Experience Design — Must read for September 2018
From time to time, I find useful and inspiring content on the web. This month with stories featuring Google, Intercom, iA, Amazon, and Nike.
FAST COMPANY: Why Google is the most important design company of 2018
CEO Sundar Pichai on Google’s design legacy:
Providing platforms and tools that help people do better design. I want a $100 smartphone, or a $50 smartphone, which we are getting excited about increasingly. When we build Android Go phones, we want those to have the same great design. Design shouldn’t be conflated with higher-end.
INSIDE INTERCOM: GV’s Kate Aronowitz and Vanessa Cho on leading through design
They talked about how designers should be leaders and what role they have to play to “get a seat a the grown-up table”.
Kate: I love the idea of design getting a seat at the table, but I believe it should be earned. […] as designers, we’re always running around having this existential crisis: “Why am I here? What am I going for?” Then in the next breath we’re asking, “Why isn’t anybody inviting me to a meeting?” […]
Vanessa: So often, even if you do get a seat at the table, you realize you’re at the kiddy table. You’re just there as a figurehead. People will ask us, “I’m leading a design team. Why don’t I have a seat at the table?” I’ll reply, “Because you’re spending a lot of time asking yourself that.” You should really not think about design with a capital D.
iA: Aesthetics
Oliver Reichenstein on how money changed the design game, and how beauty can’t be measured by numbers.
Design can translate into dollars. Naturally, banks, business consultants, and accountants started swallowing design agencies. “Oh, money! Let us handle that!” The suits changed their tune to sound a bit more like that guy with the jeans and the black turtleneck. In 2018, it is totally normal to talk about IA, UX, and A/B tests with Price Waterhouse Coopers, Deloitte or KPMG.
RECODE: Amazon is stuffing its search results pages with ads
Recode did a quick comparison between different search results pages for products on Amazon, and it is surprising how much content on the first page is actually sponsored.
Nearly 8 percent of views on Amazon product pages came from sponsored links in May [2018], more than double what it was a year earlier […]
MORNING CONSULT: Watch Nearly 2,000 Consumers React in Real-Time to Nike’s Kaepernick Commercial
A Morning Consult report from earlier this week found Nike’s reputation has sustained a notable hit following the release of their new ad campaign featuring former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Now, a video dial-test of nearly 2,000 consumers provides further context into how Americans are reacting to this commercial, and how it may impact perceptions of the brand.
The report also lists graphs by race and political affiliation — and here is where it get’s interesting.
