Product Design

Lately I’ve been knee deep in design debt.

I’m a product designer, but I don’t work on the first version of my company’s product. Probably more like the 194th version. What started as a simple, sensible product evolved into a barely-coherent pile of features. It’s what Jared Spool refers to as experience rot, and it’s inevitable for most software products.

This year we’ve been fixing our design debt, so I was excited to discover debt.design. As I read through the site, I drew direct lines to the problems we are facing. If you’re facing design debt in your own work, it’s worth noting that Alicja (the site’s author) offers private workshops. I’m currently pitching the idea to my team leads.

Email Geeks

There are many ways to teach someone how to use a new product. Video tutorials. Onboarding guides. Those annoying new feature tooltips and popups we all close immediately without reading them.

I’m a “learn by doing” person. So I was glad when I saw Parcel, a code editor for HTML email, including an email for new accounts that walks first-time users through some of Parcel’s features. The email is included in the editor, so folks can immediately start pressing buttons to learn how the product works.

To quote Dylan in the comments, I “love when the product uses itself for onboarding.” More of this please!

Climate

Brent Toderian wrote a great Twitter thread on electric vehicles. He argues that while electric vehicles are a step in the right direction, avoiding cars all together is even better. In the same way that reducing and reusing is better than recycling.

Meme showing that media attention usually goes to EVs rather than walking, cycling, public transport, and parking topics.

Automakers want us to think everyone needs a car. And that it’s ok that parking occupies more land than housing in Los Angeles. And that, to quote one of my favorite movies, people still love their cars.

Never forget, the electric car is here to save the car industry, not the planet. Brent Toderian

After reading this, I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Cars do not have to be so central in our lives. We’re already seeing cities embracing green transport and car-free zones, so I’m encouraged to see things like this in popping up in places like the Garden State Plaza in Paramus NJ (since folks in suburbs are more dependent on their cars).

Fun

My daughter forgot the name for apostrophe so she called it a flying comma. - Megan Davidhizar

I would’ve spent hours digging for the answer and kids are just like “Flying comma. Moving on.” I love it.

Thanks for reading the second issue! I plan on sending these out on the first and third Tuesday or every month. Not technically every two weeks, but a schedule that I can keep to.

See you in two weeks ✌️
- Ted
@tedgoas