As a tech professional, you know that the industry is constantly changing and evolving. You also know that this means that you may face some challenges and difficulties along the way. You may encounter a career setback that can shake your confidence, challenge your skills, or threaten your reputation. How can you cope with that? How can you turn a career setback in tech into a career success?

This month, my Harvard Business Review Women’s group at Microsoft discussed an article by Octavia Goredema: “A 6-Step Plan to Prepare for Any Career Setback”. This led to a very raw conversation about career challenges that some in the group or their loved ones faced. We agreed that a career crisis can hurt your self-esteem, paralyze you, and impact your life beyond work. It was inspiring to hear others share their experiences and how they bounced back.

What is a career crisis or setback?

A career crisis is an event that negatively affects your professional progress or reputation. Examples of career setbacks in tech are:

• Not delivering a project on time, on budget, or on quality

• Getting laid off due to downsizing, restructuring, or outsourcing

• Getting demoted or passed over for a promotion or a raise

• Receiving negative feedback from your boss, clients, or peers

• Losing a key client, partner, or investor

• Facing a legal, ethical, or security issue

With the current volatility in the tech industry, where layoffs, hiring freezes, budget cuts, and drastic changes in business priorities are common, a career crisis could happen to anyone. We all have seen the LinkedIn posts or know of someone impacted by the layoffs. But how can you build resilience and get back on your feet? Here are some things we brainstormed about:

1: Take time to reflect

The first tip is to take time to reflect after a career setback. Reflection is the process of examining and understanding your thoughts, feelings, and actions in relation to a situation. It can help you gain perspective, learn from your mistakes, and identify your strengths and weaknesses.

Reflection can help you answer some important questions after a career setback, such as:

• What happened and why?

• What did I do well and what did I do poorly?

• What did I learn from the experience?

• What can I do differently next time?

• What are my goals and priorities now?

• What are my skills and competencies now?

• What are my opportunities and challenges now?

There are many ways to practice reflection after a career setback. Some examples are:

• Journaling: Writing down your thoughts and feelings can help you express your emotions, clarify your ideas, and organize your thoughts. You can use a notebook, a computer, or a mobile app to journal. You can write freely or follow a prompt or a template. For example, you can use the STAR method to describe a situation, task, action, and result related to your career setback.

• Talking to a mentor: A mentor is someone who has more experience, knowledge, or wisdom than you and who can guide you, advise you, or support you. You can talk to a mentor about your career setback and ask for their feedback, insights, or suggestions. You can find a mentor within your organization, your network, or your industry. You can also use online platforms like MentorCruise, Mentors In Tech or Plato to connect with mentors in tech.

• Doing a SWOT analysis: A SWOT analysis is a tool that helps you evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. You can use a SWOT analysis to assess your current situation after a career setback and plan your future actions. You can use a simple matrix or a template like this one to do a SWOT analysis.

Reflection can help you cope with the emotional and mental impact of a career setback. It can also help you prepare for the next steps in your career.

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
 — Mark Twain

2: Nurture a growth mindset

The second tip is to create a growth mindset after a career setback. A growth mindset is a belief that your abilities, skills, and talents can be developed through effort, learning, and feedback. A growth mindset can help you overcome challenges, embrace feedback, and seek new opportunities.

A growth mindset can help you adopt some positive attitudes and behaviors after a career setback, such as:

• Reframing negative thoughts: Instead of thinking that you are a failure, that you are not good enough, or that you can’t do anything right, you can think that you are a learner, that you have potential, and that you can improve. You can use affirmations, mantras, or quotes to reframe your negative thoughts. For example, you can say to yourself, “I am not a failure, I am a work in progress. I can learn from this experience and grow from it.”

• Setting SMART goals: SMART goals are goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. You can use SMART goals to set realistic and meaningful objectives for your career after a career setback. You can use a worksheet or a template like [this one] to set SMART goals. For example, you can set a SMART goal like, “I will complete an online course on data science by the end of the month and apply for three data analyst jobs by the end of the next month.”

• Taking online courses: Online courses are a great way to learn new skills, update your knowledge, or explore new interests. You can use online courses to enhance your resume, expand your portfolio, or diversify your career options after a career setback. You can find online courses on various topics and levels on platforms like Coursera, edX, or Udemy.

A growth mindset can help you cope with the professional and personal impact of a career setback. It can also help you prepare for the new opportunities and challenges in your career.

“The path to success involves having the courage to confront life’s failures, as it is through these challenges that people learn and grow”
― Cathelyn Theophila Tan

3: Remember that if doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger

The third tip is to know that setbacks are not failures, but opportunities to grow, learn, and improve. Setbacks can make you better in the tech industry in many ways, such as:

• Developing new skills: Setbacks can help you discover new areas of improvement, new areas of interest, or new areas of expertise. You can use setbacks as a motivation to develop new skills that can help you advance your career, solve problems, or create value. For example, after a project failure, you can learn a new programming language, a new framework, or a new tool that can help you deliver better results in the future.

• Expanding your network: Setbacks can help you connect with new people, new organizations, or new communities. You can use setbacks as an opportunity to expand your network that can help you find support, guidance, or opportunities. For example, after a layoff, you can join a professional association, a meetup group, or a online forum that can help you meet new mentors, peers, or employers in the tech industry.

• Discovering new passions: Setbacks can help you explore new options, new paths, or new directions. You can use setbacks as an inspiration to discover new passions that can help you find meaning, fulfillment, or happiness. For example, after a demotion, you can start a side project, a blog, or a podcast that can help you share your knowledge, express your creativity, or pursue your purpose.

Setbacks can make you better in the tech industry by helping you grow, learn, and improve. They can also make you more resilient, adaptable, and confident.

“a setback is a setup for a comeback”
 — T.D. Jakes

4: Lean on your team

The fourth tip is to galvanize your team after a career setback. Teamwork is essential in the tech industry, where collaboration, communication, and coordination are key. Teamwork can help you cope with a career setback by providing you with support, feedback, and solutions.

• Communicating openly: Communication is the foundation of any successful team. You should communicate openly with your team members about your situation, your expectations, your needs, and your goals. You should also listen to their opinions, concerns, and suggestions. Communication can help you build trust, resolve conflicts, and align your vision.

• Celebrating wins: Celebrating wins is a great way to boost morale, motivation, and productivity. You should celebrate your team’s achievements, big or small, after a career setback. You should also recognize and appreciate your team members’ contributions, efforts, and skills. Celebrating wins can help you foster a positive culture, a sense of community, and a shared purpose.

