How to collaborate

M&M's

2/10/2026

When I accomplished my first design job ever, I didn’t know the word ‘logo’ or the word ‘design’ as I sketched the sun shining from in-between the mountains at 12 years of age, when my dad asked me to, which ended up becoming the logo of a global financial company printed on thousands of business cards, notepads and calendars.

My skill and love for the visual medium has grown since then, as I've created products, creating illustrations for research reports, furniture, storyboards, animations, and spaces as part of my multidisciplinary practice. Maybe that's why I've never experience Imposter syndrome as a designer because visual problem-solving comes naturally to me.

Here are some works from my M&M's bucket- Miscellaneous Multidisciplinary bucket- which by 2026 also includes a family crest, an installation for a booth, and this Design system that I recently created for a utilities marketplace incorporating their brand mascot in its design system making the interaction more evocative and emotional.

Note: the rights of images are preserved by each client.

My first design job at 12

Design system with Brand Mascot, Myconnect

Image from a pitch for a Hackathon where my team, Waste Warriors, won.

Family Crest for a private client

Booth for Emote using projections and image recognition, Plai Design

Visualisation conveying spatial analysis for Arup.

Public art for Abbotsford convent for Matthew Butler

Public furniture for Albury City Council with Joshua Carter.

my first (USEFUL) bot

5/29/2025

My curious head has been experimenting with some AI tech to help me make sense of a product I’m working on. Sorta similar to ChatGPT, where you ask it/her/ him/ them questions and the bot answers, only this one has more of a personality (that I coded in) and a specific role (product consultant).

Here's a bit about that process and some takeaways:

I designed this ‘Product consultant’ bot with ChatGPT and Touch Designer, integrated it with a voice generating AI tool formulated a new voiced based on my own voice, created two avatars, one human, and another cartoon-like character animated on Mid Journey, and then used Hedra to animate the character and got it lip synced to the script my bot produced.

1. Animated character animation feels more engaging as you can’t compare it and fault it to more 'natural', 'real' humans. Eg: The real human animation (video attached) had more unnatural head movements.

2. Bots make up words that don't exist in the dictionary which means you might have to edit the script before you get it recorded in a selected voice. I didn't edit mine and so you can hear 'her' say some nonsensical words.

3. Voice AI tools are powerful enough without any need for visuals.

4. There are a lot of amazing independent teachers that exist on Patreon that can teach you about AI bots.

I made another funnier bot and gave it a comic personality that uses random facts and dry humour to respond. I'll try to share that next.

If you've got a bot in mind that you want to design, get in touch on [email protected]

PROCESS

DESIGNING WITH BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES

12/6/2024

Behavioral economics combines insights from psychology and economics to explain human decision-making. Understanding these principles can help designers create more engaging, intuitive, and effective products. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, Ph.D., was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his groundbreaking work in this field of applying psychological insights to economic theory. He identified human’s two decision making systems, i.e., system one and system two. System one is fast, unconscious, and automatic. System two is slow, conscious, and effortful. Turns out we use system one 98 percent of the time sometimes leading to unfavourable outcomes.

As designers designing for larger societal challenges or pixel-perfect design systems within a screen, we have to consider all aspects of human's decision making, rational and irrational, fast and slow, system 1 and 2 to influence a positive outcome such as changing behaviours for a more sustainable future or designing to guide a decision.

Behaviour Economic principles bring to surface how humans make decisions. These principles can help us nudge users when faced with decisions to guide positive outcomes but these are also used to manipulate users into making decisions that benefit the company, often at the user's expense.

Here are five key behavioural economic principles and their respective dark UX patterns seen in the world today.

1. Implementation Intentions: Bridging Intentions and Actions

Principle: People are more likely to achieve goals if they form specific "if-then" plans, linking situational cues to actions. Behavioral scientist Peter Gollwitzer introduced this concept, writing, “People who form implementation intentions are significantly more likely to follow through on their goals.”

Application in Design: Encourage users to create actionable plans by embedding reminders, prompts, and triggers into their journey.

