Gia Romano

Good user experiences don't usually break the law... (What a shocker 🙃 ) Design reduces business risk; user-centred design-led organisations will be better protected from the financial and reputation pain that AA and BSM have right now. I've worked a lot in regulated industries and so read my share of regulation and legislation. Once you've got through the legelese, the intent of the law almost always lines up with creating good user experiences. https://lnkd.in/e2dGxkQ4

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Your Role in Fostering a Great Designer and Developer Relationship https://lnkd.in/gTDzHhNP Team collaboration is widely discussed in product development, but the critical connection between design and development often gets overlooked. This relationship is key — it can either make or break the success of your software project. When designers and developers work in silos, the process tends to drag on and can lead to frustrating outcomes, including a subpar user experience. However, when both roles engage in healthy collaboration, they complement each other’s strengths, enabling the team to work efficiently and deliver polished products. How to Strengthen This Relationship: Involve Developers Early: Bringing developers into the design process from the start helps avoid surprises and miscommunication. Communicate Clearly: Share design intentions and technical constraints openly. Respect Expertise: Designers focus on user experience, developers ensure technical feasibility. Use Shared Resources: Maintain accessible style guides, design files, and code snippets to keep everyone on the same page. By fostering this collaboration, your team will create better products with smoother workflows and happier members. As a designer, your role is to make your designs clear and easy for developers to implement. Annotate your files, share prototypes, and anticipate potential challenges. #mediumstylepost #UIUX #DeveloperCollaboration #ProductDesign #Teamwork

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The Template Trap: How Template Culture Is Dumbing Down UX Overreliance on frameworks as universal solutions rather than adaptable starting points undermines critical thinking and threatens our field's intellectual rigor. @segibb #UX #productDesign https://buff.ly/4ARMuks

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Check out the latest drop from The Hocket by my partner in crime Nick Eberhardt. If you are unfamiliar with complexity theory, this is a wonderful primer, and a succinct acknowledgement that the world we live in, and thus design for, does not fall into neat patterns. If things are inherently both ordered and chaotic at the same time, how might we design for that? #designthinking #design #UX

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In a recent Smashing Magazine article, Carrie Webster makes a compelling case: while UX teams are often judged by their outputs, the real value lies in how they collaborate. She draws a sharp line between cooperation (parallel workstreams) and collaboration (co-creation). Especially in large or distributed teams, that distinction can make or break a project. Collaboration is not a soft skill—it’s infrastructure. It affects everything from stakeholder alignment to decision speed and long-term adoption of the platform being built. ** If you're planning a digital project, consider this: Review your kickoff process. Is a philosophy of collaboration built in from the start, or will you rely on ad hoc alignment later? Investing in the former consistently saves time, reduces risk, and improves outcomes. https://lnkd.in/gE6svvQN

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▶️ The UX Leader’s Responsibility to Surface Confidence and Uncertainty How confident are you that you’re making the right UX choices? You make critical daily decisions about your products and services, but are you choosing the options that will deliver the best experiences? How do you know? You can measure and track your confidence. Think of confidence as one end of a spectrum, with uncertainty on the other. Where on the spectrum would you put that big decision you just made? Were you closer to entirely confident or completely uncertain? Misplaced confidence is costly. Overconfidence creates enormous risks, while excessive uncertainty holds teams back as they bicker over perceptions. As a UX leader, you must ensure your team accurately understands how confident they are in every decision they’re involved with. This video explores how measuring your team’s decision-making confidence amplifies the power of UX research. You’ll discover techniques for calculating your team's confidence and calibrating it to what your research uncovers. 💬 Check out this video over on Leaders of Awesomeness’ YouTube channel. In this session, uncover how you’ll… 👉 Use a realistic understanding of your team’s confidence to deliver innovative new designs and experiences for your users and customers. 👉 Put a stop to endless opinion wars caused when stakeholders and your team don’t share an understanding of what users truly need. 👉 Create an accurate numerical tool for predicting your team’s true confidence based on what your UX research uncovers. Watch Jared Spool’s 39-minute Talk UX Strategy session here: https://lnkd.in/eNZgDpAn