• Collaborating on solutions: Collaborating on solutions is a smart way to leverage your team’s collective intelligence, creativity, and diversity. You should collaborate with your team members on finding solutions to your problems, challenges, or opportunities after a career setback. You should also involve them in decision making, brainstorming, and innovation. Collaborating on solutions can help you generate better ideas, outcomes, and value.

Teamwork can help you cope with the professional and personal impact of a career setback. It can also help you prepare for the new opportunities and challenges in your career.

“The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team.”
 — Phil Jackson

5: Ask yourself empowering questions

The fifth tip is to know that the quality of your thoughts is directly influenced by the questions you ask yourself.

If you ask yourself empowering questions, you will feel more positive and action-oriented. Empowering questions can help you in the tech industry in many ways, such as:

• Finding opportunities: Empowering questions can help you see the positive aspects of a career setback and look for ways to turn it into an opportunity. You can use empowering questions to find opportunities that can help you advance your career, solve problems, or create value. For example, after negative feedback, you can ask yourself “How can I use this feedback to improve my performance?” or “What can I learn from this feedback that can help me grow as a professional?”

• Setting goals: Empowering questions can help you clarify your vision, purpose, and direction, and set realistic and achievable goals. You can use empowering questions to set goals that can help you find meaning, fulfillment, or happiness. For example, after a career change, you can ask yourself “What do I want to achieve in the next year?” or “What are the steps I need to take to reach my goal?”

• Taking action: Empowering questions can help you overcome fear, doubt, and procrastination, and take concrete and consistent action. You can use empowering questions to take action that can help you find support, guidance, or opportunities. For example, after a rejection, you can ask yourself “What can I do to improve my chances of success next time?” or “Who can I reach out to for help or advice?”

Empowering questions can help you in the tech industry by helping you find opportunities, set goals, and take action. They can also make you more confident, resilient, and optimistic.

“One of the most empowering moments of my life came when I realized that life is a question and how we live it is our answer.”
 — Gary Keller (The ONE Thing: The Surprisingly Simple Truth About Extraordinary Results)

Conclusion

A career setback in tech can be a difficult and painful experience, but it can also be a valuable and rewarding opportunity. By following the tips and strategies in this article, you can prepare for and overcome any career setback in tech. You can reflect on your situation, create a growth mindset, know that setbacks make you better, galvanize your team and ask yourself empowering questions. By doing so, you can bounce back stronger, smarter, and more resilient than ever.

A career setback is not the end of your journey, but the beginning of a new one.

Good reads about this topic:

• A 6-Step Plan to Prepare for Any Career Setback (hbr.org)

• The Importance Of Effective Teamwork In Information Technology And The Computing Industry — Free Essay Example — Edubirdie

• Why A Growth Mindset Is Essential For Career Success (forbes.com)

• Cognitive Reframing Examples: Reframing Negative Thoughts | by Gabe Kwakyi | Medium

• The 7 Quotes That Broke Me Out of My Career Crisis | by Niklas Göke | Entrepreneur’s Handbook (medium.com)

Question: What were your learnings from a career crisis? I will be reading you in the comments!

E-commerce is all about sales, baby!

The success of an e-commerce store comes down to one thing: how much it sells. Just look at the sales-focused key performance indicators (KPIs) that are used to measure the success of an e-commerce site: average order value, cart abandonment rate, sales conversion, etc.

Increasing the amount of money a user spends and decreasing the chance they are leaving empty-handed is the ultimate goal. The whole company works in unison to make that happen. Including UX.

Part of a UX designer’s job is to contribute to achieving the KPIs. The designer is expected to deliver designs that will increase the average order value and decrease cart abandonment rate. In other words, use design tools to get the user to buy more.

One of these tools is persuasive design.

Persuading the user to buy more

Persuasive design uses psychology and behavioral insights to influence the user’s behavior and decisions. The goal is to elicit the behavior desired by the persuader. Here is an example:

“Social proof is a technique to get people to buy a particular product or buy more. As marketers have come to learn about how strong a persuasive power social proof has on consumer behavior, they ensure to make their consumers believe that other people also purchase and like their product. “

Social proof is just one example, but we can think about personalization, urgency, framing, and recommendations as persuasive design tools. I’m working on a comprehensive overview of these techniques and until I can link to that I recommend reading the paper titled: Persuasive Systems Design: Key Issues, Process Model, and System Features (Oinas-Kukkonen and Harjumaa, 2009) to better understand the taxonomy of persuasive design.

The bottom line is: we have meaningful knowledge about human behavior and psychology we can apply in our designs to “encourage” our users to buy more. And while the business might be happy to see the average order value going up, there are other aspects to this that we rarely think about.

Persuasion encourages excessive consumption

Since we are encouraging our users to buy more, buy bigger, buy newer…Buy things they don’t even want or need in the first place, we can safely say that persuasive UX design encourages excessive and unnecessary consumption.

I want to emphasize when I say excessive consumption I mean the consumption of meaningless stuff that doesn’t bring value to our lives. Think Temu the home of chicken-shaped lamps and toilet paper holders in the shape of a smiling velociraptor. Think Shein where you can buy any fashion fad for so cheap that it feels okay to throwaway them away after one use. Think Flying Tiger, the equivalent of if Temu had a physical store: useless trinkets and knickknacks for literally no money.

Excessive consumption is destroying the planet

Excessive consumption is one of the leading causes of environmental degradation and climate change. We take our limited natural resources to produce all the stuff we don’t need, just to send them to the landfill in a short while. Polluting and destroying the environment during production and disposal of course.

The more we consume, the more we contribute to the already devastating environmental situation.

If this revelation about the environmental impact of persuasive design didn’t make you interested in reconsidering their usage, there is another perspective that might. Something we designers say we care about the most: the user.

Persuasive design is detrimental to the user too

Luckily there is a recent (2022) OECD paper detailing the negative impact of e-commerce persuasion on users, so I’m just going to lift the key points here.

1. Persuasion might compromise user autonomy since the choice architecture and visual presentation of options can “lead consumers to make choices they may not otherwise have made”. Users usually have the illusion of control, when in reality there is an arsenal of tools applied throughout the entire shopping experience to influence their decisions.

2. Financial loss since these persuasive patterns aim “getting consumers to buy something that they may not have needed or to spend more than they may have otherwise intended.”

3. Negative emotions since the user can feel frustration, shame, or guilt for being tricked or manipulated.

4. Cognitive burden as the user has to exercise extreme willpower and concentration in order to make sensible decisions.

So your users would also be better off if they were not constantly persuaded to BUY MORE.

Let’s sum this up shall we: persuasive design in e-commerce increases sales (yey for the business), while it contributes to environmental problems and negative user sentiments.

We should care about this because…

E-commerce is a growing business: ~20% of the world's retail sales are now online, equating to $6 trillion in sales in 2022. The projection is that this spending is going to grow to ~$8 trillion by 2026. Today 2.5 billion people shop online, but it will be closer to 3 billion by 2025.

