Insights

November 2024

Not all user interview data is good data

But it’s not the user's fault. The truth is, as humans, we are utterly terrible at predicting and even describing our behavior accurately. So, how can you conduct user interviews with this in mind?

September 2024

Should you really switch to design tokens in Figma?

Deciding whether to implement design tokens in Figma can be a headache. So, we’ve evaluated their pros and cons to help you figure out if it’ll be worth the pain.

November 2024

The Trouble with Timing

Last night, our CEO sent us a very urgent article to publish about the trouble with timing.

September 2024

When working on a design system, aligning tokens between Figma and the codebase is a top priority. And quite a hassle. So, here’s a developer’s guide on automating the process and reclaiming your sanity.

July 2024

Why designers don’t like design systems

What do product designers really mean when they say “design systems limit creativity”?

July 2024

How to make your life easier and your code cleaner by using composable components

With an evolving digital product, maintaining, editing and updating features is time consuming and inevitable. But with composable components, front-end developers can do it all without breaking a sweat. ‍

June 2024

Why you’ll kick yourself for not designing responsive components with Figma

When your digital product needs to be responsive, manually editing components and creating variants takes forever (and ever and ever). Isn’t there a better way?

June 2024

Why the marketing team just ruined everything

With your impressive design system fully updated, the marketing team uses an outdated banner on the homepage. Why?

May 2024

How to build sturdy foundations for your product’s design

With a mix of developers and designers collaborating on your digital product over time, it can get messy. So, how do you keep your design consistent? Let’s start with the foundations.

May 2024

Why is nobody using your incredible design system documentation?

Many people fall in love with the idea of clean and complete design system documentation, and they spend a lot of energy building it. Frustratingly, the team never uses it! This guide explains how to fix your relationship with design system documentation for good.

May 2024

How first-time digital leaders get plenty of resources and then fail

She had a plan, she had the resources, but she couldn't see the problem. A story of growth stagnation, aiming for the "perfect" product, and Belka founder's tips to skip the very same mistakes.

May 2024

A design system to build design systems

When you build a lot of design systems, you end up building a system to build design systems. Here’s how we did it.

April 2024

What’s the recipe for a successful handoff?

After finalizing and polishing their work in Figma, designers often expect developers to magically make sense of it. However, as that's not usually the case, things can end up looking pretty grim. What's going wrong?

March 2024

How do you know if your design system is giving you a return on investment?

Most people emphasize the importance of measuring the value of their design system. Yet, hardly anyone is actually doing it. What’s going on?

March 2024

How being too much of a control freak can harm your design system

Meet the Design System Police! Their job: to make sure things don't get too chaotic. But is too much law and order always a good thing?

February 2024

Why isn’t anyone using your design system?

Congratulations! You’ve built a design system! Or have you? A Figma file full of components isn’t a design system unless someone is using it. So how do design system teams get their colleagues to use their fancy design systems? We investigated.

February 2024

How to convince management that a design system is a good investment

When product teams ask management for resources to start a design system project, the first answer is often no. We tried to figure out why, and how to get them to say yes instead.

January 2024

Why you shouldn't think too big when starting to build a design system

Many design teams told us that when they first started building their design systems, they felt overwhelmed because they thought they’d need a dedicated team with support and resources. We asked them how they got over it.

December 2023

Why your first attempt at a design system is likely to fail

Many design teams told us that building their first design systems didn't go as planned, and when they realized what they were building wasn’t working, they'd had to completely rethink their original ideas. So what happened? We were curious to know.

November 2023

The trouble with advice

Our CEO went to a conference, and got very angry when a nice man from Google tried to give him good advice.

November 2023

Let’s talk about design system audits

In the life of every successful digital product there comes a time when creating a proper design system becomes indispensable. But where do you start? ‍

September 2023

The 3 types of stakeholders in UX research, and how to win them over

In UX research, the relationship with your stakeholders is incredibly important. If they aren’t ready to listen or if they have the wrong expectations, it doesn’t matter how interesting your insights are.

September 2023

3 questions user research can answer about the future of your digital product (and a few it can’t)

Evolving a digital product means you have to make a lot of difficult decisions. User research can help you make some of them less difficult.

August 2023

The trouble with roadmaps

Roadmaps are supposed to make everything easier. But a lot of product managers tell us they’re not working. So Sara, our UX Team Lead, tried to find out what seems to be the problem.

June 2023

How to build a terrible product (and make everyone on your team miserable)

Why is management trying to stop the product team from building a great product? And why is the product team trying to stop management from building a great product? Everyone working on a digital product wants it to be great. The problem? What we mean by “great” isn’t always the same thing.

April 2023

Why has development on my digital product suddenly slowed down?

A startup moves fast and grows fast. That’s what it’s built to do. But after a while, it can feel like you’re not shipping as fast as you used to. Why does it happen, and how can you fix it?

March 2023

What’s a design system, and do I need one?

Everybody’s talking about design systems! Is it all just hype, or are they something you really need? What do they do? Do they do things? Let’s find out!

Not all user interview data is good data

Should you really switch to design tokens in Figma?

The Trouble with Timing

How to Automate Token Handoff

Why designers don’t like design systems

How to make your life easier and your code cleaner by using composable components

Why you’ll kick yourself for not designing responsive components with Figma

Why the marketing team just ruined everything

How to build sturdy foundations for your product’s design

Why is nobody using your incredible design system documentation?

How first-time digital leaders get plenty of resources and then fail

A design system to build design systems

What’s the recipe for a successful handoff?

How do you know if your design system is giving you a return on investment?

How being too much of a control freak can harm your design system

Why isn’t anyone using your design system?

How to convince management that a design system is a good investment

Why you shouldn't think too big when starting to build a design system

Why your first attempt at a design system is likely to fail

The trouble with advice

Let’s talk about design system audits

The 3 types of stakeholders in UX research, and how to win them over

3 questions user research can answer about the future of your digital product (and a few it can’t)

The trouble with roadmaps

How to build a terrible product (and make everyone on your team miserable)

Why has development on my digital product suddenly slowed down?

What’s a design system, and do I need one?

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