Ana T

Hi Zoe, I usually pick a library that fits the style of the product. If I have to create any additional icons, I bring some of the icons together into Adobe Illustrator and create new versions of the icons I might need, but this happens very sparingly. I love using icon libraries because they're already very consistent, pixel perfect and work well together. Here is a set of cute and...

Maybe not for productivity, but I often use: contrast (to check color contrast accessibility), autoflow (to show connected screens for dev hand-off), iconify (to search and add different icon styles and insert into the design), HTML to Figma (to extract text and images from an existing website and have them available next to the design), content reel (to replace dummy content) and whichever...

I don't, I don't have .ppt installed in my computer and won't ever do .ppt presentations ever again. I used to make these presentations in Apple Keynote, but then I had to open ppt to fix things... Currently, I'm using Figma for these kinds of jobs, but I'd rather avoid presentations unless it's a very special client. Figma files and Figma Slides can be exported to .pdf. On Acrobat Pro you can...

First, I want to state that I love my clients and appreciate them for feeding me, thank you. I also wouldn't change the privilege of designing from the comfort of my home for any other career. That said, here are is my rant of things I wish I rather not have to do again: + I'd rather not receive content inside a URL to copy and paste one bit at a time. HTML to Figma plugin has saved me so much...

It's not that simple...I think both are important and should be intertwined. I believe a useful design (i.e. Google search) will always get returning visitors even if it's ugly (i.e. Craigslist), however a beautiful design will always have deeper psychological effects that will make people believe they are more usable and instill other positive associations. As a designer, I suffer from the...

I've only used Figma for simple prototypes, but I've heard of better tools for more complex prototypes like Protopie and Origami Studio from Meta

Firstly, I would say having consistent spacing in all screens is kind of tedious for me, even if I'm using Material Design variants of an 4/8px scale and a grid, unless I'm missing a plugin that could make that process less complicated. Secondly, setting all the properties for each component is super tedious i.e. an input field that has different sizes, and for each size a default state,...

Discord communities: Design Buddies https://discord.gg/N6ZbFKfB and Design Squad: https://discord.gg/Hfw4mqyz

Web and App Design: Figma Visual Design: Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop Wireframing: Relume AI No-code web design: Framer Team Collaboration and Brainstorming: FigJam, Mural & Miro Design Inspo & Mood Boards: Cosmos.so, Mymind Presentations: Figma (not Figma Slides)

In my personal experience, one-time payment is less frustrating as a customer, however, if the cost is too high for a one-time payment I'd rather pay a monthly subscription. That said, having too many subscriptions is unsustainable over time and creates a lot of friction, eventually, I'll prioritize value and start canceling subscriptions, or use them only for 1 month and bounce.

Look into the practice of "copy work" to master what the best designers do, eventually, you'll develop the eye to create excellent UI. Join UI design challenges like 70Rad, or even copy the best product screens from Mobbin (Airbnb, Headspace, etc), do the same if you want to design websites using Awwwards, and see your design skills grow exponentially. This is what helped me upskill when more...

Hey Robin, I won't write about my favorites, but reflect on what's best in each case. Firstly, your product design and business goals will help you choose which methods are more insightful. It's also important to have measures of success for each goal as well (less time to complete a task, increase in bookings or enrollments, increased sales, decreased bounce rate, etc). Firstly, you can...

I mostly use Gemini chat to: write stuff, re-write stuff, summarize video content, marketing & UX research Figma Plugins: Musho (landing page designer) Web Deisgn tools: Relume (wireframe) and Dora AI (website mock ups) Imagery: MidJourney just a couple of tries with no success, considering buying a plan atm Tried AI functions in Illustrator and Photoshop with no success

I would recommend focusing on practice more than theory. The theory is all around. You can browse "Essential UX design books to read" (don't make me think, UX design team of one, Refactoring Design...). You can also join The Interaction Design Foundation. But in practical terms you can fast-track your learning by doing. I recommend joining a UX(UI challenge. I personally enjoy 70RadDesign...

This depends on the users of the specific product/service and their expectations about a chat service. You can always start by interviewing your potential or current customers to get the first ideas for developing this service, and gauge if it's something needed or wanted by them.

Hi Ram, don't pay too much attention to negative comments unless they come directly from your users, as someone else pointed out. Things I would suggest to improve your UX and UI: 1. If you are unable to hire a UI/UX designer, take a look at Google's Material Design Guidelines and iOS Human Interface guidelines. Both of these are extensive resources with documentation, videos, examples and...

I've used RescueTime in the past for tracking how much time I spend online, but it doesn't actually track how many times I picked up the phone. It tracks both the time you spend on your computer and your phone and on which app. You can classify your apps as productive or not, and add goals of maximum hours you want to spend on each app. At the end of the day it will point out if you stayed...

I'm pretty sure you can find scholarly articles about this topic, which will point out to about 4 hours of "productive work" on average. Or so I was told. I personally do 45min deep work/15min breaks from 9am to 5pm on average. Some days I work more than others, but it all depends on the nature of the job (contracted or freelance) and how much I have to turn over that day. When I've had...

Hi Julia, aside from Slack, Loom, and productive online meetings (daily and weekly). The HR department plays a big role in crafting a tight remote team culture. In my last experience. I can tell you some of the strategies/activities that were used: + Organizing a weekly whole team hang-out meeting online, same day same hour. Optional to join. In these hangouts it was all about sharing things...