From around the WEB
Starting your business is exciting, but it's also hard and lonely. We all want to make it in the world of startups, but the sheer amount of information out there about how to do that can make it hard to know where to begin. To make it easier, I went through the internet to find some of the best posts to share with you in order to inspire and help you with your journey. Let’s go!
5 Inspiring designers around from the web
All designers have a long way to go to reach the top of their field. This long road is full of ups and downs. And it doesn’t always come easy. There is a lot of competition and there is a lot to learn. If you want to become a designer, it’s not enough to just learn what you need to know to do your job – you need to master your craft. But, we’re here to tell you – you don’t need to do it alone. There are lots of people out there who can help you on your journey to becoming a great designer.
And we’re going to talk about some of those people today. After all, inspiration can come from anywhere – and we hope that you can find it here.
David Armano
David uses great branding when strategizing for large-sized companies like eBay, HP, and Adidas. He has also been an excellent writer lately, contributing to Bloomberg Businessweek, in addition to his experience of 20+ years in designing brands for digital media. He’s the founder of Armano Design group. You can read more about him on his page.
Irene Au
She's a former engineer at Google and Yahoo, who transitioned to the elusive world of UX. And as a partner at Khosla Ventures, she helps portfolio companies make their products stellar by setting up strong teams that perform well, building design practices that established themselves as effective, mentoring young designers, and growing the next generation of great designers! Additionally, she was a former head of design teams for companies such as Google and Yahoo.
Philippe Hong
A self-taught UX Designer, Philippe Hong, has co-founded two exciting apps. The visual bookmarking tool, Bukket, and the scheduling app Vyte. The designer combines passion and creativity to provide the best possible experience for customers near and far, since his work has been sought after by major brands such as Airtasker and Snappr.
Julie Zhuo
Meet Julie Zhuo, the woman who is responsible for all creative and design work in social giant Facebook. Her artistic flair is highly respected and she works in collaboration with the teams of creative developers in order to bring out the best product possible. She has even written books about her experience! It turns out that in her free time she enjoys reading, writing, and tweeting. Currently, she’s the founder of Inspirit. Zuck, you're welcome!😎
Aarron Walter
As the author of Designing for Emotion, Aarron will illuminate your understanding of UX, showing you how to use it to your advantage. His Twitter feed contains interesting UX insights and design inspiration, along with a list of his publications on his personal website.
As you can see from the picture below, here at Yotako we like to read great books that make us smarter 🤓
Weekly roundup for designers from around the web
User Experience, Accessibility, and more
In this week’s kickoff news you’ll learn about finding and fixing pain points in customer experience, why digital accessibility is crucial, a free online course from Google on CSS, etc.
Tweet of the week
Designing a website is like assembling a three-legged stool. Making something beautiful, making something easy to use, and making something functional are all equally important in making certain that your site isn't promptly kicked off the internet. In this blog post, Deborah Edwards-Onoro writes about the few things that sound obvious, but a lot of designers don’t take them into account. Have a look here.
Eager to learn something new?
In recent years, design has become a hot topic in the tech industry - especially as technology is now installed into everyday items, from the microwave to the car. As a UX designer, your job is to create a seamless experience for users, whether they're using a device, a website, a piece of software, or a physical product. It's a challenging job, but it's also a lot of fun. To help you on your way, here are some of the best resources for UX/UI design, including tips, blogs, and tutorials from the pros.
Have you heard of the 100 Days of Design challenge? For those who haven’t, it’s a framework for practicing design techniques to help you grow as a designer. It instructs participants to practice basic design theory each day by diving headfirst into their code editor and focusing on basic UX Principles like wireframing or UI Patterns
Learn and improve your design skills today with Dailyui.co
SprintUI
SprintUI is really interesting for new & experienced designers. Get some inspiration and make the most out of your design to amaze your colleague and your clients with this design system generation. Now you can kick-start your design process in a stylish and innovative way.
Interaction Design Foundation
The Interaction Design Foundation is a Danish non-profit that teaches students around the globe who share a passion for creating and innovating new and thoughtful design concepts and ideas. The organization fosters interest, participation, and achievement in the areas of interaction design through inventive creativity and practice.
Go ahead and upgrade your skills in order to stay relevant in the industry.
Showcase of top 5 designers from around the globe
1. Locomotive
This design portfolio from Locomotive, a studio based in Quebec, Canada is impressive. No wonder the studio specializes in crafting standout digital experiences because its own page has them all: playful animations and entertaining website elements make this project's exhibition stand out and will no doubt attract viewers (especially those looking for memorable and good-looking design). Go check them out.
