Nomiki Petrolla

As a designer, UX isn’t just digital—it’s woven into the cities we live in. This week I’m spending time in a city I haven’t been to in years - Cincinnati - and as I explore downtown, I’m always amazed at the design work folks do at this massive scale, with every street, park, and building as a key touchpoint. Just like in digital design, cities should prioritize the human experience. Thoughtfully designed spaces invite people to stay, explore, and connect, blending aesthetics with functionality. #UXdesign #Humancentereddesign

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Join me and my guest, Sarah Doody, for Episode 137 of the #DesignThinking 101 #Podcast: Designing Your Career + UX for Small Business. Listen to it here: https://bit.ly/45lUCgN #CareerPlanning #UX #UserExperience

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📣 Designers, you might be surprised at how easy it is to EARN MORE with a few smart moves! In today’s episode (112) of Design Business Freedom podcast, I’m sharing 10 powerful steps to help you reclaim your PROFITS and PEACE. Here’s a hint: one simple step (with just a little commitment) could make a huge difference in your design business. Sometimes, it’s those unnoticed expenses that add up over time, quietly draining your profits🗑️. When you commit to these 10 steps, you’ll see an uptick in your bottom line and be ready to welcome bigger projects and better clients. And the best part is you can do them ALL in ONE DAY! You’ve got this, and I’ve got you. Always. Catch this episode wherever you find podcasts, and start making these quick, impactful changes today. Your business deserves it! 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gYEXnxW2 . . . #designerentrepreneur #interiordesignerlife #interiordesignfirm #boostyourprofits

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🚨 New Crema Service Alert 🚨 Product Team Assessment The tech triad of Product, Design, and Engineering is something we think about often at Crema. Any new client we engage with we are quickly evaluating their capabilities in each of these areas. This allows us to know how we might adjust our ability to collaborate and serve alongside each other long term. You may have seen that earlier this spring we launched UX Audits. A great way to review the design and experience of your technology and address adoption and engagement issues with your users. Today we launch the 2nd of 3 new services: 🚀 Product Team Assessments 🚀 Is your product team facing challenges with productivity, collaboration, or innovation? Everyone is rowing, but not int the same direction? At Crema, we understand the complexities that can hinder your team’s performance. Our Product Team Assessments are designed to identify and address these obstacles, providing you with actionable insights and strategies to enhance your team's efficiency and effectiveness. You can turn challenges into opportunities and drive your team towards exceptional results. Discover how we can help transform your team at Crema. Tag those product leads that you know could use the help to get your teams rowing in the same direction. https://lnkd.in/ge7Fd75G

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Worth reading through this article on the ever important topic of Accessibility. https://lnkd.in/e8JamZSS #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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It's been 10 years since CapitalOne acquired Adaptive Path. I'm glad for my friends who did well with the acquisition, but I'm mostly sad with what it's meant for design. For folks who joined UX within the last decade: there was a time when independent consultancies made an important contribution — and not just through their work for clients, but by sharing what they learned along the way. Adaptive Path wasn't just a consultancy. They also elevated the profession by hosting fabulous conference series, publishing world-leading content (including frameworks that are used to this day,) and more. AP wasn't the only one that did this, but it was the most visible. Unfortunately many of these consultancies have been acquired. I say 'unfortunately' because large enterprises (e.g., banks) aren't incentivized to share what they learn WRT design. A few years ago, I was preparing a workshop where I taught participants about experience maps. AP used to host an excellent primer on their website. In the past, I'd point folks to the PDF in AP's website. Alas, CapitalOne wiped everything related to Adaptive Path from the internet. You can still find their guide to experience mapping — in the Internet Archive. That's no way to run a profession. The move in-house as the default may have been positive for designers — for a while — but it has hurt the profession. Consultancies are an important part of the ecosystem.

