Matthew Stephens – Medium

Matthew Stephens

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Designing for Death: A UX Guide for End-of-Life Products

Lessons from building a planning app for North America’s largest funeral provider.

Jun 19

A softly lit, painterly scene of a younger woman and an older man sitting close together, gently focused on a tablet. A lit candle rests on the table beside them, and white lilies and soft blue tones suggest a quiet, reflective atmosphere — possibly planning or remembering a loved one.

Jun 19

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Designing for Joy: How Play Sparks Creativity and Gets Better Results

Practical ways to make design more fun for yourself, your team, and your clients

Mar 6

Team of UX designers laughing having the most fun possible while brainstorming as a group , modern collage

Mar 6

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UX Collective

Designing for Older Audiences: Checklist + Best Practices

Simple steps to improve usability for all generations.

Mar 6

Prompt: A contemporary collage featuring diverse older adults interacting with oversized UI elements, bold typography, and playful shapes that represent easy-to-use tech, modern, abstract, colorful, editorial style

Mar 6

What Competitive Sports Taught Me About Leading Design Teams

Real lessons from the field that make creative teams faster, smarter, and stronger.

May 6

What Competitive Sports Taught Me About Leading Design Teams

May 6

Move Fast and Break Nothing: How AI Can Support Ethical Product Development

A playbook and custom GPT for designing with speed, empathy, and trust in the era of AI.

Apr 16

a dynamic swirl of bright lines racing around silhouettes of designers co-creating around a glowing orb in the middle, digital swirling lines showing rapid iteration, suggestive of collaboration and trust, high-energy brushstrokes, modern illustration style, vibrant color contrast

Apr 16

Reclaiming Trust: The 8 Principles of Privacy-First Design

Practical strategies for designers to build trust and safeguard data in an increasingly invasive digital world.

Feb 3

Reclaiming Trust: The 8 Principles of Privacy-First Design

Feb 3

Harness AI to Make Smarter, Safer Decisions Using a Futures Wheel

A simple prompt to reveal unintended consequences

Dec 31, 2024

My adaptation of Jerome C Glenn’s futures wheel

Dec 31, 2024

How I Use Radar Charts and AI to Build Balanced Teams (w/ Free Templates)

I’ve played competitive sports for most of my life, and one principle I hold firm: companies shouldn’t be treated as a ‘family’ — they…

Oct 25, 2024

How I Use Radar Charts and AI to Build Balanced Teams (w/ Free Templates)

Oct 25, 2024

The Power of Taste: Elevating Design to Create Emotional Connections

“In a world of scarcity, we treasure tools. In a world of abundance, we treasure taste.” –Anu Atluru

Oct 1, 2024

The Power of Taste: Elevating Design to Create Emotional Connections

Oct 1, 2024

The 10 Core Drives of Gamification & How to Utilize Them Responsibly

I’m tired of feeling emotionally manipulated by everyone — corporations, politicians, nonprofits, you name it. As a designer (and a decent…

Sep 20, 2024

A futuristic interface displaying a glowing ranking leaderboard table list of avatars, progress meter is displayed above the person looking at the numbered list of profiles. up arrows, thumbs up, trophy, badge, achievement, epic colorful vibrant futuristic illustration

Sep 20, 2024

Matthew Stephens

Matthew Stephens

Fractional Design Leader. Co-Founder @ DeviantArt. Former VP of Design @ The Zebra. Assume everything I write has been at least partially written by AI.

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