"Be curious about people and the world around you and make design that respects those global understanding"

Eriol Fox

UX Researcher at Superbloom Design

Last updated on 6 Jun, 2025

What apps do you use to help you design?

Are.na

Discord

Penpot

Signal

Tumblr

What books do you recommend?

Ruined by Design

Technically Wrong

The Corruption of Co-Design

The Private Is Political

The UserExperience Team of One

How did you get started in your role as a designer?

I didn't train as a designer, i did new media art in university and later did a masters in visual communication - this was after I had my first 'proper' design role though. I got started in design mostly because I was fascinated by the art department's imac (the ones that were pink, green and blue!). The art department also had a copy of photoshop...2 or 3? I forget which version but i spent so much time in high school on that machine figuring out how to use the computer to make visuals while the rest of the class was making paintings. From there I was an early adopter of the internet and made small coding projects as a teenager. The curiosity never left me but i did end up combining it with my love for human rights and citizen led technology as i now work in human rights technology.

What difficulties do you encounter in your role as a designer?

Advocating for human rights, privacy and security in the technologies that we design and use is very hard - many technologies are hyper-focused on commodifying user data and identity and as such, more work arounds and obscure ways for tech platforms to collect and monetise this user data and identity is increasing. Advocating for design processes and practices in complex technical systems is always difficult. Design is a job, and should be funded and supported appropriately in technology. Yet it seems to be consistently a struggle to gain wider support for.

How do you incorporate the apps in your design process?

I'm a big open source software advocate so the main tool and community ecosystem I user is Penpot (penpot.app) it's a UI prototyping tool that is free and open source. I find the widgets as well as the templates in the community library very inspirational and useful. For visually creative work I'll look to social platforms like are.na, discord servers, signal group chats and tumblr. I like to try to stay away from big tech if I can, being a designers that works on open source software and human rights tools i'm very aware of how these companies and tools can use and exploit both users and professionals using them. When that fails I look at video games UI, old Scifi and cyberpunk. I'll scour the news and trusted sources for inspiration for UX and UI flows like Grounded News and orgs like The Electronic Frontier Foundation, Freedom of The Press Foundation, Article19, occrp and radio liberty. When i'm stuck on design, I typically go to the user research drawing board.

What advice would you give to your younger self trying to get into the field of design?

Have a plan, have fun, trust your gut and those you trust around you. Don't strive for power because of powers sake but continue to be part of and uphold community as part of design.

Do you have any regrets in your journey in becoming a designer?

Not having a better idea of my career progression until later in my career. I spent a lot of time in my mid-senior career doing really great, engaging projects I loved but not with a clear understanding of how I wanted that to impact my future career goals.