Mentoring resources
This is my evolving collection of links and resources to share with mentees.
Building a new practice at PayPal
I started learning about accessibility and working closely with our accessibility staff as a side project
Eventually it became fully supported and we made it an essential part of our process
👋 I mentor on ADPList.org
If I sent you here from a session, thanks for connecting!
If you just found this page and want to connect, see my ADPList.org profile here.
Product/UX design
Portfolios/Learning
Standing out from the crowd with your story - My article/talk for BeMore conference about using your passions and skills
A Designers Guide to Interviewing - ebook, a great resource for portfolio/interview prep
Degreeless.design - wide range of learning resources
UX Interview Questions - practice!
Accessibility/Inclusion
UX Designers Accessibility Guide - I took this class on Udemy for Accessibility and recommended it
Stark Library - Good resources for learning accessibility
The small accessibility team was focused on training the engineering org and help them repair known issues
Our DS team was focused on building our system and had few interactions about accessibility, primarily on implementation
Accessibility team wanted to reach designers - our Design System team was a great conduit to the wider UX org
The wider UX org was not trained for accessibility design
My booklist
- User Experience Team of One - Nice primer for the whole UX process
- Dont Make Me Think - Classic guide on intuitive experiences
- Articulating Design Decisions - Great for being an effective communicator across teams
- The Making of a Manager - How to become a design manager
- Sprint - Handbook for running a design sprint
- Org Design for Design Orgs - Building and managing design teams
- Design Leadership - Build and grow teams
- Technically Wrong - Sexist Apps, Biased Algorithms, and Other Threats of Toxic Tech
- Building for Everyone - Designing for diversity
- Demystifying Disability - Not design specific, but good perspectives
- Mismatch: How Inclusion Shapes Design - Inclusive design methods
- Design for Real Life - Inclusive practices
- Design for Cognitive Bias - Adjusting design processes for bias
- Design That Scales by Dan Mall - My notes on the book
- Design System Handbook (free)
- Make Time - same authors as Sprint, how to focus on what matters each day
- Quiet by Susan Cain - encouragement for introverts
The small accessibility team was focused on training the engineering org and help them repair known issues
Our DS team was focused on building our system and had few interactions about accessibility, primarily on implementation
Accessibility team wanted to reach designers - our Design System team was a great conduit to the wider UX org
The wider UX org was not trained for accessibility design
Design systems links
Design Systems Slack - great way to learn and ask questions
My notes on the book by Dan Mall
Reference systems
eBay Playbook - my team's DS site :)
Browse the Figma community UI Kits section for official Material Design and iOS kits.
Simple Design System by Figma is a powerful resource for anyone learning UI and DS skills.
The small accessibility team was focused on training the engineering org and help them repair known issues
Our DS team was focused on building our system and had few interactions about accessibility, primarily on implementation
Accessibility team wanted to reach designers - our Design System team was a great conduit to the wider UX org
The wider UX org was not trained for accessibility design
Design systems job description
- Designing and documenting components:
- Good UI/UX design experience in general
- Detail oriented, quality obsessed
- Skill in articulating design decisions (by talking and writing)
- Skill in writing (support conversations and documentation)
- Basic understanding of design systems
- Knowledge of accessibility/WCAG
- Experience working closely with engineers
- Willingness to help move ideas forward, looking for new opportunities to improve our work
- Presentation skills - to evangelize and rally the teams toward a vision for the system
- Teaching skills - to show teams how to use the system, how to contribute, etc
- Collaborative - to provide support for users of the system and work with them on requests for new patterns, negotiating folks toward alignment
- Systems thinking - how do design decisions apply broadly
- Experience with creating and maintaining a DS
- Experience documenting DS
- Experience with DS tokens, to collaborate and speak same language as engineers
- Experience providing design specs and QA support to DS engineers on web and native platforms
- Understanding the crossover between accessibility and design systems
The small accessibility team was focused on training the engineering org and help them repair known issues
Our DS team was focused on building our system and had few interactions about accessibility, primarily on implementation
Accessibility team wanted to reach designers - our Design System team was a great conduit to the wider UX org
The wider UX org was not trained for accessibility design