Now think about your favourite digital services: the ones that just feel effortless to use. Every interaction flows naturally, and it all feels part of the same trusted experience. That’s not by accident. It’s the result of a well-structured design library, working behind the scenes to create consistency, scalability and trust.

As both a designer and a user, I’ve had my fair share of frustrations with clunky interfaces and mismatched branding in UI. And because of that, whenever I kick off a new project, I’m determined to avoid those pitfalls by building a solid foundation: the design library.

So in this article, I hope to share why building a robust design library is the key to tackling these pain points and creating seamless user experiences at scale. It’s also why I’m driven to write this: I’ve seen firsthand how a well-crafted design library can transform not just a single app, but an entire organisation’s digital ecosystem, something I’ll share further as we go along.

Design library vs design system

I will focus specifically on design libraries in this article rather than the broader concept of design systems. In simplest terms, a design library is a curated set of style guides and reusable interface elements like typography, color palettes, and buttons, that help teams maintain a consistent look and feel. A design system, on the other hand, goes a step further by having code-ready components, more extensive documentation, and processes that unify the way teams update and govern the design system.

While design systems offer a more comprehensive framework involving deeper collaboration with developers and product teams, most organisations might not need to start there. Instead, a solid design library lays the groundwork, setting the stage for a more scalable design system as the product and organisation evolve. Think of it as an early-stage design system, delivering immediate benefits in consistency and efficiency without overcomplicating things.

What makes a design library great

In the years designing products across startups and enterprises, I’ve learned one crucial lesson: the bigger or more complex the organisation, the more important this foundation becomes. Let me explain why.

First, design library is your brand’s digital DNA

When most people think about design libraries, they picture a collection of UI components from popular design systems like shadcn/ui, Bootstrap, or the default iOS and Android UI kits. Just grab a UI kit, change some colours, and call it a day. While this might work for simple products, we’ve learned the hard way that it comes with significant costs, especially for complex products and enterprise projects.

When a design library doesn’t carry the brand’s DNA, it leads to a generic-looking product, making it hard for customers to distinguish your brand from competitors. Look at Netflix, Duolingo, or Instagram, you can recognize them instantly, even without seeing their logos. That’s because the most successful businesses invest in design libraries that truly reflect their identity, extending beyond colors and fonts to shape the entire user experience.

I saw this firsthand while we designed a mobile app for manufacturing plant performance monitoring. Rather than defaulting to a generic enterprise style, we worked closely with stakeholders to channel their brand DNA of efficiency and innovation into the design. We introduced a sleek dark mode interface that highlight key metrics without overwhelming the user, while giving the product a modern, cutting-edge feel. These choices not only supported advanced data visualization but also aligned seamlessly with the company’s future-focused vision.

Similarly, our work on the HMI Group hospital website was centered around building trust, an essential factor in healthcare decisions. The brand DNA was translated into the digital experience by focusing on clarity, warmth, and professionalism. We used clean, structured layout to make medical information easily accessible, a reassuring color palette that conveys safety and expertise, and real imagery of doctors and patients to create a sense of reliability and human connection. These design choices helped establish a confident user experience, ensuring patients felt informed and supported at every touchpoint.

Handles the real-world complexity when basic UI kits fall short

One real story stands out. A Global Fortune 500 energy company approached us to revive a project that had failed three times and cost millions. When we looked deeper, we realised the core underlying issue. The previous teams had built solutions without validating their assumptions with actual users. Without a structured design library to support rapid prototyping and testing, each iteration became expensive and time-consuming, making real user validation impractical.

The impact then was clear: users struggled with complex workflows and data visualizations that didn’t match their mental models or daily needs. What could have been caught early through proper user testing had instead led to costly rebuilds.

We knew we had to take a different approach. So we started by asking questions like:

• How can we use a design library to accelerate our user validation process and reduce the cost of iterations?
• What patterns do users actually need for interpreting complex operational data effectively?
• How do we ensure our design system supports continuous user feedback and evolution?

From there, we built a design library that made complex industrial data analysis and reporting more accessible and intuitive. We implemented:

• Legible typography with a clear hierarchy, ensuring key figures stood out for instant recognition.
• Strategic spacing and balanced UI density prevented data overload by grouping related metrics, making dashboards structured yet easy to scan.
• Color coding provided quick visual insights such as greens for positive trends and reds for warning, to help users identify key data points at a glance.
• Visual cues like progress status and last-update indicators enhanced clarity, ensuring users could quickly interpret real-time data without unnecessary friction.

What truly excited us over the years was seeing the design library evolve into a scalable enterprise solution that served diverse user needs, from engineers tracking real-time equipment data to executives analyzing company performance metrics. Despite their distinct needs and technical expertise levels, users experienced a consistent, efficient interface throughout.

