The cringey UX of parcel shipping and more…

📰 3 DESIGN ARTICLES

IS ARTIFICIAL EMPATHY STILL EMPATHY?

• In this thought-provoking article, Jakob Nielsen and Sarah Gibbons debate the various nuances to whether AI-produced empathy is still empathy—and how the AI approach exceeds or falls short of “real” human empathy.
• While Nielsen and Gibbons start with strong differences in their perspective on whether AI outputs can fit the definition of empathy, they quickly dive into the details of how—and when—AI responses to human questions are even appropriate.
• “To be useful, AI doesn't need to surpass the best human; it only needs to outperform the human you have available, who will, on average, be an average human.”

THE (VERY BAD) UX OF PARCEL DELIVERY

• If you’ve ever had to ship a package, you’ll appreciate Peter Ramsey’s thorough (and sometimes cringey) investigation into the user experience of 6 different shipping providers.
• Mobile apps might be meant to make it easier and more efficient for you to use a product or service…but that doesn’t seem to be the case with shipping providers. Many of the apps Ramsey tested were unresponsive and glitchy, forcing him to use the desktop-designed website instead.
• “Across the board, there's so much low-hanging fruit. These companies use almost none of the common techniques to reduce effort throughout a form.”

GLARING UX MISTAKES ON REAL APPS

• Product designer Abhijit Nayak shares 5 glaring UX issues with real apps–and provides a thoughtful look at how you can avoid similar errors in your work.
• Most of the errors—like missing numbers or placeholder text that doesn’t disappear when you start typing in an input—should be easily found with basic testing after a feature launch. The question is: why are big design teams skipping this step?
• “It’s difficult to imagine that big organizations with scores of members in the design and testing team would miss such errors…But such misses are a fact, and user frustration is an unintended outcome.”

💜PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION

Rachel Olson, a UX Academy graduate, showcases a variety of end-to-end design projects, clearly illustrating how she implemented a strong design process—and used it to create effective solutions.

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

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“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” - Seth Godin

💻 FROM THE LAB

UPCOMING COHORTS FOR DESIGNLAB COURSES:

• UX Academy Foundations — January 8
• UX Academy Application Deadline (January Cohort) — January 12
• Data-Driven Design — February 2

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