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𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝗮 𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗺𝗼𝘃𝗲 Whether you're a designer, developer, or just curious about bringing your ideas to life, Friends of Figma, Auckland welcomes you to explore motion with us. We’re all about connecting and growing the local Figma community through hands-on sessions where you can learn, try, and create together. This time, we’re teaming up with LottieFiles for a hands-on motion design workshop! Join us in this interactive hybrid session at Media Design School at Strayer or from online. You’ll learn how to bring UI elements to life using LottieFiles, following along with a guided webinar. 🗓️ 𝗠𝗮𝘆 𝟳𝘁𝗵 📍𝗠𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗦𝗰𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗹 𝗮𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘆𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗿 𝗷𝗼𝗶𝗻 𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲  ⏰ This session officially starts at 𝟰:𝟯𝟬 𝗣𝗠(𝗡𝗭𝗧)     If you're joining us in person, please arrive at 𝟰:𝟬𝟬 𝗣𝗠 By completing the full lesson, you’ll be ready to apply for an official LottieFiles certificate🎉 You can complete the exercises during the session, or continue at your own pace afterwards. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗴𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁 𝗳𝗼𝗿:  • Designers curious about motion and micro-interactions  • Developers who want to better understand animation workflows  • PMs, founders, or marketers exploring more engaging product   experiences  • Anyone who wants to make their designs feel more alive 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗹𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱:  • Your personal laptop - we will not be providing devices  • LottieFiles account (free)  • Figma account (free) No motion experience required. No pressure to get everything perfect. You can follow along at your own pace, and revisit the content anytime. Leave with a solid understanding of how motion fits into your design workflow, plus practical experience using LottieFiles to create and apply animations. And if you choose to complete the full course, you’ll be ready to claim your certificate✨ Register for the event by following the link in the comments below!

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You don’t have a design problem. You have an operations problem. Many organisations invest heavily in design talent, tools, and systems, yet still struggle with slowing delivery, unclear ownership, and inconsistent experiences. The issue is rarely capability. It’s how design is embedded in the organisation. In the first article of our new series on Design Operations, we explore the business case for DesignOps, and why operational clarity is key to turning design investment into sustained impact. If design feels slower as complexity grows, this is worth a read 💙 Read the full article by our talented designer, Louise From, here: https://lnkd.in/eUNWV38D

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I heard something on the Lenny Podcast this week that I think a lot of design teams are already feeling. https://lnkd.in/gT5KdpSX Jenny Wen (Design Lead Claude CoWork) said: “This design process that designers have been taught… we sort of treat it as gospel. That’s basically dead.” Strong statement, but listening to the conversation, I don’t think the real story is that design process is dead. I think the real story is that the through line of design work is changing. Some things Jenny shared that stood out: - The classic process is breaking down. The research → diverge/converge → polished mocks pipeline many of us were trained in can’t keep up with modern engineering velocity anymore. (~5:15) - Design work is splitting into two modes. Supporting execution as engineers rapidly build and iterate - Creating short-horizon direction (3-6 month vision prototypes instead of 5-year decks) (~6:30) - The pie chart of design work has shifted. A few years ago design might have been 60-70% mocking and prototyping. Now that may be closer to 30-40%, with much more time spent pairing with engineers and shaping implementation. (~18:00) - Even in an AI world, someone must still decide what matters. Models will get better at taste and design. But accountability for what gets built still sits with humans. (~28:30) That last point is the one I keep coming back to... If design is no longer primarily about producing polished artifacts up front, then its enduring value may look more like: - keeping execution coherent as things move fast - translating principles into real implementation - helping teams decide what actually matters - protecting trust and quality under speed In other words: Design’s role may be shifting from artifact production to decision stewardship. - A small exercise for design teams - Try this with your team this week. Sketch the actual pie chart of your work today across five buckets: - Mocking / prototyping - Research / learning - Pairing with engineers - Implementation / polish in code - Direction-setting / short-horizon vision Then ask three questions: 1) What does our work actually look like now? 2) What do stakeholders still think designers do? 3) Where does the through line break between those two realities? I’d be curious what people discover when they run this exercise. Where is your design role already evolving- and where is the organization still expecting the old model? Stealth launch note: I’m quietly launching a new series with this post called Through Line. The idea is to surface the signals shaping the future of research and design and help leaders translate them into action. Each entry will include: - A signal from the field - A perspective to frame it - A practical tool teams can apply today - A question for the community to explore together The future of our field won’t be defined by tools alone, but by how clearly we see the through line of value in the work we do. #amplifydesign #Throughline

