Blog
Ten years inside SaaS products generates opinions. Most content from a UI/UX design agency is written to rank, not to say anything.
This is the other kind — the patterns that keep showing up, written down before the next product makes the same mistake.
Why Mixing Onboarding Patterns Destroys Activation (One Pattern Works, Five Don't)
Last month, a SaaS founder asked me to review their onboarding. "We implemented every best practice," they said. "But activation is terrible."
B2B SaaS Onboarding Is a Multiplayer Game (You're Designing for the Wrong Player)
Your perfect onboarding just got killed by someone who never saw it.
If You Have More Than 4 Stakeholders, I'm Walking Away
The project was fine. Good product. Clear brief. Reasonable timeline. They paid on time. Nobody yelled at me. I delivered everything they asked for, and they were happy with it.
New on Product Coalition: the cost of always hiring the best
New on HackerNoon: the senior designer addiction bankrupting your company
UI/UX Design Outsourcing: The Hidden Costs Nobody Calculates
When $50/hour ends up costing more than $150/hour — the math nobody wants you to see.
Building an Audience Through Strategic Authenticity
The most common advice for building an audience is "just be yourself."
Using AI for UX Research: The Workflow I Actually Use
Here's what works when you use AI for UX research — and what almost made me design for the wrong problem.
Tanya wrote about the onboarding hostage situation for HackerNoon
AI Model Collapse and Design Tools: Why Your AI Tools Are Getting Worse
I was working on client team headshots in August 2025. Ran the first photo through my usual background removal tool — the same one I'd used reliably for two years. The edge looked chewed. Like someone
New on HackerNoon: why Tanya only takes one type of mobile app client now
Why I Only Design Mobile Apps for One Type of Client Now
After designing mobile apps that made everyone miserable, I figured out which clients are worth the headache.
Tanya wrote about the button that trains users to ignore you for HackerNoon
The UI UX Design Skills Lie That's Bankrupting Designers
If you need seventeen different skills just to get an entry-level job, maybe the problem isn't your qualifications.
Why Most Banking App UX Is Broken at £0 - and How to Fix It Fast
Most banking apps look fantastic when the balance is healthy.
Marketing Website Case Studies Lie - The Maths, the Mess, the Exit
When "make it pop" meets "increase conversions by 400%" — spoiler: math doesn't work that way either.
The Harsh Truth About UX Design in Education (and Why It Fails New Designers)
Your beautiful portfolio won't survive first contact with a real stakeholder meeting.
New on HackerNoon: your product feels complex? Give it a spine
The UX Iceberg Problem: When Research Becomes an Excuse
If you've been researching the same problem for three months, you're not being thorough — you're being scared. There's a special kind of hell reserved for product teams drowning in UX iceberg syndrome
Tanya wrote about why SaaS pricing pages fail for HackerNoon