Big numbers but the bottom line is: we shop so much online and it is only going to grow in the future. And apparently, persuasive design is responsible for a big chunk of this online shopping:

• Using FOMO (urgency or scarcity principles) can boost conversions by 40%-200%. (source)

• Online product reviews (social proof) about a specific product can increase conversion rates by 270%.

• A study shows that 18 to 28-year-olds were 65% more likely to spend more than intended owing to persuasive patterns (OECD report).

E-commerce is a significant part of life and economy and it is here to say. But for the sake of a liveable future, we must change how we design it.

As responsible designers, we need to recognize that we have an overconsumption problem. That our work is the enabler and accelerator of unsustainable user behavior. In the middle of an environmental crisis, we can’t design for unsustainable behavior.

As long as we only look at design decisions through a user-centered lens it is easy to overlook the wider, indirect impact of our designs.

When feel the world burning around us (literally) it is a good indication that it is time to start not to ignore the problems we are part of creating.

What do we do?

We come together and demand change! We say no to using persuasive design in online shopping experiences, and we call out companies that still do. We talk to fellow designers about the problem and engage top voices in the design community to raise awareness.

As I said before, discussion and awareness about this particular problem is non-existent. I’m working on filling this gap, and in the meantime, I would love to connect with you who got ideas and motivation to change things after this article. Let’s connect on LinkedIn.

Just to finish the article on a positive note, here is a rough outline of the concept I’m working on:

Kind Commerce

Kind Commerce is a persuasion-free online shopping experience where we give users the space and opportunities to make mindful purchase decisions. We don’t compromise usability, findability, or aesthetics, but we refuse to nudge for excessive consumption.

It’s kind to our users and our planet.

I’m working on all kinds of resources (articles, manifesto, practical guides, examples etc.) that I’m going to release as they get ready.

So keep an eye out and share this article to help get the ball rolling!

I can’t believe I am writing this, but… as UX designers, we must understand the users. Shocker!

However, is this enough when we design international products?

Perhaps not. I believe only interviewing users doesn’t give you a full understanding. You get an idea of the user’s behaviour but not the causes of these very behaviours.

Multicultural UX design is complex.

To get a profound comprehension of our target culture, we need to understand its history.

Which country can be better used than Japan to illustrate this case?

Japan has a rich history. It’s an intriguing country. It perfectly explains why historical comprehension is tremendously important for us UX designers.

In this article, I will discover Japan’s past and how historical events influence today’s digital behaviour.

Let’s start at the beginning

Allow me to write this from a Western perspective.

To understand Japan, we must go further than Japan's own history. We should understand the general difference between Western culture and the Far East.

We need to look at the Greek and Chinese.

The real “old Greeks”, the ones before Athens, were located on mountainous lands. These people lived in valleys and thus in relative isolation from each other. The only thing that mattered to them was what happened in their own valley. These people could be self-sufficient without having to rely much on cooperation. Those Greeks were, in essence, hunters and gatherers.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Chinese people had a different environment.

The Asian tribes lived around the Huáng hé. Everyone relied on this (yellow) river for a healthy agricultural outcome (rice farming). Coordination and central control were thus needed. Ensuring harmony was the goal.

When agriculture arrived in Greece, wine and olive oil production became the objective, turning the independent tribes into businessmen. Competition became the norm.

Philosophers

These different lifestyles greatly impacted how the most influential philosophers of that time thought about the world.

The Greek philosophers, mainly Plato and Aristotle, approached thinking from independent objects: a house, a person, or anything materialistic. Similar to how the peasants only had to think about their own valley.

These farmers’ behaviours also promoted debate. They were not relying on their neighbours and could afford to disagree with others. Greek philosophy is about debate and individual freedom.

The Chinese thought leader, Confucius, didn’t dedicate much of his work to objects. He mostly considered the relations among people. A harmonious social network was desired in his view, and a hierarchical social system was needed to maintain balance and peace.

For the Greeks, the truth was the goal; for the Chinese, the way was more important.

Now, the obligatory multicultural disclaimer: Greece is neither the US nor the UK, and China is neither Japan nor Korea. But we must start at the beginning of our civilisation to understand contemporary behaviour.

Japan has many unique characteristics, which we will discuss later. In this stage of the article, we just need to realise that numerous Japanese traits have originated on Asia’s mainland.

Confucianism has massively influenced Japan since the 6th century. This included concepts of Ethics, Governance, Education, and Filial Piety (family values and respect).

Holistic thinking

One of the most significant differences between Western and Eastern societies is how people view things.

We already discussed that Greek philosophers focus much more on individual objects than Eastern thinkers, who look more holistically.

This tendency hasn’t changed throughout history.

An article in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin studied Western and Eastern traditional art.

The researchers looked at how East Asians and Westerners draw landscape pictures and take portrait photographs. When looking at all the old artwork, a clear pattern emerges.

Ancient East Asian artists drew the horizon higher than their Western peers.

This allows the painter to include more contextual information and objects, like mountains, rivers, or people.

The researchers also asked contemporary members of East Asian and Western cultures to draw images.

The results were consistent with those of ancient painters. The scientists counted the number of contextual objects that were drawn. Asian drawings (number E-H in the screenshot above) contained more context than Western images (A-D). This proved that East Asians look more holistically.

The same article also studied whether portrait paintings and photography would have a similar trend.

The size of the person who was photographed was smaller in East Asian portraits than in Western portraits or paintings. The Asian portraits, therefore, contained much more environmental information.

The article concluded East Asians use “contextual information at the expense of the figure in the scene.”

The subjects that used a photo camera also showed a clear difference:

The results of the photograph-taking task indicated that East Asians were more likely than Westerners to set the zoom function to make the model small and the context large.

Another study in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology compared drawings from Canadian and Japanese children.

They found that the Japanese placed the location of the horizon significantly higher than the Canadian kids in all grades of primary school. The number of objects in Japanese drawings was also much higher.

The scientists drew similar conclusions from the results.

The higher placement of the horizon is linked to the context-oriented visual attention style seen in adults’ drawings and historical paintings in East Asian cultures, as opposed to object-focused drawing styles commonly seen in North American cultures.

What about graphical and UX design?

Researchers at the University of Alberta in Edmonton compared East Asian and Canadian designs. They looked at both print posters and governmental and university websites.

In both cases, the Asian designs were much more information-rich and dense.

The researchers also investigated how quickly the participants were able to process information.

They examined how fast participants were able to find something on the websites. They asked them to identify target objects on mock web pages containing large amounts of information.

