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📰 3 THINGS TO CHECK OUT
- Laura Fehre, a Design Advocate at Figma, recounts how designing a digital nail salon reminded her of the importance of centering play in the creative process.
- She also reflects on how collaborating with a colleague with this mindset helped her reframe obstacles as opportunities, reinforcing that embracing play can lead to unexpected results and renewed creativity.
- “Sometimes, we need to let go of structure and say yes to the unexpected detour. Sometimes, when things don’t go according to plan, we can make surprising breakthroughs.”
- Design hiring manager Huw Vicary is sharing portfolio tips taken straight from his day-to-day experience reviewing designers’ applications.
- Check out the full list on LinkedIn.
Generative AI and Its Approach to Design
- Product Designer Alex Cerqueira considers how AI is reshaping the practice of UX design, reflecting on six core principles: ethics, mental models, trust, variability, co-creation, and imperfection.
- By integrating these heuristics into every stage of the design process, from ideation to evaluation, designers can shift from building tools to fostering human-machine partnerships.
- “Systems like ChatGPT, Claude, Midjourney, and DALL·E are not just assistants; they are collaborators with creative capabilities of their own. We are no longer designing passive tools, but rather platforms for creative partnerships between humans and machines.”
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
Avital Ruti, a UX Academy graduate, helps drive business growth through thoughtful, user-centered design. For Go Solar, a solar energy start-up, she improved trust and usability by streamlining workflows and aligning the site with customer needs. She brought the same strategic mindset to wellness app Dot, refining the product based on user pain points to better meet their wants, needs, and expectations.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- Illustrators Fight Back Against AI Action Figures
- 10 Truths to Learn the Hard Way
- Movie Scenes Crafted from the Mundane
- Creativity Through Controlled Randomness
The more things you're interested in, the better your work will be. — Michael Beirut, author
🧪 FROM THE LAB
🚀 Courses Launching Soon
AI for UX Design (Launching May 2nd):
- Perfect for: Experienced designers looking to become more efficient and effective integrating AI into their UX workflows
- You’ll learn: How to use AI for research, ideation, prototyping and testing, when not to use AI, and develop a full portfolio-ready project along the way
- How you’ll do it: Asynchronous lessons and projects supplemented by consistent feedback, live lectures by course creator Chrissy Welsh, and live peer sessions facilitated by expert mentors
- Course length: Four weeks
Advanced Figma (Launching May 2nd):
- Perfect for: Experienced designers who want to become more systematic in their design work and master complex Figma features
- You’ll learn: Proficiency with Figma’s auto layout feature, reusable components, and design systems
- How you’ll do it: Asynchronous lessons and projects supplemented by consistent feedback, and live peer sessions facilitated by expert mentors
- Course length: Four weeks
AI for Visual Design (Launching May 2nd):
- Perfect for: Entrepreneurs, designers, marketers, or anyone wanting to gain proficiency with industry-leading generative AI tools to create polished visual assets
- You’ll learn: Prompt crafting, working with complex visual ideas such as branding and storytelling, animating with AI, and more
- How you’ll do it: Asynchronous lessons and projects supplemented by consistent feedback, and live peer sessions facilitated by expert mentors
- Course length: Four weeks
Prototyping in Figma (Launching May 2nd):
- Perfect for: Experienced designers who want to create robust and realistic prototypes that leverage Figma’s advanced features
- You’ll learn: Rightsizing your prototypes, interaction design in Figma, making seamless animations, how to streamline developer handoff, and more
- How you’ll do it: Asynchronous lessons and projects supplemented by consistent feedback, and live peer sessions facilitated by expert mentors
- Course length: Four weeks
UX Academy Foundations (Launching May 5th):
- Perfect for: Those totally new to design looking to learn the fundamentals in a supportive structure
- You’ll learn: Visual and UI design foundations, proficiency in Figma, how to iterate on design work, integrating AI, and more. Be fully prepared for UX Academy upon completion.
- How you’ll do it: Asynchronous lessons and projects, how-to videos and guides, and 1:1 expert mentorship.
- Course length: Flexible over four to eight weeks