Designed for real people and real needs, instead of generic user personas

Sometimes, the most valuable lessons come from specialised projects. Take VivaValet, a digital product we designed to make technology more accessible for elders. Generic design libraries would have failed here because they don’t account for age-related accessibility needs like declining vision, reduced dexterity, and cognitive differences. So we needed to go deeper. Through extensive UI research, we studied how elderly users learn, interact, and think about digital interfaces. This led to crucial design decisions, like:

• Increased text size from 16px to 24px for better readability and less eye strain.
• Carefully selected typography optimized for legibility.
• Enhanced touch targets to prevent accidental taps, accommodating users with reduced motor skills.
• High-contrast color schemes tested with vision disability tools, improving visibility.
• Simplified navigation patterns aligned with elderly users’ mental models.

As surprising as it may seem, culture plays a big role in design libraries. What works well in one region may not translate effectively in another. Working across Southeast Asia has taught me that digital behaviors, expectations, and even visual preferences differ dramatically. A one-size-fits-all design library risks alienating users, making cultural awareness a key factor in creating effective, scalable designs.

Through research and testing, I’ve found that cultural considerations impact several design aspects, including:

• Visual hierarchy and UI density – Apps in Asia often have denser layouts compared to Western counterparts. This reflects cultural differences in written language structure. Asian characters convey more meaning per symbol, leading to a preference for compact, information-rich interfaces. Western apps, by contrast, use more whitespace and minimalistic layouts.
• Color meanings and symbolism – Colors don’t mean the same thing everywhere. In the West, red often signals errors or warnings, but for Chinese, it represents luck and prosperity. Similarly, white conveys purity in Western cultures but is associated with mourning in some Asian traditions. Understanding these cultural associations prevents unintentional miscommunication.
• Bilingual interfaces that feel native, not translated – Direct translation isn’t enough. Sentence structures, reading flow, and emphasis vary across languages. For example, Malay and Thai sentence structures differ significantly from English, requiring thoughtful UI adjustments to ensure readability and natural phrasing.
• Local payment behaviors – Even digital payments aren’t universal; different regions have preferred methods. In Southeast Asia, QR code payments and bank transfers are common, while Western users are more accustomed to credit cards and PayPal. A well-structured design library must support these regional differences without overcomplicating the experience.

By embedding cultural awareness into design libraries, we ensure that digital products resonate with real users, fostering trust and engagement. Rather than applying generic user personas, we tailor experiences based on how people naturally interact with technology in different markets, ensuring usability, familiarity, and long-term adoption.

Not self-limiting but continuously evolve to scale

Early in my journey, I could get away with rigid design libraries for smaller products. But enterprise projects taught me a valuable lesson: if your design library can’t evolve, your digital platform can’t either.

A truly effective design library must anticipate growth, supporting new features, products, and even entire business lines as you scale. Ultimately, a robust design library is key to removing friction when your product suite expands, ensuring consistent user experiences across new markets, functionalities, and digital platforms.

How do you know if your design library is too rigid?

A rigid design library often creates more problems than it solves. Some telltale signs include:

• Hardcoded components that break or require extensive customisation when a new feature or product is introduced.
• Overly prescriptive guidelines that don’t allow flexibility for different teams, leading to workarounds and inconsistencies.
• Minimal documentation or poor onboarding, causing teams to misuse or abandon the library altogether.

What does a flexible design library look like?

Now, I build design libraries that are:

• Component-based and scalable, ensuring that UI elements can be easily repurposed for new services.
• Structured for modularity, so teams can mix and match UI patterns rather than being locked into rigid templates.
• Supported by clear documentation and onboarding, ensuring that internal teams and external vendors can adopt it seamlessly

We treat our design libraries as living documents, continuously engaging with stakeholders and testing with real users to identify pain points and opportunities for improvement. This feedback loop ensures our design libraries remain relevant and effective, allowing organisation to grow without sacrificing brand consistency or user experience.

The joy factor, making digital products people love

Even in business contexts, emotional connection matters. When we worked with TNG ewallet on their in app parking, a locally infused microcopy was essential to making this an immediately resonant touch point for Malaysians. Users loved it so much they shared screenshots of our playful writing on social media.

As a Malaysian born and bred UX design and development agency, we know Malaysians well. We believe that adding delightful, culturally relevant details is key to creating memorable experiences. By infusing the local culture into interface elements, microcopy, and overall design, we make digital products feel personal and engaging, even for something as everyday as parking or payment applications. This human touch can transform mundane interactions into moments of genuine delight.

Real business metrics improvements

Remember that Fortune 500 enterprise project we redesigned? The results speak for themselves:

• 90% Monthly Active Users (MAU)
• 30% improvement in Manufacturing Plant Cycle Efficiency
• 50% reduction in plant interruptions
• Expansion across 14 applications

While the design library wasn’t the sole driver of these metrics, it played a crucial role in enabling rapid prototyping, structured validation, and efficient design production, helping teams iterate faster and implement changes at scale.