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Your UX Team Isn't Measuring What Matters (And It's Costing You) For too long, UX teams have focused on metrics that don't speak the language of the boardroom. We've championed usability scores, task completion rates, and qualitative feedback – all valuable, but rarely tied directly to revenue, retention, or growth. Here's the uncomfortable truth: If your UX team can't explicitly demonstrate how their work impacts gross revenue, reduces churn, or boosts conversion rates, you're missing a critical opportunity to prove your value. It's time to shift from measuring outputs to proving business outcomes. UX isn't just about making things easy; it's about making the business better. And until we align our metrics with commercial objectives, our impact will remain undervalued. Watch the video in the comments with Fraser Dunk to dig into UX metrics and how to measure ROI. What are your thoughts? How are you connecting UX efforts to undeniable ROI? #UX #ROI #BusinessImpact #Productivity #DigitalTransformation

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What should you ask in a UX discovery session? Violet shares her go-to strategic questions that help teams uncover real user needs, build alignment, and design with purpose, not assumptions. Here’s a preview of the five key focus areas and the questions she recommends asking: 1. Understanding the User - Who are the users, and what are their goals? - What problems are they trying to solve? - What does success look like for them? 2. Understanding the Workflow - What are the key tasks users need to complete? - Where are the pain points or inefficiencies? - What systems or tools do users interact with? 3. Understanding Business Goals 4. Understanding the Ecosystem 5. Understanding Constraints & Risks Dig in on our website for the full list of questions.

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To designers: If you are asked to design something that feels wrong, always speak up, test how your users think and feel. Use 'deceptive.design' as your tool, show your product owner / stakeholder how it could lead to legal risk. To Aussie businesses: If you are relying on dark patterns (e.g. fake countdown, subscription trap),  you need to rethink your approach NOW. Regulation is on the way. -- 🟢 "90% of Australians say they would re-engage with a business if the cancellation process were easy." 🟢 Ethical design is not just the right thing, it’s good business sense as well. -- Huge thanks to Chandni Gupta for such an incredible seminar on global dark patterns. It was fascinating to learn how different countries and governments are addressing digital harms and dark patterns. Thanks Dr M.R. (Mark) Leiser for answering my question and thanks to the legal experts from around the world for sharing your insights and recommendation to the Australian government regarding dark patterns. -- Source: 'Made to Manipulate' full report https://lnkd.in/g3d4KQFb -- #darkpatterns #UX #UI #CX #userexperience #design #software #advertising #marketing #digitalmarketing #ethicaldesign #designers #developers

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Some amazing tips here! And once youve brushed up that porti - Pop a link to it on your linkedin profile! 😉🤪

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An attendee to UX Australia asked about a seeming contradiction in two papers I cited. The first describes a benefit to teams working with AI, the other (not to mention my own studies…) shows detriment if there is no design intervention. I’ll say this more clearly next time but the difference is in *the time scales*. Lots of individuals and teams see productivity and even quality benefits (as long as the AI recommendations are right) in the short term. It’s in the longer term that we begin to see the dependence that results in deskilling and over-reliance. And that long-term is where we need to keep focus, and where the right design can make the difference. Additionally (and I didn’t talk about this in the presentation, there was not time) there’s a complicating personality trait in all this called Need for Cognition (NFC), where low-NFC users are more prone to overreliance. We’re going to have to figure that one out, because to my knowledge no one has found a good intervention that can help these people, yet. I talk about all this in depth in the forthcoming book. https://lnkd.in/g76DeT5t #UXofAI #UX #AI #DesignForAI #overreliance #deskilling

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Six agents audited my Nudget app before the last release. The report was more useful than any design review I've had in months. Saw it mentioned in the Claude Community Australia. To start, you just type "review with council of agents" in Claude Code. That's it. Claude spawns six different agents, each reviewing your app from a completely different perspective: product, UX, engineering, QA, whatever the council covers. Then it produces a single prioritised report. It caught things I'd genuinely stopped seeing. Not because they were hidden, because I'd been staring at the same screens for weeks. That's the quiet risk of building solo with an AI team. You move fast. You ship fast. But you also stop questioning decisions you made three weeks ago. Council of Agents is like getting six fresh pairs of eyes in ten minutes. No onboarding. No context-setting. Just a report telling you what to fix first. Running it often now.

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