Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.

“Growth hacks or so-called psychology tricks have a negative reputation. and it’s not a surprise. Think about the last time you stumbled upon such a “smart” hack — maybe when you were trying to unsubscribe from newsletters you didn’t mean to sign up for, or when booking a low-cost flight became complicated due to numerous upsells.

Engagement and retention growth projects can include creating obstacles to cancel subscriptions or opt out of emails, and excessive emailing to bring users back to the product. Is it bad by default, or can it be justified?”

Can growth design be truly ethical? →By Mary Borysova

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Editor picks

• Why are UX professionals on social media thieves of joy? →
  No need to be a party pooper 24/7.
  By Rubens Cantuni
• Human vs. Machine →
  Framing the right problems for AI to solve.
  By Elaine Lu
• Bionic dreams and bureaucratic nightmares →
  Fixing healthcare for people with limb differences.
  By Stacy Ledesma Whitenight

The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about their work.

Artistic Intelligence: translating complex concepts into visual languages →

Make me think

• The aura of care in UX →
  “If we look at industry-wide examples we can see how intrinsic care replaced with business incentives leads to low-quality black-and-white photocopies of the original ideas. Everything becomes optimised to meet business requirements and any surviving sense of care that remains is there by chance.”
• Execution beats strategy every time →
  “Of course, a good strategy is important. There’s no point in executing on a bad strategy. But by focusing on execution, we can iterate toward the strategy that wins for our customers today, even as the world changes.”
• 90% of designers are unhirable? →
  “A shallow portfolio with cookie-cutter case studies may get you a job in UX. But it’ll most likely be a job with a design-immature company that doesn’t fully understand design. You get stuck doing boring design work and your career stalls because the quality of your work never increases so you don’t have anything better to put in your portfolio. You get trapped in a loop.”

Little gems this week

Steering the future: a new vision for car UX →By Adrià Verdaguer

How IKEA adapted its design to China →By Marcus Fleckner

Remembering Daniel Kahneman in our UX practice →
By Darren Yeo

Tools and resources

• Single dimension scale in Figma →
  Using a single dimension for all numbers in your UI.
  By Arpit Gupta
• Can’t speak to your users? →
  Here’s what you can try.
  By Tiina Golub
• Operationalizing product discovery →
  A field guide.
  By Luke Anthony Firth

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Unethical growth, bionic dreams, single dimension scale in Figma was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.