Much like late-stage capitalism, late-stage UX is characterized by its market saturation, heavy focus on financial growth, commoditization, automation, and increased financialization. Corporations exert significant influence over the economy and society, and designers can only push so far when advocating for user needs. How can we navigate this landscape as designers in 2024?
Full throttle: messy feedback to design decisions, fast →
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Editor picks
AI chatbots and their Cringe problem →
What makes us feel “off” about responses we get from LLMs.Is technology harming our brains? →
How tech is limiting our critical thinking capabilities.Designer layoff stories →
Retaliation, targeted eliminations, and other horror stories.
The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and illuminates the path to design mastery and critical thinking. Here’s how we’re boosting stories through our partnership with Medium.
How Spotify designed the identity for this year’s Wrapped →
Make me think
Are design ethics useless? →
“Have you worked in digital design for a while? I bet you’ve been under pressure to apply deceptive design patterns and weaponize design against users. With so many companies disrespecting the needs and rights of users, a lot of it has become sort of standard practice.”Learn a foreign language before it’s too late →
“To me, AI’s scariest aspect is the so-called singularity—the threat of a runaway intelligence explosion leaving humanity in the dust. But today’s state of the art in artificial intelligence is already auguring smaller but still shattering scenarios.”If capitalism is a cancer, what are we? →
“If capitalism is a tumor, what does the inside of a tumor tell us about who we are as actors in this story? And what does this metaphor tell us about our pathways toward recovery?”
Little gems this week
Margaret Calvert’s radical road signs →
Branding Bushidō: growth through the samurai ‘way of service’ →
Why you should think twice before you AI the day away →
Tools and resources
Designing accessible security questions →
A trauma-informed approach.The UX system of three concepts →
Concepts that might help you to thrive in a design career.Divergent color schemes using ChatGPT →
Color divergence with text-based GenAI.
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