Just in a workshop discussing the pros and cons of using the GOV Prototype Kit over something like Figma. Here’s the advantages: 1. Once you know the basics, you can build and iterate much quicker than in Figma - especially for complex journeys.

I asked ChatGPT “How do you add hint text to radio buttons?" It suggested: “If you want the hint to appear when the user hovers on the radio button, use a tooltip for a cleaner design” Let’s break this down: → ‘If you want’ Design is not about what you want. It’s about what users need.

Enterprise products are often prone to spinnageddon. This is where each component “loads itself” async with a spinner. This is a slow, inaccessible experience that's totally unnecessary. Instead, render on the server. You’ll get the standard, accessible, browser loading indicator for free.

Over 1,500 UI/UX designers have watched the Good Design Crash Course. In the course, I explain what design actually is (hint: it’s not just about aesthetics). And I reveal the 4 principles I use every day as a designer to make sure that what I design is actually good. That is:

Yesterday, I ran a live design feedback session for my Form Design Mastery members. First thing I did – on camera remember – was take a sip of water. But I missed my mouth and it spilt all down my grey t-shirt. I might do that again in future. It’s a great ice-breaker.

UI/UX designers and frontend devs — what’s your go-to input mask library?

Last week, designer Anthony Hobday noticed WhatsApp’s button is misaligned. You can see in the screenshot that there’s more margin above the button than below it - something most designers would say is sloppy. And perhaps it is.

Last Tuesday, my article about using “Your” and “My” in user interfaces went viral on Hacker News. Hacker News (if you don’t know) is a site where people discuss and upvote ideas in tech/design. The gist of my article was: ✅ Use “Your” when communicating to the user And:

Just read some good UX advice on LinkedIn: “It’s wrong to copy Amazon’s UX if you’re designing a council website” I agree that you shouldn’t copy Amazon if your context is different but on the flipside, I disagree with designers who say:

My article about “Your” vs “My” in user interfaces is trending on Hacker News. Should I brave the comments?

I’m working on a AI feature for an ‘enterprise’ grade case working system. We are considering using AI to determine the complexity of a case, so that users don't have to work it out themselves. This is a huge UX improvement that could cut individual workload down by hours every week.

Design tip: stop using jargon I used to think that using words like “cognitive load” made me sound smart. But a lot of people don’t know what it means. So when explaining your design to your teammates, use simpler and clearer descriptions like:

A couple of days ago I wrote about how the best modal is a page. Lots of designers agreed (surprisingly). But some got a bit upset by it. Thought I was rage baiting or something. The truth is that modals are much harder to use than a dedicated page.

Last week I read a post about what makes a successful product/UX team. I’ve worked in a few good teams over the years but the best team I worked with had 5 key qualities (that allowed us to deliver great products at pace consistently for years): ➡︎ 1. Leadership gets what “good” looks like.

UX tip: the best modal dialog is a page 1. Click link 2. Go to page 3. Confirm thing So why use a modal? I can only think of bad reasons like: ➡︎ 1. It’s quicker than a page refresh I’ve used pages for years, not seen one issue in research related to speed.

UX observation: I often see UI referring to the user’s stuff using “My”. For example, ‘My account’. This seems fine for a navigation menu, but it doesn’t make sense in other contexts, like in an email notification...

Did one today, hurt!

I hope/think this will be the case, but not without good design in the first place.

Yesterday, I shared my third law of form design: Users will make mistakes no matter how well your form is designed. It’s not that you shouldn’t do everything in your power to reduce errors...

“I like it, it looks nice” is not great user feedback. I mean it’s better than hearing “I hate it, it looks sh*t”. But it’s still not great. Users should really only notice something when it doesn’t work. Otherwise it should just work and get out the bloody way.

UI/UX designers: do you think you should update the button label to ‘Please wait’ when clicked? Some thoughts: 1. Is it accessible to update a button’s label when clicked? 2. Updating the button’s label can cause a layout shift

Me when a developer says: “yep, we can do that, no problem”

Last week I posted this UI/UX tip: Use sentence case over title case. One of the 59 comments read: “Oh. My. God. We went round and round about this at a previous job. My coworker put together a 25+ page PDF about the pros and cons of each.” Here’s the thing:

“It depends” – UI/UX designers I don’t disagree that some design decisions depend on the situation. But I often here designers spewing “It depends” in reference to things where it does not in the slightest bit depend. Here’s 7 examples: 1. Never disable the submit button

After 6 months of grind, Form Design Mastery 2.0 is finally available. What’s new? 1. Most lessons have been refined and improved (and some removed) 2. New lesson on three laws of form design 3. New deep dive on how to write labels

3 timeless design principles if you want to create products that users love:

I’ve watched 100s of usability tests. Here’s 3 ways to maximise the reliability of your findings: 1) Ask the participant about their current situation This eases the participant into the session and adds useful context to the next part...

