The Curious Engineer

Built for Mars

2019–2026

150 posts

2026 26

October 2026

  1. Built for Mars | Changelog
  2. Built for Mars | Changelog
  3. Built for Mars | Changelog
  4. Built for Mars | Changelog
  5. Built for Mars | Changelog
  6. Built for Mars | Changelog
  7. Built for Mars | Changelog
  8. Built for Mars | Changelog
  9. Built for Mars | Changelog
  10. Built for Mars | Changelog
  11. Built for Mars | Changelog
  12. Built for Mars | Changelog
  13. Built for Mars | Changelog
  14. Built for Mars | Changelog
  15. Built for Mars | Changelog
  16. Why Granola's Lack of Onboarding Backfires When You Test It

September 2026

  1. UX Cheatsheet: Aha! Moments (And The Pizza Without Cheese Problem)

August 2026

  1. Twitch Celebrates the Wrong Thing (and Misses the Aha Moment)

June 2026

  1. Why Adding Friction Improved Built for Mars' Conversion Rate by 25%

May 2026

  1. How Hinge Keeps You Engaged (Not Romantically)

April 2026

  1. Google is Hollowing out Waze, and that's a Problem for Apple

March 2026

  1. How To Design A Loyalty Scheme That Actually Motivates People
  2. UX Cheatsheet: Tactical Ways to Save Users at the Last Minute

February 2026

  1. UX Cheatsheet: Show, Don’t Tell (And 5 Other Onboarding Rules)
  2. If a Supermarket Scanner Needs Explaining, Something’s Broken

January 2026

  1. Monzo Nailed the Start of The Savings Challenge (But Not the Middle)

2025 12

December 2025

  1. 5 Effective Ways to Use Social Proof in your designs

November 2025

  1. How to Personalise User Experiences and Recommendations

October 2025

  1. Why You’re Addicted to Lovable Before You Even Hit the Paywall

September 2025

  1. Why Confetti Celebrations Backfire (and How to Make Them Work)

July 2025

  1. The Playbook for Onboarding AI Features

June 2025

  1. How Substack uses Deceptive Design to Fuel Growth

May 2025

  1. The Art (and Science) of Creating Goals That Actually Stick

April 2025

  1. How to Stop People from Skipping Your Onboarding

March 2025

  1. UX Cheatsheet: Writing UX Copy that Feels Effortless to Read

February 2025

  1. How Airline Checkouts Make You Pay More for The Same Seat
  2. How to Retain Customers, When AI is Pushing Them to Competitors

January 2025

  1. The UX Techniques That Make You Settle for Higher-Priced Flights

2024 19

December 2024

  1. How Product Psychology Could Stop Uber Drivers From Stealing

November 2024

  1. How to Reduce Churn by Doing Your "One Thing"

October 2024

  1. UX Cheatsheet: How Clever Design Can Reduce Anxiety
  2. UX Case Study: A Masterclass in User Activation (96% of them)

September 2024

  1. UX Case Study: The Complexity Paradox of ChatGPT, AI and UX

August 2024

  1. UX Cheatsheet: The True Value of User Delight
  2. UX Case Study: What Audible Gets Wrong About Repeat Purchases

July 2024

  1. A UX Cheatsheet on Gamification
  2. UX Case Study: Is This Why Users Are Ignoring Your Features?

June 2024

  1. UX Cheatsheet: The UX Psychology of Waiting (and Loading)

May 2024

  1. UX Case Study: Slack Hides Complexity to Create Effortless Onboarding
  2. UX Cheatsheet: How Framing Influences Everything
  3. UX Case Study: Why Robinhood's $7.08 Welcome Bonus Works

