A Portfolio and blog for Mustafa Kurtuldu

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My talk, at Push UX.
My talk, at Push UX.

Push UX 2022

I just got back from the Push UX Conference, which was a fantastic event; looking forward to posting the video of my talk. It was a wonderful atmosphere, so a big shout out to the organisers and audience.

My talk described User Fudged Experiences that happen when users improvise with our products or service, usually in an unexpected and hacky way. …

Design Drives Podcast
Design Drives Podcast

Design Drives Interview

I had the opportunity to speak with Sebastian Gier on a UX design podcast, Design Drives. We discussed the relationship between design as a creative discipline and how systems and tools shape this creativity for better or worse. Listen to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcast.

We also spoke about why it helps designers to customize their …

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

Why icons alone won’t save your navigation

Icon research and best practice

There is also the old joke of a kid seeing a floppy disk for the first time and asking his Dad why he has a 3D printed version of the save icon. Well a while back when I was on Twitter, a Japanese user’s asked an important question about Microsoft Excel’s UI, and the question was “Why is the save icon a vending machine?”

This user’s experience is …

Photo by Luísa Schetinger on Unsplash
Photo by Luísa Schetinger on Unsplash

User-fudged experiences

How to design for weird user behavior

User Fudged Experiences are when users do something unexpected with our products or service, usually in a hacky way. Below are a series of examples where users improvised these experiences for various companies.

Story 1: McDonald’s Milkshakes

The Golden Arches were trying to increase the sale of their milkshakes and interviewed users to find the …

Photocomposition in action
Photocomposition in action

How to create a design system

The autonomy of design systems like material design and how one can start to build their own.

A design system is a set of principles that helps guide designers trying to navigate a platform, environment or ecosystem. Sometimes they impose restrictions and force rules, but a good set will always seek to guide. Design principles are not a new thing, Roman architect Vitruvius had three golden rules for great architecture;

  • Durability (Firmatis …
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