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Only one-third of CEOs could detail what their CDO oversaw at the company. In other words, 66% of CEOs couldn’t say what their CDO actually did, or how that success should be measured. No wonder only 10% of CEOs reported that a senior designer played a meaningful role in the company’s strategy. And only 17% of design leaders thought they were in the right position to give a company their full value. McKinsey concludes that 90% of companies aren’t using design talent to their full potential. https://lnkd.in/ePHAS4S3

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Wow, it is nice to see some of the impact the course I authored with Designlab is having on teams both big and small. Emilyann Gachko thank you for sharing this case study and how it was received by the team at The Home Depot :) If you are interested in increasing your design skills through #usability and #accessibility check out the course. #ux #design #hcd https://lnkd.in/gEdC3NBV

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I re-read my entire design college coursework from a top 10 design school (UW Informatics) Refresh your design fundamentals w/ me 👇 Have you been feeling a need to polish your graphic design skills? Me too 😅 I am curious what your goal is, drop it in the comments! My goal is to take the templates in my portfolio builder product Nolio to the next level. I want them to be STUNNING and I want to make 100 of them. To do that I'm revisiting my design coursework from college. Check out the slides below for the information. #uiux #design #uidesign #uiuxdesign #ui #uxdesign

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Tomorrow I'll give a presentation on design quality at Front-end Conf here in Florida. This is the first time I've spoken on such a topic in a live, public format. Here at the event I've been humbled to hear several people say "I'm excited for your talk." Quietly in my head I'm replying "Me too. I have no idea how this will turn out!" Par for the course with new material. 😎 I've said before that my benchmark is 1 hour of prep time per 1 minute of speaking time for a new talk. This is a 45-min talk and I'm on pace for ~45 hrs of prep time. I won't have all the answers tomorrow but we'll explore: – What is design quality anyway? – Why is it so hard to achieve? – Where do we go from here? This is dialog I hope to see more of in the industry. It's long overdue. I'm holding myself accountable to share more, too. Let's see how tomorrow goes first. #frontendconf

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When digging through your knowledge base feels like answering a riddle, maybe it's time to rethink organization! 🧩 Check out our blog on product information structure in the comments. #OrganizeForSuccess #KnowledgeBaseChaos #UserXD #UXDesign

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Developing from the bottom up, solving user problems first, is an important part of building an application people will use. It's difficult to force someone to use a bad piece of software, but if you solve their problems and make it easy, they'll use it all the time. #software #saas #enterprise

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Poll for friends who are devs or designers… I have a really close friend who has a small business that can not weather current market challenges. They’ve been in the wellness/CBD space for 10 years and are going to close shop. She wants to pivot and pursue training for a development or UX design career. In your opinion, what are the best options, schools, courses or classes that would lead to highest likelihood of future employment. I am def not in the loop with the latest when it comes to dev, UX design etc. Also, if if you feel this is a not good idea… please provide a suggestion on what would be more optimal. 🙏🏽

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2 years with Nectar! 🤘🔥 My favorite highlights: → Our team’s growth from 23 employees to 90 employees. Product alone grew from 6 of us to 21 strong now 🙌🏼, and we’re a sleek, efficient, resilient team under Brian Cressall and Nate Tingey. → Established Nectar’s Design System and built our component library, significantly improving speed, consistency, and quality of design and implementation. → Completed a massive UI design refresh for the existing product (bless the devs still building it 🫡 ). → Launched Nominations, the largest and most impactful new feature we’ve built at Nectar yet. → Completely scrapped a project, because it was the right thing to do. Grateful to work on a team that’s hyper-focused on our ultimate goals, and is sincerely willing to let sunk costs be irrelevant. → Ideated, designed, and launched our new product Internal Communications in 8 weeks with a small, mighty team 🤯 I’m still amazed we managed it. → $40M Series B funding in April 2024 with PeakSpan Capital. → Saw our efforts, motivation, and passion pay off when Nectar was recognized as the 2nd Fastest Growing Company in Utah County, 1st fastest growing software company in Utah, 8th fastest growing software company in the U.S., and 87th fastest growing company in the U.S. (across all industries). → 300% increase in revenue in Q3 2023 vs Q3 2024 (Q3 was also 50% above our revenue Q2 2024). → Saw every department at Nectar grow in excellence. I’m in awe of the caliber of Engineering, CS, Marketing, Sales, and what they accomplish. → Relished the challenge and variety of asks in the beginning as Nectar’s sole designer, including working on print design (looking at you, 28’ tradebooth) and animations for the first time. That animation announcing Nectar’s new logo a year ago? That was my first animation, and I’m still proud of myself for figuring it out enough to make that 😂. → Spent way too much on Holiday gas station runs (RIP old office). This is a long list, but for the record I cut it in half from what it was 😅. I’m grateful Nate reached out on LinkedIn right at the perfect time when I was looking to switch things up, and that we’ve made a great team ever since. Getting to work closely with our little product design team—Nate, Mason, Tyler, and Maya—and many, many others keeps me growing and keeps me motivated on the daily. Nectar’s mission and way of working resonated with me from the beginning. It’s rewarding to see our company continue to gain momentum and maturity, all while seeing how much room we still have to grow. Very, very grateful to be part of the journey. As we say, it’s still Day 1 at Nectar. 🚀