April 2024

  1. UX Cheatsheet: The Science Behind Nurturing Habits

March 2024

  1. UX Case Study: The Psychological Reason You Hate Chatbots
  2. UX Cheatsheet: Design Checkouts that Convert Better

February 2024

  1. UX Case Study: Which is better; Zoom, Teams or Meet?

January 2024

  1. UX Cheatsheet: How to Upsell Better from Trials
  2. When (and why) noise creates churn 🤯👋

2023 39

December 2023

  1. UX Case Study: Benchmarking the UX of 6 delivery companies

November 2023

  1. Zara: The billion dollar missed opportunity 🧠

October 2023

  1. UX Case Study: Optimising a Checkout for Impulse Purchases

August 2023

  1. How (not) to get people to download your app 🫣

July 2023

  1. Exposing the growth engine of Threads 🤯

June 2023

  1. Wise: UX without borders 🌍
  2. Learn UX Design from Starling
  3. Learn UX Design from Revolut
  4. Learn UX Design from Dominos
  5. Learn UX Design from Ticketmaster
  6. Learn UX Design from Netflix
  7. Learn UX Design from Figma
  8. Learn UX Design from Linear
  9. Learn UX Design from Leave me alone
  10. Learn UX Design from Loom
  11. Learn UX Design from Google Nest
  12. Learn UX Design from Slack
  13. Learn UX Design from Google
  14. Learn UX Design from IMDB
  15. Learn UX Design from Discord
  16. Learn UX Design from Yelp
  17. Learn UX Design from Airbnb
  18. Learn UX Design from Apple
  19. Learn UX Design from Uber
  20. Learn UX Design from Notion
  21. Learn UX Design from Grammarly
  22. Learn UX Design from Mr Beast
  23. Learn UX Design from Soundcloud
  24. Learn UX Design from Citymapper
  25. Learn UX Design from Duolingo
  26. Learn UX Design from Hotjar
  27. Learn UX Design from Monzo
  28. Learn UX Design from Tunnelbear

May 2023

  1. UX Case Study: Product Builders: Don't Copy Ticketmaster

April 2023

  1. Using dark patterns to overcharge for pizza 🍕

February 2023

  1. A free masterclass in pricing psychology 👑
  2. Bank payments: slow and shallow experiences

January 2023

  1. UX Case Study: The hidden complexity of bank cards
  2. The UX of Banking: 900 days of progress

2022 12

November 2022

  1. The UX flaws of an advertising giant 💸

October 2022

  1. Credit Karma: the UX complexity of credit scores 📈

September 2022

  1. The user experience of HBO Max (vs Netflix) 🤯

August 2022

  1. One billion signatures — UX analysis of DocuSign ✏️

July 2022

  1. Apple Maps vs Google Maps (UX analysis) 🗺

June 2022

  1. 91% of users will abandon their cart, why? 🧠

May 2022

  1. Why is the UX of paid journalism so bad? 🧠

April 2022

  1. Elon's Twitter: a UX theory 🧠

March 2022

  1. A UX case study on Revolut Junior ✌️
  2. The imperfections of Gmail 🤯

February 2022

  1. Starling vs Monzo: the overdraft showdown ✌️

January 2022

  1. The experience of being an Uber driver ✌️

2021 13

December 2021

  1. Is CashApp really the easiest way to send money? 🤔

November 2021

  1. A UX case study on Playstation 5 & Xbox Series X ✌️

September 2021

  1. A UX case study on Apple Fitness+ ✌️

August 2021

  1. A UX case study on OpenSea ✌️

July 2021

  1. A UX case study on Gamestop ✌️

June 2021

  1. A UX case study on YouTube Shorts ✌️
  2. A UX case study on Apple AirTags ✌️

April 2021

  1. Is monetisation killing Twitch? ✌️
  2. A UX case study on Among Us ✌️

March 2021

  1. A UX case study on Clubhouse ✌️

February 2021

  1. A UX case study on Robinhood ✌️

January 2021

  1. A UX case study on Signal ✌️
  2. A UX case study on Spotify ✌️

2020 24

December 2020

  1. A UX case study on Moonpig ✌️

November 2020

  1. Building a POS store — A UX analysis ✌️
  2. Making a POS payment — A UX analysis ✌️
  3. Setting up my card reader — A UX analysis ✌️

October 2020

  1. Square v iZettle v SumUp — A UX analysis ✌️

September 2020

  1. A UX case study on Klarna ✌️

August 2020

  1. A UX case study on Coinbase ✌️

July 2020

  1. A UX case study on Freetrade ✌️

June 2020

  1. Banking customer support — A UX analysis ✌️
  2. Open Banking — A UX analysis ✌️
  3. Making an international payment — A UX analysis ✌️
  4. Freezing your bank card — A UX analysis ✌️

May 2020

  1. Making a payment — A UX analysis ✌️
  2. Opening 12 bank accounts — A UX analysis ✌️
  3. A UX case study on TikTok ✌️

April 2020

  1. A UX case study on Hulu ✌️
  2. A UX case study on Zoom ✌️
  3. A UX case study on Disney+ ✌️

March 2020

  1. A UX case study on Monzo ✌️
  2. A UX case study on GoDaddy ✌️

February 2020

  1. A UX case study on Eventbrite ✌️
  2. A UX case study on Go Fund Me ✌️

January 2020

  1. A UX case study on Intercom ✌️
  2. A UX case study on Notion ✌️

2019 5

December 2019

  1. A UX case study on Asana ✌️

November 2019

  1. A UX case study on Mailchimp ✌️

October 2019

  1. A UX case study on Mario Kart Tour ✌️

September 2019

  1. A UX case study on Purplebricks ✌️
  2. A UX case study on Rightmove ✌️