Episode 3 of The Informed Life podcast features a conversation with designer Fabricio Teixeira. Alongside his partner Caio Braga, Fabricio publishes UX Collective, one of the most popular online publications about UX design. They’ve created an amazing system that makes it possible for just two people to manage a large publication. In this show, Fabricio describes the setup that makes UX Collective happen.
I was impressed by Fabricio’s drive to control what information comes to his attention and when:
Fabricio: Sometimes it’s not about too much information, but it’s about information trying to get to you too many times throughout the day, if that makes sense. I think five years ago I redesigned my phone experience to turn off all notifications except for one or two apps, removed the number of icons that I have on my home screen so there’s not a lot of visual clutter and information every time I unlock my phone. Removing all those red badges from the app icon, so there’s no anxiety or tapping them and opening them. So in a way, it’s almost like I designed my technology experience so that it doesn’t get in the way of the actual information I want to get access to, if that makes any sense.
Jorge: It sounds like you’re configuring your environment so that you can be more in control of your attention, right?
Fabricio: That’s right. Yeah, and that’s not only around technology. Of course, technology plays an important role there, but being mindful of my surroundings… I always try to keep the books from authors that I admire next to my desk. So I’m always surrounded by that feeling of… It’s hard to describe, but even my apartment walls are a hundred percent white; there’s no paintings or anything. My desk has as few objects as possible. As a designer, I’m making sure that I’m designing the space around me to avoid too much cognitive load throughout the day.
Jorge: The degree to which our environments and the busyness of the environment impinges upon your ability to be effective. Right?
Fabricio: It’s really hard to measure. It’s not a quantity, right? It’s hard to measure the return over investment over those things because ultimately it’s really qualitative. It’s really about feeling lighter at the end of the day. I guess that’s my KPI, ultimately.
I left this conversation inspired to simplify and automate as much of my information ecosystem as possible. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did!