Example:

Health Apps (MyFitnessPal): MyFitnessPal allows users to schedule reminders for logging meals or exercise, turning vague intentions into actionable behaviors.
Task Management Tools (Todoist): By prompting users to set specific due dates and times for tasks, Todoist ensures that users are more likely to complete them.

Design Tip: Incorporate tools like scheduling, notifications, or templates to help users plan their actions concretely. For example, instead of “Exercise more,” prompt users to set a goal like “Go for a 30-minute walk every morning.”

Dark pattern for Implementation intentions

Dark Pattern: Exploiting Specific Action Prompts for Marketing

How It Works: Platforms encourage users to commit to actions that primarily serve business goals (e.g., increasing app visibility or activity metrics) under the guise of helping users meet their personal goals.

Example:

Social Media Platforms (Instagram): Prompts like “Set a goal to post 3 times this week” seem user-focused but are designed to increase platform engagement and visibility.

Behavioral Principle Exploited:
The platform reframes its marketing agenda as user-driven goals, exploiting users’ natural tendency to make specific plans and follow through.

2. Anchoring: Setting Reference Points

Principle: People rely heavily on the first piece of information (the "anchor") they encounter when making decisions. “ Different starting points yield different estimates, which are biased toward the initial values ” (Tversky & Kahneman, 1974). This bias is powerful in shaping users'.

Application in Design: Use anchoring to guide users' perceptions of value. This can be achieved by presenting a high reference point (e.g., premium pricing) to make other options seem more appealing.

Example:

E-commerce (Amazon): When shopping on Amazon, a product’s "original price" is often shown as a strikethrough next to the "discounted price." The higher original price anchors users’ expectations, making the discounted price seem like a better deal.
Subscription Plans (Spotify): Spotify displays its premium plans side by side, with the most expensive plan first. This makes the mid-tier plan appear more reasonable and appealing.

Design Tip: In pricing tables or menus, always highlight the "best value" option after establishing a higher-priced anchor.

Dark UX pattern of Anchoring: Inflating Perceived Value

Dark Pattern: Fake Discounts

How It Works: Retailers display inflated original prices next to a "discounted" price to anchor users into thinking they’re getting a great deal, even when the original price was never genuine.

Example: E-commerce platforms sometimes show strikethrough prices with fabricated discounts to make a product seem more affordable. For instance, a "50% off" sale might actually be priced at the regular market rate.

Behavioral Principle Exploited: Anchoring leads users to perceive the "discounted" price as a bargain compared to the unrealistic higher price.

3. Loss Aversion: Avoiding Losses

Principle: People feel the pain of losing something more intensely than the pleasure of gaining something equivalent.
“Losses loom larger than gains” (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979).

Application in Design: Create a sense of urgency or highlight potential losses to drive user action.
Example:

Limited-Time Offers (Booking.com): Booking.com uses loss aversion by showing messages like “Only 2 rooms left at this price!” or “Someone just booked this!” These cues make users feel they might miss out if they don’t act quickly.
Free Trials (Netflix): Netflix emphasizes that you’ll lose access to its vast library if you don’t subscribe after the free trial.

Design Tip: Use countdown timers, stock availability, or personalised reminders to trigger users' fear of missing out (FOMO).

Dark UX pattern of Loss Aversion: Fear or Missing Out (FOMO)

Dark Pattern: Scarcity and Urgency

How It Works: Sites display messages like "Only 1 left in stock!" or "Offer ends in 5 minutes!" to create a sense of urgency, pushing users to make impulsive purchases.

Example: Travel booking platforms like Expedia or Booking.com frequently use scarcity indicators to make users feel they’ll lose out on deals if they delay.

Behavioral Principle Exploited: Loss aversion pressures users to act quickly to avoid losing an opportunity, even if the urgency is artificially created.

4. The Endowment Effect: Valuing What You Own

Principle: People assign more value to things they already own than to things they do not. “People tend to overvalue their possessions relative to their willingness to acquire the same item.”

Application in Design: Make users feel ownership before they commit, increasing their likelihood of conversion.

