Notion Faces: A Design Masterclass

How Notion is using a simple feature to build community

Author

Jon Haines
January 16, 2025

This week’s edition:

  • Notion Faces: A Design Masterclass

  • Design articles i found interesting

  • Design jobs I found interesting

At the advent of the new year, Notion decided to launch its latest feature, Notion Faces. Cute, right? Seems like a tiny addition to an already incredible product that has a ton of more interesting features.

But here’s the thing.

I think the addition of Faces is so simple, yet genius. It’s a masterclass in how to correctly use a small feature to design a better user experience.

Notion’s already simple design

Notion’s design is simple. However, by allowing the user to upload any image, it runs the risk of having a colorful, complex avatar instead of something that fits more aligned with the rest of the screen. Take a look at the image below. It’s not complex. Everything is simple.

Personalization for teams

On top of that, the black and white avatars give a bit of personalization to whomever is using the product. Users would want to be part of the ecosystem. This is team-building in a nutshell for companies. But for Notion, it’s aligning an ecosystem. Would you want to be the one person on your company team that’s not using something that looks like the below? And wouldn’t you want to show off a bit of your personality.

Complimenting Notion AI

This one may be the most important of all. Back in the fall, Notion, along with Claude AI, created Notion AI, the company’s jump into the AI space. The tool itself works pretty well and keeps you within the Notion ecosystem and has been compared to another legendary mascot named Clippy (check out this fun blog post from Notion). The avatars look as though they belong within the world of Notion Faces, giving Notion one united user experience.

Design Articles for the Week

Edit 10,000 images at once with Adobe's new tool

Firefly Bulk Create can automatically remove, replace, or extend image backgrounds in huge batches.

news.todayin.design/p/jan-13-2025

Inside the AI Product Strategies of Figma, Cloudflare, GitHub and Ramp

At SaaStr's AI Summit, we gathered the product leaders who have built some of the most widely-used AI features in production today to share their tactics.

www.saastr.com/ai-in-saas-products

Canva Revolutionized Graphic Design. Will It Survive the Age of AI?

Generative AI could have been an existential threat for Canva, which made billions by making graphic design quick and easy. But for CEO Melanie Perkins, it’s simply making the world more visual.

www.wired.com/story/canva-ceo-melanie-perkins-interview

Design Jobs for the Week

Hi, I’m Jon, a UX and Product Designer from Brooklyn, New York. I write the Design Breadcrumbs newsletter to express my own thoughts on the design world, freelancing, and career advancement. Subscribe to get this news delivered to your inbox every week.