Lucia Russu

We just published an article by our UX expert, Mikhailo Postolnyi, in the DataArt Insights section, and I'm very proud of it. We share our experience and knowledge about UX harmonization, a term not often heard, but frequently meant. — Having many internal products that behave differently, and users are lost? — Fighting with brand dilution, because your B2C apps look all different? — Spending too much time on development, because each one is using their own component system? There are tons of situations when you may consider investing in UX consistency and harmonization. Here is the article: https://lnkd.in/dWD2wX7E

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Dodo Pizza & Drinkit in the TOP 3 🏆 Yury Vetrov just published his fresh research on how the industry perceives product design teams in Russia for 2025. They surveyed 1,291 specialists, asking which companies build strong products, where designers can actually learn and grow, and where you can have a normal life as a designer without constantly fighting managers for the right to do your job. https://lnkd.in/e8-ThPP2 🫰 Dodo Brands is consistently at the top of the rankings this year: — Design strength of products: 3rd place — 55.1% of respondents highlighted us, right next to T-Bank and Yandex (just 1% and 0.2% gap) — “Where you can grow as a designer”: also 3rd place — 47.6% — Most attractive offer: 3rd again — 41.2% would choose to work on our product if they had complete freedom of choice But here’s what matters most to me, friends: In the category “Where design culture is strong and managers understand and value design,” Dodo came in first place among all companies. 41.6% of respondents put us here — ahead of banks, marketplaces, and major tech ecosystems 🔥🔥🔥 To me, this is a signal that our bet on design culture, respect for designers, and the tight “brand–product–marketing” loop is becoming visible not just internally, but externally too. It’s not only about interfaces and features — it’s about how the team is built, how managers collaborate with designers, how we discuss product decisions and tackle complex challenges. The market reads all of it. Of course, this kind of research has its limitations: the survey was conducted in design community channels, so it’s still a “community perspective” rather than objective truth. But either way, for employer branding and for designers themselves, it’s an important mirror — showing where you’re already at the top and where you still need to level up your products, processes, and public presence. I’m proud that 🦤 Dodo Pizza & 🐳 Drinkit are already seen as a place where you can build a strong product, learn, and not burn all your energy fighting for the right to do design. Now the challenge is to back up this reputation with products and case studies — not just rankings. 💅 Design is a fight to build great and meaningful products. I’m incredibly happy and grateful to the team and everyone who voted and supports us! Thank you! 🫰

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A new episode of our podcast with Ivan Rohovchenko 🇺🇦 (in Ukrainian 🇺🇦). In this one, we talk with Alina Korol — a design leader and mentor — about professional burnout, designers’ mental health, and the leader’s role in supporting the team. We discuss how to preserve energy in times of stress and war, how burnout differs from infantilism and depression, and why preventing burnout starts as early as the hiring stage. We also touch on positioning, reflection, ChatGPT, and Alina’s own framework for designer development. https://safonov.us/podcast

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Scaling design is not only about efficiency, it’s about building the foundations for the future. Yesterday we hosted a workshop, led by Natalie Label with the help of Ido Zaifman from Kido, as part of our new Design System enablement. When approached holistically, it shapes how we think, build, and collaborate. It becomes a cultural layer critical for scale, for AI-ready infrastructure, and for embedding systematic design into our DNA. It also unlocks innovation. By reducing friction and aligning on shared principles, the Design System frees teams to focus creativity where it matters most: pushing boundaries and exploring new possibilities. It becomes a force multiplier, for both scale and innovation. Super excited for what’s coming next! Palo Alto Networks Israel R&D Center

