As devices seamlessly connect and integrate into our daily lives, IoT design challenges traditional UX approaches. Creating intuitive interfaces for these interconnected ecosystems offers unique opportunities to craft engaging experiences that bridge digital and physical worlds.

IoT has revolutionized the way we interact with technology, enabling seamless connections between devices, applications, and services. As a result, UX/UI and product design have evolved, with designers striving to create engaging and personalized experiences tailored to this new paradigm.

The IoT landscape offers vast opportunities to explore innovative concepts that push the boundaries of traditional user interaction. But it also introduces new design challenges that must be addressed with care. In this article, we explore the core principles of IoT user experience design – what makes it different, what pitfalls to avoid, and how to craft intuitive and efficient IoT applications.

Designing an IoT app is a whole different ball game compared to, for example, banking or telecommunications apps. Designers must consider not only the user, app, and cloud, but also an array of interconnected devices communicating in real-time. Navigating this intricate landscape requires thorough research, validation of design choices, and a focus on simplicity – while keeping user experience the top priority.

To bring out the most in any IoT platform, designers need to understand both its limitations and true capabilities. A major friction point in IoT is communication delay – interaction between phones and connected devices tends to be slower than standard mobile-to-cloud interactions due to signal interference or physical distance. This is why certain actions in IoT apps can be slower, so designers must adapt the interactions to prevent damage to the UX.

A ban on fake reviews and hidden fees in the UK just made ethical UX a legal requirement, not just a nice-to-have. We explore why building trust by design is now a competitive edge and the future of product strategy.

In the world of digital product design, trust has always been our most valuable asset. At Infinum, we’ve long believed that good design should empower, not deceive. That belief just received a major boost from UK lawmakers.

In a landmark move, the UK government has officially banned fake reviews and hidden fees through the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill. Under the new rules, businesses must:

This isn’t a minor policy tweak; it’s a pivotal shift in the digital landscape. Regulators now have the power to fine companies up to 10% of global turnover for manipulative or misleading user experiences.

This is a clear signal to product teams that UX is no longer just about usability. It’s also about responsibility.

By outlawing shady practices, this legislation redefines the responsibilities of digital product teams.

For years, ethical UX has been treated as an internal value, something designers and researchers advocated for out of principle, building digital products around these values not because they had to but because they knew it was better for users and business.

However, many designers and developers had no option but to optimise for business goals that didn’t always align with user needs. Stakeholders pushed for higher conversions, longer sessions, or more sign-ups, even when those outcomes relied on grey-area tactics.

This fundamentally shifts how product teams must operate:

For many businesses, this is a much-needed turning point.

Coined by Harry Brignull in 2010, the term “dark patterns” refers to interfaces that manipulate users into decisions they didn’t intend, such as signing up for a subscription or sharing personal data.

Some of the worst offenders are now banned, but others will adapt. We’re already seeing manipulative practices evolve:

These aren’t just bad UX; they’re becoming risk factors.

Infinum deploys best practice design in every product; we use journey mapping, UX audits, and design systems to ensure we build honest, user-first experiences.

Users, especially younger ones, are more digitally literate than ever and far less tolerant of deception.

A 2022 study by the Norwegian Consumer Council found that:

Users now expect experiences that are not only usable but also trustworthy by design.

This creates a major opportunity: brands that lead with transparency will stand out. Just like eco-labels or ethical sourcing in retail, we may soon see “ethically designed” badges or trust certifications in digital products.

One of the most damaging effects of dark patterns is that they can inflate short-term metrics while hiding long-term costs.

Some examples:

Now, companies must reframe how they measure performance. At Infinum, we guide clients to shift focus to:

This is more aligned with long-term growth, better user relationships, and the new legal environment.

The UK’s ban on fake reviews and hidden fees isn’t the end of dark patterns, but it marks the end of pretending they’re harmless.

For product teams, the signal is clear: You’re now responsible for the ethical integrity of your digital experience. And for the first time, there are consequences when you get it wrong.

At Infinum, we are proud to already operate at this standard, designing and building digital products that earn trust by default. And we’re ready to help others do the same. Reach out for our expert advice.

