Author

Hanabi

Page 4

Two people pointing at a laptop screen, one wearing a fitness band. They are already in the work, which is the moment good onboarding tries to reach quickly.

September 26, 2026Product Design

Onboarding that respects a busy user's time

User onboarding UX should start with the person's job and show a result before the tour. Accounts and tutorials can wait until that result is real.

By Hanabi

A close view of a fountain pen writing on lined paper. The slow handwriting sits with a piece about the short lines a product still has to get right.

September 26, 2026Product Design

UX writing for teams that do not have a writer

UX writing for startups is the button, the error, and the empty state. Name the action, say what happens next, and cut the mood that hides the fact.

By Hanabi

A workshop where one person points at colorful sticky notes while others sit with laptops. A small group looking at the same notes is the setting for a short design critique.

September 26, 2026Product Design

How to run a design critique in a small team

A design critique process asks whether the work does the job. A founder can host it in thirty minutes if preferences wait until that question is answered.

By Hanabi

A close view of a smartphone home screen filled with app icons on a pale table. Each icon opens onto a first screen that, for someone new, is still empty.

September 26, 2026Product Design

Empty states, errors, and the screens teams forget

Empty state design covers the blank screen, the first success, and the failure. Those three teach a product faster than a populated happy path.

By Hanabi

A silver laptop open to a code editor on a white desk, with a monitor, mug, and phone behind it. The working surface fits a piece about building a dashboard someone can scan.

September 26, 2026Product Design

Designing dashboards people can scan

Dashboard UX design is a hierarchy: what changed, what needs a decision, and what can wait. Equal-weight charts make people hunt for the job.

By Hanabi

A hand holding a stylus over a tablet covered in wireframe sketches, with a keyboard and mouse beside it. The frames are the pile a team sorts when deciding which screens to merge.

September 26, 2026Product Design

Fewer screens, a clearer product

Simplify a product interface by merging steps that share a decision and cutting screens that only pass people along. What remains should show the choice.

By Hanabi

Two white smartwatch mockups on a plain light background, one showing the face and one the back. A single object, shown completely, sits with a piece about finishing one narrow path.

September 26, 2026Product Design

How to design an MVP that feels finished

MVP design feels finished when one workflow is polished, including the empty screen, the error, and the success. A wide product with rough edges does not.

By Hanabi

Hands sketching a user-flow diagram labeled user goals on a sheet of paper. The sketch is the kind of map used to separate a founder's habit from the next person's job.

September 26, 2026Product Design

Product design for founders who are also the first user

Product design for startups starts from a split: the founder's own use is evidence, and the next user's job is the spec. Habit is not the whole product.

By Hanabi

A person gesturing in a meeting, with a laptop showing a colorful layout, a notebook, and a phone on the table. The meeting is the walkthrough of how the site will be changed after delivery.

September 26, 2026Studio Practice

The handoff that makes a redesign usable after the studio leaves

A website design handoff is the repository, a content map, and a place the brand files live. Without those, the redesign stays dependent on the studio.

By Hanabi

Skyscrapers photographed from street level against a pale sky. The buildings stay recognizable from the street, which is the feeling a replatform should leave for people who already knew the site.

September 26, 2026Engineering

Replatforming a site without throwing away search equity

Website migration SEO is an inventory, one-hop redirects, and titles that still describe the page. The work protects familiarity. It does not promise rankings.

By Hanabi

A close view of a smartphone home screen filled with app icons on a pale table. The phone is the width a founder already uses to judge a page, so the redesign should start there.

September 26, 2026Websites

A mobile-first redesign for desktop-first teams

Start a mobile first website redesign from the phone the founder actually checks. Decide what is cut, what stacks, and what stays easy to tap.

By Hanabi

Hands sketching a user-flow diagram labeled user goals on a sheet of paper. The sheet is a review against what the page is supposed to do, which is the right standard before launch.

September 26, 2026Websites

How to review a redesign before it ships

Review a redesign against the brief: the phone, the primary action, and words a stranger understands. Taste notes come after those three passes.

