Articles on design
Carbon Five Roll Call: Mandy Valladares, Senior Product Designer
Carbon Five Roll Call is a new blog series introducing you to your next team of product managers, designers and software engineers. Learn more about us and how we can help support your next project. Meet Mandy! Name: Mandy Valladares Title: Senior Product Designer Hometown: San Francisco, CA Carbon Five Office: New York
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, …
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 …
Building Design Systems for Scaling Companies – SF Talk Night Recap
How can scaling companies maintain design consistency and quality as internal and engineering teams exponentially grow? Last week, Carbon Five San Francisco hosted Talk Night to answer this question and to discuss the secret benefits of building design systems for growing companies. Our guest speakers included: Sean Durham, Software Development Manager, Autodesk | @seandurham Erin …
We Belong Together
Five Ways Junior and Senior Designers Can Work Together Effectively Disclaimer – I am a designer so this is written for /designer pairs but it’s also relevant for any other Junior/Senior duos. Hello, wonderful Junior/Senior design duos! Odds are you are fairly new to working together. Perhaps the junior designer is fresh out of school …
Sketched, not Stirred: Attempts to Host a Drink + Draw
This is the journal of two LA designers attempting to host a drink and draw series. But to start – why a drink and draw? As designers in an office of 20-ish developers, we felt lonely (or insane) cooing over our own grid paper. Some days felt like far too much screen time and an …
How to Present a Design Review
Arguably the most difficult skill you’ll learn in your design career is how to communicate that you did what you set out to do in a way that gets people to support and continue the work you did. Presenting design successfully is about knowing what you want out of the meeting and structuring it to …
Designing for Engagement
One of the most interesting distinctions we make in design is between service design and engagement design. Service design is oriented around helping someone achieve a task. The interface that asks for information and prints your boarding pass is service design – it’s successful if you get through it without mistakes as quickly as possible. …