The results indicated that East Asian international students are faster than European Canadian participants in dealing with information on information-rich webpages, but such an advantage was not observed with short webpages.

They concluded:

“We identified systematic cultural differences in the amount of information in cultural products and in people’s skill in handling large amounts of information”

This difference can be seen when comparing Japanese and Western websites of the same company.

The Japanese Rakuten website is full of text and clues, whereas the British version of Rakuten’s homepage is very minimal.

The Japanese alphabet

The holistic mind gives Japanese people a desire for more complex UIs. Wouldn't it be easy if this was the single thing that explains their UX design trends?

Of course, but cultures aren’t that linear. They are rather complex.

Next to a holistic mind, the Japanese use a different alphabet. This can also influence behaviour.

The Japanese writing system is a combination of several scripts. Kanji, the main script, was borrowed from the Chinese. Kanji literally means “characters of Han (China).”

The Chinese alphabet didn’t cover all of the Japanese cases. Japan had their own terms and names. Therefore, Hiragana and Katakana were added later.

Hiragana is a phonetic lettering system. Each sound (or syllable) is written with one or two characters called mora. The term hiragana is derived from the word “simple” or “flowing”.

Katakana is usually used for words that find their origin in other languages. Names of people, cities, plants, animals, foreign jargon, etc.

The (Arabic) numbers (1, 2, 3 etc.) are also used in Japanese. Japanese also have their own year numbering system based on each emperor's reign. This also comes back in their UXs.

No bold or italic

Unlike languages that use the Latin alphabet, Japanese fonts don’t have italic or capital letters. This makes it harder to highlight certain words visually. Japanese designers often use decoration or graphic elements to compensate for this limitation.

Japanese sentences can also be displayed horizontally or vertically, which might appear unorganised to Westerners.

Reading speed

Languages like Japanese use characters that can hold a lot of meaning in one character: a so-called logogram. This type of writing may appear crowded to Westerners, but it allows the Japanese to process information quickly.

Something else that helps with quick reading is that Japanese people don’t have a need to pronounce the words in their heads. Western readers use a concept called subvocalising. We learn in primary school to read out loud the words we process.

At a later age, we will still do this in our heads.

In Japanese, you can recognise characters' meanings without pronouncing them. This allows for much quicker reading.

Complexity of fonts

Creating a Latin font requires you to design a variety of glyphs for each character: A, a, a and 1, 1. This means around 200 unique glyphs are needed. If you want to include the other languages based on the Latin alphabet, like all the odd German, Scandinavian, and Romanian accents, a total of less than 1000 glyphs is enough.

The JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards) specifies a set of 2,136 kanji characters known as the Jōyō Kanji. These are considered essential for daily use in newspapers, official documents, and education.

Hiragana and Kataka both contain 46 basic characters.

Akira Kobayashi, a renowned Japanese font designer, explains in an interview with Smashing Magazine that:

“A set of proper Japanese fonts requires approximately 7,000 characters and takes a couple of years to complete by an entire team of skilled designers.”

As a result, there are much fewer Japanese fonts on the market. This naturally leads to more uniformity in the lay-outs. Designers are forced to use the same fonts.

Typing in Japanese

Having this many characters makes typing in Japanese more difficult, both on a mobile phone and on a desktop.

This means that Japanese people are less inclined to use the search bar. As a result, websites show a more link-based browsing mechanism, cluttering the UI further.

We now know that Japanese like to look more holistically and that their alphabet is more information-rich and easily digestible. They also need a more elaborate navigation structure to avoid using the search bar.

These are 3 reasons why Japanese designs look more cluttered.

The need for information

It’s no wonder that Tsunami is a Japanese word. The country is, due to its geographical location, always been under threat of earthquakes, volcano eruptions, tidal waves, and typhoons.

The Japanese have emergency plans for these natural disasters.

The country is prepared for the worst and has protocols in place to deal with the unknown.

Japan also lives according to the spirit of Do.

Do comes from the Chinese word of Tao. Taoism has been influencing Zen Buddhism and reached Japan more than a thousand years ago.

Do literally means “way” and describes the way something should be practised.

Think about the “do” in budo forms (the way of martial) like judo, kendo, and aikido. Sado (the way of Tea), Kado (the way of flowers), and Shodo (the way of the brush — calligraphy) are other examples that illustrate do.

In these fields, “Do” requires a holistic approach to personal development, not just technical proficiency.

Philosophical beliefs and natural threats made Japan a country that heavily relies on rituals, protocols, and everything that can be used to increase predictability.

Before any project can start in corporate Japan, much effort is put into feasibility studies. All the risk factors are considered beforehand.

Those who’ve read my older cultural articles know where this is going: Japan scores really high on uncertainty avoidance.

Countries high on uncertainty avoidance have less tolerance for ambiguity.

This can be easily noticed at Japanese restaurants. Models of food plates are shown so that customers know exactly what they’ll order.

The most effective way to deal with uncertainty in UX design is by providing complete and elaborate information.

Japanese users tend to feel more reassured when there is more information available. For Japanese people, the more detailed the information, the more trustworthy it seems. Therefore, Japanese design primarily focuses on “conveying information” as its main objective, with “presentation/look” being secondary.
- Source

This can also be observed in the design of Social Media thumbnails. For Westerners, Japanese thumbnails look messy and cluttered. For the Japanese, the images show what they can expect after a click.

It works because we also learned that it takes them less cognitive capacity to digest all the information that is displayed.

Who makes the decisions?

To understand Japanese culture more deeply, we must return to the Kamakura and Muromachi periods. During these medieval times, the Japanese developed the ie system. Ie translates to “house” or “family”.

The system works with so-called patrilineal descent: men are responsible for inheritance, succession, and carrying on the family name. Not the women.

Families used to live together in a single house, with members from different generations. The head was usually the father or the oldest son. It was up to them to make all the decisions for everyone.

Japanese society had distinct gender roles, derived from Confucianism: men outside, women inside. Men were responsible for labour outside the home, while women were responsible for domestic duties and child-rearing.

This patriarchal culture has been gradually changing, mostly after the 2nd world War.

Nevertheless, Japan still ranks highest on the cultural dimension of decisiveness vs consensus. This dimension was formally known as masculinity vs femininity and contains aspects like whether the role of genders should differ or overlap and if status is important.

In Japan, the male can still be seen as the head of the family and thus makes the decisions.

In UX, male and female users may be motivated differently, with males often being more logic-driven and females more emotion-driven.

This means that product pages on websites need to show a lot of specifications:

Whether a Japanese male is a traditional type who makes decisions on behalf of the whole family or the modern type who needs to convince a partner first, technological talking points help his case. He doesn’t need to truly understand the tech, he just needs to think that he understands it, and Japanese sites try their best to provide that environment.
- Source

Japanese people rely heavily on product specifications.

