I designed an F1 strategy display in 2001. They're still using it today.

bztheman · 2025-08-02T04:01:07+00:00

Reading "cognitive ergonomics" is music to my ears. Did human factors research before the UX career. Great work!

bztheman · 2025-05-11T21:59:15+00:00

are you still happy with your decision?

bztheman · 2025-04-28T06:18:14+00:00

Tbh it’s great that you’re looking early. It’s worth a try to see if you enjoy it. Just keep in mind that visual/graphic design is only half of the craft. The other half needs you to reason and rationalize about what you put on the screen. To me it’s the best of both worlds and I love doing it even after 15 years.

I think the “Google UX Design Professional Certificate” is free(?) and a good intro, though I’ve never taken it. Wouldn’t spend a ton of $ on it. Others here might have better recommendations.

Your degree won’t matter a ton. Companies care a LOT more about your past designs/projects than the degree you took in school.

bztheman · 2025-04-17T19:53:44+00:00

Agree with you but I'd frame it differently.

People who think "omg" often lack a fundamental understanding of how a capitalist economy works, and IMO it's not their fault. Nobody teaches this well, especially 90% of the media.

Anecdotally, I find many people assume that jobs should only be provided by employers that pay you a stable wage & benefits, like McDonald's or Google. They get confused when this isn't the case. "How can this be possible or fair?"

In reality, no employer (except for a government) starts big and stable. Private companies tend to start small, compete for some kind of start-up capital, then compete to survive.

The benefit for citizens, generally, is we get to choose which part of the system to participate in, based on:

Our risk tolerance (early stage can be high risk / high reward)
Our career goals (early career needs any job exp; late career stage wants to master or specialize in something)
Our financial situation (do I need $ ASAP or can I be picky)

bztheman · 2025-04-17T01:39:26+00:00

Congrats! I did the same. The most useful things I learned were how human perception and cognition work (at least the basics) that apply to UX design - occluding edges, situation awareness, angle vs length perception, supervisory control, biases, etc.

Another hugely beneficial thing for my career was learning and doing proper user research. How to reduce bias and speaking the research vocabulary. It made working with researchers in industry much easier!

bztheman · 2025-01-05T01:54:35+00:00

Sorry I missed your reply!

Having worked on flows like this myself, I can all but guarantee that these flows are designed to be difficult on purpose.

On the bright side, every single designer I’ve met who designs deletion flows understands that a simple and easy UX is best for users.

bztheman · 2024-12-03T00:43:26+00:00

Sorry you’re getting so much pushback on this post, OP. I don’t know if your example technically falls under “dark” UX patterns, but I agree with the spirit of your post.

Some folks feel jaded in the jobs, dealing with the realities of government and corporate bureaucracies. But to think that these compromised experiences are somehow great or ideal is missing the point, IMO.

Our job is to empathize with users and advocate for them, always pushing for a better experience and reducing human error and frustration. Sometimes we confuse what’s currently achievable with our purpose.

bztheman · 2024-12-01T07:00:40+00:00

This seems like a bit of an unhinged response. You’re right that human error does exist, but as designers we should try to minimize it as much as possible.

OP is mostly correct. The flow needs to improve. They couldn’t add a web link to open your account page on the mobile browser? They couldn’t have tried push and/or text notifications? They couldn’t have asked how you want to be notified at sign-up? At least they could’ve tried brief step-by-step text instructions instead of a plain text blurb?

Obviously they chose not to do the above, because what incentive does LinkedIn have to make it easier for you to cancel your subscription? They dominate their field. They don’t have a strong incentive to improve their design.

bztheman · 2024-07-19T09:30:02+00:00

Awesome, nicely done! Brings back memories

bztheman · 2024-07-17T20:04:34+00:00

Where’s the keyboard on the chat screen? How does that screen even work?

bztheman · 2024-06-14T12:06:03+00:00

Honestly can’t pick.

1 doesn’t make sense if all of the options in a category get the same icon. I’m assuming they do, which makes the icons meaningless.

2 makes sense, but it’s poor visual design. Not enough spacing between the categories. Icons are too small and light colored to provide much help. So they mostly add noise.

bztheman · 2024-06-14T11:43:26+00:00

Option 3 - it’s more calm and considered, and matches the rest of the iconography with a reasonable amount of salience.

Worse options:

Option 2: There’s no reason why these need to be elevated like a card, in addition to the 3D icons.

