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Home ›› Archives for Paivi Salminen

Paivi Salminen

Päivi Salminen, MSc, is a digital health innovator turned researcher with over a decade of experience driving growth and innovation across start-ups and international R&D projects. After years in the industry, she has recently transitioned into academia to explore how user experience and design thinking can create more equitable and impactful healthcare solutions. Her work bridges business strategy, technology, and empathy, aiming to turn patient and clinician insights into sustainable innovations that truly make a difference.

Designing Small Is Harder than Designing Big

  • Agile, Design Process, Lean UX, Product Design, User Research, UX Design

Learn why the real design challenge of agile is not speed but learning to design smaller, one valuable slice at a time.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Designing Small Is Harder than Designing Big
  • The article suggests that agile design is not about quick development but rather the more difficult discipline of designing smaller, resisting the temptation to map out complete systems, avoiding the snare of horizontal slicing, and inquiring into what the smallest iteration of an idea is that still provides real value to users.
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5 min read

Cloze Test in Practice

  • Content Strategy, Mobile UX/Usability, UX Design

Discover what happens when we apply a cloze test to mobile.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Cloze Test in Practice
  • The article applies a cloze test, a practical comprehension tool, to real mobile privacy policies from Duolingo and X, demonstrating how even seemingly simple text can collapse in readability on small screens, and why closing the gap between reading level and user comprehension matters for mobile content design.
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4 min read

Unhappy Agile Teams Are Unhappy in Familiar Ways

  • Agile, Design Process, Design Thinking, Product Design, Product Management, Software Development, UX Design

Learn about common Agile anti-patterns. Lessons from Laura Klein.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Unhappy Agile Teams Are Unhappy in Familiar Ways
  • The article makes a sharp point: struggling Agile teams love to think their problems are unique. They rarely are.
  • It breaks down the traps that quietly kill Agile teams, like endless feature shipping, siloed workflows, and design treated as an afterthought.
  • The piece reminds us that looking Agile and actually being Agile are two very different things.
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6 min read

Why Reading on Mobile Is Uniquely Challenging

  • Content Strategy, Mobile UX/Usability, Research Methods and Techniques, Usability Testing, User Research, UX Design

Discover how a simple comprehension test reveals if mobile content is too hard to read.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Why Reading on Mobile Is Uniquely Challenging
  • The article explains why mobile reading is harder: small screens and distractions make people miss information even when it’s there.
  • It introduces the cloze test, which removes words to measure real understanding: comprehension drops from 39% on desktop to 19% on mobile.
  • The piece argues that mobile content needs simpler language because the real question is: Does this make sense when life gets in the way?
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4 min read

Usability, Accessibility, and Inclusivity

  • Accessibility, Human-Centered Design, Inclusive Design, Usability, UX Design

Learn how usability, accessibility, and inclusivity connect under the idea of human-centered design.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Usability, Accessibility, and Inclusivity
  • The article shows that usability, accessibility, and inclusivity are different concepts that work together to create good design.
  • It explains that accessibility removes barriers for disabled users, while inclusivity designs for all types of human diversity.
  • The piece emphasizes that great design needs all three: usability makes things easy, accessibility makes them possible, and inclusivity makes them fair.
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3 min read

Designing for Oops

  • Design Theory, Design Thinking, Healthcare, Human factors, Usability, User Experience

Learn why healthcare blames human error instead of fixing broken design, and what needs to change.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Designing for Oops
  • The article explains why mistakes happen, not because we’re careless, but because most systems are built as if humans never mess up.
  • It demonstrates how slips (doing the wrong thing) and mistakes (thinking the wrong thing) require different solutions, including better design for slips and a deeper understanding of mistakes.
  • The piece outlines how aviation and factories prevent errors by removing blame, allowing workers to stop production when something’s off, and designing systems that make it difficult to do the wrong thing, and asks why healthcare hasn’t done the same.
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4 min read

Understanding Don Norman’s Principles of Interaction

  • Human-Centered Design, Interaction Design, Usability, User Experience, UX Design

Learn how Don Norman‘s six interaction design principles explain why some things feel intuitive while others leave us frustrated.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Understanding Don Norman’s Principles of Interaction
  • The article breaks down Don Norman‘s six design principles that help users understand products instantly without needing instructions or feeling confused.
  • The piece shows how good design using Norman‘s principles makes everyday technology easier to use by matching how people naturally think and act.
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3 min read

Usability Tests vs. Focus Groups

  • Design Thinking, Focus Groups, Product Design, Usability Testing, User Experience, UX Design, UX Research

Learn when to talk to users, and when to watch them in order to uncover real insights and design experiences that truly work.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Usability Tests vs. Focus Groups
  • The article distinguishes between usability tests and focus groups, highlighting their different roles in UX research.
  • It explains that focus groups gather opinions and attitudes, while usability tests observe real user behavior to find design issues.
  • The piece stresses using each method at the right stage to build the right product and ensure a better user experience.
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2 min read

Lean UX vs. User-Centered Design

  • Agile UX, Design Process, Lean UX, Product Design, User-Centered Design, UX Research

Lean UX and User-Centered Design share the same heart — empathy for users — but differ in pace and practice. This piece shows how Lean UX turns UCD principles into a faster, data-driven approach for modern teams.

Article by Paivi Salminen
IDEAS IN BRIEF
Lean UX vs. User-Centered Design
  • The article explains that while both Lean UX and User-Centered Design focus on users, Lean UX adapts UCD principles for speed, collaboration, and rapid learning.
  • It argues that Lean UX evolves user-centered thinking into an agile, data-driven process that helps teams design the right thing faster.
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3 min read
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