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New podcast episode — finally, we’re talking about design agencies (it's in Ukrainian 🇺🇦) In this one, Ivan Rohovchenko 🇺🇦 and I speak with Diana Makar, Head of Design at Arounda — Product Design Agency, about how a designer’s role shifts when business focus becomes central. We explore her path from design to leadership, how agencies respond to change, and how transparency and context help build trust between managers and teams. Diana shares her experience with selecting new leaders, leading team transformations, and why leadership skills matter even for individual contributors. We also talk about today’s job market, hiring challenges, loyalty as a key resource — and what keeps a design manager in the role for 8 years. This is our 12th and anniversary episode — we released the first one exactly a year ago. All links here: https://safonov.us/podcast

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The investment case for UX polish😍. We operate in a market where the quality of our products earns a certain reputation. But this quality is judged as you would a book by its cover. "If your SMS alerts are riddled with typos, they assume your financial controls are equally sloppy. If your app feels broken in small ways, they worry it might fail in big ones." "NPS feels hollow here. It's gamed, mismatched, and often ignored. The real promoter score is what customers say unprompted💯." You invest in those final touches, in the details that make sure devs build interfaces to spec, and you win because you stand out from the baseline. "When everyone operates at the baseline, breaking above it creates outsized impact. Small improvements become big differentiators. Minor touches generate major talkability. The companies that understand this dynamic don't just meet expectations: they systematically exceed them in carefully chosen moments. " Read more:

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Designers! Stop Donating Your Talent and Say NO! to Take-Home Tasks! I wrote a post looking at the shocking state of the design market 7 months ago. When it was clear that the market had fully switched to favouring employers. As a result: → Hiring processes got longer and more convoluted → Job ads got sillier → Application numbers soared → Waves of talent left the industry for good Months later, the situation has turned even seedier. Take-home tasks were initially dished out by inexperienced hiring managers. Now it's common to hear of 4-day design tasks deliberately set up to exploit and steal designers' work without compensation. There's a simple response to this: Say no! By rejecting 5-stage interviews and take-home tasks: → We stop validating broken hiring processes → We honour the value of our craft → We force employers to optimise their recruitment methods → We protect our sanity Desperation can be a powerful motivator, but consider this: If a company needs 5 rounds and free work to make a hiring decision, what does that reveal about their internal culture and how they'll value you after you're hired? The industry only gets better if we demand better!

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🎥 I'm trying something new today: a video teaser! That's how serious I am about my Substack! 😄 Volume XII of the Eidos Design Newsletter is out, and it's a juicy one. ✨ The return of Glassmorphism in Apple, Google's Neobrutalism, and Airbnb's skeuomorphism (is it nostalgia or design regression?). 📬 A deep dive into the Spark app and why it might be the best tool for achieving inbox sanity. 🎨 Creative inspiration from Kyiv's Banda Agency, showing how bold design can challenge global narratives. If you’re a designer (or just design-curious), this one’s worth your scroll. Link in the first comment. And don't forget to subscribe! 🤗

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UX Talks in Montenegro 🇲🇪 I’m spending a couple of months in Montenegro, where my friend runs a local design meetup every other Sunday. I wasn’t sure people would show up on a weekend—but they did! Ten people came, every seat was taken. We had a great talk about how hard it feels to start UX Research. Too many frameworks. No idea where to find users. Unsure what we’re even trying to learn😣 Here’s what I told them: ✨ Just start small ✨ Talk to your team—say you want to TRY (you might be surprised—someone could join in, and suddenly the value triples) ✨ Make 3–4 simple hypotheses (about user behavior or needs) ✨ Write 6–7 questions ✨ Test them with someone close to you (do they even understand what you’re asking?). ✨ Share it on your social media, local chats, or ask friends-of-friends for short interviews ✨ Even one conversation brings value ✨ Share what you learn (even informally) ✨ Make a change, move on, repeat And remember: most of the time, you are NOT YOUR USER. Talk to people outside your team. #ux #uxtalks #designmeetup #makeitsimple #simpleuxresearch

