Minimum viable prototypes for dummies.
The pursuit of perfection is a subtle trap that often leads designers into an endless loop of iteration and review. This is especially true in the world of digital products, where every interaction and graphic element can become an object of design obsession.
But, when we step back and observe the interdisciplinary nature of digital product design, it’s easy to see how designers fall into the perfection trap.
Think of all the people and roles that are involved in the design of a single digital product:
- Design Researchers
- UI Designers
- Information Architects
- UX Designers
- Product Designers
- Product Managers
- Content Strategists
- …
A hands-on approach on how to increase your chances of winning clients.
Clearly, the easiest way to win a client when you’re a freelancer is to have experience in that specific field the client is in.
Just to give you a quick example:
John has a car repair shop and he wants to give his clients the possibility to book appointments to get their cars repaired.
Let’s say two freelancers apply for this job:
Alex — Has 10 years of experience designing websites/apps for various industries. He is super talented, it has a diverse set of skills, but he didn’t design any website/app for a car repair shop.
Helen — Has 2…
4 simple After Effects tips for making smooth transitions.
1. Get the AEUX plugin.
Super nice tool to easily export your groups and layers to After Effects. UX motion design with the tools you use(Figma/Sketch/XD).
Download here: https://aeux.io/guide/download.html
2. Use masks.
Masks are a great way to create elegant transitions. This is a super easy trick you can do.
Here is an example with no mask:
The best hand-off development tool is no tool.
It is said that being a great designer requires having good management skills, which is true to some extent, especially on very small teams where you have to wear more hats as a designer rather than focusing on very well-established and documented routes/methods/tasks.
A methodology will give you that path. A methodology will give you the guidelines to make your project manageable, smooth, and effective. Here is a short story about why following methodologies rigorously might stumble you rather than helping you.
A client had an idea about a potential product and wanted to get their first round of funding…
The indie way of making a game.
Intro
If there are moments like “Unce upon a time…” which are shared from generation to generation, the classic crosswords game would be one of them. Nowadays no one carries a pen and a newspaper with them anymore, so this is how it got started.
Although, this classic crosswords game, which is called “Rebus” in our country, was so popular (some might say, that it still is) that no one was thinking to make it available in the digital space.
It was even called “The Romanians favorite sport”.
The client (my father)
My father is a crosswords “connoisseur”. 20 years ago, he published various crosswords…
Intro
Music shouldn’t be like McDonald’s.
A bunch of very passionate people (including myself) are digging for unfamiliar music gems and we don’t have a platform where people can discover music other than big names, big marketing campaigns, and so on.
Being a freelancer, I have the opportunity to get involved in a lot of projects with different teams, different processes, different backgrounds, and so on.
Most of the time, as a freelancer I need to be a “social worker” if I want to win a project or even if I want to get buy-in for anything I might want to do in a project. Especially in my case, where most of my clients are not top 100 companies with budgets and design teams. …
A possible way to browse quicker than the classic list view.
Probably you already know about Amazon, AliExpress and other huge e-commerce websites.
For example, if you browse on Asos for men t-shirts you would see like 5090 products. Imagine, how exhausting and stressful might be to browse all those pages. Also, imagine how many Amazon and AliExpress might have.
How I started a drop shipping business without following the rules.
Like everybody else(except my grandpa, who’s dead), I’ve decided to start a drop shipping business.
We millennials love the idea of not putting in the work and still making money. So if you really want to know our sense of business, I’ve summarized this for you.
My first attempt. “Dezolat” clothing shop.
How I built a music showcase website with a WordPress slider plugin.
In the recent years, there was a massive wave of new design tools, new development tools, new frameworks, new prototyping tools and loads of people debating that you should use this because of “x” or you should use that because of “y”. It is pretty confusing I know, at least it was like this for me and still is.
Most of the times I am amazed on how fellow industry criticize others, whatever they might do, or try to do, so…
Here’s a short clip from a favorite musician of mine which tells people how important choosing tools really is…
