Christina Truong

The main objections I hear about hiring UX contractors: “The ramp-up will be too slow,” “They’re too pricey,” and, “They won’t know our culture, or how we work.” Let’s unpack that. 👇 With recent UX downsizing, companies might have smaller permanent design teams — but trust me, demand for design work is still there, because stellar contractors are building that demand.🌟 I’ve watched it firsthand as I oversee staffing at Outwitly Inc. By utilizing contractors to augment their teams at specific points in the design lifecycle, organizations can still get the work done — without burning out their internal team with millions of feature requests on top of their usual load. It can be a win-win that keeps businesses healthy. 🌱 Back to those objections. Like many UX-related objections, they’re generally founded on shortsightedness: 🏁 Ramping Up vs Acting Now: 🏁Bringing on a contractor can actually add velocity, especially with longer projects that promise big impact but get pushed out or deprioritized because of the sheer amount of work. If you need something done and no one else has the capacity now, you can bring on a specialist for six months, instead of waiting. (^You can also make use of contractors to lay the foundation for upcoming work, like specialists in design ops, research ops, design systems, etc., while others focus on immediate deadlines. ) 💰Up-front Cost vs ROI: 💰Contractors often have higher rates because they take on higher risk, but when you consider the cost of slow internal hiring, employee turnover, long-term overhead, employee benefits, etc., contractors can be a lower-risk option. Specialized contractors can also pull research initiatives out of holding patterns and uncover opportunities for innovation with major ROI potential. 🧩 Like-Minded vs New Perspectives: 🧩New personalities aren’t scary! Blended teams are amazing for bringing in fresh perspectives and diverse skillsets that your internal team members can learn from and adopt, to the long-term benefit of their organizations. (^ Plus, the beautiful thing about the people who tend to go into contracting is that they’re often senior practitioners, willing to bet on themselves because they know they’re experienced enough to consistently win contracts, and they HAVE to be that good to find work.🔥) 👉 So, in reality, you get the "cream of the crop," new perspectives and more speed/flexibility. You get to skip over red tape and get straight to work. (Especially if you have support with choosing the right candidates.) If you’re considering this hiring move, OR you’re trying to convince your supervisor to consider it, give this blog post another look: https://lnkd.in/gRP-V3JS We posted it a while ago, but it’s still a good resource. I’d be interested to hear about other experiences with blended teams. What’s your favourite part?  What’s working best? #UXDesign #StaffAugmentation #UXContractors #BlendedTeams #DesignOps

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When it comes to user research, we can’t just provide a long laundry list of pain points and tiny fixes. 📝 That’s not enough. 👇 Researchers so often get stuck in the hamster wheel of incremental product improvement that we aren’t actually spending enough time with our research (synthesizing it using design thinking) to provide true innovative solutions. (As you know, providing innovative solutions is the KEY to creating real impact.) Instead, what usually happens is that stakeholders receive these research reports with a big long list of basic, surface-level pain points to address at the end (🥱), along with some basic recommendations, and they get added to some product/feature roadmap, prioritized, and implemented in a routine life cycle. 🤷 This is great, to an extent! BUT, hello!!… DESIGN (the bigger umbrella of design) is NOT about identifying a million pain points and painfully fixing each one. Design is about creating experiences and things that delight ✨ and excite 🤸people, while being functional. User research should support that. 👉 Try not to get stuck in this trap when you’re working on your next project.  Next time, when you’re looking at a fresh set of raw research data: 🧩 Strategize: Employ frameworks to start processing the themes and repeating ideas in your data. 🧘‍♂️ Marinate: Let these themes and ideas wash over your subconscious again and again, even while you sleep! 🌀Bend and push your creative mind: Work hard at putting those ideas together in new and exciting ways. 💥 Don’t stop until you get to the magic: You will find those “aha” moments waiting underneath it all. 🎯 Communicate and sell that magic in your reporting: Showcase opportunities that will actually get at the deep-rooted design problem and elevate your organization into a trendsetting power player. The way we do this for our clients is through Action Plans. Yes, we still provide the laundry list of pains — because it IS still useful. BUT, the genius 🧠 we deliver is in translating these larger themes into ACTIONABLE and INNOVATIVE solutions that will literally transform the way those businesses deliver their products and services, and propel them ahead of the industry. This is how you get noticed in your UX career — bringing these types of solutions to the table!! #UserResearch #UXResearch #DesignInnovation #UXCareer #DigitalTransformation

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Are you unsure whether or not your PDFs are actually accessible? Do you want to stop guessing and finally know for sure? In the latest episode of Design Domination, you'll find out 5 reliable ways to check a PDF for accessibility, so you can design and test your PDFs with confidence. You'll also learn two mistakes many designers make when assessing a PDF’s accessibility, so you don’t repeat them in your workflow. Check out the link in comments. #pdfaccessibility #accessiblepdf

