Design Critiques

What makes some designs good and others bad? Why do some designs work while others don’t? Posts in this category offer thoughtful design critiques of modern digital interfaces, with commentary inspired by Don Norman’s “The Design of Everyday Things.”

The image depicts the back of a person against a dark blue background. The person's body is reflected in heat map color, specifically a red shade covering the entire back, with hints of yellow and green outlining the silhouette.

Design Critique: Chronic Insights (iOS app)

Chronic Insights is an empowering tool for individuals hoping to uncover patterns and insights in their health journey through tailored charts and analysis of symptoms, triggers, and medical concerns. The app offers flexibility through a wide range of support features designed to accommodate users’ needs without data collection. Through Chronic Insights, users can track and

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Design Critique: Substack (Desktop)

Substack works best as a straightforward, creator-focused publishing platform that prioritizes direct communication with readers. Instead of emphasizing algorithms, viral reach, or advertising revenue, it centers on email distribution and subscriber relationships. For writers who value independence and want control over their content and audience, Substack offers a simple, accessible way to publish and monetize

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Widget appearance for Bing Bong

Design Critique: Bing Bong – NYC Subway Widget (Android app)

The Bing Bong Android application is a customizable widget that displays the current arrival times for the subway in NYC. Pulling from the MTA’s real-time data feed, the application operates primarily on the user’s home screen. The application itself is only for customizing the widgets, which serves as the user’s primary point of interaction with

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data.census.gov

Design Critique: Census Bureau Data

The United States Census Bureau offers the public the ability to search, filter, and download data collected by the bureau during the decennial census and other, more frequent surveys, such as the American Community Survey. The United States Census Bureau’s data repository at data.census.gov is a website that hosts the data collected by the bureau during the

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Spotify Interface

Design Critique: Spotify (iPhone App)

Spotify has dominated the Music Streaming space since its inception in 2008. Since then, it has revolutionized the personalization of listening to music, audiobooks, and podcasts by curating playlists, providing an AI DJ, or releasing the yearly “Spotify Wrapped” that listeners anxiously wait every year to find out. As someone who has been using Spotify’s interface since the beginning, I have witnessed its evolution through features I’ve loved a lot and loved not-so-much. With the extensive set of features and option Spotify now offers, this post analyzes how Spotify juggles designing with clarity while handling large amounts of information.

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Design Critique: A Critique of the ROLA Pet Companion App

 The ROLA app allows pet owners to remotely monitor and interact with their pets through a mobile-controlled robot. While the system provides strong real-time feedback and responsive control, inconsistencies in conceptual modeling, task organization, and emotional framing introduce subtle friction in what should be a reassuring experience. ROLA is a mobile interface designed to control

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