Reading between the lines

Japanese culture is a great example of a phenomenon called geographic determinism. The landscape and location of a country have a big impact on its culture.

The book The Japanese Mind explains this perfectly.

Because of the dangerous and unpredictable seas separating Japan from the Asian continent, Japanese culture was able to develop in relative isolation, free from the threat of invasion from other countries.

Japan is also a mountainous country and does not have a great deal of inhabitable land; as a result, people had to live close together in communities in which everyone was well acquainted with one another.

The more isolated a country is, the more people have the ability to refine their communication.

The Netherlands and The US are examples of countries with the exact opposite effect. Because these countries always had a multicultural population, subtility in communication was undesirable. When many people come from various cultures, you can’t rely on deep cultural communication conventions. People wouldn’t be able to understand each other.

Therefore, Americans have a low-context culture. What is said is what is meant. The Dutch are known for their directness. There is no context at all.

Because the Japanese mostly communicated only with themselves, they became amongst the highest context cultures in the world.

They have the concept of wa. Harmony is essential in maintaining relationships.

Another quote from The Japanese Mind.

People avoided expressing their ideas clearly, even to the point of avoiding giving a simple yes or no answer. If a person really wanted to say no, he or she said nothing at first, then used vague expressions that conveyed the nuance of disagreement.

In the beginning of this article, we established that Japanese websites contain a lot of text. This works perfectly if you need elaborate navigation structures and detailed specifications. Or when you prefer holistic information: all information on a single page.

Words are sometimes less useful for high-context cultures, especially when you convey something with emotion, criticism, or encouragement.

East Asian cultures often use photography to convey messages. This helps to let the user find the meaning behind the primary communication, instead of having it spelled out.

Emojis are another way for Japanese people to use subtleties in their communication.

No wonder the term “emoji” is a Japanese word. “E” means picture, and “moji” means character.

Before emoji, in the ’90s, the Japanese used kaomoji instead of the Western emoticons, the smileys like :-).

“Kao” means face, so kaomoji means face characters.

Kaomoji had many more variations than emoji, allowing for much more subtle communication.

The Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh looked into the usage of emoji in their study of The Cultural Differences in the Use of Instant Messaging in Asia and North America.

They concluded that:

A greater percentage of Asians (100%) than North Americans (72%) reported using emoticons on a regular basis. These findings are partially consistent with the hypothesis that emoticons will be more important in Eastern, high-context cultures.

Not only did Asians use emoji more, they also considered them more important:

As expected, there were cultural differences in rated importance. Post-hoc tests indicated that North Americans rated emoticons significantly lower in importance than did Indians, and marginally lower in importance than East Asians.

For high-context cultures, photos and pictograms are a powerful way to convey a message that shouldn’t be spelt out.

In real life, exaggerating facial expressions can be used to indicate your reaction clearly.

Polite speech

Thus far, we have covered that the Japanese like to rely on their etiquette. Polite speech, or Keigo, is another part of their sophisticated social culture. Keigo finds its origins in many historical Japanese influences, like Confucianism and Buddhism, but also in Samurai.

The Japanese use various forms of polite speech. Which one to use? It depends on the context.

Sonkeigo is used to show respect to those higher in status: customers, clients, superiors, and others deserving of honour.

You’d use Kenjougo to humble yourself. For instance, when talking about one’s own actions or possessions.

Teineigo is the standard polite language used in business settings, schools, and formal communication.

One thing UX designers can learn from Japanese politeness is the concept of nemawashi. The word means something like “preparing the roots.”

It basically means that you should build consensus before making a formal proposal.

Many Western UX designers love their ta-daaah moments. They attend stakeholder meetings and present their flashy Figma prototypes as an Apple product launch. However, this will never work in Japan. It actually also doesn’t work in the West.

As a UX designer, you should see yourself more like a diplomat, or a Japanese business person. If you want a design approved, it’s better to “prepare the roots.”

You must first dismantle the potential bombs that could go off in the meetings. You need to create consensus upfront. People want to feel important, especially stakeholders. You should make them feel this way.

Give them a personal treatment, discuss your sketches individually and tailor your design before presenting this to a bigger audience.

This will increase the chances for approval significantly.

The Japanese use nemawashi. It aims to avoid confrontations and ensures harmony.

The missing aspects of this article

This article is getting fairly long, but I haven’t even covered half of the aspects I should write about.

For instance, I didn’t discuss Japanese art (wabi-sabi). This form of aesthetic beauty is characterised by a minimal design. This is inconsistent with how their UIs look, but the desire for accurate information is stronger than for a pleasant aesthetic.

And how does this relate to Manga and Japanese comic culture?

I will cover this more deeply in another article, in which I will also explore colour preferences.

What about the famous electric toilets and the Japanese technological innovations they had?

Conclusion

There has been a fair few people who gave their take on the uniqueness of Japanese UX. There are a number of brilliant articles that I borrowed from and linked to. Check them out!

Some claim that technical limitations and corporate structures are at the foundation of the difference between Western and Japanese tech.

I don’t think so. I hope this article illustrated well enough that the reasons are much more profound and that what happened in the last 30 years is just the result of centuries of social evolution.

Japanese history is so unique and rich that many elements impact contemporary behaviour. It’s distinct and a great example of why international UX designers should study social history.

Explaining contemporary behaviours can only be done by analysing the past.

Each culture has elements we should learn from. I think Japanese culture has many.

Let’s all look a bit more holistically.

Arigatô 
ありがとう

The designs of things in our everyday lives reflect a lot of our cultural and societal values. You may notice things be designed differently depending on which country and which region you’re in.

Imagine walking into an apartment in North America, you might notice that the elevator is missing the 13th floor. Or in central Asia you see the elevator missing the 4th floor.

Why are there floors missing in the first place? Is the building skipping an empty floor?

Such design choices are mere reflections of each country’s individual cultural and societal values. And some of those influences stem from Superstitions.

Superstitions are often seen as quirky or irrational beliefs held by individuals, which surprisingly exert a significant influence on design. I can personally relate to this as I’ve lived in both Taiwan and Canada for extensive periods of my life. The cultural differences between the two countries and the two geographic continents as a whole are quite vast and interesting to dig into.

So in this article, we will be taking a deep dive into how superstition transforms into designs in our daily lives. We will also explore the psychological and social aspects of how superstitions influence designs.

What is a superstition?

An irrational or unscientific belief that attributes special powers or causality to certain objects, numbers, events, or rituals. Superstitions persist despite a lack of evidence due to psychological, cultural, or commercial appeal.

Their meaning arises in contrast to more accepted mainstream worldviews like science. People often have some awareness that superstitious beliefs are questionable, but they also find them appealing.