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Just got back from Shopify Editions.dev in Toronto. While everyone was talking about AI-generated theme blocks, I was in the hallways talking to the people who actually have to implement this stuff. - Anne Thomas from Design Packs explained the technical reality behind universal blocks and why existing theme developers are concerned about migration paths. - Ezra Firestone (Zipify) thinks the real opportunity is sitting right in front of us: the Shop app that 100 million people already have installed. - Karl Meisterheim from Liquid Weekly had some sharp observations about the catalog API. Worth listening to if you're building on Shopify or advising clients who are. Link in comments.

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Hey designers. Ever feel like you’re working through a design problem where you’ve applied what you can regarding #accessibility, but your gut tells you it’s just not quite enough, like you’re missing something, and you just don’t know what that gap might be? Well, I wanted to find a way to help designers bridge that gap. Over the years, I’ve worked on and refined my personal process for tackling any design problem with accessibility in mind. I’ve now molded that process into a framework that others can use to apply accessible design thinking to anything they’re working on. I call it the Accessible Design Framework. To learn more, check out my article on the Level Access website: https://lnkd.in/gmmAJiSe And be sure to check out the the demonstration videos too, where I show how to put the framework into action on a practical, everyday design task: https://lnkd.in/gNMxHqbf #a11y #AccessibleDesign

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Plain language = access. It's that simple! Accessibility Standards Canada just released a new national standard for plain language (CAN-ASC-3.1:2025) and it’s a big step forward for accessibility and inclusion in Canada. Plain language isn’t just about using simpler words. It’s about making sure everyone can find, understand, and use information without barriers. At Accessibrand™, we don’t just talk about it, we teach it, design it, and build it into everything we do! We offer plain language seminars for teams who want to communicate more clearly, and we apply plain language principles in all our design and marketing projects. We’re proud that Gillian Lynne-Davies, one of our core team members, is a Certified Plain Language Expert, helping organizations across Canada make accessibility part of every message. If your organization wants to improve accessibility and connection, contact us to get started. Read the new standard here: https://lnkd.in/g9V8aeZb #PlainLanguage #Accessibility #InclusiveDesign #DigitalInclusion #Accessibrand #AccessibleCommunication #CommunicationForAll

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Excited to be speaking at #a11yTO - Accessibility Toronto Conf! October 16-17 As AI coding assistants become part of our daily workflow, there's something we need to talk about... these tools often generate code that overlooks accessibility because they're trained on datasets where accessibility was an afterthought. In my session: "Your AI is Copying Bad Code," I'll share practical strategies for prompting AI tools like GitHub Copilot and Claude Code to produce more inclusive code from the start. We'll look at real examples of what these tools generate by default, identify common accessibility gaps, and learn specific techniques to guide them toward WCAG-compliant outputs. If you're using AI-assisted development tools (or thinking about it), come learn how small changes to your prompts can make a big difference for your users. See you in Toronto! 🍁 Orium, Jason Cottrell, Nik Shenoy, David Azoulay, Danny Lake

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Looking to level up your design game and master design thinking? This course is for you. Discover the art of crafting user-focused solutions through continuous iteration, testing, and improvement. We’ve partnered with Fouad Jallouli, Director of Service Design at Government of Alberta, to bring you a structured, interactive course designed to help you master Government Design Foundations through practical, hands-on learning. Here’s what you’ll learn: 🔸Learn the fundamentals of design thinking: Build a strong foundation in design thinking principles to approach challenges with a user-first mindset and foster innovation within your team. 🔸Explore problem definition and ideation techniques: Discover how to define problems effectively and generate creative, strategic solutions. 🔸Master prototyping and testing: Gain the skills to build prototypes and run meaningful tests to ensure your solutions meet real user needs. 🔸 Understand leadership and sustainability in design: Learn how to lead design thinking initiatives and embed sustainability and inclusivity into your work for long-term impact. 📚 Whether you're already in govtech or want to apply your design skills to create lasting impact, this course will guide you through every step. 🔗 Start learning today: https://lnkd.in/gJiW_fNd This course is included in Uxcel Pro — our membership that gives you access to 20+ interactive courses, skill tests, certifications, and more. #design #designthinking #creativethinking #servicedesign #productdesign #uxlearning #uxcel #uxeducation #careerboost

