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On
Design
By
Mario
Maruffi
Small user experience improvements can turn into big business results.
― Mario Maruffi
User research can save your development budget.
― Mario Maruffi
Good design teams foster a love of learning.
― Mario Maruffi
Innovation starts with curiosity
Curiosity is powered by questions
― Mario Maruffi
Good designers are good facilitators.
― Mario Maruffi
Research to understand
Understand to solve
― Mario Maruffi
Quiet time is essential for problem-solving.
― Mario Maruffi
Create time to be with your thoughts.
― Mario Maruffi
Collaboration is more
Than achieving common goals
Collaboration is
How you and your teammates
Can help each other
― Mario Maruffi
No user testing is the agile way of wasting your development budget.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020 Share what you learn. You can help yourself and others.
― Mario Maruffi
Break down complex user problems into issue trees.
― Mario Maruffi
Good designers work hard on their hard skills.
Good designers work even harder on their soft skills.
― Mario Maruffi
Good design processes are a continuous discovery.
― Mario Maruffi
Design is 80% understanding and 20% solving.
― Mario Maruffi
Being kind can heal you.
― Mario Maruffi
User problems are design opportunities.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2021Micromanagement can make talent fly away.
― Mario Maruffi
Effective designers are tool-agnostic.
― Mario Maruffi
A good design process is a process of learning.
― Mario Maruffi
Good user research
Helps you make
Good design decisions
― Mario Maruffi
Sometimes people try so hard to be right that they forget the importance of being kind.
― Mario Maruffi
Document your design process.
― Mario Maruffi
Good designers desire to understand people.
Good designers desire to help people.
― Mario Maruffi
Solving a problem requires understanding it.
― Mario Maruffi
Art is self-centered
Design is user-centered
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Users don’t have the same background knowledge as you.
― Mario Maruffi
Design contains uncertainty
No matter how much data you have
No matter how many insights you have
Uncertainty is a natural part of the process
Stay flexible
Test, learn
Adjust your plans
As needed
― Mario Maruffi
User-centered design can help you find and answer the right questions.
― Mario Maruffi
Understanding users is an act of love
And a profitable business decision
― Mario Maruffi
Bad design is powered by untested assumptions.
― Mario Maruffi
Learn by doing
Evolve by thinking
― Mario Maruffi
Good design decisions are rarely guessed.
― Mario Maruffi
On a team, sometimes you just need a manager who cares about you.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Good product teams are driven by curiosity
Their work is informed by data
Among other skills
They have research and design skills
So they can discover and understand problems
So they can prototype and iterate with users
So they can co-create better solutions
― Mario Maruffi
Whatever job you plan to do, first make sure you'd enjoy the process.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2021,
2020Be kind. When in doubt, be kinder.
― Mario Maruffi
As much as solving problems
Good designers seek to understand
― Mario Maruffi
Good leaders help teammates help each other.
― Mario Maruffi
When personal assumptions
Become unvalidated design decisions
Business and user experience are in decay
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Users will never forget how your product or service made them feel.
― Mario Maruffi, inspired by Carl W. Buehner and Maya Angelou. Originally published on
LinkedIn,
2020, 2019
When you design a product or service
You must understand
The whole customer journey
Not just one small part
― Mario Maruffi
There are many assumptions in your design process that will reflect your pride, but only a few will reflect your user needs. Test your assumptions with end-users.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Giving design feedback includes asking questions and creating a dialogue.
― Mario Maruffi
Good product teams are driven by curiosity
Their work is informed by data
They have research and design skills
So they can discover and understand problems
So they can prototype and iterate with users
So they can co-create better solutions
― Mario Maruffi
Bad design solves the wrong problems
Good design solves the right problems
― Mario Maruffi
A high-performing team is humble.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Collaborative design isn’t an internal competition.
― Mario Maruffi
Design is a process
A process requires trust
― Mario Maruffi
In the user problem
lies design opportunity.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020When you are kind, you make the world kinder, because you are part of the world.