UX tip: Use sentence case for button labels. Title case capitalises ever word: This Is Title Case. Sentence case capitalises the first word: This is sentence case. Use sentence case because it’s: → Friendlier → Easier to read → Easier to spot nouns Will pop a link below to read more about it.

Status: writing launch emails for Form Design Mastery 2.0 Long shot but feel free to send me any ideas.

Here’s the ASOS checkout flow. It uses accordions (which suck) but look at the second accordion. Well it’s not an accordion. It’s a drop down menu to change your country. I imagine it’s to save space. But what you gain in pixels (not much), you lose in usability.

Yesterday, Helen finished Form Design Mastery and sent this: “I was wondering if you have a certification credential I can add to my LinkedIn as I’d love to show off that I did your course!” “Bloody loved the course so thank you!”

Last week I gave UX feedback on 7 different form journeys. I noticed loads of interaction design issues but I focused on the labels.

UI/UX tip: make form labels make sense everywhere, not just in the form. Let me explain: Too often, designers write labels that only work when filling out the form for the first time (in the blank state). This leads to inconsistency, more work and a maintenance burden...

UI/UX designers: send me your form and I’ll crit your labels for FREE. How it works: 1. You post a screenshot of your form below as a comment 2. I reply with suggestions I’ll be using my 7 simple principles of how to write form labels! Let’s have some fun. Cheers, Adam

Pro design tip: Stop messing about Start nailing the basics

I’ve got 8 bonuses planned for the launch of Form Design Mastery 2.0. But I’ve just had an idea for a ninth: A ChatGPT/AI prompt to help you write error messages. Because every time I design a form flow, I always forget the error messages (which devs always ask for). Here’s what you provide:

UX observation: Relying on AJAX for your UI is often a route to bad UX Here’s why: 1. It’s not how the web works by default → This breaks convention and leads to:

UX = everything a user experiences when they try and do something UX designer = responsible for making sure the "UX" is good. Usually with an emphasis on the screens users interact with. UI = User interface made up of words and interactions laid out on a screen

I swear I have read an article about the problem with designing for expert users. Any ideas? Perhaps you know @joelanman.bsky.social @cjforms.bsky.social ?

Here’s a perfect example of bad UX... And guess what AI never stopped the designers from doing their thing... Of course, it’s Apple’s new liquid glass. They smashed it out of the park because: ✅ It’s new ✅ It’s unique ✅ It’s fancy That’s what design is all about right? Not really...

Hey designers, would you say you work well with you product manager? Many product teams have designers who are frustrated with their product manager. But they also have product managers who are frustrated with their designers. This is because:

Underrated UI/UX design tip: JURB = Just Use Radio Buttons Most designers don’t like radio buttons. They’ll often go for alternative patterns like toggle switches.

Most products make this fatal UX mistake... Yesterday, I get a message from my car insurance:

Designers: what do you do to to tell your BAs, PMs and devs how the UI works (without repeating yourself several times)?

Yesterday, a friend of mine sent me this form UI and said: “I have no idea what is wrong here with my usual strong password” Me neither. Here’s what you do: 1. Kill the password strength indicator 2. Simplify the password requirements 3. Write a clear error message Boring design → good design

Last week I ran a Form Design Mastery live call with the UX team at Multiverse. See the original design in the screenshot. Luckily Jamie’s redesign was excellent (don’t worry he killed the drop down). If you’d like to see Jamie’s excellent redesign I’ll pop a link below.

In today’s episode of #FixTheForms, @paulclarke.com gets riled about a mismatch between policy and interaction design on the local government website in his area Thread: there are (at least) 3 different ways to fix this. Coming up.

2 days ago I get this email from a new subscriber to my design newsletter: === Hey Adam, I appreciate the way you have welcomed me. This was refreshing and I can already see how good you are at storytelling.

I recently watched a usability test of navigating an enterprise system... Participant says: “I’m dyslexic and new to this system. Once I use it, I’ll get used to it.” As a UI/UX designer you could accept that. But you could just design it better, so users don’t have to get used to it.

I’m a UI/UX designer but I don’t create wireframes. For context, I mainly work on GOV services and products. I create HTML prototypes and paste/edit components directly from the Design System. 1. It’s faster for me 2. It’s more reliable in research 3. It’s better for developers to reference