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For better quality of the infographic, click on this link - https://lnkd.in/dwd6ZKq4 At the heart of the creation of this process is engineer-designer Pavel Vlahov. Founder of the Solo Form brand. Product designer, design engineer, craftsman and inventor. The priorities and development of the brand are focused on development activities, the creation of products and product innovations, generating high added value through interconnected processes - product design and product development. A stable foundation has been created for targeted and consistent product management, covering three main directions of development: development of own products and sub-brands; services in the field of product design and product development; participation in partnership projects for products and product innovations. An own project process "Product Design and Development" has been formed, which started its construction and development together with the brand in 2004. Project Process “Product design and Development” - https://lnkd.in/dj9GU7Dc The process is the basis on which the Solo Form brand is built and the starting point for the already created own sub-brands and the corresponding product developments in them - Boater Design, Fulmech Design, Rotactio Design and Vehimotus. He has contributed to the creation and development of partner brands such as HTEconomizer and Uniergo, as well as to a number of other long-term partnerships in projects and developments. Last but not least, it is the basis for the provision of different types of services, covering design, development, consulting, organization and management of projects and product developments. Formed, improved and upgraded for 21 years, it has reached its real applicability, measurable benefits, potential and tangible economic effect, which can now be applied on a larger scale, due to various arguments that it works, is applicable in real conditions and specific results are achieved. It is aimed at developing different types of products and product innovations, without limitations of the field and industry, generating different types of intellectual property, high added value and potential for market realization. The process leads to the potential for developing a final product, a larger-scale conceptual project, an image project with a marketing and reputational effect for the brand, the possibility of granting licensing rights and the possible sale of the project or development. #process #businessproces #projectprocess #productprocess #productdesignanddevelopment #productdesign #industrialdesign #design #productinnovation #innovation #productdevelopment #productanalysis #productsketches #3Dmodeling #3Dmodel #modelsandprototypes #scalemodel #testparts #prototype #adaptationofmanufacturing #preproductionprototype #production #manufacturing #solo_form

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Compliance matters. But real accessibility goes beyond the regulation of the European Accessibility Act. It reflects product maturity, engineering excellence, and respect for diverse user needs. In this article, Jovana Mitrovic and I share our practical experience and steps to ensure accessibility in practice. ProductDock #accessibility #knowledgesharing #uxdesign

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I won't spill all the beans from today's very powerful 4-hour workshop on iteration in product design, led by Balázs Tárkány-Kovács - our one and only Head of Design at Ergomania - Fintech Product Design. But! I'll share a metaphor that came to me on the way home: Design is less like putting puzzle pieces all together, but more like shaping clay. You start with a rough form. It’s imperfect, but it’s something you can react to. You adjust it. A new contour appears, a new idea surfaces. Unexpected details show up only because you made the previous move. You check a new curve, see it unfit, then simply remove it. Then you refine again. And suddenly a connection appears between two things that felt unrelated at first. Not because you planned it, but because iteration reveals structure over time. This is how design clarity grows: version by version, adjustment by adjustment. Each round brings the next insight into reach. Today’s session made this very visible: you reach a better result only after you’ve "touched" the work more than once. This is exactly why one of my favourite UX practices at Ergomania is Rapid Iteration Rounds. In 20-30 minutes you see different approaches emerge, each better than the last. It’s a real reminder that creativity usually appears through variation and selection, not inspiration from the sky. Do YOU like the fast iteration method?

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Don't trust the process - the talk reflects something I’ve been thinking about for a while: design processes that exist purely for the sake of the process. https://lnkd.in/dbq8FdTE

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Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending @UX Research Confetti, organized by Allegro - this time online, but I really hope to join the event in person next year! 🙌 The conference was full of valuable insights, but two talks especially caught my attention: 👁️‍🗨️ Accessibility research with blind users, presented by Małgorzata Podolec in "The future is equal – Allegro Accessibility Research". A transparent, real-world case study showing why true accessibility requires direct involvement of people with disabilities—not just audits and QA. 🤖 Optimizing research workflows using AI, shared by Weronika Denisiewicz in "No More Knowledge Silos – how AI helped bring my research repository to life". Tools like NotebookLM are game changers for managing UX knowledge and boosting team efficiency. If the event left you as inspired as it did me, consider showing your appreciation by donating to the cause Allegro highlighted during the conference. ❤️ 👉 https://lnkd.in/dqWjaXW6 – support for little Wandzia. #UXConfetti #UXResearch #Accessibility #UXCommunity #Allegro #NotebookLM #InclusiveDesign