Example:

Customization (Nike By You): Nike allows users to design their own shoes online. Once users invest effort into creating their unique product, they are more likely to make a purchase.
Freemium Models (Dropbox): Free storage lets users integrate Dropbox into their routines, increasing their likelihood of upgrading.

Design Tip: Let users "experience" ownership through personalisation, free trials, or interactive previews.

Dark UX pattern of The Endowment Effect: Perceived Ownership

Dark Pattern: Forced Continuity

How It Works: Users are offered a free trial that requires credit card information. They often forget to cancel, and the service auto-renews, charging them without explicit consent.

Example: Many streaming platforms, like some subscription services, capitalize on users’ inertia and attachment to the service they’ve started using.

Behavioral Principle Exploited: The endowment effect makes users more reluctant to cancel a service they’ve begun integrating into their routine, even when it’s not valuable.

5. Social Proof: Following the Crowd

Principle: People look to others' behaviour to determine their own, especially in uncertain situations. Robert Cialdini discusses this extensively in Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, stating, “We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.”

Application in Design: Show evidence that others are using or benefiting from your product to build trust and drive engagement.

Example:

User Reviews (Yelp): Yelp prominently displays user reviews and ratings, encouraging others to visit highly-rated businesses.
Real-Time Data (Duolingo): Displaying active users or streak counts fosters a sense of community and credibility.

Design Tip: Incorporate testimonials, ratings, user counters, or "popular choices" tags to boost social proof.

Dark UX pattern of Social Proof: Manipulated Popularity

Dark Pattern: Fake Testimonials or Reviews

How It Works: Companies fabricate reviews or manipulate ratings to create a false sense of popularity and reliability.

Example: Some online marketplaces feature reviews that are either paid for or created by bots to inflate a product’s reputation.

Behavioural Principle Exploited: Social proof leads users to trust a product based on perceived popularity or positive feedback, even when the feedback isn’t genuine.

6. Choice Overload: Simplifying Decisions

Principle: Too many options can overwhelm users, leading to decision paralysis or dissatisfaction.

Application in Design: Limit the number of choices presented to users or guide them toward the best option.

Example:

Curated Playlists (Spotify): Spotify’s curated daily playlists reduce the effort users need to find music they’ll like.
Tiered Pricing (Apple iCloud): Apple’s iCloud offers only three or four storage options, avoiding excessive choice and simplifying the decision-making process.

Design Tip: Use filters, categories, or default recommendations to streamline the user experience and make choices easier.

Dark UX pattern of Choice Overload: Paralysis by Design

Dark Pattern: Overwhelming Options to Push Defaults

How It Works: Presenting too many complex options subtly nudges users to select the pre-checked default, which is often less favourable for them. Forms have pre-checked boxes that opt users into additional charges, subscriptions, or sharing personal data. Users who don’t read carefully end up agreeing unintentionally.

Example: Subscription cancellations that require navigating through multiple confusing options, like specifying detailed reasons for canceling or offering alternative plans at every step. Airlines often pre-check options like travel insurance or seat upgrades, adding extra costs that users might overlook.

Behavioral Principle Exploited: Choice overload overwhelms users, making them more likely to accept the default or continue with the current option. The default effect exploits users' tendency to stick with preselected choices rather than actively opting out.

Integrating behavioral economic principles into design can significantly enhance user experience and drive desired outcomes. By leveraging anchoring, loss aversion, the endowment effect, social proof, and choice overload, designers can craft solutions that resonate deeply with users' psychological tendencies. Incorporating these strategies thoughtfully can lead to better engagement, higher conversions, and more satisfied users. Whether you’re designing an app, website, or product, understanding human behavior is the key to creating impactful designs.

Drop us a message to share any examples of projects where you would've used these principles or ask us about how we've used these principles to guide people to switching to solar for an electricity company, or nudged employees to reduce waste and recycling contamination for a corporate office.

How to collaborate

8/5/2019

Collaboration has become that word that’s being thrown around carelessly like paper cups. This is especially apparent in open offices that have taken down desk dividers and engulfed office partitions to embrace the hot and swanky stand-up desks and whiteboards on wheels.

