If you’ve ever launched a start-up, a side project or even a blog, you know that the first version of your site never lasts long — and not only because good design is never finished. Your positioning will need refining, you’ll gain valuable user feedback over time and like the first crêpe, the first one is always messed up anyway.
In October 2020, my friend Coni and I launched a creative collective called Thea, to help small brands have big conversations. We develop ethical brand strategies and create inclusive content, copy, UX & graphic design for progressive businesses.
Quickly after…
I was recently invited by the Charity Hour to host a Twitter session on ethical web design. Every Wednesday at 8 pm, people working in or with the charity sector join for a conversation on a chosen topic.
I decided to sum up my tips for ethical web design and debunk a few misconceptions about UX in general. Let’s start with the beginning.
What is ethical web design?
Ethical web design inspires trust and can be the difference between someone engaging with your mission and forgetting you all together. Among other things, it involves:
- Informed consent
- Safety
- Privacy
- No deceptive methods
- Accessibility
- Inclusivity
- Transparency
UX is for everyone
…
Borago Insights is a London-based consultancy helping charities make sense of their data. Their founder, Emma Haslam, hired me to redesign their website. After rebranding her agency, she wanted to modernise the overall look of her website and improve the user experience.
But web design doesn’t start by immediately splashing colours in Figma like I’m freaking Picasso. Although, honestly, it’d be nice. It took us six months to go through all 10 steps of this full redesign process which include:
I’m a UX designer helping people on a mission to tell their story. I do that because, not being a doctor or a teacher, my work isn’t going to be meaningful unless I consciously make it so.
I see mistakes that are seriously damaging conversion opportunities all the time. But I don’t want to just point the effing obvious. I want to tell you why it matters, how people perceive you and your brand because of them.
However, this article should come with a warning. I, too, might have overlooked your context. The same applies to what people might think…
1. Contraception is key to overcome poverty
In the last 50 years, not a single country came out of poverty without granting access to contraception. Contraception allows women to decide if and when to have children. It’s a magic pill (pardon the pun) that gives women the time to study, work and become financially independent. In turn, they can put a roof over their children’s head, feed them properly and send them to school. So as we allow women to control their pregnancies, we diminish poverty.
2. Educated women keep their children safer
Mothers who go to school learn to debunk the rules that try to keep them down. So it’s only natural…
I had a very privileged lockdown in my flat in Southern France. But every night when I clapped for health professionals from my balcony, I couldn’t help but question my own contribution to society. I don’t mean to be melodramatic about it, but honestly, it wasn’t much.
I always thought someday I’d work in the humanitarian sector. But when I’d be older, stronger and more mature. A bit like when you don’t feel like having children because you don’t know enough about life. But with this pandemic, I realised there was no time to waste to support the causes I…
There are many conversations, books and movies that have, luckily, kept me going on my creative journey. They have not taught me about whatever form(s) of art I’ve been exploring. They have taught me a lot about the attitude I need to make it out alive — and sane. “Big Magic” by Elizabeth Gilbert has triggered another epiphany. It’s actually a summary of all the epiphanies I’ve had at various points in my life and even some new ones.
The reason I want to share them today is that Gilbert made them beautiful, impactful and user-friendly. Which is something I…
Powered by Squarecat, Leave Me Alone lets you see all of your subscription emails in one place and unsubscribe from them with a single click. Bonus point, they don’t sell your data to third parties like their competitors.
As a fellow member of Women Make, I helped Danielle Johnson, the co-founder of Leave Me Alone, to optimise the landing page before the launch on Product Hunt. The goal was to maximise conversion opportunities.
Adapting to the Audience
Leave Me Alone wants to help anyone with an email address to optimise their time spent managing subscriptions. …
everywoman is a British business empowering women in business to close the Gender Pay Gap.
They hired me to improve user engagement on their learning & development membership platform for women in business.
The L&D resources are distributed on everywoman’s website for members with an active license that they usually get from their employers. One of the challenges we faced was to get members to take an interest in the resources available and use the platform. When your boss pays for something you know little about, there’s less incentive to be engaged. That’s where I came in.
Making Contact
Building a Plan for Diverse Members
With +30,000 members…
LimonX is an e-commerce platform where you can buy e-gift cards, vouchers and prepaid card top-ups using cryptocurrencies.
I worked with their team on the UX audit of their website to optimise the user journey and conversions before they relaunched their online store.
Simplifying the Journey
Efficient Newsletter Sign-Up Forms
Do you know how you enter some shops and one of their people comes up out of nowhere and starts asking you if you need help? There’s a UX equivalent to that: newsletter sign-up forms. …
Tamara Sredojevic
UX designer for people on a mission • I design ethical websites with a mindful approach for progressive businesses • iamtamara.design
