Threads vs Twitter, decline in design thinking, Tears of Kingdom UX, loading indicators

Adam Mosseri, who is running point on the app for Meta, wants Threads to be a platform for culture rather than politics: “politics and hard news aren’t ‘worth the scrutiny, negativity (let’s be honest), or integrity risks.” He goes on to elaborate: “There are more than enough amazing communities — sports, music, fashion, beauty, entertainment, etc. — to make a vibrant platform without needing to get into politics or hard news.

This leads to the question — is it possible to separate politics from culture?

Threads vs. Twitter: the liminal border between culture and politics →

Free live UX Writing workshop: Nike sneakers website →

[Sponsored] In this workshop, you’ll get hands-on experience with key UX Writing skills by redesigning the Nike Sneakers site. You’ll learn how to use voice, tone, and research to create better products for users. You’ll create a professional UX Writing project for your portfolio, including deliverables like Voice Charts and Tone Spectrums. This live workshop is beginner-friendly, hands-on, and FREE for UX Collective subscribers! Can’t join live? Sign up anyway, and get all recordings, resources, and templates straight to your email.

Editor picks

• The decline in design (thinking). How designers have succeeded and failed in our daily lives.
• Your intuition could be your design hypothesis. Trusting your ‘gut’ could be tricky. However, if done right…
• Cyberspace cities and UX. What can UX designers learn from urban planners?
• Creating magic with logical thinking. Logic focuses on problems, while Magic focuses on opportunities.
• Words: the new data commodity. Product teams need to self-regulate while government regulation lags behind.

The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and illuminates the path to design mastery and critical thinking. Here’s how we’re boosting stories through our partnership with Medium.

The workers at the frontlines of the AI revolution →

Make me?think

• Explaining “Web3” and “AI”. “There you have it. “Web3” is a completely meaningless term. If someone uses it, they’re probably trying to sell you something. If you ask for a definition, you’ll get a response like “something something decentralisation something something blockchain.” I can give you a definition of what a blockchain is. A blockchain is multiple copies of a spreadsheet.”
• Invisible details of interaction design. “Searching the Internet for depth on interaction design yields a plethora of recycled content obsessing over user personas, storyboards, and Venn diagrams labeled with “UI” and “UX”. Besides a few exceptional talks, actual substance and insight reveal themselves to those willing to fanatically dig for them. Either through studying obscure, long-winded research papers or by maniacally replaying hundreds of slow motion screen recordings.”
• Better roadmaps. “Instead of using time as a scale for a single desired scenario, we try to cover many possible scenarios in order to be able to visualize many realistic realities for our work which lays ahead. Change and adaptation is built-in from the get-go, which sets much more realistic expectations.”

Little gems this?week

Tears of the Kingdom: how Nintendo improved (and ignored) UI issues →

How is food packaging designed to promote healthiness? →

What does “rigorous” research really mean? →

Tools and resources

• Loading & progress indicators. A series of best practices for these UI components.
• Evidence-based interviewing. The case against some common interview questions.
• A UX writing review of Threads. What can we already tell about their UX?

Support the newsletter

If you find our content helpful, here’s how you can support it:

• Forward it to a friend and recommend them to subscribe
• Share open positions on our job board
• Sponsor an edition