Just like hot-desking is not synonymous with collaboration, nor is teamwork. In teamwork, individuals usually operate in silos towards a shared goal and the leadership is fixed. In collaboration, individuals are participating as autonomous entities where leadership is context-dependent and leaders arise when the situation demands.
In this article, I’ve gathered some of my reflections and learnings on collaboration during my demi-decade experience of working in culturally diverse countries like Australia, Netherlands and India.

Packed like sardines: Collaboration is more than its Oxford dictionary’s definition, “the act of working with another person or group of people to create or produce something”. A successful collaboration is an exchange between space, tools and people- between different styles of working, between languages, values, beliefs, softwares and hardwares. This exchange is facilitated by a conducive space and strengthened by supportive culture. A good balance between ‘we’ and ‘me’ is an imperative to a good collaboration as further explained in this HBR article that says “the more demanding the collaboration task is, the more individuals need punctuating moments of private time to think or recharge.” If you have to elbow your colleague to finish your wireframes, that isn’t a good set-up no matter how close-knit a team you are.

Cultural breadcrumbs: The space we occupy is a reflection of the culture we embody, both on an individual and an organisational level. In China (collectivist culture) workers are more comfortable with densely-arranged workstations when compared to United States (individualist culture). In Netherlands, “more fluid spaces that encourage equality and reflect a focus on well-being” are symbolic of their egalitarian and feminine culture, in comparison to the masculine Italy where hierarchical offices are important. To be more a productive and considerate collaborator its beneficial to know that our relationship to space can be rooted in national identities. You can read more about how culture shapes our workplace in this HBR article.

Same same but not different: We collaborate to get a fresh perspective, to eliminate bias, to get deeper into a topic, to be more creative, inclusive and innovative in our approach and outcomes. Collaboration thrives on diversity- in gender, age, expertise, culture, background. A heterogenous team is more like to come up with innovative ideas than a homogenous one. More hands, however, do not guarantee less time but instead can facilitate deeper work and cover more ground.

Me too: People are more likely to be persuaded when in groups, also known as group thinking or herd mentality or the bandwagon effect, which can be catastrophic to collaboration. Yes, we all want to be that exception but our need for security can cause us to become the Ms. Me Too (or Mr./Other). This can lead to agreeing or disagreeing onto something that may not be thoroughly thought through. Organisations require a culture that fosters disagreement whilst maintaining cohesiveness within the team.

Say it right: Believing that there is only one answer can lead to a competitive tone rather than a cooperative one which is destructive for collaboration. However, knowing that everyone has the answers creates a safe place for everyone to be heard, bounce ideas of each other to co-create.

Mon-oh-god: Collaboration will get strangled by the cold hands of a monologue, every single time. “Keep contributions short. Points should be made in a few words, and build incrementally into a coherent whole. “, says Terence Brake in his article about collaborative conversations.

Body talk: Watch out for the cultural nuances when interpreting non-verbal cues. For example- Nodding up-down is a symbol for agreement in most cultures, except in Bulgaria and Greece where that nod is used to convey disagreement. Gesturing is considered impolite in Japan, and they’re less likely to use non-verbal cues to communicate. The famous ‘thumbs up’ is a rude signal in Middle-eastern countries and Greece. In North American countries and UK, silence is considered uncomfortable, even problematic but its used to show agreement in China. Silence is a mandate before answering questions in many aboriginal cultures. More on cultural differences in body-language here.

No two collaborations are the same and for each it’s vital to be patient, have a unbiased mindset and an learning attitude.

Collective emotion map

5/20/2019

A bit of background: I joined a team for a short 4 month stint. There were a series of projects on with this agency at the time. After a number of consecutive busy weeks in preparation of presentations, I felt a disconnect from my team and other colleagues on the floor. There were barely any chats by the water cooler some afternoons which was a serious bother for me. I really wanted to know how everyone was doing. Was everyone just busy with work? Was there more going on? So, one afternoon, I placed a map in the kitchen area so people could “plot” how they felt on this map each day. People began huddling there, looking at the way the map evolved. Mind you, it was only a paper map and nothing sophisticated but hey, it started a conversation and shunned the silence.

