Hi designers!
Welcome to the 16th edition of CUxD newsletter for Fall 2025 – a curated set of learnings, inspiration, resources, and tips. We’re Clément & Sia, Internal Outreach Leads, and we’ll be writing to you on behalf of CUxD every week.
If you’re not familiar with CUxD (Cornell User Experience Design), we’re a centralized community for UI, UX, and product designers at Cornell. We learn and grow together both professionally and socially!
Want to be more learn more about UX design?
Table of Contents
Localization
Every week, we’ll explore a topic in design. In this edition, we’re talking localization. Localization is about adapting content, UI, tone, formats, and visuals so the experience feels local to the people using it. It is about making your product feel native (not merely translated) to each audience’s language, culture, and norms
1. Design for text expansion
Expect labels to grow or shrink.
Avoid fixed-width buttons; let text wrap.
Give headings and tabs a little extra room.
If you must truncate, provide the full text on hover/focus.
Design with room for longer text
2. Support writing directions and reading order
Not all interfaces are left-to-right.
Mirror common patterns (navigation, back chevrons, carousels) for countries with right-to-left languages(Arabic, Hebrew).
Keep essential icons consistent (e.g., the “play” triangle).
Place primary actions where they feel natural for that reading flow.
Mirror layout for right-to-left languages
3. Use local formats your users expect
Make information instantly legible.
Use system/formatters for dates, times, numbers (e.g., 10/12/2025 vs 12/10/2025).
Show currency with the right symbol and spacing (e.g., 25 €, ₹ 2,000).
Match local units (miles vs km) and week starts (Sun vs Mon).
Adapt formats to local conventions
4. Design for multilingual countries
One country ≠ one language.
Don’t assume locale = language; detect then confirm and keep a visible language switcher.
Maintain content parity across languages (no half-translated screens); avoid mixing languages on one page.
Pick fonts that cover all target scripts; keep text live (not in images) so it’s translatable.
Support multiple languages equally
More resources
Internships
Palo Alto, California, $51 / hr
New York, New York, $39 / hr
Sunnyvale, California, $37 / hr
Greensboro, North Carolina, $17 – 46 / hr
San Jose, California, $36 – 60 / hr
Advice from a fellow designer
About
Joanna Chen, 2026 Info Sci (UX Concentration) and Fine Arts minor, from Long Island, NY
Fav Figma shortcut
/ to cursor chat, ⌘ + \ to minimize sidebars, ⌘ + R to mass-rename things, Shift + Space to preview a prototype
Previous work experience
About
Joanna Chen, 2026 Info Sci (UX Concentration) and Fine Arts minor, from Long Island, NY
Fav Figma shortcut
for Mac shortcuts: / to cursor chat, ⌘ + \ to minimize sidebars, ⌘ + R to mass-rename things, Shift + Space to preview a prototype
Previous work experience
Incoming Experience Designer @ Adobe
Prev experience…
Designer @ DTI
Designer @ Tourable
Designer @ Stealth Startup
Research Assistance @ Si-Fi Labs
Product design intern @ AI-learners
Experience Design intern @ Adobe
Proudest design project
This past summer, I interned for Adobe’s AI product, called GenStudio! Alongside my amazing team, I was solving for a major problem within the tool: GenStudio took a long time to generate ads and lacked the standard visual fidelity to support it, failing to retain users and risking the Adobe brand. For the next 7 weeks, I led the creation of advanced motion patterns and disambiguation of AI behaviors for a core workstream. This work not only improved user understanding and trust, but also set the visual foundation for various AI work within Adobe.
I would say this was one of my proudest work because I learned what it meant to be a true designer — not a pixel pusher. It was such a WOW moment seeing my designs/prototypes in the slides presented at senior leadership meetings, used when workshopping ideas with engineers, and seeing customers experience it on the product.
Happy to chat more at [email protected] :)
Advice
Just start making/doing things. I spent so much time caught up in trying to perfect my portfolio and figuring out my life's purpose that I became stagnant. The truth is, you discover what you're good at and what you love by doing, not by overthinking.
Instead of waiting for a project to feel "ready," just publish it. If you're curious about something like 3D modeling or coding, dive in and learn it. Don't wait for the perfect opportunity or a club to get started. By actively creating, even if the results are "ugly" at first, you'll learn so much about yourself in the process!
Design inspiration
Some cool designs for your dopamine hit.
Outro
That’s all for this week!
Have any feedback or want to see something on the newsletter next week? Email us at [email protected] or reply directly to this email.
See you soon,
Clément & Sia @ CUxD