― Mario Maruffi
As a leader
Show you care
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Look deep into your users' problems, and you will design better.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020When you design a product or service,
you can guess or you can user research.
― Mario Maruffi, Originally posted on LinkedIn in
2020,
2021When you recruit new members, offer them the same empathy you would like to receive.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Do what you say you’ll do
Be a leader that your team can depend on
― Mario Maruffi
If you want to lead by example
Show your team what’s possible
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Design is about creating shareable solutions to shared problems.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020As a leader, encourage your teammates to reach out and support each other.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Unvalidated design assumptions are risky design solutions.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Design requires questioning ― Mario Maruffi
Make your teammates feel like they belong
Make your teammates feel valued and heard
So ideas and collaboration can flourish
― Mario Maruffi
Taking care of small problems may prevent bigger ones.
― Mario Maruffi
As a leader, remember that your teammates learn by observing what you do. How you treat yourself and others will be a model to follow.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020When you ask for design feedback
The better you can describe the problem
And the kind of feedback you’re looking for
The better your teammates can help you out
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020If you are stressed
Set small goals
Hour after hour
Day after day
Celebrate the small wins
As if there were no tomorrow
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2022,
2020Sometimes, we look for answers in the wrong questions.
― Mario Maruffi
Be kind and respectful to others. No matter your title. No matter their title.
― Mario Maruffi
Problems are not walls that prevent you from moving forward, but paths that take you on a new journey.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Designers think
Designers do
― Mario Maruffi
A high-performing culture allows mistakes. Learning from mistakes keeps teams together and makes them grow.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020No usability testing is the agile way of wasting your development budget.
― Mario Maruffi
Testing your design assumptions is a good business habit.
― Mario Maruffi
Team collaboration comes when internal competition has left.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2021,
2020There's a single path to success. Yours.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2021Don’t let your whole design process revolve around assumptions.
― Mario Maruffi
Writing is designing. Use the users' language.
― Mario Maruffi
Good designers understand complexity before simplifying it.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2021Good design makes people feel good.
― Mario Maruffi
There’s always a new problem to solve
Learn how to address the right problem
― Mario Maruffi
Look deep into your user problem, and you will design better.
― Mario Maruffi
There is no single way to design solutions.
― Mario Maruffi
Immature product teams make the same mistake: They want users to understand their products but refuse to understand their users.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020If you think user research is expensive, you should look at the cost of building the wrong thing.
― Mario Maruffi, inspired by Ralf Speth, LinkedIn
2020Starting a meeting by stating the meeting goals can save the meeting.
― Mario Maruffi
By using your competitors’ products as “prototypes”, you can research and learn.
― Mario Maruffi
Design collaboration dissolves the boundaries of “me” and embraces the spirit of “we”.
― Mario Maruffi
Beautiful visual design starts with visual design principles.
― Mario Maruffi
Iterate, iterate, iterate
With the user
Design is a process
A user-centered process
― Mario Maruffi
Many design assumptions will reflect your pride
But only a few will reflect your user needs
Test your assumptions with end-users
― Mario Maruffi
Empathy and compassion are crucial elements of effective team collaboration.
― Mario Maruffi
We can improve our design decisions by designing with our users.
― Mario Maruffi
Celebrating small wins keeps a team motivated.
― Mario Maruffi
Design decisions affect every area of the business.
― Mario Maruffi
How your product makes users feel
Says a lot about your design process
― Mario Maruffi
Good designers help others succeed
Whether it's their users or teammates
― Mario Maruffi
User needs are always on the move.
― Mario Maruffi
Small UX issues
Can create major damage
Can create major opportunities
― Mario Maruffi
Design assumptions are just assumptions.
― Mario Maruffi
Sometimes
To move forward
We must rest
― Mario Maruffi
Happiness comes and goes
Enjoy it as it comes
― Mario Maruffi
Without user research
Design is a costly bet
― Mario Maruffi
The sooner you test your design assumptions
The sooner you can move in the right direction
― Mario Maruffi
Healthy disagreement starts with empathy.