By Hanabi

A silver laptop open to a code editor on a white desk, with a monitor, mug, and phone behind it. The editor is the place a later person has to find the headline, the sections, and the images.

September 26, 2026Engineering

What clean code means on a marketing site

A maintainable marketing website lets a later editor find the headline, the sections, and the images without a treasure hunt through clever abstractions.

By Hanabi

A silver laptop open to a code editor on a white desk, with a monitor, mug, and phone behind it. The files on the screen are where a team decides whether the front end can be revised in place.

September 26, 2026Engineering

Frontend revamp or full rebuild

Revamp the front end when the content model and urls are sound. Rebuild when the stack cannot be edited safely, or when the offer has changed shape.

By Hanabi

An OPEN sign hanging in a shop window, with the word SHOP printed on the glass. The storefront stays open in the picture, which is the point of a migration that must not close checkout.

September 26, 2026Ecommerce

Migrating a store without a week of broken checkout

Move a store by proving checkout before the domain changes: staging, catalog parity, a tested payment, DNS last, and a person watching the first real orders.

By Hanabi

A clothing shop interior with folded shirts, hanging jackets, shelves, and pendant lights. The room is arranged so the goods stay recognizable while the display is reconsidered.

September 26, 2026Ecommerce

What to keep in an ecommerce redesign

Keep catalog facts, urls that already bring people in, and the brand's tone. Rebuild the navigation, the product pages, and the checkout a shopper actually feels.

By Hanabi

Hands sketching a user-flow diagram labeled user goals on a sheet of paper. The drawing keeps the paths people already rely on visible while the page around them changes.

September 26, 2026Websites

How to redesign without losing people who already trust you

Keep the name, the offer, and the paths regulars already use. Change a site's structure only where it is failing, so a redesign does not spend the trust you have.

By Hanabi

A hand pinning string between printed mobile screens on a wall. The map is the kind a team makes when it is tracing whether the current site still matches how people move through it.

September 26, 2026Websites

Signs a website needs a revamp

A website needs a revamp when the offer, the speed, the editing, or the phone layout has failed. Boredom with the current look is a weak reason to start over.

By Hanabi

Hands typing on a laptop at a wooden desk near a window. This is the kind of desk where the last pass through a site happens.

September 26, 2026Websites

A checklist before you publish a company site

Check copy, links, forms, mobile, titles, alt text, speed, and the inbox before you publish. A site can look finished and still fail that pass.

By Hanabi

A workshop where one person points at colorful sticky notes while others sit with laptops. The notes are the pages and states a date has to account for.

September 26, 2026Websites

How a marketing site gets scoped so the date survives

Scope the site as pages and states, and attach the date to that list. Adding a page or a state is what moves the date. Vague phases do not.

By Hanabi

A hand holding a stylus over a tablet covered in wireframe sketches, with a keyboard and mouse beside it. The sketch is how a complex product becomes something a person can point at.

September 26, 2026Websites

What to put above the fold when the product is hard to explain

Put a concrete object, a one-sentence job, and a picture of the interface above the fold. Category jargon can follow, once a stranger can see the product.

By Hanabi

A hand pinning string between printed mobile screens on a wall. The strings show which few pages connect, and which ones can wait.

September 26, 2026Websites

The pages a seed-stage site actually needs

A seed-stage site needs home, a product or service page, proof, a short about page, and a way to start a conversation. Postpone blogs, jobs, and press until someone needs them.

By Hanabi

A close view of a fountain pen writing on lined paper. A headline is rewritten as a sentence, not as a decoration.

September 26, 2026Websites

How to rewrite a homepage headline

Rewrite a homepage headline by naming the audience, the outcome, and the contrast with the old way. The before-and-after lines in this piece are exercises, not client work.

By Hanabi

A bright office window ledge with a laptop, a closed notebook, white chairs, and a tall indoor tree. One screen can hold the whole story while the offer is still singular.

September 26, 2026Websites

When a one-page site is enough

Use one page while there is one offer and one audience. Split the site when people arrive with different jobs, such as hiring, buying, and reading docs.

By Hanabi