In this article, we will talk about some of the best UX designers in the last time so you can get some inspiration from them and upgrade your performance as a designer. Few things inspire designers more than studying the greats who have been before them. When it comes to user experience design, you can explore many talented individuals.
List of the 9 Top-of-Mind UX Designers
In this section, we will discuss the work of UX designers that have made a difference in the design industry. What better to inspire than learning about the people who have got their names up on the red carpet of design?
1. Luke Wroblewski
With billions of people worldwide using his software, LukeWroblewski is an internationally recognized digital product leader. He is currently a Product Director at Google. Earlier he was the CEO and Co-founder of Polar, which was acquired by Google in 2014, and the Chief Product Officer and Co-Founder of Bagcheck, also acquired by Twitter in 2011. In October 2011 he published a book named Mobile First which is one of the best UX Desing books. It is a brief but information-packed book that makes the case for why Web sites and applications should particularly be designed for mobile first.
Here is some of his public advice that is recommendable for you to read and it talks about how to decide what to measure/which metric to track. These are the things he says every designer should do.
In the first place, set goals: what do you want to see happen? Secondly, list potential metrics since they could be data you have or need to collect. For each, you should write what would happen if you measure it and what actions would you take. In the third place, rank this list of metrics by the biggest/clearest impact on your goals. After that, collect data for the top few to see if the actual data lead to the outcomes you thought it would.
2. Farai Madzima
Farai Madzima is the current UX lead of Shopify, and he has been organizing the Pixel Up conference and speaking at various UX and design conferences and events for a long time. His biggest achievement, except being the main UX dude at Shopify, was building successful banking products that could be utilized all over Africa, which was a challenge since access to the internet and decent devices are restricted in parts of the continent. He has over 14 years of UX design experience and he wishes to share it with the future of the industry.
3. Steve Krug
Known as a UX consultant, Steve Krug is a solid UX designer to follow. He regularly posts to his website, offering tips and advice about designing usable sites. He is also the author of “Don’t Make Me Think,” with rules for creating simple and intuitive websites. Krug has spent over 25 years as a usability coach and worked with corporations such as Apple, NPR, and Bloomberg.com.
4. Whitney Hess
She is the CEO of Heart Work, Co-host of the “Designing Yourself” podcast. Whitney Hess is on a mission, which is to get you to design for yourself. She has been praising this idea by coaching teams and leaders, publishing writings, and being a speaker at many conferences and events worldwide. Although she does not “get her hands dirty” by creating quality user experiences, she teaches businesses how to create these experiences by themselves.
5. Andy Budd
Budd is one of the top speakers on the topic of usability. Known as the creator of Silverback, a usability testing app, he also helped create the Web Standards movement. In addition to writing and speaking on UX principles, Budd offers coaching to forthcoming designers and businesses. He is the founder of the influential UK design agency Clearleft and has worked with BBC and Penguin Books.
6. Yael Levey
Levey has more than a decade of experience in UX best practices. She has a YouTube channel with the same name as her site, “I Am Not My Pixels.” As an avid blogger, she has a passion for helping younger designers understand what it takes to create stellar experiences for users. She has worked for BBC and Cancer Research UK. She currently works for Facebook as a product design manager.
7. Don Norman
The term “user experience” would not even be a thing without Don Norman. He is arguably one of the top modern influential famous UX designers. His varied background helps him bring some creamy perspectives to anything he creates or teaches. As a university professor, he often told his students they must design for real people. He is also a speaker and author.
His formal education as an electrical engineer and psychologist undoubtedly gives him some insight into both the way things work and the human psyche. You have likely heard of the Nielsen Norman Group. He is one of the founders and strived to help businesses create better websites and services by researching consumers’ needs.
8. Bill Buxton
Buxton considers himself a champion for the consideration of humans in the implementation of new products and technologies. He is one of the top researchers for Microsoft Research and owns a Toronto design firm. Buxton was a composer and performer. He even designed his instruments and performed as an artist in residence at the University of Toronto. He then returned to school to learn computer science and still gives some lectures at the university today. Plus, Buxton serves on numerous boards and looks at the UX of everything from films to websites. You can learn untold amounts of information from Buxton because he’s a wealth of a diverse collection of data.
9. Laura Klein
Klein is known as a Lean UX powerhouse. Her published works include “UX for Lean Startups” and “Build Better Products.” She is active on Twitter and shares tips and opportunities for other famous UX designers. Her blog features refined tips for fellow designers. For instance, she shared task flow charts and how to build one to create a better process for users. She also shares podcasts and videos on her site.
Final Thoughts
You do not have to study all of them deeply, but you should research what they are all about and dig deeper into the UX designers that you think would serve your purpose.
