digital world with natalia

In life, you first feel, and then you sense. You first taste, and then you sense what the taste is about. You first see, and then you make sense of what you see. You first get hurt, and then you make sense of what happened. We rarely experience the world as detached observers. We encounter it first—and only afterwards begin to understand, interpret, categorise and give meaning to what we have experienced. So what happens when we enter a designed environment? Perhaps we do not understand the design first. Perhaps we feel it. 💞  Value of Emotions in Design Experience Like with anything in this world, we aim for the long-term relationship. The bright foundation for such a relationship is the right emotion, supported by the right feeling. Without it, we may compensate with discussions, extra arrangements and multiple strategies—but these rarely create the desired result in the long run. If we go back to my article 6 Levels of User Experience , the two final levels— Pleasurability and ...

To enhance your interest to my "Come Out Of Your Box" and "Creativity Hub" series I will entertain you with some interesting statistics from Personal Development Industry and its tremendous potential in your life. People's Interest in Self-Development $6.8 trillion wellness economy in 2024, having doubled since 2013 (Global Wellness)  12,4% of annual growth for 2019-2024 for Mental Wellness, one of the fastest growing sectors (Global Wellness) 57% chose personal relationships (Pew Research Center) 55% chose hobbies or personal interests (Pew Research Center) 49% chose work or career (Pew Research Center) 28% spiritual goals (American Psychiatric Association) 29% social/relationship goals (American Psychiatric Association) 49% wanted career growth (Coursera) People Are Actively Learning New Skills  170 learners worldwide for Coursera in 2025 (Coursera 2025) 195% annual growth for enrollments (Coursera 2025) 40% adults participating in learning each year (OECD) 37...

Human understanding is a blessed form of social interaction—until it intrudes upon the wholeness of our unique lives, becomes a trend, and starts speaking for us. Understanding can free us. Understanding can guide us. Understanding can connect us. And sometimes, understanding can quietly take our agency away. In this article, I want to explore the situations in which understanding can become more of an emotional intrusion and depersonalisation than a source of encouragement and support. What Made Me Write This Article? Empathy and understanding have become increasingly prominent values in our evolving society. Take design-related disciplines as an example: form-giving has evolved considerably around human agency and is no longer focused solely on aesthetics. As many other layers of our environments have become more responsive to human needs, it seems natural that we, as humans, would also want to evolve the emotional dimension of our coexistence. But experiences like these open up new ...

User Experience is an extensive field. It is not created by a single element, but by many different elements working together as one system. In this article, I will take a closer look at six layers that contribute to how users experience a product or service: functionality, reliability, usability, convenience, pleasurability and meaningfulness.   What Makes UX Whirl Like One System? For User Experience to work to its full potential, it needs to rest on several interconnected layers. They can be visualised as a pyramid, where each layer builds upon the previous one. The foundation is functionality . From there, we move towards reliability, usability, convenience, pleasurability and, ultimately, meaningfulness . The higher layers cannot compensate for fundamental problems at the lower ones. A beautiful interface cannot save a product that does not work. A highly usable product cannot create trust if it constantly fails. And even a delightful experience may remain superficial if the p...

Toxic behaviour is a choice you do not have to stand for. Toxicity in human behaviour can have roots in trauma, personality development, or psychological difficulties, yet harmful behaviour still involves agency, choice, and responsibility. A person's wounds may help explain their behaviour, but they do not remove the responsibility for what they deliberately do to other people. In this article, I will look at the abuser's side of the case—not to excuse it, but to show you, in a much simpler way, why you do not need to invest your personal time trying to solve it. The more clearly you understand what the strategy needs from you, the less mysterious toxic power becomes. 🧭Toxic People - Who Are They? According to Google, toxic people are individuals whose consistent negative behaviours drain your energy, create unnecessary drama, and threaten your psychological safety. They may manipulate situations, refuse to respect boundaries, and rarely take responsibility for their actions....

The World Wide Web is filled with videos and articles about narcissistic abuse, toxic relationships, sociopathy, and psychopathy. As awareness of these topics has grown, so has the conversation about personal boundaries. From childhood, many of us are taught to become decent human beings. We learn to be kind, honest, supportive, and respectful towards others. These are valuable qualities that help us build relationships and contribute to society. What we are taught less often is that not everyone approaches relationships with the same intentions. Some people consistently prioritise their own interests, even when it comes at the expense of others. In environments where competition, status, or personal gain are rewarded above mutual respect, such behaviours can become particularly difficult to navigate. It is therefore not surprising that conversations about personal boundaries have become increasingly relevant. This article, however, takes a slightly different perspective. Rather than v...