What surprised me the most was seeing other projects within the same enterprise begin adopting the design library, amplifying its impact far beyond the original scope. With a shared system in place, teams could build upon existing components, reducing duplication and streamlining workflows. This is the testament to what I mentioned in the introduction: a well-structured design library doesn’t just improve a single app; it has the potential to scale across an entire digital ecosystem of the organisation.

Over time, we’ve consistently seen how a well-structured design library accelerates operational excellence:

• Product and development teams release features faster
• Different departments easily maintain a unified brand
• Updates and maintenance become more efficient
• New team members quickly get up to speed
• External vendors deliver high-quality work with fewer inconsistencies

Ultimately, these metrics highlight that a well-structured design library isn’t just about looks; it’s a strategic asset that boosts operational efficiency, ensures user satisfaction, and strengthens brand credibility across the entire organisation.

Hard-won lessons: what actually works

After building design libraries for everything from small startups to major enterprises, here’s what I’ve learned:

Lesson #1: Start with understanding

Instead of jumping straight to UI components, start by understanding your users, operations, and vision. The strongest design libraries are built on deep insights, ensuring they address real needs rather than just assembling UI elements.

Lesson #2: Build for your reality

Focus on creating components that solve your specific challenges. Align your library with your team’s workflow and product requirements so it grows with your needs instead of forcing unnecessary constraints.

Lesson #3: Think long-term

Approach your design library as a strategic investment rather than a quick fix. The most successful libraries support where organisations are going, not just where they are today.

Lesson #4: Test with real scenarios

The true test of a design library is how well it handles your most complex use cases. Every library improves dramatically through thorough testing with users in real scenarios.

In fact, we’ve found that with the right foundational elements in place, you can go from hypothesis to user-tested prototype in a 5-day design sprint. Because the UI components already adhere to consistent branding and standards, teams can focus on testing new ideas, rather than building everything from scratch.

Final thoughts: Building a foundation for lasting impact

A well-designed design library is more than just a collection of UI components. It’s a foundation for digital success. By investing in a robust, flexible library, you can accelerate product development, create user-friendly experiences, and ensure your brand stands out in an increasingly crowded market.

At Stampede, we’ve helped organisations build design libraries that truly transform their digital capabilities. If you’re considering this for your organisation, let’s discuss how we can create something that doesn’t just look good, but delivers real impact. Reach out to studio@stampede-design.com

The post Design Libraries: The Key to Success (or Failure) appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

When Shaza revealed in our Slack channel her upcoming talk on AI/UX at Ørsted on April 25th, I was beaming with excitement as the notion of AI/UX sparked a curiosity tinged with a hint of apprehension in me. Would this innovative frontier replace our roles, or augment them? Eager to unravel the mystery, I eagerly anticipated Shaza’s insights.

Stepping into the Ørsted Malaysia office feels like entering a fresh, modern space. Sunlight pours through expansive windows, illuminating a space furnished with sleek Nordic design, the space feels inviting and innovative in its clean lines. Zen and Nuriy from the UX team greeted Shaza and me with a warm welcome, a palpable energy buzzed through the air with a mix of focus and friendly collaboration. It’s clear this is a place where people from over 17 nationalities are passionate about Ørsted’s mission in renewable energy, and that gets us excited to be part of it!

Shaza started the talk with the myth of Prometheus, the Greek titan who is best known for defying the Olympian gods by stealing fire from them and giving it to humanity. The fire he gave wasn’t just warmth, but the spark of progress in technology and knowledge, and the fire that brought us to this talk today, is AI.

A little soul-searching before AI tooling

To design for a relationship with AI, we need to know ourselves first.” – IBM, Design for AI

Stampede has been a long advocate of the use of thoughtful design and technology to create positive change. Our current exploration, “To AI or not to AI?”, began with deep reflection, because as with any true improvement, the journey starts with a clear understanding of why. We found asking ourselves repeatedly, “Will doing this help us create a better world?” and if it does, “What does a better world look like to us?”, while we are on our way to creating a better world, “Are we being thoughtful with how we do it?”

Our curiosity is insatiable, like a researcher chasing down a breakthrough.

Our early journey in injecting AI into our design process

The real value will come from using AI to enhance human creativity and innovation, supporting human needs and potentials.” — Ginni Rometty

The design process, from user discovery and problem definition all the way through prototyping and testing, offers numerous opportunities for optimization. In Stampede, we view this process through the lens of “Drag vs. Lift”. Drag represents actions or practices that slow us down, reduce efficiency, or stifle creativity. Conversely, Lift refers to actions that boost productivity, spark innovation, and streamline workflows.

We looked for drags in two primary areas: Research and Design Delivery. Our strategy was to over-index on pains in the design process that are also causing business pains. Ideally, these drags would require less effort to address yet deliver significant impact. For each pain point, we then explore potential AI solutions that could act as our co-pilots in the design process.