Superstitions often involve ideas and practices that we embrace to fulfill emotional, identity, or existential needs, even while recognizing they may not be fully logical or grounded in evidence.

Although I am not religious, I still follow some superstitions that have been ingrained deeply in my mind by my parents and peers. When I was in Taiwan, we’d follow some superstitions that are deeply rooted in Chinese Culture.

For example, we would never write names in red ink as that would symbolize some kind of bad omen. But in Canada, I would remember times when teachers would grade papers and write names and scores in red.

Examples of common superstitions from around the world:

1. United States — Knocking on wood to avoid jinxing yourself

2. France — Stepping in dog poop with your left foot is considered good luck

3. Italy — Not placing a hat on the bed as it signifies death

4. Russia — Putting empty bottles on the ground is good luck

5. Turkey — Chewing gum at night is considered bad manners

6. Serbia — Spilling water behind someone before they travel brings them good luck

7. Hungary — Sitting in the corner of a table is bad luck and means you’ll never get married

8. Japan — Trimming your nails at night could lead to premature death

9. Ireland/Scotland — Seeing a single magpie is bad luck

10. China — Having the number 4 in your address is unlucky since it sounds similar to the word “death”

Superstitions provide a sense of control and order amidst uncertainty. When facing unknown outcomes that induce anxiety — like a sports game, investment risk, or major life event — superstitious rituals can psychologically comfort people. They offer a way to exert some seeming influence to improve luck, even if objectively ineffective.

This placebo effect, combined with alleviating anxiety, may also translate to actual performance benefits in skill-based activities. If superstitions give confidence, that self-efficacy boosts execution. Of course, no impact exists for purely chance outcomes.

Superstitions: What They Mean for Your Mental Health
Superstitions are common, but why do people believe? We explore when superstitions may be a problem and what to do.www.healthline.com

The Psychology of Superstition
Is magical thinking hurting or helping you?www.webmd.com

Essentially, superstitions allow people to feel more control and connection. But they can also foster debilitating anxiety in some manifestations. Their psychological influence on both cognition and emotions affects everyday choices and experiences.

Cultural Influence and Symbolism

There are countless numbers of cultures worldwide that translate unique superstitions into architectural, products, and visual designs as a way to serve emotional and cultural needs. “Design” has a multidimensional effect where there is the physical product and the implied meaning and usage behind it.

For example, colors, numbers, and decorative motifs often appear in buildings, spaces, and consumer goods to resonate with the target society’s positive mystical beliefs about luck and fortune.

Designs frequently enable behaviors linked to culture-specific practices around exerting control over uncertainty.

Floor Numbers

In Chinese culture, the number 4 is often skipped when numbering floors because it sounds similar to the word death. You will find that many countries that are deeply rooted in Chinese culture would also adopt similar practices.

On the other hand, in Western cultures specifically in the United States and Western Europe, the 13th floor is often skipped for taller buildings. The reason is due to the widespread superstition and fear surrounding the number 13.

So what happens when you mix cultures?

Depending on the needs of the target audience, some property developers may combine the superstitions of multiple cultures and omit various numbers from the floors. In Vancouver, many buildings have the numbers 4, 13, 14, and 24th floors removed as a way to accommodate a wide variety of cultures that reside in the area.

Colors

The color red symbolizes different things in various cultures.

1. China — Red symbolizes luck, happiness, celebration, and good fortune. It is associated with weddings, New Year celebrations, and monetary gifts.

2. India — Red represents purity, sexuality, love, beauty, the goddess Lakshmi, and is the traditional color for bridal dresses.

3. South Africa — Red is associated with mourning and sacrifices.

4. Western cultures — Red evokes excitement, danger, urgency, and love, and is seen as the color of martyrs and sacrifice due to its connection to blood.

In Chinese culture, many sacred places such as temples and palaces often have large amounts of Red as the belief is that red brings in luck and good fortune.

On the other hand, the color red represents something else in Western Culture. You won’t see red-colored buildings very often.

Architectural Elements

In Chinese architecture, curved roofs and winding paths are common elements thought to confuse evil spirits, who according to folklore can only travel in straight lines. The curving of rooflines and walkways aims to trap spirits and prevent them from entering homes and buildings. This belief translated into signature aesthetic elements in imperial palaces and temples.

Found in parts of New England, “witch windows” are windows tilted at a sharp 45-degree angle, typically placed high up between two gables or roof lines. They originated from colonial-era superstitions that witches couldn’t fly through angled windows on their broomsticks. The unusual shape and placement of these windows thus tied back to magical beliefs about warding off witches.

In the American South, some porch ceilings and cornices feature a blue pigment known as “haint blue.” This shade got its name from Gullah culture superstitions about “haints” or evil spirits that couldn’t cross water. The blue color was thought to confuse spirits and deter them from entering homes, translating fears into a signature regional aesthetic tradition.

Symbolism and Superstition in Architecture and Design - 2252 Words | Essay Example
It is the belief of this paper that superstition in architectural design should only impact aesthetic elements in the…ivypanda.com

Why does superstition translate to design?

Fundamentally, the purpose of incorporating superstitious elements into tangible designs is to cater to enduring human psychological needs for comfort, reassurance, and perceived control. In an article published in Medical News Today, the author mentions how,

Superstitions can have a soothing effect, relieving anxiety about the unknown and giving people a sense of control over their lives.

When facing anxious uncertainty, familiar symbols and rituals offer illusory relief, even if irrational. So superstitions manifest in aesthetics, spatial plans, and functionality to make people feel more “at ease” by tapping cultural beliefs.

Additionally, superstitions allow cultural identity and traditional belief systems to be reflected in built spaces and products. Superstitions encapsulate the “unique attributes” of a society. Design choices like colors, motifs, and layouts align with this folklore.

3 Reasons Why Superstitions Work
Superstitions are more than simple rituals; they're a valuable coping method.www.psychologytoday.com

There are also commercial motivations to account for customer superstitions when crafting brands and offerings. Products shaped by mystical practices make consumers more inclined to irrationally perceive better outcomes.

The case of Friday the 13th and triskaidekaphobia

Researchers estimate that as many as 10 percent of the U.S. population has a fear of the number 13, and each year the even more specific fear of Friday the 13th, known as paraskevidekatriaphobia, results in financial losses in excess of $800 million annually, as people avoid marrying, traveling or in the most severe cases, even working.

Millions of people harbor negative associations with the number 13, leading architects and designers to frequently omit labeling the 13th floor in hotels and buildings, instead skipping from the 12th floor to the 14th. This accommodation of a common superstition in structural design shows the real impact irrational triskaidekaphobia has had.

