Spotify UX is often framed as polish. A layer of friendliness added at the end of product development. That framing misses the real story. The biggest contribution UX has made to the product world isn’t better interfaces.It’s better decisions. Over time, UX has quietly changed how products are conceived, built, and evaluated. Not perfectly....
Continue readingWhy UX Sometimes Fails Us
Spotify UX is supposed to make things clearer, easier, and more humane.So when an experience feels confusing, bloated, or frustrating, the instinct is to say UX failed. That’s only partly true. UX doesn’t usually fail because designers are careless or unskilled.It fails because the conditions around UX quietly undermine it. Most UX failure is...
Continue readingThe Most Annoying UX Component: The Dropdown Menu
Spotify Every product team uses dropdowns. Every design system includes them. Every developer can implement one in their sleep. And users hate them. The dropdown menu is the most overused, under-questioned component in UX. It creates friction in almost every context, yet teams cling to it because it feels neutral, familiar, and easy to...
Continue readingWhy Zillow Needs to Evolve: The UX Problem Hiding in Plain Sight
Spotify Zillow changed how people search for homes. It made real estate searchable, visual, and self-directed. But somewhere along the way, the experience stopped evolving. The problem is not the data. The problem is how the experience handles uncertainty, decision-making, and emotional context. Buying a home is one of the most emotionally and financially...
Continue readingDesign Intelligence: When Systems Start Designing Themselves
Spotify Design systems used to be rulebooks. Now, they’re becoming living organisms. With AI woven into the workflow, design systems are no longer just repositories of components and tokens. They’re active participants in the creative process. They observe, adapt, and learn from how teams design, what users respond to, and how products evolve. We’re...
Continue readingWith AI in Design, Now Is the Time to Make Sure Your Design System Is Amazing
Spotify AI isn’t replacing design systems, it’s amplifying them. As automation, generative tools, and intelligent assistants become embedded in the design process, your system’s quality now determines how well those tools perform. The stronger your foundation, the smarter your future workflows become. If AI is the new engine, your design system is the fuel....
Continue readingWhat Makes One Chief UX Officer Over Another? Experience, Luck, or Placement?
Spotify I’ve been watching the rise of young CXOs in the UX space, many with what appears to be minimal experience, and I keep asking myself: What really determines who becomes a Chief UX Officer over someone else? Is it years of practice, chance opportunities, networking, or being in the right place at the...
Continue readingRethinking Airbnb: A UX Redesign for Trust, Clarity, and True Discovery
Spotify Airbnb transformed the way we travel. It allowed people to experience cities through homes instead of hotels, turning neighborhoods into destinations and hosts into guides. But as the platform expanded, so did its complexity. Today, Airbnb feels more like a listing engine than a trusted travel companion. This UX redesign is about returning...
Continue readingRedesigning Instagram: Cutting Through the Clutter with UX
Spotify Instagram was once the poster child of mobile-first simplicity, a frictionless, visually-driven app for sharing moments and staying connected. But over time, its interface has become increasingly complex, bloated by features like Reels, Shops, Live, DMs, Threads, and algorithmically injected content. As Instagram chases retention and monetization, the user experience has begun to...
Continue readingDesigning with AI: Why UX Still Needs a Human Heart
Spotify Artificial intelligence can now draft wireframes, generate interface copy, label research transcripts, and even propose flows in seconds. But it still can’t do the one thing great UX always demands: care. Care about the individual on the other end of the screen. Care about context, consent, harm, dignity, and the long-term relationship between...
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