An example of Drag is the endless design iteration cycle, which can significantly delay the product’s time-to-market. While iterations are crucial for building confidence, there is a tipping point. We use the Rule of 70% in our process, suggesting to aim for 70% confidence to make timely decisions, balancing accuracy with speed. But how do we do this?

Stampede’s UX researchers help PMs achieve the critical 70% confidence mark faster by using AI co-pilot that automatically records, transcribes and analyze user feedback from testing sessions, accelerating actionable insights and propelling product development. We also employ advanced user behavior models to help forecast future trends and predict user reactions to different design options, empowering product teams to proactively anticipate user needs and deliver solutions that resonate. This is how UX researchers in Stampede become key partners in this fast-paced decision-making process.

AI is definitely changing the game in our processes, like how we conduct user research differently now with AI-assisted proto-persona, or how we design surveys differently now with AI to role play as respondents, and it’s only going to be more exciting from here! Surprisingly the one that sparked the most conversation during the talk was, how do we design accessibility differently now with AI?

Transforming the digital experience of seniors

The crowd started stirring into accessibility topics when Shaza mentioned about how frustrating it can be for our parents to use apps that seem like a breeze to us. Technology can be a real barrier for the senior community and often it’s because we, the younger generation, design it without fully comprehend their needs. We might think an interface is clear and simple, but for someone with declining eyesight and dexterity, it could be a confusing jumble. This is where AI enters as an accessibility game-changer, it can help us realize blind spots by analyzing user behavior patterns and identify areas where seniors might struggle with an app. It can assist us in designing appropriate copywriting tone, creating a designing language that resonate with their physical and emotional needs. By leveraging AI in our process, we can move beyond designing for our current selves and create technology that truly empowers everyone, regardless of age or ability, creating a better world for our senior community (and perhaps our older selves might benefit from it!)

Intersectionality is the dawn of AI-ready teams

Lunchtime buzzed with discussions about future-ready designers with the Ørsted team. We shared Stampede’s “design onigiri” illustration, visualizing the roles of UX, UI, and product designers. Imagine a designer with business acumen and a product manager fluent in user research, these overlapping skills don’t clash, instead, they spark a powerful synergy that this intersectionality creates a shared perspective, supercharging collaborations that will move the industry forward.

Fun fact: The “design onigiri” was inspired by Shaza’s recent trip to Japan. The Ørsted team saw an opportunity to suggest a Malaysian twist – a ‘nasi campur’ version, which is really awesome, talk about global design inspiration!

And it’s a wrap!

A huge thank you to Ørsted’s UX team, especially Zen Cheong and Nuriy Arisa and your fantastic design team, for your incredible hospitality and for creating a space where we learn alongside fellow designers. It’s collaborations like these that fuel our mission at Stampede to create better worlds, one thoughtful innovation at a time 🚀

The post Designing Tomorrow: AI as a Co-pilot for Design in Stampede appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

When I first joined Toro, which is a product team in Stampede (torotimer.com), the team was in the midst of a sprint. For those who are not familiar with sprint, it is a set period of time during which specific work has to be completed and made ready for review, usually involving the product owner, the design and development teams. The outcome is usually a prototype or solution to a problem, alongside valuable insights about customer needs and preferences.

In my case, the sprint focused on a freelancer product, which we internally called as Toro Freelancer. My colleague Luqman and I set out to build a new prototype for Toro, as well as being responsible for the testing research plan and participant recruitment.

Lesson 1: It’s okay to take a step back to solve the problem

From the ideas we had, the product owner selected a few viable ones, but also realised that they were skewed towards a known solution space. There are many solutions out there to help freelancers get paid easier, and beating this dead horse won’t really help our users in a meaningful way.

What we missed were strong ideas for helping our freelancer improve their productivity in a way that is sustainable for them. Realising this, we took a step back to shift our focus on the right problem.

Lesson 2: Standing out from the competition

Initially, I thought it was merely a minor issue to miss the step of having solid ideas for the right problem. But after the testing later on I realised one more lesson, which is that in making a product, we need to differentiate ourselves from the competitors, not just create another similar tool in the market.

Focusing on user’s problem in being productive sustainably really tested our product market fit. If we did not take a step back to focus on that opportunity, we might just waste our time creating another common quotation/invoicing tool, getting further from our goal of making freelancers subscribing for Toro.

Lesson 3: Be selective about what we want to test

One lesson that I learned from prototyping is that we need to be selective in what we want to test. Not everything has to be interactive in a product test. Sometimes we may want to keep a non-interactive item like a button that cannot be clicked, so we can ask the user to guess where it might lead. Test time is limited and this will help us to be more efficient and focused on the actual hypothesis we are testing.

Lesson 4: Be intentional in design

Another lesson is to be intentional in prototype design, to the small details. I learned this from a situation where I only randomised the variation height of bars in the chart, without any deep thought. However, during the testing, the users interpreted the bar chart in a certain way, like the chart was designed intentionally to show something. At that moment, it exposed my bias that some users actually do think and care about the tiny details.