When the 13th day of a month additionally falls on a Friday, dread and avoidance behaviors seem more pronounced among those who suffer from paraskevidekatriaphobia — essentially anxiety around Friday the 13th specifically. People irrationally but strongly dread flying or making major purchases on these ominous double-whammy dates.

So the mystical sinister perceptions around the converged day and number have translated into both tangible building plans catering to the superstition, as well as impacts on commercial activities and choices made on those calendar dates. Though not grounded in reason, the psychological and emotional impacts are real, with millions modifying behaviors due to firmly held beliefs.

In other words, superstition translates to design as a way to offer comfort.

Lesson for UX Designers

As Designers, we must be able to identify areas of friction when designing products. Ethnographic research is extremely important when designing truly user-centric products. Designers need to explore how their products affect users on a psychological, cultural, and social level.

Exploring how enduring superstitions have actively informed architectural choices over centuries provides an intriguing lens into these user-centric dynamics.

Even if users know intellectually a superstition lacks scientific merit, it still impacts risk perception and choices. UX research and testing need to uncover these subjective emotional factors.

So by highlighting the stickiness of superstitions despite modernization, this reveals underlying cognitive needs designers have to accommodate. As problem-solvers, we should draw insights from architecture’s blend of practicality and symbolism to create more resonant, holistic digital experiences.

Final thoughts

So we’ve seen some of the few superstitions around the world and how they translate into design. To achieve this, we have to go beyond surface-level functional requirements to the deeper emotional, cultural, and psychological forces shaping behavior and perceptions.

Exploring how societies have incorporated enduring superstitions into architectural aesthetics and spatial flows spotlights these complex human dynamics.

As designers, we often face similar tensions working at the intersection of business goals, technical constraints, and user expectations. Understanding examples like triskaidekaphobia shaping hotel floor plans, the priorities we balance come into focus.

Truly empathetic design requires examining our assumptions first. Understanding how even “irrational” beliefs fill gaps in the human experience allows us to create more holistic digital solutions.

That said, the world is becoming more diverse by the second. It is important to recognize that although cultures and superstitions can differ from country to country, that does not mean they can’t coexist!

Liked What You Read? Spread the Word!

Thank you so much for reading. Follow me to be the first to read my upcoming articles that blend design, psychology, and social theories. You can also subscribe to my email list to get my articles directly sent to your inbox whenever I publish!

If you are not familiar with Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American theoretical physicist and educator, I highly recommend Googling him, watching some of his lectures, and digging into his teaching techniques.

The Feynman Technique:

The 4 steps framework is quite simple.

1. Pick a topic to learn

2. Teach it to someone else (preferably a child)

3. Use source materials if you get stuck

4. Simplify any explanation through analogy

Hopefully, you recognize the Feynman Technique, and I prefer every UX Designer follow it both in their own practice as well as with their clients. Learning is a lifetime skill and UX designers need to learn in abundance to do their jobs well. Because the systems we solve problems for are constantly changing, we are expected to quickly be/become experts in any domain through learning.

“As I get older, I realize being wrong isn’t a bad thing like they teach you in school. It is an opportunity to learn something.” — Richard Feynman

I work with students and mentors and I like to use this sample.

Me: How much do you know about a lawn mower? 
Student: Not much, besides that it cuts grass I suppose.
Me: If you go to work for John Deere as a UX designer how much do you have to know about a lawn mower? 
Student: Let me guess…A lot. 
Me: You are damn straight! John Deere is a global powerhouse for the agriculture business sector. An X9 Combine costs between 600K and 1 million dollars and they have sophisticated autonomous vehicle technology being implemented onto farms that are way ahead of our consumer vehicles. I met a UX designer from John Deere at a UXPA conference and he was on a team of 90+ UX designers our of Des Moines Iowa. My point is you don’t need to know about a lawn mower for the hell of it but you do need to show how you can learn about the complex systems that make up John Deere from their consumer lawnmowers to their global agriculture business. 
Student: Ok ok I get it I will have to learn.

What does a learning framework have to do with UX? Great question. I will not sugarcoat it. You have to learn to be a UX designer. The world is far too complex and change happens too fast. You have two choices. You can continuously learn or you can become irrelevant. 
(Psst….I hope you go with the first choice.)

How will the Feynman Technique help?

The learning/teaching technique is led by curiosity and as a UX designer, you should be fueled by curiosity. If you (1) pick a topic like “global agriculture” you quickly will be confronted with a complex system of farming techniques and technology that will require you to understand it through simple terms (2). You will likely need to learn about agriculture tech through documentation and learn many of the industry-based terms (3). As a UX designer, you have the opportunity to help a farmer using complex technology work to reduce their water usage ultimately feeding more people (4). A UX designer cannot arrive at a simple way to describe or communicate a solution for a farmer if they can’t learn about global agriculture deeply themselves, but with the use of the Feynman Technique, a UX Designer can work towards simplicity. 
 
 The Feynman Technique can help a UX designer stay in the “learner” mindset, which is key to solving problems in the first place. UX design can be so much fun and is made even more fun when UX designers are allowed to think, question, doubt systems, make mistakes, learn from them, and ultimately communicate their learnings.

If you find a UX designer unwilling to learn a new tool, explore a new way of thinking about a problem, or is too rigid about “the way” creativity can be applied then I will show you a “bad” UX designer, who is likely to think “they are right” and rarely seeks to validate, iterate, and learn about their solutions with their users. Don’t be this type of UX Designer. Keep learning!

I sincerely hope this finds you wherever you are and you dive into UX and the Feynman Technique.

Here are some other great Feynman resources.

https://twitter.com/ProfFeynman

Original Illustrations by Chris R. Becker using Figma + Procreate iPad App.

Chris Becker is an award-winning Sr. UX design consultant at Bttr, an Adjunct Professor at The Art Center College of Design, and an Author whose work includes solving problems with NASA/JPL, Apple, Netflix, LAUSD, Vulcan Production, Allergan Aesthetics, and others as well as the author of Learn Human-Computer Interaction. Chris holds an MFA in Media Design Practices from the Art Center College of Design. Views are my own.

Follow me @ Chris R Becker
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cbecker
Quora: https://www.quora.com/profile/Chris-R-Becker
My book — Learn Human-Computer Interaction
ADP list for mentor opportunities: https://adplist.org/mentors/chris-becker

There’s no shortage of interesting stories regarding job interviews, especially within the design industry. But never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined that my bad spelling would act as a toxic work culture compass.

The spelling snafu in question happened during a fourth-round in-person interview for a position I was recently pursuing.

By the way, when did this trend of extensive interviews become the norm? I thought such a comprehensive hiring process belonged to organizations like NASA and the CIA, not corporate companies that produce products and services for the consumer market.