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🔥 A couple of months ago, I presented a webinar in Romania about UX design portfolios and how to create one that gets you interviews, not just likes. Now, I wanted to share these tips with ux designers around the world who struggle to get client work and jobs and that's why I created a video on my YouTube channel. This is the first VIDEO of a master class, which consists of a 3-video series. In this first part, we'll be discussing: - The brutal truth about today’s UX job market (stats, reality check). - Common portfolio mistakes (you show examples, analyze live). - What recruiters actually care about (thinking, clarity, impact). Hope it helps. Share & Subscribe https://lnkd.in/d3_38-sW

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The design team at Octopus Deploy has been looking at ways to modernize the UI. We’ve released an update for the process editor, a critical part of where teams build and maintain their deployments The redesign reduces clutter, visually groups parent and child steps (which customers have repeatedly asked for), and gives the UI a modern refresh. It’s intended to reduce friction, help customers move faster, and give them greater control over complex processes. This is the first of quality of life UI improvements to come 😄 For now, read more at https://lnkd.in/gf6zKNnz

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Twenty years ago, I left a web design conference frustrated enough to write a (now vanished) blog post criticising the shallow marketing case studies that passed for industry insights. London Tech Week was refreshingly different. Most sessions delivered genuine value. Actual takeaways for those of us working in the trenches. Yes, AI dominated every conversation (no surprises there), with startups tackling seemingly genuine business problems across every conceivable application. But one session particularly resonated: "AI Reshaping Product Design and Innovation" with Mike Hyde from Trainline and Storm Fagan from the BBC. Three key take aways for me: 🚀 Speed to execution: Mike highlighted how AI compresses the idea-to-prototype cycle from weeks to days. Generate workshop concepts, build prototypes, get them into users' hands (amen!) – all within 48 hours. Storm reinforced this, noting a dramatic increase in idea volume and iteration speed. 🔊 Amplification, not replacement: Storm made a crucial point that's been overlooked in much AI discourse – high performers generate better ideas than average performers, and AI amplifies existing talent rather than flattening team capabilities. This should reassure, not threaten, skilled professionals. 💬 The interface revolution: Mike's most thought-provoking insight centred on how AI is dismantling traditional UI conventions. Trainline's smart assistant* exemplifies this shift – starting with conversational chat but dynamically generating buttons when users need decisive actions or to handle transactions. We're moving beyond the "pixels and UI are everything" mentality. This last point connects to something I've been exploring for months**. The fundamental changes ahead will reshape team structures, design approaches, and how entire businesses present themselves to customers. Current discussions (obsessions!) about managing and deploying design systems will soon feel remarkably narrow. ✨ The interface revolution is happening. #londontechweek #ltw2025 *I actually used Trainline's smart assistant at the end of the talk. The response I got from AI when inquiring about the flexibility of a return ticket was better described, and more personally specific, than any help text explaining the difference between flexible, day return, off-peak-advance-split-save-non-refundable… you get the idea. **I have a post in the works about this.

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Hey designers, are you freaking out about AI taking over your job in 2026? You shouldn’t. Had an insightful conversation with Filippos Protogeridis this Tue on the topic. We both agreed that as long as your foundations are in order, and you’re not blindly chasing the AI hype — you’ll be more than good. Think about AI as another tool that will empower you, as designer, as creator to level up your work by 10x. And any tool is just a middleman, between your creativity and the blank canvas. I’ll drop the link to the full recording in the comments.

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