector Art with Code and Drawing Robots
Q&A with Female Founders
- Meet Stephanie Hulbert, Co-Founder at Bionomial
- Meet Alanna Beebe, Founder of Sproutable
- Meet Anna Rosling Rönnlund, Co-founder of Gapminder Foundation
- Meet Sarah Duenwald and Nancy Jensen, Co-Founders of The Swing Shift
- Meet Amy Hutchins, Co-founder of Unearth
- Meet Mina Yoo, Founder of Heroclip
- Meet Jennifer Prendki, Founder of Alectio
- Meet Allison Esposito, Founder of Tech Ladies
- Meet Sheila Mikhail, Co-founder of AskBio
- Meet Leen Kawas, Founder of Athira Pharma
- Meet Aline Lerner, Co-founder of Interviewing.io
- Meet Richa Prasad, Co-founder of Coach Viva
- Meet Anne Devereux-Mills, Founder of Parlay House
- Meet Melissa Lehman, Co-founder of Pogo
- Meet Danna Redmond, Co-founder of HeyThrivy
- Meet Natali Tshuva, Founder of DoMed
- Meet Laura Troyani, Founder of PlanBeyond
Future
- The Beginner’s Guide to Understanding Artificial Intelligence
- Tech needs a conscience
- Tech’s Ethical Dilemma
- The Future of UX Design
- Will Design Be Automated?
