Manel Costa’s Post

To all designers in my network, how will you perceive a company if they offer a paid task as a first round (i.e. post CV, Portfolio shortlisting)? Given the shady hiring practices especially in the design domain, there's a big trust deficit nowadays. And thus, if a company is open to compensate for the efforts, I do think this is definitely a green flag. And thus it was a bit surprising to see Designers finding this as a scam. Context: Check this Reddit post https://lnkd.in/gt5r-VV4

For sure a relatable read. I definitely see the process of having structured tasks still being at the forefront of design. Not necessarily anything wrong with this if this is your process, but the grasp of holding on to just this process has hindered the design world to be relevant. "..driven by a desire from businesses to turn design into a process-heavy, measurable function, we’re filling our time with checklists instead of focusing on the very thing that makes designers relevant: our ability to propose new points of view and delight users with meaningful experiences". My Independent Study at Parsons Executive Education explores the structure of where ideas come from within companies. Yes ideas can from anywhere, but we have to ask who is executing them, for what purpose, and what are the core competencies for execution; this in itself may be one of the most challenging dichotomies to progress and innovation.

Question for all fellow Designers!! How do you seek feedback on your work on a professional level? Apart from obvious friends, family, and co-workers. Help fellow designers seek honest and unbiased feedback. Help them grow. #productdesign #designcommunity #feedbackmatters #learningandgrowing #learndesign

I've always been against design challenges for this exact reason.

🚧 "Who are we leaving out?" The design systems we’re building have the power to establish the patterns that either engage or exclude the people who need the services they support. As an example, our team works with traditionally marginalized communities seeking affordable housing and public benefits. As system designers, how can we be more intentional and provide guidelines that remove barriers for people who have historically been excluded? → Principles, at the highest level, can align stakeholders and team members around a shared set of inclusive values. → Foundations like color and type, are where there’s a lot of resources out there to guide folks towards critical design elements like color contrast. From here on in, it gets more complicated… → Content guidelines have the power to open our services up to more people by addressing reading level, a supportive voice and tone, as well as inclusive language. How do we make sure we're allowing content writers and strategists to be treated as contributors? → Component guidelines need to provide accessibility notes on how to ensure things like proper keyboard access for interactive elements, focus states and markup. WCAG guidelines get very technical very quickly. How do we help designers and engineers speak the same language? → Patterns capture use cases, such as sign in flows, that are much more about human behavior and can risk causing cognitive and emotional stress if we don't provide additional support. How do we assist the team with repeatable and equitable usage guidelines or "recipes"? 💎 Our team is continuing to learn from the vast resources out there. Some highlights include: 🎙 Systems of Harm by Amy Hupe provides a deep dive into many of the risks involved in creating design systems including how to mitigate bias and provide accessibility training for teams. Do yourself a favor and listen to every episode. https://lnkd.in/gt5pnt2E 🎛 Patterns via USWDS are a well spring of examples of how to implement inclusive patterns when designing for government services for folks who are the most in need. https://lnkd.in/gdxmy9Qx We hope to share more soon about specific learnings and resources our team at Exygy creates that might help other teams be more inclusive. #designsystems #inclusivedesign #accessibility #patterns

“The Skilled Domain Expert,” the one who’s like an encyclopedia on your subject matter! You can read her full description is on article “10 types of designers worth hiring in 2024” that’s droppin tomorrow, Jan 11 on the Bitovi.com blog! #ProductDesigners #DesignerPersonas

Tomorrow I'll give a presentation on design quality at Front-end Conf here in Florida. This is the first time I've spoken on such a topic in a live, public format. Here at the event I've been humbled to hear several people say "I'm excited for your talk." Quietly in my head I'm replying "Me too. I have no idea how this will turn out!" Par for the course with new material. 😎 I've said before that my benchmark is 1 hour of prep time per 1 minute of speaking time for a new talk. This is a 45-min talk and I'm on pace for ~45 hrs of prep time. I won't have all the answers tomorrow but we'll explore: – What is design quality anyway? – Why is it so hard to achieve? – Where do we go from here? This is dialog I hope to see more of in the industry. It's long overdue. I'm holding myself accountable to share more, too. Let's see how tomorrow goes first. #frontendconf

While broad, this article makes some great points to consider.

I'm not a vision board person but I am a post-it note addict. On one of those 'wish list' post-its is a #DesignSystem series. Why? Because some of the most intelligent, gifted, kind and funny people I have ever met were the #AUGold team. Yes, it's been years but those memories stick. These developers, accessibility experts, designers and all round good 'community' people came together and created something awesome. They did, and do more than that, they 'Do the hard work, to make it simple' for others. Dominik Wilkowski Gary Broadbent Alex Page Trevor Brennan Patrick De Young Adam Zerella Raj Ghuman Kiri Hoy Brendan Ng (sorry if I missed anyone) In some kind of tribute and also keeping the stories and lessons alive, the #DigitalProfession will showcase different design system case studies. If you know of someone or a team we should highlight, contact me. #Respect #Developers #Designers #Leverage #ThisIsContinuousLearning

Want feedback and advice on your portfolios? Get yourself signed up for the next round of portfolio reviews with Bea and Dan👇