2. ToyFight
With engaging parallax scrolling effects, animated transitions and even the addition of a gladiator fight between any two persons, ToyFight's webpage is immersive and very well designed. The animations emit personality as if released from the minds of the studio's founders themselves. This is a good lesson for future creatives: Embrace your style and don't stop expressing your creativity!
Not all designers focus on white space, but Cristiaan the Designer uses her expertise with a curated cluster of typefaces to make a statement by creating artful compositions. Her coloring and graphic choices radiate through the web page.
4. Liz Wells
Her portfolio is great to look at and it's easy to see how her work fits into a successful final product! I also love the inclusion of all those great images that helps a visitor or potential lead understand her process. It was even more impressive when. If you save these little pieces throughout your project, at the end you’ll be surprised how easily the story comes together.
Personally, I think she did a good job here.
5. JustGest
Here’s a great DTC e-commerce brand that uses minimalist content & combines it with a great color pallet. Gest's hero product is its "Skinmune sips", which are made using powerful anti-aging ingredients sourced directly from young hemp plants, organic chlorella algae, and Acerola cherry. When combined, these potent superfoods benefit every layer of the skin to help boost your immunity and combat sun damage.
Top 5 Newsletter picks from the web
Curious about UX design or want to keep up to date with the latest trends?
Thankfully, we've created a curated list of handpicked newsletters that will help you learn the ins and outs of UX design and the design industry.
Thank us later 😉
Here are 5 great newsletters, which I personally read:
1. UX Booth Newsletter
UX booth is an online magazine for UX workers, covering not only interactive design, design research, visual design, but also a business strategy, content strategy, etc. It is a digest of the most relevant articles published on the website in advance.
2. Web Designer Depot
As a user of Web Designer Depot myself, I’ve found this website particularly useful in my own work when it comes to web design because of the breadth and depth of lessons gathered by the team. My favorite part of Dan’s site is his blog because the topics are always interesting to me since most of them are about tools related specifically when it comes down to graphic designers.
3. DesignModo
DesignModo is a perfect place for developers & designers to get detailed resources about updates on trends in designing, coding, or developing. Here you will find rich resources for your work that are affordable and up to date. The site is easy to navigate and still very fast.
4. The Smashing Newsletter
Smashing Magazine is a content juggernaut in the design and development world with 230K+ plus newsletter subscribers. Their popular subscription list mixes everything from UX design articles to WordPress tutorials, and coding lessons—so if you’re just getting started on your internet marketing journey then this is a great place to start!
5. UX Design Weekly
The UX Design Weekly is an excellent newsletter that covers everything in relation to user experience and interaction design. You can check out all the links in this week's issue online, every last one of 'em! I like this newsletter because it helps me be aware of great tutorials, opinion pieces, case studies, and tools designed for UX designers.
I know there are tons of newsletters out there & we will cover each week’s new findings & it’s up to you to find the right newsletter as it is all about matching your interest with tons of resources that can add a lot of value to your design career.
Podcast for all things design
Listening to the insights and thoughts of the best designs and designers in the industry is sure to leave you inspired. Only, we know it's hard to find time - especially when you're starting up a project and launching it into the world. This is reason enough to switch from amateur pens to professional ones, obviously!
Here are my top 5 podcasts about design:
The Futur
I happened to see through the universe of Chris a couple of years ago. This guy is a hustler in the most real sense of the word, and quite possibly one of the most genius guys in design today. He has a very high level of insight and is sure to inspire.
Well Made
Lumi is a co-host of the Well Made podcast, which features designers in the online space, both from design and product roles. As Stephan puts it "It's just an excuse for us to 'go deep with friends, entrepreneurs designers' ".
99% Invisible
Roman Mars of 99% Invisible has the vision to bridge the perception between a typical person and the designer. He wants people to understand designers as creators, not just as people who make designs.
UI Breakfast Podcast
Join them for exciting conversations about UI/UX design, products, marketing, and so much more. Their awesome guests are industry experts who share actionable knowledge - so that you can apply it in your business today!
North V South
In this podcast, the guys from the UK elaborate & goes deep on education and communication design ideas. They talk about design, illustration, technology, books, culture, and communication. It’s quite interesting if you are from outside the UK (& of course if you are from the UK, you will love it 😉)
Thanks for reading & if you find this blog useful, please remember to share it or to tell your designer fellow about our tool, Yotako.