Hidden By Design

How many choices is too many? A sandwich shop with 150 fillings on the board, and you order the first one you see. This week we look for the point where too many choices stops helping anyone. The question How do you know when you've given a user too many choices on a screen versus not enough? I never know where the actual cutoff is until something's already live and people are struggling w...

You've clicked through a checkout more times than you can count, and it's never felt like a story. This week we take storytelling in design to the least glamorous screens there are. The question I keep hearing that good design should tell a story. But when I'm working on something like a settings page or a checkout flow, it doesn't feel like there's really a story to tell. From...

Someone shares their work, and the only honest thought you have is that it won't work. You keep quiet, or you say it and the room goes cold. This week: what makes design feedback land. The question How do you personally create the kind of environment where someone can say "I think this is a bad idea" without it turning into a whole thing or an argument? How it's said decides whet...

You've been nudging the same layout by a pixel for the last hour. Is it finished, or have you just had enough of it? Knowing when a design is done is the one thing nobody teaches you, and both ways of getting it wrong have a price. The question How do you decide when a design is actually done, versus when you're just running out of time or patience and calling it finished? Finished and out...

Why is no-one talking about AI ethics? Thorbjørn sent Martin a link. That link was for a company selling computers made of living brain cells. Nowhere does that company talk about the ethics involved here, which is a little bit worrying. Maybe even more than killer robots. What we talk about The Anthropic research who said there's more than 10% chance AI will wipe out humans. Is that really go...

A joke works because everything is predictable until it isn't. Thorbjørn thinks breaking design rules works the same way. The question "What's something you were taught early on in your career that you later found out was actually wrong, or at least way more situational than you were originally told?" Off the hosts' own list. Martin's answer: every job used to be a pitch...

What's the one thing about human attention that most designers never learn to use on purpose? The question "What's the one design principle that you think is massively underestimated even by experienced designers like yourself?" This one comes from Martin's own list, not a listener submission. Thorbjørn takes it as a chance to name three principles he thinks go under-used out...

Hidden By Design is a podcast about design for everyone, hosted by Thorbjørn Lynggaard Sørensen and Martin Whiskin. Every episode digs into the design decisions you don't notice, because the best design is the kind that works without you seeing it. We're back. After a break, Thorbjørn and Martin relaunch Hidden By Design in two tracks: Talks , opinion-driven conversations like this one, and Learn...

Figure ground is a funny thing. In essence, it simply mean "forground and background" which should be pretty obvious to have. However, what its all about is how the forground and background of anything plays together, so that you as a designer can use the mechanics of this to your advange. A lot of people think of figure ground as something that is only for visuals, but in reality, it is...

Recently, I wanted a cup of coffee from a coffee machine. I put my cup roughly where I believed that the coffee would come out, I then pressed the coffee I wanted, and then waited.. and waited.. and waited.. then looked at the panel, and found out that it asked me "Are you sure you want coffee?" .. I clicked yes.. and 40 seconds later I had my coffee. This is an example of poorly placed...

Prototyping is the art of creating early models to test ideas, emotions, and processes. To make it easier we have split it into three main types: Bassive prototypes (like mood boards or soundscapes), Business prototypes (minimum viable products for market testing) Interactive prototypes (hands-on user interactions). On of the main benefits of Prototypes testing, is that you get earyl understanding...

The worlds WORST Chewbacca sound effect is in this episode. If you never heard about Diegetic and Non-Diegetic sound effect, you are not alone, but after listening to this episode, you will know what it is. And you will know how bad Thorbjørn is at saying.. Dialec.. Diaga.. Diegetic! We are going through movies, games and a lot of other things in this episode, and applying the knowledge that Marti...

A composer is a person that decides how you should feel, and then, makes you feel that. Sounds familiar? In this episode we are doing something that we dont do often, interview a person, and this person is Michael Coltham a composer whos box, is bigger than Martins! Michael tells us all about how he works as a composer, what the process of creating a new composition is, which is not unlike Design...

"This is Dave's printers. I'm not here at the minute. Please phone me back, see you later." If you want to hear Martin fail at making an example of a bad voiceover, this is the episode. Even trying to do a bad job, he does great! In this episode, we are learning what voiceover is, and how it is VERY much design, the preperation, the understanding and the performance. In this episode, which is the...

What is a problem statement really, and is it really nessecary? (Yes it is ;) ) "Job to be done" is a tool to help you really understand the problem and stay focused on the problem rather than on the solution. Thinking of the good old phrase "Fall in love with the problem, not the solution", job to be done is here to help you keep your love for the problem strong. This episode is the first episode...

Postels law, also known as the "Robustness principle" originally comes from the development and ideas of how the internet should be designed. The TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) was designed with the following sentence as a central point " be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others ". How is this related to design you might ask? Well, really s...

Do you rember that party you attended, where there was this one person who was really funny, and was the center of attention, and said so many funny things. And then, do you remember other conversations that was happening that night? It likely that you wont. And the reason, can be found in the Von Restorff Effect. The things that stand out, is what you remember. In this episode of Midden By Design...

Im not a businessman, I dont sell out, I am a designer! I believe that this is a pretty common mindset, and also a really healthy one. But.. and yes, there is a but. If you do not make money, you are not free to create and share the good in this world. Further more, since everyone else in the world is also using the same concept of money, then when you are designing, this have a huge impact on the...

Damn, I really need the toilet, but I am far away from home! We have all been there, out for a walk, and in need of a toilet! And it appears that the close we get to home, the more we need to go! At a point when we are there, its almost unbearable! What I tell my kids when in this situation, and what helps me, is to imagine that the toilet is not at home, but somwhere else.. setting the goal furth...

What is bad design, and how do you identify it? Sometimes you will look at something, and think.. bah, that is a really bad design, the experience is totally off. And often you know this instinctively, but what if it is just a matter of your not being the one this was designed for, or you simply being in a bad mood. Fear not, Hidden by Design is here to help you. We have questions you can ask abou...

UI is not design! And with that out of the way, lets get to the meat of this episode. This is an episode about understanding what User Interfaces (UI) is and isnt. Now that you read this far, then I feel I need to make sure that I mention that design cannot exist without an interface, and so, in that way, they are connected at a very fundamental level. Its like paint in a painting, a painting cann...

This episode is about the relationship between emotions and decisions. We discuss how emotions are the brains way of making decisions, where as an example "hot state" decisions are made at high emotional influence. Think about your emotions like a cup with a tiny hole in the bottom, everytime something fules that emotion, you put a bit of "emotional water" in the cup, if the wa...

Why do we need to be great storytellers? And where does Storytelling fit into Design and user experience. This is what we are talking about in this episode. By listning to this you will learn: The difference between a layout and a Composition Aristoteles story formula How to use storytelling in your designs Resources: Simon Sinek - Ted Talk Simon Sinek - Start With Why Anthony Jeselnik Studying ar...

Design Ops is there to help Designers "Doing the job that matters"   NNGroup defines the Design Ops as "The orchestration and optimization of people, processes, and craft in order to amplify design’s value and impact at scale." As soon as more people works together, and groups start to form in companies, then the overhead and bureaucracy becomes a factor in the way that everyone works together. Th...

Nothing is also something! And that is exactly what we are talking about in this episode of Hidden By Design. Most people are afraid of Whitespace, and in many cases that is a problem if you are a designer. This conversation will let you know the basics about whitespace, and some practical advice on how to use whitespace. You will learn: What Whitespace is That nothing is also something. Elements...