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Adam Silver

@adamsilverhq.bsky.social

380 followers 29 following 410 posts

Designer with engineering background. I talk about designing products that are intuitive, accessible and delightful to use. Design newsletter: https://adamsilver.io/newsletter Good Design Crash Course (free): https://adamsilver.io/gdcc

adamsilver.io

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · Nov 24

Yo I’m new here so let me introduce myself...

I’m Adam Silver and I’m a designer (and former frontend engineer).

I talk about how to design products that are effortless to use (for everyone).

If you fancy it, here’s my backstory:

adamsilver.io/bio/

Me holding a sign saying “Here’s my designer origin story!”

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 1d

→ ‘use a tooltip’

If a hint is useful, why hide it behind a hard-to-use, inaccessible interaction?

→ ‘for a cleaner design’

Design is about clarity, not cleanliness.

I think we designers are going to survive just fine without AI.

What do you reckon?

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 1d

I asked ChatGPT “How do you add hint text to radio buttons?"

It suggested:

“If you want the hint to appear when the user hovers on the radio button, use a tooltip for a cleaner design”

Let’s break this down:

→ ‘If you want’

Design is not about what you want. It’s about what users need.

ChatGPT prompt on how you add hint text to radio buttons

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 2d

p.s. illustration taken from Remix

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 2d

Enterprise products are often prone to spinnageddon.

This is where each component “loads itself” async with a spinner.

This is a slow, inaccessible experience that's totally unnecessary.

Instead, render on the server.

You’ll get the standard, accessible, browser loading indicator for free.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 9d

adamsilver.io/gdcc/

Good Design Crash Course

Adam Silver – interaction designer - London, UK

adamsilver.io

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 9d

1. It’s accessible (so it works for everyone)
2. It’s obvious (so you don’t have to think)
3. It puts users in control (so we don't restrict users)
4. It’s lightweight (so you don’t spend time looking at loading spinners)

If you’re keen, you can get it for free at the link below:

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 9d

Over 1,500 UI/UX designers have watched the Good Design Crash Course.

In the course, I explain what design actually is (hint: it’s not just about aesthetics).

And I reveal the 4 principles I use every day as a designer to make sure that what I design is actually good.

That is:

Good design crash course video lesson 1 still

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 14d

Yesterday, I ran a live design feedback session for my Form Design Mastery members.

First thing I did – on camera remember – was take a sip of water.

But I missed my mouth and it spilt all down my grey t-shirt.

I might do that again in future.

It’s a great ice-breaker.

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 14d

Yep!

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 14d

100%

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 15d

UI/UX designers and frontend devs — what’s your go-to input mask library?

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 16d

But it does show you that users don’t care half as much about pixels as most designers do.

This is why you should spend less time pushing pixels, and more time solving deeper problems that actually cause problems for users.

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 16d

But that sloppiness has probably caused exactly zero issues for users.

Does it mean, that sloppiness is good?

No.

Does it mean, you should leave it misaligned?

No.

It takes longer to discuss it with your product manager than actually just fixing the thing, so definitely just fix it and move on.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 16d

Last week, designer Anthony Hobday noticed WhatsApp’s button is misaligned.

You can see in the screenshot that there’s more margin above the button than below it - something most designers would say is sloppy.

And perhaps it is.

Screenshot of Whatsapp button being misaligned with Anthony Hobday saying “My god, this button isn't aligned properly in WhatsApp. TWO TRILLION DOLLAR COMPANY BY THE WAY.”

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 16d

Hi Peter - I bought your original version of this, do I get access to this version or do I need to request access still?

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 17d

Yesterday, I shared my response to each comment to 9,389 newsletter subscribers because they each have a design takeaway.

If you missed it:

adamsilver.io/blog/my-res...

My response to Hacker News comments

Adam Silver – interaction designer - London, UK

adamsilver.io

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 17d

3. “Capitalisation fixes this. ‘Go to My Account’ is clear to me.

4. “As a support engineer in enterprise software, I would word it and mentor agents to say ‘Go to “my cases” at the top’”

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 17d

✅ Use “My” when the user is communicating to us

I read through the comments and noted down 4 highlights:

1. “It should be a checkbox labelled ‘Share your profile photo’ to fit more on screen.”

2. “I’m glad I don’t work in UX. All of this seems so boring and futile.”

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 17d

Last Tuesday, my article about using “Your” and “My” in user interfaces went viral on Hacker News.

Hacker News (if you don’t know) is a site where people discuss and upvote ideas in tech/design.

The gist of my article was:

✅ Use “Your” when communicating to the user

And:

Navigation labels example: Wrong — 'My cases | All cases'; Right — 'Your cases | All cases'.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 21d

Such a good article haha

Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 21d

And the other approach I would take is to point to GOV.UK as an exemplar and point out that I have seen loads of issues with gov forms but not once was that down to having clear borders all the way around.

Good luck, let me know.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 21d

Just realised that in your case you have a label above the input so no where near as bad as Material Design, but it's just harder to spot the inputs and see where the boundary starts and ends.

One thing to note is that users look for the first "box" and if there isn't one it will slow users down.

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 21d

In terms of pointers I wrote this which links to evidence:

adamsilver.io/blog/materia...

Material Design text fields are badly designed

Adam Silver – interaction designer - London, UK

adamsilver.io

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 21d

Feel for you! Really do!

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Adam Silver @adamsilverhq.bsky.social · 22d

You should use research to test your riskiest assumptions.

If your riskiest assumption is borders vs no borders on your inputs, you have serious problems.

Less, but better.