Tom Johnson

Designer and such

Husband to Joy. Dad to Silas and Ike. Guy who feeds Hondo. Product designer at Basedash. Previously Principal Product Designer at Asurion. Nashville, TN. Occasional rambler about design topics.

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Articles

Apr 2018 • 4 part series

Design and build your agency website

I built an agency website in Webflow. I used minimal classes, flexbox, the CMS, and the API to create it. In this four-part series, I’ll give you tips about using each, and how to get started.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
May 24, 2017 • 14 Min Read

You are going to switch to Figma

I’ve read a lot of comparison articles about the two, but I don’t think they really do Figma justice. Some of them briefly mention the team features, the browserness, the components, and constraints, but they don’t really focus on how they’re better than versions in Sketch. At best, they make it seem like both are about the same. The reason I’m writing this is because they’re not.

For all of these reasons
Jan 12, 2017 • 5 Min Read

Designers are full of bad ideas

All of my ideas are bad. Every. Single. One. And yet, I still keep having them. My brain is chalked full of inconsistencies, inaccuracies, & incomprehensible iterations of interactions. I stonewall good decisions and necessary processes, spout nonsensical thoughts while opining about the obscure, and pontificate...

See my bad ideas
Jan 12, 2017 • 5 Min Read

There are no UX best practices

Recently I downloaded Goldstar on my iPad. It’s a ticket buying app, similar to stubhub or ticketmaster. This is the first screen I saw:I looked for a ‘skip’ button or some other way that I could use the app without actually having to create an account. Maybe there was a subtle arrow or a ‘no thanks’, ‘remind me later’, or a ‘show me the tix’ button?

Unlearn your "best practices"
Jul 27, 2016 • 5 Min Read

Nothing is intuitive

“We need to make it more intuitive”“That’s not intuitive”“Our primary goal is that it be intuitive”…stop. Please. Almost every design discussion I’ve had lately has had one of these quotes. I hear it from clients, large corporations, key stakeholders, developers, other designers, managers, interns, and ESPECIALLY entrepreneurs.

THis button sure isn't intuitive
Jul 30, 2015 • 6 Min Read

Grandma is a user too

About a month ago, I was at a Wendy’s while on vacation in Wisconsin. Work could not be further from my mind, as all my attention was on the tower of beef-n-cheese melty goodness that I had just sat down to eat. I was all-consumed in my beefy effort when, planning and debating on the next bite, when, to my great distress, I noticed a little drama going on in the corner of my eye. A little old lady was trying to get a coke.

She wants you to read this and then call her

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