In the early phases of a project a spreadsheet can be a more useful design tool than Figma. — If you’re redesigning an existing website there are huge benefits in getting to know the content you’ll be working with. The earlier in the project the better. A little upfront investigation will help you make informed design decisions. A spreadsheet is an ideal tool to quickly see what content you’ll…

Achieving quick win after quick win. What’s not to get excited about? The paradox of digital teams relentlessly chasing quick wins is that it is likely to be slowing down the growth of your business. At this time of year in the UK the fruit trees are laden with the…

My inbox is full of meaningless metrics. Grammarly insights proudly tells me ‘You’re building quite the voluminous vocabulary. You used more unique words than 95% of Grammarly users.’ LinkedIn tricks me to click by letting me know ‘You’re getting noticed. You appeared in NNN searches this week.’ Strava tells me…

Desk research is a key way to get to know a client and what’s happening in their world. Search engines provide a series of useful, if somewhat hidden, shortcuts that help you to get more effective results. Here’s a round-up of the seven search tips covered in the video…

Successful and sustainable digital products come from a blend of innovation and iteration. Yet most design teams and their digital product roadmaps are out of balance. Start-ups over-index on big and new ideas at the cost of accumulating design and technical debt. Established organisations play it safe tending to focus…

It’s 7pm in the UK. I started my day talking to someone in Tokyo, before moving to Manchester, and I’ve just finished up in San Francisco. Eighteen timezones. 14,645km (give or take). And no jetlag. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been globetrotting to carry out research as part of…

Starting a project with a new client is both exciting and daunting, especially in a sector you haven’t much experience of. I’d like to share my client immersion checklist. It’s what I use at the outset of a project to help make the unfamiliar more familiar. One of the joys…

Just because your training budget has stopped doesn’t mean your training should. Instead of making cuts to staff training, I want to suggest some alternative and cost-effective ways to achieve similar results. In times of economic uncertainty, one of the first things to get cut and last to get reinstated is the training budget. Upskilling staff is often perceived as an unjustifiable expense. A luxury, an extra, a perk only to be rolled out during the good times. …

I find training people in UX, research and digital design skills both a rewarding and fascinating part of my role at Clearleft. Over the years I’ve done a fair amount of remote training sessions. However, my preference has always been for delivering in-person classroom-based training. Well, times have changed. …