Are designers responsible for addictive apps?

📰 3 Design Articles

Is It the Designer’s Responsibility if an App is Addictive? 

• Likening online behavior such as endless scrolling and continuous auto-play to an “infinite bowl of soup”, author Liz Gorny examines the role of designers in addictive user patterns, illustrating the challenges that UX faces when the goal of a product is to promote ever-increasing engagement. 
• Designs that spur users to consume more content than they may intend have been the subject of everything from complaints to lawsuits: against this backdrop, Gorny debates if designers should bear moral responsibility for user addiction, and suggests that they can play a role in questioning the ethical implications of their work. 
• “Gamified UX, just like the carefully-designed lights and levers of slot machines, is a brilliant tool to encourage engagement. It will be impossible to disassemble such a long-running system of design from the inside entirely. But, we can take retroactive steps… the question that is harder to answer, is how to build towards critical mass.”

Trying Viral Client Acquisition Strategies

• A recent viral trend has caught the attention of designers: sending your work, unsolicited, to the CEO of companies to see if you can spark interest, and in turn, land yourself a shiny new gig. 
• Author Sharanya Dutta experiments with the methodology, showcasing the projects he created and the responses he received, as well as highlighting some of the unexpected benefits of making experimental work without a guaranteed reward. 
• “I, as an outsider, have 0 clue about the business decisions behind the website’s current version. Maybe the site is purposefully made ugly, because ugly websites in certain cases do perform better… What if, they just don’t need a re-design at the moment? Lots of things to consider here. I went ahead anyway.”

Do Founders Ever Care About Design? 

• Author Chris Kernaghan reflects on challenges he’s faced as a UX designer working with company founders who struggle to empathize with a user-based perspective, and provides insights into how designers can work to champion design-as-necessity in these environments. 
• Kernaghan asserts that it is the job of designers to inspire founders to prioritize design, and provides guidelines, such as clear communication and open feedback channels, to help inspire a more collaborative mindset. 
• “Let people know who you are, what you’re about and how you’re going to bring value to the company. Transparency is key. Invite people to design sessions, from the founder to the cleaner, everyone’s opinion is valuable. Make it fun, make it informed, and make it community-driven.”

💜 Portfolio Inspiration

Kyra Catabay, a UX Academy graduate, brings her passion for research to the forefront in her highly detailed case studies. Her interest in communication and collaboration is obvious, with her redesign for a fintech start-up centering cross-functional conversation amongst the org’s team. An avid outdoor enthusiast, she also has an app design for determining the difficulty of hikes!

Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.

💡 Interesting Stuff...

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• Should There Be an Oscar for Title Design? 
• Wild Memory Radio

Good design is like a refrigerator—when it works, no one notices, but when it doesn’t, it sure stinks. - Irene Au (designer)

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