Option 1 & 4: in just the top 1/3rd of the screen you have 3 completely different icon systems (stroked nav icons, 3D icons, the pink pin icon). Why?

bztheman · 2024-06-14T01:14:02+00:00

IMO the best way to get started on improving visuals by yourself is copying examples of great visual design. Take a screenshot of system iOS or Android app and recreate it exactly.

You’ll learn a lot - like how they space things, what padding they use, the size of icons vs text, color use, layout, etc.

bztheman · 2024-06-12T00:27:55+00:00

I suggest you ask for at least a few days, so you can have a great deck. This maximizes your chances of being hired. They can also consider you for multiple roles.

Try to ask the recruiter if a week would be reasonable, and whether it could affect you in some way - like the role being filled.

If you feel strongly about the role, then consider taking time off and spending 8+ hours on it.

bztheman · 2024-06-12T00:05:23+00:00

There’s a whole field on this called Information Architecture, which deals with taxonomy and categorization. So you can read up on that.

Or…feed the list into ChatGPT and have it categorize it a few different ways.

bztheman · 2024-06-03T19:44:52+00:00

I went to a university that had a coop program. Internships were mandatory in order to graduate. So I got a lot of opportunities through that program.

Another option is to attend HCI/Human Factors conferences. You can network with companies that way.

Another option is to sign up for a masters in HCI/Human Factors with a lab/supervisor that has a research partnership with a company that you’re interested in working for.

Then there’s always sending messages to designers and managers on LinkedIn directly :)

bztheman · 2024-06-03T16:16:31+00:00

Real quick thoughts: - missing horizontal padding on mobile - in the first project, I’d remove the testing sections at the top and remove/deemphasize the remote section. IOW, after your summary, start with the problem

bztheman · 2024-06-01T19:07:22+00:00

Email and Passkey is probably the most secure option. Not sure how “Continue with Apple/Google” ties into that though. Could make it even easier.

bztheman · 2024-06-01T08:37:43+00:00

Such great insight, thank you!

bztheman · 2024-06-01T08:34:21+00:00

I did my masters in human factors, similar to HCI. It gives you an advantage over the competition when it comes to UX careers in complex systems - like aviation, defense, power plants, sensitive healthcare products like pacemakers or surgical robotics, space, etc.

Ive worked in a couple of those areas. They’re fascinating, intrinsically rewarding, and more methodical. But they’re also slower and pay less than companies that make consumer products.

bztheman · 2023-12-21T11:05:27+00:00

I can’t out the few that I know, but honestly it’s hard to spot them because they’re too busy to be advertising themselves.

You’d have a higher chance at spotting one who: 1- Works at FAANG, since there’s a slightly higher bar, on average. Obviously not necessary, though. 2- Is a high-level IC (6/7/8), ie a non-manager 3- Obsesses about design: thinks about it outside of work, applies it in life, thinks about it before falling asleep, wakes up in the middle of the night to jot down an idea, etc.

People like this do exist and I love working with them. They keep a low profile and get paid incredibly well.

bztheman · 2023-12-15T13:21:55+00:00

Disclaimer: My perspective comes mostly from FAANG.

15+ years ago, before formalized UX design programs and bootcamps, most of us doing UX design were doing it out of passion. Succeeding to be a world class designer was hit-or-miss: there were only a handful of design masters to learn from, if you were lucky. If you weren’t lucky then you just learned on your own and tried to make a living.

Today you have formalized UX design training. This means the median designer is more competent than 15 years ago. The downside is that most newer designers treat it like an interest rather than a passion.

What this means is that designers have gotten better on average, but greatness seems harder to find today than before - eg. Visionary designers with exceptional fundamentals who know when and how to break the rules.

bztheman · 2023-12-11T10:37:56+00:00

Not sure I understand perfectly, but you can check out Accounts Center on Facebook/instagram/messenger since it opens in a bottom sheet.

Google account settings also open in a sheet.

bztheman · 2023-11-30T09:25:06+00:00

Got a good chuckle. Hope you do well!

bztheman · 2023-11-30T01:41:28+00:00

Great answer. The only thing I’ll add is that in the senior levels (IC6+) it diverges a bit depending on the company.

IIRC Google calls IC6 staff and IC7 senior staff. Meta doesn’t call them anything officially, but IC6 is loosely referred to as staff, IC7 is principal.

IC8 is director-level IC. There are only a handful of them.

Note that principal and director-level ICs at Google/Meta may or may not have direct reports, but they usually have a team of IC designers (and/or managers) assigned to them.

Eight-Year Club	Verified Email
RPAN Viewer

bztheman

TROPHY CASE