Figma’s new website builder promises to unify design and web publishing in a single workflow. But does it deliver on that promise — or just stir up another layer of design-tool hype?

In a move that sent ripples across design Twitter (and a few Slack channels), Figma recently launched Sites, a no-code website builder integrated directly into its design platform.

The pitch? Design, prototype, and publish a fully responsive site — without leaving the tool you already live in. It’s a bold step into territory once reserved for Webflow, Framer, and the increasingly blurred line between design and development.

This isn’t just a new feature. It’s part of a broader trend: design tools are no longer content with the design phase. They’re chasing the entire product lifecycle, pushing deeper into the workflows traditionally owned by engineers. Figma Sites is the latest, and arguably boldest, expression of that ambition.

Out of the box, Figma Sites delivers a visually impressive experience. You get responsive layout controls with multi-breakpoint editing, prebuilt templates, drag-and-drop site blocks, and interactive components — all in the familiar Figma interface. You can even publish your site live to the web with a custom domain, no dev team required.

For solo designers, personal portfolios, and internal teams, it’s a compelling offering. The time-to-launch is absurdly short, and the learning curve is basically zero for anyone already fluent in Figma. It’s also a win for those tired of bouncing between Figma, Miro, Webflow, and Google Docs just to get a concept online.

But spend a few hours with Sites, and the cracks start to show. First, the underlying code structure is what some would call “div soup” — a mess of non-semantic HTML that undermines accessibility and long-term maintainability. There’s no way to export the code or host it elsewhere, meaning you’re effectively locked into Figma’s ecosystem.That’s a serious red flag for developers and anyone who’s been burned by vendor lock-in before.

Critically, Sites doesn’t support dynamic content, form handling, or any kind of CMS — features that are standard in tools like Webflow. Without those, Sites can’t support anything beyond static pages. Add in performance glitches, UI crashes, and missing polish, and it becomes clear this is still beta software wearing a production-ready badge.

Then there’s the community reaction. While many users are intrigued, there’s growing frustration that Figma prioritized this launch over long-requested updates to prototyping and collaboration. As one user put it: “Cool, but can we fix Smart Animate first?”

It’s impossible to look at this release without seeing it in the shadow of the failed Adobe acquisition. After a high-profile deal that was set to reshape the design software industry fell through due to regulatory scrutiny, Figma has been left to prove — to both users and shareholders — that it can grow on its own.

And that’s where Sites starts to feel less like a fully formed product and more like a strategic push to accelerate monetization and market expansion. Shipping a high-visibility feature like Sites sends a message: Figma isn’t standing still. But it also exposes cracks in the foundation. Instead of doubling down on refining its already market-dominant design tools, Figma seems to be stretching itself thin in an effort to look bigger, faster.

There’s a real sense that this isn’t just about product vision — it’s about optics, positioning, and pressure to prove post-Adobe independence. Whether that leads to meaningful innovation or a wave of half-baked features remains to be seen.

Despite its flaws, Figma Sites has struck a chord with parts of the design community. Indie creators are already using it to launch sleek personal pages. Internal teams at startups and agencies see real value in using Sites for prototypes, internal tools, and marketing experiments. In those contexts, where the bar for accessibility and code quality is lower, the appeal is obvious.

But few see it as ready for client-facing work. Enterprise teams and developers are unlikely to embrace a tool that doesn’t support code handoff, proper CMS integration, or performance tuning. For now, Figma Sites feels like a sidekick tool — useful, but not yet mission-critical.

On paper, Figma now competes directly with Framer and Webflow. But feature-for-feature, it’s not a fair fight. Framer offers a more robust CMS, cleaner code output, and greater production readiness. Webflow remains the gold standard for designers who want full control, dynamic content, and semantic markup — without touching a line of code.

Millions of designers already live in Figma. By adding publishing to the mix, Figma introduces tool consolidation as a differentiator. Even if Sites can’t beat Framer or Webflow today, its sheer convenience could reshape how teams approach early-stage design and prototyping.