Being intentional with the details is also another reason why we need to design the prototype with a smooth continuity so that users are not confused, surprised or distracted. For example: add a confirmation modal first to smoothen the flow, remove an existing CTA which can distract the user from the tested path etc.

Lesson 5: Ask the right questions to screen the right users

As I was taking the lead for user recruitment, initially I was thinking of an easy path: Edit an existing screening survey, spread it anywhere, pick the users and schedule the slots.

I did not expect it would be hard and time-consuming to find the right users. It was a moment of clarity for me as to why a certain UX agency has dedicated researchers only for user recruitment.

The screening survey attracted many scammers because of the monetary incentives, plus it was posted not in the right channels. We mitigated this by verifying through their LinkedIn profile or portfolio link.

Asking the right questions also means only asking the essential questions. I learned the hard way that sensitive questions, such as gender and marital status can be intrusive, especially when they do not carry any weight in finding the right users. Essential questions could make the screening form shorter, which would mean less friction for the users while providing enough info for designers to filter them.

Lesson 6: Be pragmatic, not dogmatic

Finding the right channel to funnel quality users was also important. What worked in the past might not work this time. After getting so many wrong users in the list, I started to think “If I were an established freelancer, where would I be to connect with like-minded people?”. I eventually hit a jackpot when I found a few Slack channels that vet the users to ensure a sustained professional community.

The benefits of getting the right users would later be manifested in the quality of the testing. The users could really relate well with the prototype especially when it was able to solve their pain points. I was super relieved when the right users stress-tested the prototype. Seeing what worked or did not work for them gave us some ideas on how we were gonna tackle the next step of the product.

Lesson 7: Making mistakes is a part of growth

Understanding different accents, handling internet connectivity issues, users being very prescriptive or just providing short simple answers, and managing time limits can be challenging to the facilitator. Having diverse users tested my ability to manage these sessions. As it was my first time handling a testing, having a more experienced designer observing me and providing detailed feedback improved my facilitation skills after each session.

I made the mistake of asking too many questions early on about what the user understood from the prototype. This consumed a lot of time and did not provide insight into whether the feature was useful (and how) or not (and why not). The reason we had testing in the first place was to test the prototype by understanding users’ thoughts on how the prototype would or would not solve their problem.

After conducting the testing, I feel more confident to do user interviews/testing. At the same time, I want to keep training those muscle memories until my interviewing skill becomes natural.

Another lesson that I learned is we sort of established rapport with the users. They could be a great resource if we have questions related to our product research, such as the reason they are using separate tools for invoicing and time tracking. Some of the users were so willing to help us, and they were just an email away 🙂

Lesson 8: On deciding what to ship

As a product designer, I had a sense of ownership to carry the product to success. However, I had a lot of uncertainty about how to nudge the team in the right direction when prioritising features for the minimum payable product (MPP).

During the testing, we tested a lot of features based on our research. However, in reality, achieving the ideal state of a finished product requires going through multiple release cycles, which can take months or even years.

So how do we prioritise certain features to ensure we are on the right path for users to start paying for Toro? What if our MYP is similar to all the other tools in the market? Will users be willing to pay for it?

The testing showed that we have a Unique Selling Proposition (USP) module that can differentiate us in the market, as it solves major pain points for users. However, shipping that module requires a lot of effort and other foundational features to be shipped first.

Since we do not want to release a half-baked product, should we build all those features, including our USP module, before releasing the subscription plan?

All of these questions were on our minds. After further reading and asking a few designers in the industry, we initially thought that a prioritisation workshop would provide more clarity on the path forward due to the inputs from the team. However, in our case, Shaza as the product owner, is well-versed in the feasibility, viability, and desirability, and this part is the product owner’s call to make, not the team’s. We learned that we should have discussed with the product owner first the best way this should be done.

Lesson 9: Learn from history

Later, I learned that Figma did not have the collaboration feature when it was first launched. There are many examples of successful startups that launched their products without their best-known features yet. What is more important is to ship, measure, and learn, rather than dwell in the uncertainty of which features to ship first.

Nobody can predict the future, but we can try to make the best decision at the time with the info that we have. If we fail, we need to fail fast and iterate. If the minimum viable product does not go the way we wish, at least it saves us from wasting our time and effort on the queued features. At least we learn what is working and what is not.

Lesson 10: Size the development effort carefully

I also learned that a feature might carry more complexities than I initially thought. If we overlook certain details, it might surprise us in the development phase. For example, can the user edit the invoice that has been sent? What if we allow the invoice to be edited if the client hasn’t seen the invoice on Toro platform? How sure are we that the client hasn’t seen the invoice?

Thus, it is important to collaborate with the developer to understand what the considerations and technical constraints are to build the feature and to be specific (to a certain extent) so that developers won’t undermine the actual efforts needed.

