It’s that time of year again, when we look back on all the people we’ve met and all the products we’ve helped bring to life. And what better way to recap the year, than to look at the top ten blog posts of 2019? Here’s our list of posts that we have loved this year – and hope you have, too!
1. How Can My API Help Achieve a Great UX?
Luis Sosa digs into APIs in this top post of 2019, giving thoughts on how Web API performance is linked to UX. He goes over the different types of APIs and then gives tips on how developers can be more productive with data exchange via APIs. This was a great post because it really gave some meaty coverage of an issue that’s front and center for developers – we love to help!
2. Why Do I Fall in Love With the Users?
In one of our first posts of the year for 2019, Valentin Zamorano talks about how important it is to “fall in love with your users”, which is a reference to a quote by Dana Chisnell. All products have users, and listening to them intensely is the key to designing products that they need and which they will love. Valentin talks about Hector, a user he “fell in love” with, so to speak, during a recent project for a customer in the agricultural space. It’s not only a great case study to read, it’s a unique perspective on a topic – users – that everyone loves to learn about.
3. An In-House Testing Automation Framework for Upgrading QA Processes
Here in this #3 post, Betiana Castro goes over the basics of testing automation frameworks. She outlines how she and two QAs at Making Sense, Celeste Senoseain and Fernando Irahola, developed an in-house solution for an automation framework. She discusses the challenges, the solution, and then the benefits of the three frameworks they developed, which extend to customers, too.
4. Why UX Design is a Decisive Business Tool
Our Summer Meetup in San Francisco was a blast, with panelists from Facebook, Walmart, Uber, and Sketchin. This top post outlines the event, where the discussion centered around UX Design and how it enables better business outcomes. We started off with back stories on how each panelist entered the field of UX and gave some tips on what characteristics helped them advance their careers. Being “scrappy” and curious were among these traits. Then they talked about what it means to have a user-centered culture at their respective businesses and then moved on to the “superpowers” of UX: qualities that attendees can promote at their own workplaces to help educate their colleagues about UX.
5. Meet Paula: Our Human Resources Manager
We’re so proud and excited to have Paula on the Making Sense Team. This post outlines the career of one of our newest team members and gives insight into one of the essential functions at any workplace: human resources.
6. How to Achieve Better Outcomes Connecting UX With the Business Strategy
This post is a recap of one of 2019’s Meetup events hosted by Making Sense. This Meetup brought together a number of UX professionals from PayPal, Google, Facebook and of course, Making Sense. They talked about the professional attributes that are key for working in the field of UX, as well as the importance of having cross-functional teams. It was fascinating to hear their experiences and the tips they gave were valuable for anyone interested in pursuing a career in UX.
7. How do Principles Lead to a Better Development Experience?
Luis Sosa offers some great advice in this post and explains the importance of working iteratively in software development. He then explains the principles of writing Clean Code and keeping things simple. Empowering people is another key factor in a good development experience, as is employing Test-Driven Development (TDD).
8. How to Align Your Team Members to Your Company’s Goals and Culture
Company culture is important in any industry and this post by Rocio Colacci in HR outlines why. She cites important research showing a strong link between a strong, positive company culture and business success and then offers some tips on what readers can do at their own organizations to improve culture and align employees’ goals with company goals.
9. Non-Conventional Advice for Software Engineers
We like to help budding engineers with any advice that may help them start or develop their careers and this post by Matias was an adaptation from his personal blog. It offers an inside scoop on what engineers can do beyond learning code to further their careers. Among the good tips he gave were: learning English, seek feedback, and don’t get fixated with just one programming language.
10. UX Principles to Guide Your App Modernization
In 2019, we had more than a few opportunities to help our partners transform – namely, we helped them shed their old legacy systems with exciting app modernization projects. With 21st-century standards of UX in mind, we helped organizations improve efficiency and usability, and also facilitated third-party access as well as employee access to company data. It’s a UX-focused approach called UX Modernization and we expect to see a lot more projects like this in 2020.
Whatever the new year brings, whatever this next decade ushers in, we will never lose focus on meeting our number one goal: partnering with our customers, new and old, to imagine and develop great products that make work – and – better for us all. Happy Holidays, everyone, and Happy New Year from all of us at Making Sense!