Life is short.
Why do months and years seem to fly by, even when the days are dragging along with pandemic-induced monotony?
The answer lies in our perception of the world around us.
Years ago, I was flipping through an AARP magazine (a retirement magazine, of all things) at my parents’ house, and I read an article that has stuck with me. It referenced an idea from psychology that your perception of time is directly related to how much information your brain processes. For children, who see and do new things frequently, time seems to drag on. As we get older, we settle into routines and might not encounter a novel or new experience for weeks at a time.
Life is short. But it's even shorter when you do the same things every day. I try to reflect on this idea as much as possible when deciding what to do with my time. I like to travel to new places and go all-in on new hobbies and career paths. My family and I find new hiking trails or restaurants on the weekends, or pack the camping gear and set off even though it can feel like a lot of work.
Choose novelty instead of familiarity. You’ll not only be more fun and more creative, but you will also live longer. Or at least it will feel that way.
(I wasn’t able to find the original article, but here’s the idea from Psychology Today, and here’s the full essay from the author, Stephen Taylor, on his website.)
Me and my daughter on an “adventure breakfast,” where we find an open campsite near home and cook up a campfire breakfast to add variety to our weekends.
Support Pages Make or Break Your Customer Experience — 10 Steps to Expertly Crafted FAQs
FAQ and support pages are not the sexiest pages for UXers to design. But they are critical to your customer experience. Why? Most website visitors will not contact you or even spend much time looking if they have a question. They will just leave. A Forrester Research report affirms that 53% of US online adults are likely to abandon their online purchase if they can’t find a quick answer to their question.
In this article, I outline exactly why and how to research and write pages to support your customers.
Learn design concepts with these straightforward articles and tutorials
It can be hard for beginners to get unstuck or get to the next level in your design education when you don’t know what to be searching for or what you might be missing in your work.
Learn UI has an exceptional newsletter, blog, and tutorials that are great to browse, even for experienced designers. The topics are all about UI and UX and accessible even for complete newbies.
A few articles worth starting with:
Every Deleted Tweet From Politicians Around the World
Politwoops shows every deleted tweet, sorted by nation, with the date of submission and how long it took to be deleted. It’s a fantastic time for political accountability. (In reality, we hear what we want to hear and justify the rest, but that’s a rant for another newsletter.) From ProPublica.
Photo credit: Texas Public Radio
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Vinamra, a UX designer based in Bangalore, began experimenting in 2019 with offering “design-as-a-service” through his company Brand Hero. Clients pay only for the design assets they need, without a large up-front commitment.
“It offers immense flexibility to clients and makes them feel like they have an in-house design team. Because I work with them so closely, they feel comfortable to discuss anything and everything that design can achieve for their company,” says Vinamra.
Thanks for reading! I’m a UX designer and writer, and design-adjacent content writer. If you’d like to be featured in the next issue of UX Adjacent, send me a short bio and links to your website or profiles.