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📰 3 ARTICLES
How to Differentiate Yourself as a Creative in Today's Market
- Creative Boom founder Katy Cowan uses personal experience and past success to offer advice for how creatives can stand out in a competitive market, highlighting the importance of authenticity, especially through vulnerability and personalized storytelling, to connect with audiences.
- Differentiation comes from leveraging individual strengths, continual evolution, and passion for your craft: lean on who you are and what makes you unique, rather than what you do and your technical qualifications, to stand out.
- “Being different doesn't have to mean being the best. Fundamentally, what sets you apart as a creative person isn't necessarily the polish of your work but embracing your personal story, style, and values. This means that unlike in a profession like sport, it's not just a few who can succeed. In theory, at least, everyone can.”
A Breakdown of Figma's Approach to Updates
- Figma shares insights into the development of their updates with the new UI3, delving into the main goal of enhancing designers' workflows by minimizing distractions and keeping their work central.
- Figma’s design team worked over two years on the changes, emphasizing craft, flow, and feedback. Their iterative approach included experimenting with bold ideas, such as new navigation systems, and refining key components of the tool.
- “Intimidating as it may be to redesign a product for designers, it’s also a rare opportunity to revisit things that feel un-revisitable. You get to ponder whether something actually works, or if it wasn’t that great to begin with, or if we’ve just gotten weirdly used to it. There are never easy answers, but the questions are fascinating.”
Metaphors for Working with AI
- UX pioneer Jakon Nielsen takes an insightful look into the various roles AI can play in an individual’s workflow now that the technology has matured, viewing AI tools through the lens of intern, coworker, teacher, and coach.
- Each role that Nielsen breaks down has specific strengths, such as collaboration on tasks, helping to grow skills through constructing lesson plans, or offering feedback to assist with iterating, providing a guideline on the many ways AI can be of use.
- “One of the most important imperatives for professional growth is to get better at employing AI to improve your productivity and the quality of your work. These improvements come from engaging with AI in ever-more advanced ways. The more different ways you think about AI, the more different ways you will discover to use it.”
💜 PORTFOLIO INSPIRATION
Hailey Jiang, a UX Academy graduate, pulls from her background in healthcare in her design philosophy, striving to create welcoming and easy-to-use interfaces. This is at the forefront of her end-to-end design for Care Hub, an app for caregivers to help better manage clients’ medical information and healthcare needs. With her responsive design for travel website AirAsia MOVE, she strives to create a less anxious experience for users looking to book flights through more intuitive and user-friendly UX.
Got a portfolio you love that you’d like to share with our audience? Email your suggestions to hello@designlab.com.
💡 INTERESTING STUFF...
- Podcast: Is AI the End of Companies?
- An AI Automation for Design Job Applications
- Case Study: PayPal's New Look
- How to Be Trusted as a Freelancer
Bad design is smoke, where good design is a mirror. — Juan-Carlos Fernandez
🧪 FROM THE LAB
🚀 New Course Announcement: Strategic Business Acumen for Designers
We’re excited to announce our newest course for mid-to-senior level designers: Strategic Business Acumen for Designers. If you’re looking to develop the foundational business knowledge to better influence strategy and become a better partner to stakeholders, this course is worth a look.
In addition to featuring 50+ videos and lessons, as well as weekly 90-minute peer group sessions, course participants will also get exclusive access to three special guest lectures by experienced design leaders.
Our first cohort launches on November 8th, and will be limited to 30 seats on a first-come, first-served basis.
Learn more at our upcoming webinar next Wednesday, October 6, at 12pm ET or secure your space here.
🎤 Design Courses for All Levels Launching Soon
Whether you're brand new to UX/UI or an experienced designer, we have a course for you. If ready to upskill within design, we have several courses launching in the coming weeks.
- Monday, October 21st: UX Academy
- Friday, October 25th: Design 101
- Friday, October 25th: Advanced Usability and Accessibility
- Monday, November 4th: UX Academy Foundations
- Friday, November 8th: Advanced Figma
Check out each course page to learn more or to register for one of our live informational webinars.
💰 Share Designlab—Earn Cash
Would people in your network benefit from Designlab courses? From programming for beginners to working designers looking to grow their skills, we offer something for everybody. Spread the word about our programs and earn cash doing it through our Affiliate program.
Sign up today and we’ll send you dedicated links so it’s easy to share our info with your community. If you’re a content creator, designer, or simply think someone you know would benefit from our learning with Designlab, earn up to $725 per enrollment that you send our way. \
