Onion Creative

Latest Blog Posts

Thoughts on product design, engineering, process and the craft of building digital products.

AI5 min read

Why AI-Accelerated Design May Be What You Need for Your Digital Project

Not every digital project needs the same design workflow. A brand launch that relies on emotional impact and distinctive visual craft deserves a human-driven, craft-led process. But many digital projects — especially for corporate digital presence, product touchpoints, SaaS platforms, mobile apps, and function-first platforms — need something different: clear strategy, fast execution, and a clean path to launch. That is where AI-accelerated design fits.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Why You Do Not Want To Skip Wireframes (Not Entirely Anyway)
UI / UX Design5 min read

Why You Do Not Want To Skip Wireframes (Not Entirely Anyway)

When it comes to the design process, every step, from conception to finalization, plays a pivotal role in ensuring the end product not only meets the client's expectations but also provides an intuitive and satisfying experience for the user. One step that often gets underrated, or mistakenly skipped, is the creation of wireframes. Some designers view wireframing as an unnecessary step, an additional hallmark on their to-do list that doesn't add much value. However, this perception couldn't be further from the truth.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Our Journey Finding The Project Management Tool For Our Agency
Product Strategy5 min read

Our Journey Finding The Project Management Tool For Our Agency

Steering a project through its tempestuous life cycle, there are few roles as fraught with daily decisions as that of a project manager. I've been navigating this tumultuous domain for over 12 years now, and I can attest that an adept PM's toolkit is as much a part of their success story as the milestones they set and achieve. Project management tools have the potential to be the unsung heroes, the invisible hands that shape visions into reality, energies into results, and teams into coherent, synergistic units.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
The Design Thinking Fatigue: When Innovation Becomes a Corporate Cliché
Product Strategy5 min read

The Design Thinking Fatigue: When Innovation Becomes a Corporate Cliché

In recent years, "design thinking" has become a buzzword in the corporate world, advocated as a holistic and innovative approach to problem-solving. However, its application has often led to a paradoxical outcome, with many corporate entities expressing fatigue and frustration with the process.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Crafting Scalable Customer Personas for Every Stage of Your Business
UI / UX Design3 min read

Crafting Scalable Customer Personas for Every Stage of Your Business

In the fast-paced world of startups and business growth, understanding your customer is more than a practice—it's a necessity. While the concept of customer personas is familiar to many marketers, business owners, and product managers, the challenge often lies in creating personas that can scale with your business from its early days through growth and into expansion.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
The Secret Recipe of Creating User Personas From Zero
Product Strategy4 min read

The Secret Recipe of Creating User Personas From Zero

There are plenty of innovation frameworks out there serving different purposes. Design Think, Lean Startup, Design Sprints, Brand Sprints, you name it. If you have spent enough time with these frameworks, you can notice that in essence it always comes down to just 1 single principle — formulate educated hypotheses and find a way to validate them.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
How Alignment Frameworks Solve Complex Problems
Product Strategy4 min read

How Alignment Frameworks Solve Complex Problems

As a strategy consultant, we have to understand importance of alignment in problem-solving. Whether it's tackling complex challenges or making critical decisions, alignment among team members is crucial for success. In this article, we will explore why collaborative problem solving workshop (i.e. **Lightning Decision Jam (LDJ)**) can help teams achieve the necessary alignment to solve problems effectively.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Overcoming Anxiety Working with an Agency Partner
Product Strategy3 min read

Overcoming Anxiety Working with an Agency Partner

Embarking on a digital project with an agency partner can be an exciting journey for businesses and organizations. However, it's not uncommon to experience anxiety and frustration during the design process, especially when there is a lack of communication and uncertainty about the project's outcome. In this article, we aim to address these common concerns and provide valuable insights on how to overcome anxiety when working with an agency on a digital project.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Is 3-click Rule Still Relevant?
UI / UX Design3 min read

Is 3-click Rule Still Relevant?

It's been over 20 years since the 3-click rule was introduced by Jeffrey Zeldman in his book *Taking Your Talent to the Web: A Guide for the Transitioning Designer*. At the time, there was no clear definition of what user experience design was, and there was no data to support the rule. However, a study by Joshua Porter in 2003 debunked the rule, showing that user dropoff doesn't increase when a task involves more than three clicks, nor does satisfaction decrease.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Tunnel Vision in User Experience Design
UI / UX Design3 min read

Tunnel Vision in User Experience Design

User Experience (UX) design is a field that has become increasingly popular in recent years, as companies recognize the importance of creating products and services that are user-centered and provide positive experiences. However, there is a danger that UX designers may become too focused on creating a beautiful, intuitive interface that they lose sight of the underlying problems that users face. This phenomenon is known as the tunnel vision of UX.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Why Goose is the AI Coding Agent That Finally Won Us Over
Web Development2 min read

Why We No Longer Recommend Wordpress

Wordpress is a great CMS, however it’s extension (plugins and themes) ecosystem actually put quite a toll on the platform and site owners. So even when we are building sites for our client Wordpress, we take a very lean approach making sure only the a very limited number of necessary plugins will be used.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>
Our Journey Finding The Project Management Tool For Our Agency
Web Development3 min read

(Part I) Why Laravel Is Our Preferred Development Framework?

The majority of our projects @ Onion Creative are product development for startups, or creative / digital marketing campaigns. They usually are more demanding in creative and feature design, yet having more constraints over budget than most development projects. We need to be very cost conscious when we develop the products for our clients.

By Kelvin Lee
Read More>