“Growth hacks or so-called psychology tricks have a negative reputation. and it’s not a surprise. Think about the last time you stumbled upon such a “smart” hack — maybe when you were trying to unsubscribe from newsletters you didn’t mean to sign up for, or when booking a low-cost flight became complicated due to numerous upsells.

In the ideal world, growth designers create user experiences that drive business growth while following ethical principles. But the more marketers and people responsible for company growth learn about growth hacks, the more unpleasant some user journeys seem to become.”

Can growth design be truly ethical? →
By

Editor picks

• AI and the future of authorship →
  The lack of legal protection against author identity theft.
  By
  Neel Dozome
• Airbnb’s PM shift and the future of UX Research →
  A crucial juncture for UX Researchers to reassess their role.
  By
  Meltem Barcelona
• Deceptive aisles →
  How UX tricks in the grocery store contribute to overspending.
  By
  Camryn Manker

The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and illuminates the path to design mastery and critical thinking. Here’s how we’re boosting stories through our partnership with Medium.

How the iMac saved Apple →

Make me think

• Inside the decline of Stack Exchange →
  “Stack Exchange’s most well known forum, Stack Overflow, must maintain a critical mass in two groups: people with questions about programming and people with answers.”
• AI has already created as many images as all human photographers →
  “More than 15 billion images created using text-to-image algorithms since last year. To put this in perspective, it took photographers 150 years, from the first photograph taken in 1826 until 1975, to reach the 15 billion mark.”
• What exactly are the economics of AI? →
  “A few years ago there was a joke in Silicon Valley, anchored to some degree in reality, that if you had .ai in your startup’s domain name you could add a zero to your valuation (100M instead of 10M, etc). Nowadays it feels like it could be two zeros, especially if you claim to be using Generative AI.”

Tools and resources

• UX research emails →
  Best practices from Notion, Strava, GoDaddy & more.
  By
  Rosie Hoggmascall
• How I structured my design system →
  Using Figma’s new variables.
  By
  Melissa McArthur
• Is your product really an MVP? →
  Facilitating a lean development journey.
  By
  Soyeon Lee

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