That concludes our 10 lessons. If you have any tips or best practices for designing valuable products, please share them in the comment section 👇

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Running a UX workshop is a user experience lesson by itself as there are several types of personalities that can be identified from the involved participants. One participant might be very eager about the project creating a dominating presence, while the other might be too shy and nervous and keeping him/herself recluse from the beginning. This is where the UX workshop facilitator truly shines, by navigating around different personalities so that every participant becomes involved. Everyone has a say in things and their opinions are valued.

Deriving from our experience running this UX process, here are a few commandments in facilitating a UX workshop.

Thou shall be super prepared

There is a quote by author Joe Poyer.

Thorough preparation makes its own luck.

While luck itself is commonly linked to a coin flip, the quote itself means that being prepared will reduce the the risk of things going wrong.

Over the years we learned that the most impactful decision to reduce risks and uncertainty was to implement a checklist. Checklists are helpful, simple, and gives everyone a baseline of things we should agree on before starting the workshop. It can cover items such as, what stationery to bring (markers, pens, post-it notes, flip-charts, tape, ideation cards etc.), a list of participants, an agenda of the workshop, a brief flow/script of facilitation and many more.

For first time facilitators, you might want to hold a quick rehearsal with your internal team a few hours or a day ahead of the workshop. As you gain more experience overtime, you may find that this is no longer needed.

Thou shall have an agenda

Having an agenda lets everyone in the workshop know what to expect, what will happen, what they need to do, and plans moving forward.

Picture this, your clients arrive on that day hoping for a significant outcome from the workshop. They have allocated a huge number of hours or days out of their busy schedule just for it. Because of this, it is of the utmost importance to let them know what will happen during the workshop and what they will need to do and expect. By having an agenda, they won’t feel overwhelmed with uncertainty and everyone’s goals are aligned throughout the session.

Thou shall delegate

This is a lesson we learned the hardest. Stampede is made up of such talented people – sometimes we individually become too ‘enthusiastic’ and do everything by ourselves! However, realistically we can only do so much. If a person is able to focus on something, the better the outcome will become.

As a workshop facilitator, you can’t be doing everything at once. Delegate someone to take care of the note-taking or recording, or someone to bring in the refreshments at the start of the workshop. Ask someone in your team to alert you if they see someone is disengaged, or one part of the session exceeds its time limit – so you can keep the workshop back on track.

Thou shall be realistic

As a rule, you cannot possibly cram all UX activities in one day.

Decide what sort of activities will take place in the workshop. If it is only about identifying the user persona and journey, in my experience, the two itself would take roughly a day and a half. If there are no prior identification to the user personas beforehand by the clients, it would probably take more days. There will be many discussions going back and forth, especially if it involves quite a number of participants. To not overwhelm everyone, dedicate at most a two-day session just for one method. Some of these methods are the user persona, user journey, card sorting, and usability testing. Schedule an additional session if another method needs to be accomplished.

Thou shall be friendly yet determined

As mentioned, facilitating a UX workshop is a user experience lesson by itself. You need to be able to exude a friendly aura so that everyone feels relaxed and comfortable with you. In general, being friendly means that we become too lenient about things. We can go overboard with time limits, or one participant might just sit and stare into the screen while the others offer feedback, or worse, they might be too shy to participate at all and we don’t want to ask them so many times as not to humiliate them.

There is no shortcut around this. The first step is to identify the personality traits every participant have. Commonly seen are, The Shy One, The Rambler, The Off-Piste, The Assertive One, The Space Cadet and The Yes Man/Woman. This article frames a good way on how to deal with each personality trait – granted it is for user interviews, but a good guide nevertheless.

Thou shall have fun!

I shall not lie, after so many workshops, I still get anxious about facilitating one after another! Above all, we should bear in mind that what we do in these workshops is to help each other. We help the client to discover the best experience their users could have, and as the custodian of their business, only they could provide us that.

As a UX workshop facilitator, if you project yourself as having fun, your positive vibes will show and rub off on the rest of the group. However, if you are anxious, that will show too.

So, smile, enjoy the attention and focus on keeping everyone involved!

The post The 6 Commandments of UX Workshop Facilitation appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

Avengers Stampede Assemble!

What is The Blitz?

The Blitz is the official name for Stampede’s version of a stand-up meeting, and it occurs every weekday at 1PM (GMT+8) over voice chat using Slack’s voice call feature. During every Blitz, a single person is given the responsibility of the Blitz Master. This person is responsible for facilitating the flow of a Blitz and keeping track of every project’s progress. For every project, there is a team member assigned to it, and the Blitz Master will ask each person on the project(s) they are leading.

What the Blitz Master will ask specifically about each project is the status of each project and its current ETA and percentage of completion. As to not waste any time during the meeting, everyone is expected to be prepared with their project updates. This makes for a rapid discussion that wraps up quickly and cleanly.

This goes in a round-robin fashion until the Blitz Master has taken note of every project. When our usual Blitz Master, Iwan is off for the day, someone else will take over his role and continue meeting as normal.

