UX Gaps

 You arrive at the meetup feeling different this time. The last time you were here, you were trying to figure out the difference between being a freelancer and a contractor. A recent job had listed you as a contractor, and you weren’t sure what that meant for your work. You left with clarity and a confident response sent off in email. Tonight, you’re not here with questions. You’re here to see friends, connect, and talk about the projects you’ve been working on. The last few jobs made you think differently — not just about task flows or wireframes, but about outcomes, behavior, and what really matters for users. You’ve been noticing patterns, small things that improve performance, and results that come from paying attention beyond the surface level. During a break, a friend pulls you aside. “I might have something for you,” she says. She explains that an EdTech after-school program is expanding, adding programs and enrollment flows, and they need someone to review the system a...

I get a lot of questions about the Freelancers UX Immersion Workshop, so I put together a quick video answering the ones I hear most often. In it, I explain who the workshop is for, what you’ll learn, and how it helps you practice real freelance UX scenarios before stepping out on your own. Know a designer who’s considering freelance UX? Feel free to share this with them so they can learn more about the workshop. Watch the video below to get the full answers and see if this workshop is right for you! Enroll or learn more: workshop.uxgaps.com   Helping UX Designers bridge gaps and grow

You sit at your desk, reviewing the onboarding flow you just redesigned for the mobile app. Weeks of work went into this: consolidating unnecessary steps, clarifying confusing fields, and rewriting instructions that had caused users to get stuck in the past. The flow is smoother now, and most of the obvious pain points from earlier testing are gone. Your team has been watching metrics closely. The product manager and engineers are eager to see results. Now that the redesign is live, you feel cautiously optimistic. At first glance, the numbers look promising. Click-throughs are high. Users spend slightly more time on tutorial screens. Engagement seems up. It feels like the work paid off. But during the next team meeting, the product manager frowns. “Completion rates haven’t improved,” they say. “People are still dropping off mid-flow.” Your stomach knots. How can users be clicking through at such a high rate if they’re not finishing? You assumed the redesign addressed the major fri...

A designer gets an email from someone he hasn't talked to in years. They worked together once, long ago, before their careers went in different directions. The message is straightforward: "Hey—hope all is well with you. We're in the middle of a product project that's grown larger than we expected. We're looking to contract out 1–2 additional designers to help the team keep things moving. Would you be interested?" The request makes sense. The project expanded. They need more hands. But one word gives him pause: contract. He's been freelancing for years. That model is familiar. Contracting, though, is something he's never had to think too deeply about. He realizes he doesn't actually know how it would change his role or what would be expected of him on a day-to-day basis. That evening, he goes to his regular networking meetup. He ends up talking with designers working across agencies, product teams, freelance roles, and contract positions. When someo...