If Figma commits to evolving Sites into a fully capable platform, it has enormous potential. Imagine semantic HTML output with accessibility baked in, a CMS built natively for designers, AI-generated code blocks, exportable handoff-friendly code, and performance insights built into the canvas. Add deeper integration with tokens and design systems, and suddenly Sites stops being an MVP and becomes an actual workflow hub.

That’s a big “if,” but not outside the realm of possibility. Figma has a track record of improving rapidly post-launch. If they can keep momentum — and not just rush to ship headlines—they might just build something game-changing.

Figma Sites seems to be more than a feature — it’s a statement of intent. It shows where the industry is headed: tighter loops, fewer tools, faster launches. But as of today, it’s not the Framer or Webflow killer some might wish it to be. It’s a sleek, undercooked beta that works best for prototypes, portfolios, and internal tools—not serious, client-ready websites.

Still, there’s something thrilling about what it hints at. And in a market where every tool is trying to do everything, Figma’s vision — if properly executed — could redefine what “designing for the web” means.

UX flowcharts can feel intimidating at first, but they don’t have to be. This guide helps you map out clear user journeys without overcomplicating the process – plus, we’ve got a Figma template to help you get started right away.

If you’ve ever tried creating UX flowcharts, you know how intimidating that first blank page can feel. Have you found yourself staring at it, wondering where and how to begin? You’re not alone – I’ve been there. 

Maybe you’ve already read countless articles, explored Figma libraries, and tried every plugin, yet you’re still stuck. Don’t worry – in this article, I’ll walk you through the steps of creating a UX flowchart, share tips and tools, and even provide a Figma template to help you get started right away.

If you’re designing a new app or feature, you’ve probably mapped out its architecture in your head. But heads are notoriously unreliable – this approach can lead to oversights and leaves your team out of the loop. That’s where flowcharts come in. 

Just as I first outlined this article to ensure a clear, logical flow for you as a reader, UX flowcharts serve the same purpose in design. They organize user flows, provide value to stakeholders, and align the project team. Simply put, a flowchart is a diagram of user flows and tasks in processes (Source: Interaction Design Foundation).

Flowcharts are one of the most commonly created user experience deliverables after wireframes and prototypes (Source: NNG survey of UX Professionals). At Infinum, our design process has four steps: discover, ideate & validate, define, and build. Our design team typically creates flowcharts during the ideation & validation phase, as part of the information architecture process. They’re most effective after gathering requirements and before wireframing. However, design isn’t always linear – UX flowcharts can be created at any stage. You can even use them for existing flows to identify potential improvements.

In an era where digital design often prioritizes aesthetics and speed, Purpose-Driven Design (PDD) shifts the focus to intention and impact. Developed over two decades, PDD is more than a framework for stunning designs – it’s a strategic approach to solving real-world problems for users and businesses alike.

Whether it’s cola wars, mobile plan battles, GPT jousting, or shampoo brands one-upping each other, every industry has its arms race for bragging rights on differentiation. In the digital agency arena, that arms race often centers on the design process. Of course, every company has embraced or created a design framework that works for them, but we are proud of the one that is uniquely ours. 

Purpose-Driven Design (PDD) is the custom design framework we’ve been developing over the last 20 years, fine-tuning it based on experience from project work. In this piece, we’ll look at what makes it work and makes it successful both for us and our clients.

“We aim to create design solutions that solve real problems suffered by real users,” says Greg Podunovich, senior product design strategist at Infinum. “Solving these problems can produce concrete, sometimes profound, impacts.”

Not surprisingly, these impacts ladder directly up to the goals of our clients.

“You can be confident you’re putting something out in the world where very little has been left to chance,” says Podunovich. “It has all been deeply investigated and validated.”

Todd Doyle, creative director for North America, echoes the sentiment. “Clients are always looking for confidence that they’ve made the right decision, and practitioners want to have confidence they are on the right track. PDD bridges this gap earlier because it forces everyone to always answer ‘why’ with everything they do.”

Rather than focusing so much on how we get things done, PDD focuses more on why we do the things we do. It’s not just about how to attack a website or a logo redesign or a product design. It applies to any sort of design challenge that could be thrown at the agency. The “why” can best be outlined by PDD’s principles.

