Emilie Mazurek

Howdy 🤠 I'm Emilie.I'm learning something new in my design career almost every day. I share it here — tools, lessons, and real talk — so other designers can grow faster too.Before UX, I studied biochemistry, worked in a microbiology lab, taught music and movement to youth, managed hospitality teams, and volunteered at a medical clinic in Guatemala. I even wrote the MCAT (twice 😣). Design wasn't the original plan, but it turned out to be the right one.My path moved quickly (bootcamp to senior designer in just over a year), but it came with plenty of highs and some pretty rough lows. I talk about all of it.What I post about:• Tools I'm testing in my day-to-day design work• Career lessons from navigating growth, team dynamics, and leveling up• The real stuff — what's working, what's not, and what I'm still figuring outOutside of work, you'll find me mentoring designers, arguing with my parrot Cheeto, reviewing hot chocolate, or planning my next adventure.Let's connect if you're a designer looking to grow, want to collaborate on content, or just want to chat about navigating career change (or the best hot chocolate spots ☕).

Product Designer – Growth

I used to think shorter labels were always “cleaner” design.

Then someone at work asked why my primary action just said “Create” instead of something more descriptive, and I realized I didn't actually have a good answer.

On the screen, it felt obvious.
The page was dedicated to one specific thing, with a clear header and a list, so in my head that button could only mean one action.

Not really.

For sighted users, ultra minimal labels create a tiny “wait, create what exactly” moment. That is extra cognitive load and cuts against the heuristic of recognition rather than recall, where users should recognize actions from the label instead of remembering the surrounding context.

For non sighted users, the cracks really show.
Screen readers move element by element, not by layout. When focus lands on a lonely “Create” button, all that visual framing disappears and the person just hears “Create, button”, which tells them almost nothing about what will happen next. 
​
After doing a bit of reading, accessibility experts say the same thing: buttons need meaningful, action oriented labels that can stand on their own, whether they are text or icons wired up with aria labels. A pattern I lean on now is verb plus clear object, like “Save changes”, “Invite people”, or “Send message”.

If a label sounds confusing, vague, or incomplete when a screen reader reads it on its own, it is probably too minimal.

What’s one microcopy habit you had to unlearn for accessibility?

#ux

Scientist → Product designer, mentor & creator | I help SaaS companies grow by blending research, strategy, and user-centered design

One of the biggest ways I see user research get misunderstood is around sample size. We hear one or two strong quotes and suddenly they’re treated like universal truth.

I’ve definitely been in those rooms where someone says, “People hated this, so we need to rebuild everything,” or “Two people got through the flow, so we’re good.” Without a bit of structure, it’s really hard to tell if we’re reacting to real patterns or just a couple of loud opinions.

These days, I sanity-check my sample size with a few simple questions instead of a “magic number”:
• How big is the decision? 
If it’s high risk or expensive to change later, I usually want to hear from more people.
• Are we seeing the same issue repeat? 
When the same problem shows up again and again, even in a small group, that’s a stronger signal than one-off comments.
• Are we only hearing from one type of user? 
If all our feedback comes from a single kind of person, we might need to widen the pool.

If you’re not sure how to calculate what sample size you need, Lyssna is hosting a free workshop on “Sample size confidence” Thursday, February 26 at 9am PST / 12pm EST. I’ll drop the link to the workshop in the comments below.

When you’re planning research, how do you usually decide when you’ve talked to “enough” people?

#ux #lyssnapartner

Brand partnership • Scientist → Product designer, mentor & creator | I help SaaS companies grow by blending research, strategy, and user-centered design

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