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By 2030 Designer jobs will end and here is what I am doing about it (and you should too). For many of us, AI is already indirect competition. For me, it will soon be direct. Tools like Lovable are still laggy. I haven’t seen truly compelling examples of sites built with Mixo alone. And yes - they lack the flair, restraint, and human judgement that good design demands. But let’s be honest. Most budget-constrained founders - and plenty of less design-aware clients - will choose "fast and cheap" over "crafted and considered". Not because it’s better, but because it’s easier. That shift is coming whether we like it or not. So this isn’t a doom post. It’s an invitation to pivot. Designers in London are already under pressure — rising costs, shrinking budgets, fewer retainers. AI doesn’t end the profession, but it ends the old version of it. The opportunity now is to: - relearn - reskill - move upstream Because those who don’t adapt won’t be “disrupted” - they’ll simply be priced out, likely surviving on some form of universal income while tools do the execution work. Designers 2030 are thinkers. New roles will emerge, only few will remain. I can already see some likely ones: - Content Curator - Decision Maker - AI-Assisted Designer (Graphic / Video / Web) - Product Developer - Vision Leader - Empathy & Ethics Guide - Experience Designer - Craftsmen Recruiter - Prompt Engineer - Question Designer - Emotional Support Officer Personally, I’m drawn to AI-Assisted Web Designer. It would be foolish not to use these tools. But the real value isn’t in clicking “generate” - it’s in direction, judgement, and intent. I still want to drive decisions. I still want to apply decades of experience in intuitive, human-centred design. And I still want every project to have a clear goal beyond “it looks fine”. The tools will change. Taste, responsibility, and clarity will not. So - how will you pivot? And what roles do you think will emerge in an AI-dominated economy?

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“Everything we produce is publicly accessible and open to feedback and collaboration. Our goal is to encourage the #GCDesign and web community to contribute to the #GCDesignSystem, making it the best tool it can be.” CDS’s GC Design System team has introduced new templates for creating streamlined, accessible #CanadaDotCa web pages to help make it easier for public servants to build consistent, user-friendly websites. Discover more about how these templates can enhance your #GCDigital work in our latest blog! 👇 https://lnkd.in/dtYWzdFz

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Know when to take UX debt and when to invest. We love the way Mehekk Bassi breaks down the tradeoff between quick delivery and long-term UX value. She encourages designers to treat these choices like financial decisions by being intentional about when to borrow and when to invest. UX debt means taking shortcuts to deliver quickly, knowing there will be fixes later. It helps speed things up but can hurt the experience over time. UX investments take more effort upfront but lead to better long-term outcomes. Her advice is not to avoid UX debt entirely but to use it wisely and always have a plan to pay it back. Check out her article: https://lnkd.in/gCRqva3z Here are five big ideas: 1. UX debt is a strategic tool, not just a shortcut Taking on UX debt can be useful if done intentionally and with a plan to fix it later. 2. Design decisions mirror financial decisions Just like borrowing or investing money, designers must weigh short-term gains against long-term value. 3. Not all UX debt is bad It can help you move quickly in early stages, especially when validating ideas or meeting tight deadlines. 4. UX investments pay off over time Slower, thoughtful design improvements lead to better user experiences and fewer problems later. 5. Be deliberate about when and why you choose each Teams should track their UX debt, understand the cost, and know when to prioritize paying it down. 💬 We asked Mehekk why she wrote the post: “So, my thought behind writing this story was to highlight the fact that many design decisions are often taken without considering future implications of the product. Unknowingly many teams accumulate UX debt and by the time they realize the issues, it's often too late and the experience gets compromised. For us, as designers, thinking about debt becomes a non-negotiable while crafting any experience for the product, that's why the title says - financial mindset of a designer." This is prudent advice! Helio helps you spot when UX debt is slowing users down by measuring things like clarity, completion rates, and confidence. With quick tests using UX metrics, you can decide when to fix issues or move fast with purpose. #uxresearch #productdiscovery #marketresearch #productdesign

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Every year, the Association of Registered Graphic Designers (RGD), Design Professionals of Canada (DesCan) and Société des designers graphiques du Québec get together to review our joint Code of Ethics. This document provides a framework for practicing design as ethically as possible. It's a wide reaching document that covers everything from working with clients, to our responsibilities to society and the environment, competitions and fees, intellectual property and so more. This year, when we sat down to review the document, there was only one word on our lips: AI. (Yeah, yeah it's technically an acronym, I know.) This AI-related update offers guidance for designers on the incorporation of AI into their work. These changes reflect AI's growing impact on the industry and the need to address concerns about transparency, data ethics and fair compensation for creators. We've purposefully kept the rules and best practices vague in an attempt to keep them relevant as the technology continues to evolve. Because we all know it's going to continue evolving, fast. https://lnkd.in/gmKVgz8v

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