The job I was applying for was a creative marketing director position. It was a unique job that required design, marketing, and leadership skills. It was also an in-person role, which I was specifically looking for.

I don’t want to include too much information about the company for obvious reasons, but to provide context, they deliver services and software for various national and local facilities.

The first interview was a phone call with a human resources person, likely to ensure I was who I said I was. They asked basic questions that one would expect in such a conversation.

The second interview was a video conference with relevant team members, such as human resources, sales, and design. Again, this was a routine call that went quite well. The team seemed competent, and everyone was friendly.

The next day, I received an email asking me to come in for an in-person interview. Exciting. However, they also mentioned they had a design test they would like me to perform.

A design test?

First of all, I’m not an entry-level designer. I’ve been designing for nearly 20 years. My portfolio and resume provide enough credibility to highlight my abilities for someone with my particular experience.

However, what struck me as odd was not the test, per se, but that this was a creative marketing director position. Although the role mentioned the ability to design, there was no indication that a design test was required or needed.

That red flag should have been enough for me to say thanks, but no thanks. But I was having trouble finding local in-person jobs, so I figured I’d follow through and see where things go.

I know some people have their opinions about design tests. As mentioned earlier, the only thing that bothers me is testing someone of a particular experience level— it’s almost insulting for folks like myself with nearly two decades of designing under their belt.

For this test, they wanted me to work up a two-sided postcard handout for a conference. They supplied some suggested copy, imagery, and branding guidelines.

Honestly, this type of project felt like something you would ask an entry-level graphic designer to handle. So, I decided to expand the task to demonstrate how I would approach this from a perspective that aligns with the position I thought I was applying for.

Nonetheless, I created what I thought was a well-designed postcard. And to add a little more relevance to the expected responsibilities, I developed a comprehensive pre and post-marketing campaign strategy. This process included designing two engaging emails and social media ads to promote the conference booth, targeting an existing email list. My objective was to demonstrate my proficiency in strategic marketing and brand continuity.

The following in-person interview was in a few days, and the collateral only took several hours to create. After completing the task, I packaged all the files and submitted them to the company.

A few days later, I took the short 30-minute drive to the company’s office. They had a beautiful new building. From the looks of it, they were performing construction, expanding the second floor to accommodate the growth.

In one of the large conference rooms, I met with the same group I talked with over the video conference. However, this time, the CEO sat in the meeting.

We discussed typical interview stuff, such as background, skills, motivations, etc.

They had me run through my designs from the test, which resonated wonderfully with everyone except the CEO. Honestly, it felt like he got pulled into the meeting at the last minute and had little idea about the job position.

I spent a reasonable amount of time mentioning how I approach design and marketing from a strategic and analytical perspective. I explained how I use data to support decisions and ensure hypotheses have a way of being measured. I even talked about how user experience (UX) is a beneficial factor for successful marketing initiatives.

However, the CEO seemed unimpressed by my knowledge and skills. From what I could gather, he seemed to interpret marketing in the Don Draper sense. Big, bold, and intuitive. I don’t blame him. That’s a sexy way to think of marketing, and it worked well 30-plus years ago. But times have changed, and so has the marketing landscape.

Regardless of my feelings about the CEO’s presupposition of marketing, it was a productive meeting that left me optimistic. So much so that I received a text that day for another follow-up in-person meeting— this would be the fourth interview.

This next meeting included the same group as before and the CEO again. The purpose of the follow-up was just to go over some more specifics about the position.

It was during this meeting that things got awkward.

The CEO asked me to bring up my designs from the test again. So I did. He then asks me, in front of everyone in the room, “Can you tell me what’s wrong with this layout?”

I knew what he was likely referring to. I had made a typo on one of the emails and social ads I had created. I noticed the error after I had sent it, but I forgot to mention it the first time I presented the designs. As a reminder, this was one of the extra sets of designs I created that were not part of the original assigned test.

I told him, “Yes, “conference” is misspelled. I did my best to explain what happened by saying, “In a typical process, this type of error would likely not have occurred, but because I created this on the fly, I overlooked the proofreading process. However, that is no excuse, and I should have caught it.”

It was an honest mistake, and I tried to take responsibility for it.

I understood where he was coming from. Here I am, trying to impress a potential employer with my work, and I have a glaring typo — a rather stupid oversight by me.

But I was genuinely shocked he called me out like that — especially in a group meeting. I wondered if they had me back just to put me on the spot.

The CEO even said that he was surprised by the typo because it says I’m also a writer in my resume.

So, not only was he trying to embarrass me, he was insulting me.

There’s nothing I despise more than the grammar police. Being a lousy speller was one of the primary reasons I had avoided pursuing writing for much of my life.

It wasn’t until I had to write a blog article for work several years ago that one of the editors said my writing was great— and I’ve been writing ever since. It’s amazing what a little encouragement can do for us.

As a side note, for anyone who lacks confidence in their writing because they’re bad spellers, just remember that renowned writers like William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Jane Austen, and Ernest Hemingway were also terrible spellers.

Being a great writer encompasses more than just the technical accuracy of words — it’s about the profound ideas, meaning, and emotions conveyed through those words that truly matter.

Back to the fourth interview, the CEO was so obsessed with the fact I designed something with a grammatical error that everything else was irrelevant. The extra work I had done, my design skills, and my qualifications were nothing compared to a single misspelled word.

I wanted to tell him off, get up, and walk out for trying to embarrass me like that in front of potential peers. But I have thick skin and decided it wasn’t worth the energy. Instead, I kept myself composed with the singular thought of knowing I could never work for a company whose leader treats people this way.

It’s one thing to pull me aside and say something, but to parade my work around and put me on the spot is pure immaturity — especially coming from a CEO — this told me all I needed to know about the company.

After that comment from the CEO, my demeanor changed. Any excitement I had was gone. The energy for the rest of the meeting was lackluster. There would likely be no follow-up meeting, and if there were, I would politely decline any offer.

In many ways, I’m grateful for making that typo. If it were not for my bad spelling, I might have ended up at a job with a toxic boss, which, as we all know, trickles its way into the entire company culture.

There is a valuable lesson to learn from this experience. No matter how tempting a job opportunity may seem, evaluating how you and others get treated is essential. This behavior, whether from leaders, managers, or employees, can indicate the company’s culture, which can help you determine whether you will have a fulfilling career there or not. Moreover, it is vital to remember that the company is not just interviewing you, but you are also interviewing them.

So the next time you make a mistake in your resume, portfolio, or design test, take note of how people respond — it may just save you from ending up at a job that you despise.

If you would like to read more of my articles, support my writing, or want to connect online, visit me at michaelfbuckley.com