Articles on Design
New to Mobile App Design? Six Things to Know for Your Next Mobile Project
At the start of any project, one of the first things to consider is what technology solution the product should be built for. A website? A mobile app? Should it be for iPhone or Android…or both? As mobile apps lead the charge in user acquisition, the ability for a designer to solve problems for the …
Designing Our Way Through Uncertain Times – San Francisco Design Week Recap
We’re in a moment of unprecedented change. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many product designers to face a variety of new professional challenges. We’ve paused co-located work. We’re unable to see users and co-workers in person. We’re required to explore new ways of collaboration, all while navigating the ups and downs of today’s economy. Furthermore, …
Pivoting and User Research During a Pandemic
Creating a consistent feedback loop with users through quantitative and qualitative user research is the foundation of any lean, user-centric product team. Get your Free Guide to User Research Help your team understand your users’ behaviors, needs, and motivations. We often invest the most in user research when the product roadmap is new and unproven. …
Human-Centered Learning Loops with IDEO
Carbon Five San Francisco hosts Talk Nights and invites the community to join the conversation on how we can build better products together. This month we were joined by two guest speakers from IDEO, Kaitlyn Irvine, an Interaction Designer, and Nadia Surtees, a Design Researcher. Together, they discussed Human-Centered Learning Loops and some of their …
Ground Control to Major Tom: How to Excel in Remote Research
At Carbon Five, we believe that to make a successful product – you need to talk to your users often. What, when and how, always looks different as each project has unique circumstances, assumptions, and goals.
Map vs Path
It’s a simple idea that can help your digital product take shape; when a user enters your system, do you hand them a map or a path? What’s the difference? Great question, and in this case, the metaphor is pretty literal.
Experiment-Driven Design Process
So you want to grow your product? That’s super awesome. Growth is often a goal that startups rush towards. “We need 100,000 monthly active users yesterday.” – random startup person Growth can mean a lot of things. Maybe you’re trying to grow the number of users, or increase time spent using your product. Whatever it …
SFDW Recap: Universal Inclusive and Accessible Product Design
The primary function of design is to make something useful. Unfortunately, many digital products out on the market have been developed without universal accessibility in mind. As designers, we have the unique opportunity — and responsibility — to help shape the next generation of inclusive and accessible technology.
Approaching Gender in Software Products
It is a delight to use software that seems to really ‘get’ you as a person! To achieve this, it requires that the software has been built by people who sought out to understand their users. When software isn’t built with its users in mind, it has the potential to leave its users feeling alienated. …
NYC Design Mentor Night Recap
On Wednesday night, designers and design lovers from all over NYC gathered at Carbon Five SoHo to receive career guidance, feedback, and insights from five senior designers. The evening kicked off with a Q&A with our panelists: Lo Wheelwright, Senior Product Designer, Carbon Five Erin Murphy, User Experience Designer II, HBO Nina Mehta, Design Manager, …