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Exciting Announcement! 🚀 Join us on Thursday, October 4th at 3 PM EST for a dynamic A11Y webinar: Shift Left – Integrating Accessibility from the Start! I’ll be speaking alongside Daryn Harpaz and Juliette Alexandria from Zenyth,  as we dive into best practices for building accessibility into your design and development process from day one. Here’s what we’ll cover: • The importance of “shifting left” with accessibility to create more inclusive digital experiences • How early integration of accessibility saves time, reduces costs, and improves user satisfaction • Practical strategies to embed accessibility within your workflow, ensuring WCAG 2.2 compliance Whether you’re a designer, developer, project manager, or business leader, this webinar will provide actionable insights to make your digital projects more accessible and user-friendly from the ground up. Date: Thursday, October 4th Time: 3 PM EST Don’t miss out – Register now: https://lnkd.in/etvz9Rph #ShiftLeft #Accessibility #A11Y #DigitalInclusion #WCAG #InclusiveDesign

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See below for part two of our series on designing experiences for human behavior. Link to the full blog post in the comments. #userexperience #productdesign

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📻 New podcast episode alert: Mastering Intentional Prioritization for Complex Organizations 🔊 We all say we have our priorities straight right? But if we don't prioritize at all or without intention -- how can that be true? In this episode of UX Leadership by Design, host I speak with Harry Max, author of the book "Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions". The discussion centers around the importance of intentional prioritization, particularly in complex organizational settings. Harry explains that while many people think they are good at prioritizing, most struggle when faced with dynamic and adaptive environments. He introduces his DEGAP process model (Decide, Engage, Gather, Arrange, Prioritize), which offers a structured approach to prioritization, ensuring that decisions are made based on the best possible options. The conversation also touches on the challenges of gaining team and organizational alignment and the significance of making prioritization a deliberate and strategic activity. !20% Discount Code! Purchase Harry's book "Managing Priorities: How to Create Better Plans and Make Smarter Decisions". Use Code "UXLBD" during checkout at: https://lnkd.in/dzVjGmqH Episode Takeaways: Prioritization Needs Intentionality: Successful prioritization requires a structured approach, especially in complex organizational settings. Importance of Strategic Alignment: Aligning teams and gaining executive support are crucial for the success of any prioritization effort. Recognizing the Need to Prioritize: The first step is deciding whether prioritization is necessary in a given situation, considering the potential benefits and risks. Prioritization as a Skill: While people may be good at prioritization in simple environments, complex settings require more refined methods and tools. Avoiding Pitfalls: Without intentional prioritization, organizations risk making decisions that do not align with their strategic goals, leading to inefficiencies. Building Consensus: Engaging all relevant stakeholders in the prioritization process ensures that the outcomes are understood and supported across the organization. ____________________________________ Watch on YouTube: https://lnkd.in/d_WmUKyD UX Leadership by Design Podcast: https://lnkd.in/dEgPJpUn Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/df_5Rxgv Listen on Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dydB4CTH #Prioritization, #Leadership, #TeamAlignment, #OrganizationalSuccess, #UXLeadership, #BusinessStrategy, #DecisionMaking, #ComplexEnvironments, #ExecutiveAlignment, #PrioritizationProcess,

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Worth revisiting this article on the importance of Labels in Forms, from an accessibility perspective and overall product experience. https://lnkd.in/eSyAwf48 #design #designthinking #designbuild #designstrategy #product #producctdesign #productmanagement #productstrategy #designprinciples #innovation #designers #digitaltransformation #ux #uxdesign #uiux #uidesign #designinnovation #application #software #softwaredesign #usability #userresearch #research #usercentereddesign #productleadership #uxwriting #designsystems #empathy #interfacedesign #usabilitytesting #userexperience #productdesign #accessibility #ui

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