Hidden By Design

Understanding the difference between simple and simplistic, is fundamental to being able to do great design. The second thing you should learn is that users dont care about your design! Once you have these two things in place, then it becomes easier to focus on the right things when designing. Anyways, I think you should just listen to this episode, which I believe is one of the best we made so fa...

A while back, we asked around for everyones favourite designs and what good design meant to them. In this episode we go through some of the answers and have a discussion about that. Thank you to all who contributed, it was really a pleasure reading and discussing all of this with you.

Time and the use of time is massively underestimated as a tool for anyone who is creating experiences. As a designer, and creator of creative content, there is two types of times. Physical time and Experienced time. In this episode, you will learn how to relate to time as a designer, and how you use this knowledge to change the users experience of time in your creations and designs. We are going t...

Nudging is the art of "ever so gently" influencing someones behaviour. This could be as simple as a countdown counter to make someone make a choice faster, or in a more serious case, package pills in a way that lowers the suicide rate on a national scale. The definition of a Nudge is, any aspect of the choice architecture that alters peoples behaviour in a predictable way without forbidding any op...

Respect a whole person, before you expect a whole person! Let me start by killing a misconspetion about Psychological safety. There is no "Kumbaya" over it, and it does not mean that there will be no conflicts. In fact, Psychologica Safety is about handling conflicts in a constructive way. Its about fostering intelectual disagreements and using them, and its about avoiding personal attacks which a...

Creativity is not just something someone is. Creativity is something that you can be, and train yourself to be. How can I do this, you might ask yourself! Well, you can start by listening to this episode of Hidden By Design, were we will describe what creativity is, and secondly.. and maybe for some more importantly. The Hidden By Designs three step guide to being creative. (Poorly performed by Ma...

There is a lot of talk about AI these days. And when it comes to Design and Creatives, there is a lot of fear that AI will come to take our jobs. At Hidden By Design we believe that AI wont take your job. But if you dont start working with AI then Designers who work with AI will take your job. In this episode we talk about the Turning test. You will also learn what Large Language Models and Genera...

Design thinking is not a new concept, in fact, some would claim that its more than 80 years old and in the making. Design thinking is a method to address human needs and desires in a technologically feasible and strategically viable manner. But how does it connect with the famous three-step business plan of "1 collect underpants, 2 ....mumble mumble... 3 profit"? (Credits to South Park) Design thi...

Getting feedback can feel overwhelming and be a bad experience, if done wrong. It can feel personal and agressive, and can often leave you feeling bad about yourself. Giving feedback is a super difficult, and is not, contrary to popular belief an exercie of guiding people by telling them what to do, its about making people understand what to do. Giving feedback is not about finding and sharing sol...

Design Systems is the bridge between professions which most important role is to be the foundation of creating a culture. This is one of the new enlightenments I got out of listening to John Bevan talking about his Passion for Design Systems. If you want to have a clear brand, but at the same time, want to build products fast, and with a consistent designs and experiences, then this episode is jus...

Motion design is the trade of making design move. In this episode we interview Mark Lawrence, a 24 years in the making and super talented Motion Designer, and he tells us all of the knicks and knacks of motion design. We learn what it is, and what his day to day job entails. From a personal point of view, my favourite bit was understanding that Marc is the salt of any design, enhancing and pushing...

George Miller, wrote a paper in 1965, called “The magical number seven, plus or minus two” which describes limits to our capacity for processing information. This paper laid out the groundwork for “Miller’s Law”, which is “The average person can only keep 7 (plus or minus 2) items in their working memory.” In this episode we talk about how this does not nessecarily a limit that means that you can...

How fast, or how slow, are you at taking action and making desicions ? Well, that really depends on how many things you are supposed to relate to, how clear the hieracy of the design is presented, how much else is disturbing the picture, and etc. Hicks law is a way to calculate your designs and how hard it will be to use, and it looks like this: RT = a + b log2 (n) Response time = personal + envir...

Gamification is NOT when you add a leaderboard and set highscores. Gamification is NOT when you simply take popular gamemechanics and push them into your designs, thinking that it will increase engagement. But what is is then? Listen to this episode about gamification, and you will learn what gamification is. You will also learn how to identify it, and what important elements you need to have in o...

We dive into the topic of Deceptive Design (formerly referred to as “Dark Design”). We unravel it and tell you how to steer clear of its pitfalls. Season two starts of with a bang of a quote, The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. We explore a range of captivating topics, from Indulgences to marital infidelity and Amazon’s auto-subscription delivery serv...

With this season finale we are answering questions that you, the listeners, have been asking. So, take a few minutes to sit down and listen to us funble around, trying to answer these excelent questions ! You will learn the following Why roofings have a pitch (And we will learn about "The Potatohole) Is there a rotation and trends in design that repeats itself over time? Is the "Decoy effect" only...

The season finale is upon us, but fear not, its only a short break while we prepare season 2. We will be back in September again. In this episode you will learn if Martin paid attention during class, and that Thorbjorn prepared some really though questions for Martin to answer. So Quizz along with Martin here, and see if you can get a better result than Martin. See you in Season 2. Where we improv...

Buckle up for another mind-bending episode of Hidden By Design, where we unravel the mysteries of perception with a dash of humor and wit. According to the words of Gustave Flaubert, 'There is no truth. There is only perception.' And in this episode we talk about the fascinating concept of perception from the angle of “Gestalt laws of perceptual organization”. We will be taking on the laws one by...

Welcome to our latest episode on Hidden by Design where we will be talking about 'Emotional Design,' we dive deep into the magical world of aesthetics and its impact on our creativity and problem-solving abilities. As Don Norman famously stated, 'attractive things make people feel good, which in turn makes them think more creatively.' And who doesn't want a little more creativity in their lives? T...

What do you really know about colours? That there is 3 primary colours, or do you know the colour wheel.. or who invented the colour wheel? Well, we can promise you, that in this episode of Hidden by Design, we will teach you something that you did not know. If that is not the case, we will do a full refund ;) We go through the theory of how the eye work, what warm and cold colours are. In the end...

Perception and reality is two different things! This is the quote that we start out this episode with, and it set the stage for what you are about to learn. What is actually there is not the same as what people believe is there. And this creates the foundation for how people will try to interact and operate your designs. Mental models is what users know, or think they know, about a system or objec...

Is it possible to meassure how good your design is? In this episiode we will be discussing Utility and Usability, how they are connected and talk about how this is part of understanding and creating userfriendly design. There is 5 traits of good usability as described by Nielsen and Normann. Learnability, Effeciency, Memorability, Errors and Satisfaction We will go through each of these, and help...

Have you ever heard someone say: “Thats not intuitive!” ? Well, chances are that you have, and especailly, as a designer, you will hear this phrase a lot. But what does it mean? In this episode of Hidden by design, we will explore the idea of intuition, and what it means for the way that you experience the world. You will learn, that intuition is subjective, and it relies on your past experiences....

Do you have good judgment? Are you able to reflect properly on available information, and come to a sensible conclusion? What can affect your ability to come to this conclusion? Get the answers to all of these question by listening to this episode of Hidden by Design, where we take you through some of the things that will influence your ability to make good decisions, and maintain a good judgement...

Did you ever say that you were in flow? Most of us have, but have you really thought about what it means, and where the word “flow” comes from? In this episode of “Hidden by Design” we are going to take you into the realm of optimal experience, and talk a bit about how to get others and yourself into flow, and why this is an extremly important idea, both when you are create User Experience and whe...