“This principle-centered approach doesn’t just lead to visually stunning designs,” says Chris Bradshaw, Infinum’s product strategy director. “It results in impactful solutions that resonate with users and drive real-world success. We’re not confined by rigid rules but liberated to explore, innovate, and deliver value in every project.

In a world where digital presence can make or break a brand, user experience problems are not to be taken lightly. Companies often struggle to pinpoint why their UX is falling short, which is where our framework comes in very handy. 

It is difficult to overstate the importance of user experience. Most companies today deliver some – and in many cases all – of their products and services online. 

Companies face an increasingly sophisticated consumer whose expectations have been set by the Apples, AirBnBs, and Amazons of the world. Even the basic marketing site, one without e-commerce functionality, is a critically important representation of your brand. 

Failure to ensure user satisfaction and meet your customers’ expectations in these settings can mean the end of the most important commodity you have – your relationship with them.

A significant issue that companies face today is determining which parts of their digital ecosystem are functioning well and which are not. 

There are a multitude of reasons for this: these digital systems are complex and opaque. Unlike a physical store or in-person service situation, you can’t see your customers. You may not be able to speak to them, tell if they’re lost or confused, or even if they are a robot or a human. 

A technical issue could be related to network connection quality, tied to a particular device type, or to issues with the underlying code.

Simply put, it’s not easy to know. Faced with these truths, executives who are responsible for their digital business often don’t know where to begin. That’s a problem because it means you could be leaving money on the table or losing out to competition.

Fortunately, there are ways to handle your user experience problems, which we’ll explore in this piece.

To come up with a cure, you first need to acknowledge the symptoms. Oftentimes, problems bubble up organically. Online sales numbers start to fall off. Customer complaints trickle in or show up on review sites. User interaction drops. Conversion rates start to go the way of the U.S. stock market in 2008. Members of internal teams start criticizing elements of the digital experience. Maybe it’s several all at once. 

Once it’s clear you’re dealing with user experience problems, it can be difficult to see a path forward. At this point, these scenarios might seem familiar:

“Many times, clients are aware there are issues. Maybe they have even isolated where they are,” says Infinum product strategy director Chris Bradshaw. ”But they don’t know why these user experience problems are happening or exactly how to correct them, and it helps to have the experience of having helped literally hundreds of clients work through similar scenarios.” 

When these problems arise, we can step in.  

Good digital agencies have developed processes for helping companies overcome these challenges. At Infinum, we have created and implemented a proven methodology that simplifies the UX design process, including ways to execute improvements and optimizations. It’s called Purpose-Driven Design, or PDD.

We spent a lot of time thinking about how we might add some kind of secret sauce to our own process. We discovered that it had very little to do with what design deliverables we chose to embrace or throw overboard. At the end of the day, we found that differentiation comes through principles more than process. A process describes how you do something, while a set of principles describes why you do something. Our process is rooted in a set of six design principles.

As we say, “real value is discovered” and “you can’t guess your way to credibility.” There’s no shortcut around research. 

The steps we take in discovery workshops vary, but we’ll often start by interviewing stakeholders and real users to uncover the roots of the user experience problems, using the benefit of our 20 years’ experience and objectivity to gather our findings. 

Quantitative tactics are used to validate hypotheses: surveying real users or running A/B tests, among others. These approaches are augmented by deep dives into analytics and competitive analyses.

After gathering data, our solution architects, strategists, designers, and technical teams are able to map out different potential solutions and, critically, to pull together estimates so that clients can make more informed decisions about which path fits their budget or offers the best payoff. 

This is where PDD really makes an impact. Rather than dealing in ambiguity or the world of opinion, clients are able to step back and look at facts and figures. We find this stage is transformative for clients who have been struggling with where to start.        

“So often when clients come to us, they are overwhelmed,” says Kerrin Whipple, senior user experience designer and researcher. “They’re overwhelmed with how to initiate improvements, with data overload, by lack of expertise, and resources and tool constraints. We are able to take this load off their shoulders.”  

You may not run a medical company or bank, but you might see yourself reflected in their challenges. Here are a couple of examples that we believe highlight how our methodology helps businesses identify starting points quickly.