Blitz Master Iwan in the house! Taken during our Hari Raya Blitz Meeting.

Once the main work-related portion of a Blitz is done, an inspirational quote will be pulled from our quote bank. Among the attendees of a Blitz, one of us will be chosen to best explain the quote. By doing so, we become motivated for the day and everyone learns a new lesson. Here are two examples of quotes that we have shared recently.

Everyone at Stampede is expected to participate in a Blitz unless they are on leave, or have a reason for not being able to attend. In which case, they must inform the Blitz Master, in advance on why they cannot attend.

Why do we do it?

Compared to most companies, the way we manage projects is unique. At Stampede, the role of project manager is shared among all team members. It empowers our team by giving designers and developers the opportunity to learn and practice project management skills.

At a functional level, it is also meant to update the management so that they know what is going on in the company. In addition, team members can know when to jump in and help out on other projects that need extra support.

A glimpse of how it looks like

It will be much easier for you as the reader to understand how a Blitz is run by showing you an everyday example of how it’s done. Iwan is the Blitz Master this round.

• 

  Good day everyone, Happy Monday! Let’ start off today’s Blitz with a few good news! We have confirmation that Telaga Terminal redesign is about to kick-off and the client is excited to see our scheduling. On another note, we also have an RFP request for an e-commerce project and a potential v2 of an Australian project we worked on last year. Shaza will take care of both and will advise us once we have the go-ahead to proceed.

  We shall move on to all the project leads now.

  Jared, how is Constructs doing today?

• 

  We published another article for Angular beginners yesterday and it was shared on a few Facebook groups. I have also asked Zana to give more social media exposure to this particular article because I think it’s something very helpful for people who are interested in Angular.

• 

  Already done. I am watching the number of shares right now across all social media channels. Tony, you have Google Analytics covered?

• 

  Yes, I have already prepared the report and will send it over after this.

• 

  Okay, sounds good. Jared, what about Constructs UX improvements? We were at 60% yesterday. Does the ETA this Friday hold?

• 

  We’re planning to finish up the rest of the improvements as planned on Trello. ETA holds.

• 

  Awesome, thank you Jared! Hakim, how are we doing on Agile training?

This pattern continues one-by-one with each person, and can quickly wrap this up within 20 minutes.

It’s always evolving

The Blitz is an ongoing process to find the best way to run a quick but productive daily meeting at Stampede. It must be able to enable sharing of updates for all projects and to also fit the needs of the current team. In the past we used Skype for conducting our Blitz but have moved over to Slack voice calls ever since. Slack is great for us because we use it as our main working platform, for both internal and external communications.

At its core, we are constantly changing aspects of The Blitz to fit the needs of the current team.

One of the major changes to the Blitz was when we came across the ‘Daily Huddle’ concept. Its quick and rapid updates were perfect for Stampede and we were greatly inspired by its concept. In the past, each person would tell everyone else about what they were doing for the day and what they would be working on. Our current Blitz is tightly controlled, where the focus would be on project leads reporting on the status of their assigned projects. It is faster and more energetic, once again adding to the kick-start that we get at the start of each work day.

Consistency is the key

No matter how many times we change the format, what matters the most for a productive stand-up meeting is consistency. With every Blitz held on the same time every work day, it has become a habit for our team to attend. The Blitz Master doesn’t need to remind the team every time. The best time to hold the meeting however, depends on your team’s schedule.

The scrum is less about strict rules and more about maximizing productivity.

If your team assembles in the office early, then hold your meetings as the very first thing in the morning. If people enter in at different times, then run the stand-up at a time you know everyone is in. This also indirectly helps you identify late comers. But the Blitz is less about strict rules and more about maximizing productivity. Turning the daily or weekly meetings into a regular routine that fits your team’s unique schedule. It also helps ensure that it becomes an effective tool for your development team.

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this post on our culture at Stampede. We hope this has inspired you like how it has for us. How do you run team meetings at your workplace? We’d love to know your thoughts on The Blitz and how you think we can improve it. Drop us a comment and we’ll do our best to reply at the soonest. Again, thanks for reading!

For more Stampede culture and related content, please do consider liking us on Facebook and following us on our Twitter feed. Oh, and we can’t forget about Instagram, where Shaza and Zana posts some of the most amazing imagery ever.

The post The Stampede Way to Scrum: The Blitz appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.

When was the last time you actually read a newspaper or a magazine?

It’s an obvious trend where the media is moving to, and that is from print to digital. In the last 10 years there has been a noticeable shift of designers who have moved from print to digital, not because the print industry is falling behind but rather what the Web has to offer.

Chances are the reason why you’re reading this is because you’ve thought about dabbling in the arts of web design. While the design methodology of both forms are similar, there are distinct differences that you should know before making the jump. Let’s take a look at the essential preparations needed before taking the leap.

What do you already have?