― Mario Maruffi
Good data visualization reduces the users’ cognitive load while improving their decision-making.
― Mario Maruffi
Design opportunities lie in unmet user needs
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020What’s obvious to you might not be to your users.
― Mario Maruffi
If there is no user research
There are no user problems
If there are no user problems
There are no design opportunities
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
Text, Talk
2020,Users want to feel in control
Not feel controlled by your design
― Mario Maruffi
Designers do best when they develop a sense of empathy for both users and internal stakeholders.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020When there's kindness
There's a better workplace
There's better teamwork
There's better business
― Mario Maruffi
Good designers understand complexity before simplifying it.
― Mario Maruffi
Guessing user needs is expensive.
― Mario Maruffi, inspired by Michael Brian, LinkedIn
2021Always remember
To critique designs with facts
By balancing business, tech, and user needs
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2021,
2020Every user is human
Every human isn't your user
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2021If you want a user to understand your digital product, you must first understand the user.
― Mario Maruffi, originally published on LinkedIn in
2021,
2020,
2019Be user-centered today
So you don't have to rework tomorrow
― Mario Maruffi,
2021Human problems are design problems.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn,
2019When you recruit new members offer them the same empathy you would like to receive.
― Mario Maruffi
Unvalidated
Design assumptions
Are expensive
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Research before you design
Test before you build
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Mind the bias.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Giving feedback starts with empathy.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020As a teammate, strive for empathy
Put yourself in your teammates' shoes
Understand their perspective
Understand where they are coming from
― Mario Maruffi, 2019 (Re-published on
LinkedIn in 2020)
Users teach us through our user research.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020As a
Teammate
Assume less
Ask more
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Among other things
Product teams learn
Designers learn
By designing with their users
― Mario Maruffi
Design decisions based on intuition alone can easily be distorted by cognitive biases.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020During brainstorming sessions
Let your teammates open up
At their own speed
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Good design is user-centered.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020There is no such thing as a safe design assumption. Just test yours.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020In diversity there is humanity.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Your users are the reason you have a business.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Do what you say you'll do. Be a leader that your team can depend on.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Good design decisions are data-informed.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Nature promotes diversity
Culture promotes conformity
― Mario Maruffi
To listen to someone fully, one must go beyond words.
― Mario Maruffi
As a leader, let your team know you're there for them.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020An effective team is one where its members truly care for one another.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Designing with no data is like designing in the dark.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Internal competition kills team collaboration.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Design iteration is futile
If not informed by data
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020All teammates need help sometimes. As a leader, build a team that's a great source of information and support.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Before you try to solve a problem, understand it.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Design can bring simplicity
To complexity
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Good design makes people feel good.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020When you give feedback
Don't demand immediate answers
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020People don't care about your brand
They care about how it makes them feel
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Empathy is the bridge
Between you
And your teammates
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Good leadership makes it easy for others to take the initiative.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020A good design process is simple
It does not rely on individual work
It is collaborative
It does not rely on assumptions
It is research-based
It is data-informed
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020Trust the people you hire
They'll be happy to work for you
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020To understand design is to understand human problems; that is both the beginning and the end of design.
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020People try a new product
Because of all the things it can do
But they continue to use it
Because of the way it makes them feel
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020The design solution is not separate
From the user's problem
Understand the user and his/her problem
The design solution will come out of it
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn,
2020I tell you
How I feel
You Tell me
How you feel
This is the way
To connect with
Team members
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn
2020The best way to cultivate empathy toward your users is by spending more time with them and see their products in use.
― Mario Maruffi, originally published on LinkedIn
2020,
2019Design solutions as a team. Remember that good design emerges when cross-functional teams work on every aspect of the user experience using an iterative, user-centered design process.
― Mario Maruffi, originally published on LinkedIn
2020,
2019Learn to love your mistakes
And learn from your mistakes
That’s the secret to a happy career
― Mario Maruffi, LinkedIn,
2020