Storytelling your designs & career sustainability

📰 3 Design Articles

UI Density: What It Means and How to Design for It 

• Matthew Ström, Design Lead at Stripe, illuminates the importance of balancing visual appeal and functional complexity in UX/UI, offering strategies for designers to optimize screen space without overwhelming users.
• Various types of “densities” are explored, from the visual density of how much is physically on a screen to temporal density, or how much time a design takes to load. 
• “Speed, usability, consistency, predictability, information richness, and functionality all play an important role in this equation. By taking account of all these aspects, we can understand why some interfaces succeed and others fail. And by designing for density, we can help people get more value out of the software we build.”

The Next Generation of Design is Inclusive

• Take a deep dive into how the School of Visual Arts’ MFA Interaction Design program weaves inclusive design principles into its curriculum, preparing designers for creating products that cater to a diverse user base and thinking through complex questions related to making more accessible design decisions.
• The program champions inclusive design as a means to serve communities and consider varied lived experiences, forcing designers to reconsider their perspectives, conduct extensive research, and collaborate towards an end goal of making accessible rather than ableist designs. 
• “People with disabilities hold about $490b in purchasing power in the United States, while 68% of Gen Z prioritizes sustainable shopping. With these two groups holding consumer power, organizations have come to understand that corporate sustainability means social responsibility.”

Brand Building in the AI Era

• Jessica Rosenberg, creative director at Jasper AI, provides insights on working in branding and design specifically within the AI sector, highlighting the importance of collaborative environments, championing the value of design, and providing advice for career sustainability in a rapidly changing tech climate. 
• In all aspects, open communication is key: promoting open cross-functional conversation on your team will help to instill the tangible impact of design, while expanding your network and truly finding your voice as a designer will create more opportunities long-term. 
• “It's a secret and powerful weapon if you lean in, experiment, and start not caring what other people think of what you put out there.”

💜 Portfolio Inspiration

Christine Carroll, a UX Academy graduate, brings her passion for empathy and connection to her design work. An end-to-end app called Travelparty creates a user-friendly experience for solo travelers to find each other through a highly intuitive interface. Mindful Moment, a mobile-first design for promoting daily mindfulness, creates a sense of accessibility and calm through intentional UI choices like color palette, iconography, and more.

Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.

💡 Interesting Stuff...

• The Abandonment of AR in Home Decor Decisions
• A Hundred Great Waves 
• The UX of Health Care: Challenges & Innovations 
• Creative Conundrums: Getting Your Boss to Value Your Interests

An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. — Dr. Edwin Land (scientist and inventor)

🧪 From the Lab

🎉 Upcoming Course Launch: AI for Visual Design 🎉

The inaugural cohort of our AI for Visual Design course launches in just one week, on Friday, May 31st.

Learn how to effectively work with the top GenAI tools on the market, and see how AI can generate dynamic imagery and significantly increase your creative output. Get $100 off when you sign up for the course’s inaugural cohort.

Join us for a live information session on Wednesday, May 29th at 12 PM EST and get all of your questions answered. Register for the webinar or enroll now.

🎤 Design Events Coming Up

May 29th 4PM EST: Using AI Tools to Artfully Upscape Images

June 6th 1PMEST: Sketching First Ideations Using AI

June 10th 4PM EST: Quick and Easy Storyboard Images Using Visual Electric

👀 Looking to Transition to UX Design?

To date, nearly 2,000 people have successfully transitioned to careers in UI/ UX with UX Academy.

Most students start with UX Academy Foundations, our flexible and beginner-friendly online course. Our next cohort launches on Monday, June 10th: gain proficiency with Figma, work 1:1 with an experienced mentor, design your own responsive webpage, incorporate AI into your workflow, and more.

Already have design experience? Apply directly to UX Academy and jump right into our award-winning program to start your UX career.

Sign up for our next informational webinar on Tuesday, May 28th at 2PM EST to learn more and participate in a live Q&A with a member of our Admissions team.

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