Here’s a bit on that.

Purpose of the map

Offer a moment to reflect and anonymously share how one is feeling and see how others are feeling.
Make visible how everyone in the room is feeling.
Explore and understand engagement, overtime through iterations.
Increase team-productivity and how to support each other by understanding collective emotions.

Findings

There were 56 entries made in total. It’s nice to know that happy was the most popular, followed by the also familiar feelings of being tired and then frustrated.
Popular emotions this week (iteration 1)
Happy- 7 entries
Tired- 6 entries
Frustrated- 5 entries
Good- 4 entries
Relaxed- 4 entries
Sense of achievement, interest, zoned-out- 3 entries

What’s great is that people added emotions like hungry, anxious, sense of achievement, distracted, zoned-out to the map. This Sense of achievementwas also our latest entry at 7.45pm (looks like, staying back was totally worth it! ) and our earliest entry was at 8.30am being pleased (yes, I would be very pleased with myself too if I made it to work that early).

I also became curious to see what emotions were common at what time of the day and so arranged it in 2 hour segments.

18 entries were made between 8.30–11am
Good- 3
Relaxed- 3
Happy- 2
Determination- 2

10 entries were made between 11am-1pm
Focus- 2
Happy- 2
Frustrated- 2

15 entries were made between 1pm-3pm
Distracted- 2
Zoned out- 2

3 entries were made between 3pm-5pm
Happy- 1
Frustrated- 1
Relaxed- 1

14 entries were made post 5pm
Tired-3
Sense of achievement-1
Emotion Map- Iteration 2 (Placed in the kitchen area)For the second iteration, I wanted I arranged the map differently and used different mediums. This time I created time slots to help analyse more efficiently and allotted 15 pieces of string to each time-slot. I asked my colleagues to pick a string based on the time they were recording and wrap it around the felt emotion. The emotions were arranged in two columns- left were the more positive ones and the ones on the right negative.

Findings
It got messy and the strings made it dramatic- as expected.
I stopped recording when the strings from the any time-slot ran out. 3pm to 6pm ran out of its strings first as it was the most popular time for people to record emotions. People recorded the most positive emotions around this time too thought 9–12 seems like a happy time-slot too. ‘Contentment’ was the most popular positive emotion felt- 6 votes and ‘Relaxed’ with 5 votes.

Between 12noon to 3pm people recorded the most negative emotionscompared to any other time-slots- 24 recorded. ‘Tired’ with 7 votes was the most popular negative emotion felt, which wasn’t surprising seeing the late nights people were pulling for the upcoming sprint reviews.

QR codes

12/12/2018

That square shaped pixellated puzzle holds within it an ginormous amount of information when compared to its better-known ancestor-the barcode.

QR codes store information in two directions- horizontally and vertically and can store up to 1,520 alpha-numeric characters like email addresses, names, websites, geolocations and text. On the other hand, a barcode stores information horizontally and can stores identification numbers with up to 25 characters. QR codes are available in various colours and are customisable with logos and shapes being added within them. Seeing these customisations, I became inquisitive about its form and experimented with the inside shape of the QR code.

I found that a QR code remains valid albeit it was multicoloured or if some of its pixels (or data bits) were adjusted. In the case of the QR code for Plai design’s website (my research and design practise), its essence was towards the right side of its form and so if I adjusted any pixels on the right, the QR code wouldn’t scan. It’s also important to keep the Finder patterns untouched as those are markers used to scan. Each QR code has its own encryption, so these findings may not be applicable to yours.

Some readability issues such as low contrast, inadequate quiet zones (white spaces), printing inconsistencies, scanning angle and distance should be considered when modifying these zones.

This flexibility in form is shaping the design of an interactive installation of an ongoing project- Project Smart Campus, where I’m helping Amsterdam School of Applied Sciences improve the campus facilities for its students.
Here’s a useful article that helps understanding QR codes better-https://www.mpofcinci.com/blog/barcode-vs-qr-code/

Here’s a guide on how you can make your own QR code from scratch-https://www.thonky.com/qr-code-tutorial/module-placement-matrix