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Visually distorted - when symmetrical UI looks all wrong

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I’ve been gifted with a questionable super-power to spot visual defects at first glance.
It’s like having a spider-sense for distortions, I get this tingling feeling in the back of my skull, every time I see something that’s not aligned, twisted or unaesthetic.

It happens to me when I meet people (look at those gigantic hands! her head is tiny! OMG those fingernails! they look like they belong to a mole!), and as much as I’m trying to make it stop - I just can’t fight my own super-powers.

It also happens when I look at user interfaces: whether I’m working on something new, advising others, or just using a product - I can’t help but spotting design issues the minute I look at things.

So, as an attempt to get rid of this overweight - I decided to create this collection of common UI distortions caused by optical illusions and other design reasons, along with my proposed fixes, hoping that it will help the world create better-looking interfaces (and help me get rid of this unwanted “gift…
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The quest for developing a reliable rating system

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Trust plays a critical role when purchasing products online, but trusting the brand is not enough when booking a vacation or even ordering a massage at home, as the supplier in these cases is not the brand itself.

93% of consumers use online reviews to support their purchasing decisions; they seek for reassurance, a social proof that the product or service they plan to order is indeed the quality they expect it to be.

Rating and review systems are expected to be accurate because they are based on high volumes, however, as we learned over the years of operating our marketplace for beauty and lifestyle services - this is not always the case.

The problem When we started Missbeez, we knew we were dealing with a sensitive business.
Haircuts, makeups, massages, even nail treatments - those are all personal treatments, and therefore our customers were concerned about who’s coming over, their work quality and their experience.

The more expensive or personal a product is - the more sensitive use…
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5 basic mistakes product managers still make

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Product management is all about dealing with decisions, priorities, trade-offs, and compromises.
And yet, I’ve seen product people who focus so much on their product, that they often forget how to work with people.

Call it soft skills, intercommunication skills, it doesn’t matter. It’s the kind of things you need be aware of and work on, in order to become a good manager.

Here are 5 basic behavioral mistakes product managers still make, followed by some practical tips:
Mistake #1: Talking instead of listening  As a product manager, a big part of your knowledge comes from listening to others, and yet - many product people feel obliged to do the talking (and miss the opportunity to shut the fu🤭ck up).

Whether you are talking to customers, partners, sales, support - let them share their knowledge, pains, challenges, goals, and use this invaluable information to shore up your market understanding and connect the dots required to build a successful product.
THE QUIETER YOU BECOME, THE MOR…
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10 lessons learned from asking our users to pay

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Conversion rate optimization always reminded me of curling.

In curling, the main player throws a giant puck-shaped stone, aiming to reach a certain point, while 2 sweepers use their brooms to sweep the ice in front of the stone and slightly modify its path or speed until it reaches the target.

The path to optimize a product’s conversion rate involves a lot of curling-style tasks: UX/UI polishing, text modifications, psychological hacks, measurements, tons of experiments, numbers, and some more measurements.

There’s nothing sexy in those hundreds of small tasks that usually drive minor improvements, but then again, there’s nothing sexy in curling either…





While it’s hard to find improvements that will sky rocket your conversion rates, there is one topic that can easily knock it down if it's badly implemented: Money.

Whenever money is involved (purchases through the app, paid services, booking), the users become much more sensitive to security risks, uncertainties, unclear text, bug…
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10 usability improvements in iOS 13

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iOS 13 is just around the corner and expected to be released in less than a month (mid-September).
I decided it’s time for me to take a closer look and see what usability enhancements can be found in the new version of my favorite OS.

Here’s what I found after playing with iOS 13 all evening:

1. Pads vs. Phones The biggest change in iOS 13 is the separation between iOS and iPadOS.
For years I’ve been dealing with the challenge of developing software that runs on multiple devices: phones at different sizes, tablets, laptops, desktops - it can work (cal it: responsive, progressive, passive, aggressive...), but there’s a high cost for sharing the exact same software binaries across so many devices with so many differences: usability.

The software runs but the users pay the price and many compromises are made, not to mention development complexities and shipping speed.
Think about the following iPad needs: a desktop-style home-screen, better multi-tasking, split-views, floating apps, mous…
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