Hello! Start here. đź‘‹
Here’s a table of contents / best of my writing so far.
Hello everyone!
My name is Michal (Mike) Malewicz and I’m a designer.
(That means I can design pretty UI, do research, create flows, analyse product shortcomings and code a tiny bit too)
Started back in 1999, when we used rocks and sticks to design the first websites. There were also Diablo 1 animated GIF torches and 3d @ Signs.
Those @ signs symbolised the amazing fact that can get in touch via wait for it … EMAIL!
Work
I own and run a couple of companies, most notably HYPE4 — a design driven software house in which we design and code modern interfaces (mostly in React). We’re small, boutique and quality driven.
I also write. A lot.
II used to write fiction (coming back to that soon), but on Medium I mostly focus on writing about things I know.
Design. Productivity. Self improvement.
II speak at conferences all around the world, if you’d like to book me, get in touch. You can find out more at www.michalmalewicz.com
Designing User Interfaces
I’m also writing a comprehensive (and extremely detailed — over 400 pages) UI Design Handbook. You can get the free chapters by subscribing at www.designingui.com (the link comes with the newsletter’s welcome message)
There will also be a companion ebook called “TL;DR” with only the most important best practices outlined. Total NO-BS approach.
Here’s my Medium Best of:
Each piece has a short description, so you know if it’s tl;dr for you, or something a bit more interesting.
UX has pretty bad UX.
This is not a hit piece (it may seem like it) but I think a lot of the processes in current UX design lead to mediocre products. My take on the issue may be controversial, but definitely not the only solution. Find yours.
The RED SQUARE Method
Squares are a bit of an “inherited” thing for me. They come with the last name. But in all seriousness this method I came up with saves a lot of time when giving feedback and getting non-UX people to understand the design problems. Try it now.
Most common problem with most UIs & how to fix it
After working on nearly 200 different digital products and looking at even more I realised that a lot of UI mistakes are the same repeated ones. Here’s how to fix them easily.
Time to kill the annoying popups
First rule od good design — don’t annoy your users. Second rule? Don’t annoy your users.
Done is NOT better than perfect.
Dealing with the “typical” startup mistake of thinking “done is better than perfect”. It’s not. It’s only better if it’s above average. Having a poorly done product can kill even the best of ideas. Do good shit!
Where does user TRUST come from?
How do you manage to get your startup users to trust you? It’s not as hard as you think!
Redesigning popular social media apps using a mini-Design System
A new way of testing a design system — use it’s components to build quick “mockups” of completely different products. That will allow you to both have fun and test the versatility of your components. Future proofing for the win!
How I made an iOS game that got 500K downloads, but decided NOT to earn money from it.
We made a very popular (back in 2012) mobile game, but decided to keep it’s artistic integrity. Ads would break the immersion, so we just gave it away. It was an interesting lesson learned.
Is there more?
Of course. Explore the rest of the profile.
There is at least ONE new longform story coming weekly.
Follow to stay in the loop.
Thanks!
Michal
