📰 3 ARTICLES
What I've Learned About UX From an AI Music Project
- UX designer Andrew Tipp chronicles his “dual life” as a content designer by day and an AI-driven music creator by night, sharing key lessons learned about design through his creative side project, including the importance of embracing constraints, finding creative outlets, and the value of reflection and continuous learning.
- Tipp reflects on how personal creative projects can help find new professional solutions, while also encouraging designers to look at emerging technology as a new opportunity to further both sides of your work.
- “Doing new things forces you to learn new skills to solve new problems. This is great training for processes like design thinking which is all about finding different ways to solve problems.”
The Story of Slosh: A Case Study—Sort Of
- The creative team at digital production company Buttermax undertook a design project to make an exciting and immersive digital experience for hard seltzer Slosh: a non-existent brand that they made themselves, an opportunity to release themselves from the usual constraints of working with a client.
- Fun was the main motivator for the decisions made, from selecting a product that felt like a party and then working with the challenge of communicating that identity to users in a full digital framework, given that visitors to the site would never be able to actually taste the seltzer in real life.
- The final product does the vision justice: the Slosh site is filled with hyper-vibrant visuals, a super upbeat soundtrack, and is complete with a digital beer pong game to help you pick a flavor. Check it out here!
The Vibrant Evolution of Microsoft's Colorful Transformation
- Microsoft’s Design Team delves into the company’s redesign of its color system, driven by a need to reflect modern, inclusive values across its products, and highlights how the new color strategy emphasizes accessibility, cultural relevance, and emotional resonance in its visual updates.
- This evolution is an effort to align Microsoft's visual language with its mission to ensure that every user feels represented and connected with its products; the changes are designed to be aesthetically pleasing and deeply meaningful, enhancing user experience across platforms.
- “Microsoft’s old color palette lacked relevance. It was a methodically created palette that aimed to span the color wheel featuring basic primary, secondary, and tertiary colors. Whilst “colorful” it fell short in evoking emotion and connecting with users. In fact, the palette seemed defined by what people ‘couldn’t’ do with it.”
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
Caitlin Lewis, a UX Academy graduate, couples her UX work with a clean and elegant UI sensibility throughout her design portfolio. This is showcased in her comprehensive design for mobile app Enscene, which allows users to receive recommendations based on their film preferences and create shareable playlists of their favorites. Strong branding and research also come through in her responsive project for wellness brand Soma Health, where her continued strong UI communicates both a sense of calm and ease of use through its design.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- Podcast: Mental Health in Tech
- 8 Startups Using Design for Climate Solutions
- You Can Now Stay in a Life-Sized Polly Pocket Home
- I Tried Going Viral on Design Twitter
There is no such thing as a boring project. There are only boring executions. — Irene Etzkorn
🧪 FROM THE LAB
🌟 Just Added: Generative UI: Designing Inclusive Products for Everyone
A new free event just hit the Designlab event calendar that we think will be of great interest to the community. Join us Wednesday, September 11th at 4PM EST for “Generative UI: Designing Inclusive Products from Everyone”, presented by Kelly Dern, Senior Product Design, Video AI at Google, and former Designlab mentor.
In this talk, Kelly will explore what exactly “generative UI” is, and how it empowers designers to create truly personalized experiences for every user.
Don’t miss out: sign up here to secure your space in this exciting (and free) design event!
🎤 Upcoming Webinars Next Week
We have a slate of webinars this coming week where you can learn more about many of our upcoming course launches. Check them out below and sign up to attend or receive a recording.
UX Academy: Learn more about our award-winning career change program, where we’ll discuss curriculum, mentorship, project work, career support, and more, providing in-depth information and an opportunity for a Q&A with a member of our Admissions team.
- Tuesday, August 20th, 2PM EST (Joined by UX Academy alum Kevin Shertz)
Advanced Figma: If you’re looking to become efficient and effective with Figma and gain proficiency in advanced concepts such as auto-layout, design systems, component libraries, and more, then this course is for you. Join our webinar to learn about topics covered, mentorship and peer support, and more.
Prototyping in Figma: Step up your prototyping game in this all-new, four-week course where you’ll learn how to build more robust prototypes that realistically demonstrate your designs. Advanced your prototyping skills to enhance communication with stakeholders, facilitate early user testing, reduce development time and costs, and improve the user experience overall. Learn more at our info session, and don’t forget: students in our inaugural cohort receive $100 off.
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