For starters, be glad that you already have the fundamentals of design. You understand object placement, spacing, colors, typography, all of which are translatable from pamphlet to webpage. Your skill and knowledge in image processing software such as Illustrator and Photoshop are still relevant because you’ll still be needing these programs to create a website’s key design template and mocks for webpages.

What you need to know

Layout

While much of the fundamentals shared between print and web are the same, the layout is for each can be very different. In print, your creative brief tells you what physical medium you’re going to be designing for. This can range from posters to giant billboards. The size of the medium is already fixed and you can begin designing a layout that harmonizes all the elements

When it comes to digital, things will be a lot more different. No longer will you be designing for fixed mediums as digital design encompasses websites, electronic newsletters, interfaces for smartphones and more. These options comes in various screen sizes because people will be viewing your design on different devices. If you’re designing a website for example, your  design may look great on a desktop (1280 pixels in width or higher) but may not be functional on a smartphone (average 360 pixels by 640 pixels, width x height).

Print vs Web Layout

Now that the differences can be seen, this is why designing for digital should to be more simplistic as it allows the design to fluidly transform itself to fit multiple mediums. You might be tempted to go crazy with design elements overlaying one another but do so at your own discretion. Elements that are positioned on its own are able to be resized or transformed easily.

Color

You might be wondering, how can the usage of color be any different from print to digital? The principles of color still stand firm between both forms, but at the same time there are differences that you might want to know in order to help you transition from paper to browser.

(Left: RGB, Right: CMYK)

As you already know, when you design anything that needs to be printed, the color mode that you’ll be using is CMYK. While we won’t be covering why it’s done so, but if you’re interested you can check this video that details the process of how printers work and why CMYK is being used for it.

The color mode that you’ll need to get used to when you start designing for digital is the RGB mode. Computer monitors give off a light known as RGB which has a larger color gamut than printing. This allows the computer to can display a million more colors than what can be achieved with printing.

Typography

Typography is the art and technique of arranging type and it is more than just making words legible. The typeface that is being used must be able to work with the layout, grid, color scheme and overall feel of the design.

When it comes to print, typography can range from being clean and structured to large and bold. Serif-type fonts are generally preferred for this medium to attract readers to the printed material. In digital however, the situation changes. While the creative use in typography is still practiced, the most important point is making sure the text is readable at all times. Due to this, sans-serif fonts are preferred due to its readability on many types of devices. Users who read text digitally via smartphones & tablets won’t be able to read cursive text properly creating great discomfort.

One thing to note overall is that different licensees are required for both print and web individually. In most cases the fonts for web-use are very much cheaper than its print counterpart.

Media

In terms of media elements, this is where we will see digital shine the most. When you’re designing for print the media elements that you can work with are images and typography. On the other hand, digital design has more leeway to work with because of the advances in technology. Video and audio media play a great part in the user’s experience on a webpage or other digital platforms.

Wireframe example of a video player on a web page.

You’ll need to understand how these rich media can be put into your design in a way that the user can interact with it and at the same time gain its benefit. Also, get used to saving these assets in its appropriate file formats such as JPG, PNG and other web-related image file formats.

User Experience

The print medium provides little to no interaction with the reader and because of this, the design must be able to capture the reader’s attention and present the information in a way that is understandable. Standing out without pushing the reader away is very important when designing for print.

Digital mediums such as websites and virtual UIs provide users with a lot of interaction. For example, websites have links to other sites and are able to play both video and music. Also with the increase of internet bandwidth worldwide, there has been an increased usage of animated images (GIF). JavaScript gives life to websites by creating smooth animations for menus to slide from the side or a content box expanding to show more information when clicked on.

You also need to understand how the user will be interacting with your design especially for touch screen devices. Are they going to tap on this button? Are they going to swipe this carousel to show more content? Changing your mindset from static to highly interactive may be a challenge but its definitely worth doing when you’re moving from print to digital.

Testing

Testing your design can be a challenging experience. To test print designs, one method is to print it out and get it examined. Seeing your design on something else other than your workstation screen can tell you many things like which element stands out, or whether the typeface is readable. Print testing is very important because once the actual design is being pushed out into public, you can’t go back and fix anything.

Always test your design.

For digital designs, testing can be even more of a challenge. For example, if you’re designing a website you’ll need to test your design on different layouts such as mobile, tablet and desktop. Unless you’re designing mocks for all these screen sizes, one method of testing the design is through blank wireframes that follow your layout. However, the best way to test your design is when it is fully developed into a working model (like a fully functional webpage). One good thing however, is that your design can be modified even at the later stages of the production process. This is digital design’s biggest advantage.

I hope that this article has helped you understand what you’ll need to know and adapt yourself for when moving from print to digital design. If you’ve experienced the same jump from print to digital, why not drop us a comment down below about your experiences and challenges doing so.

The post Transitioning from Print to Digital Design appeared first on Stampede: the strategic design & technology company.