The Daily Index — Friday, September 29, 2023

NEWS & TRENDS

TLDR Design

Untitled entry

Photoshop for the Web is now available after being in beta for almost two years. Featuring Firefly-powered AI tools, its AI capabilities include generative expand, which lets users expand an image and fill it with content based on a prompt, and generative fill, which can add or remove objects while keeping the original context of an image.

techcrunch.com · 1 min

TLDR Design

FOR WINDOWS 11

Paint Cocreator is an AI-enhanced version of Microsoft Paint that allows users to create prompt-based art. Powered by DALL-E, the new AI functionality enables creatives to apply art styles and add layers to the initial composition. Paint Cocreator should be available to all Windows 11 users in a few weeks.

theverge.com · 2 min

TLDR Design

TRANSFORMING DESIGN EDUCATION FOR JAPAN’S K-12 STUDENTS

Figma has partnered with Google for Education to provide K-12 schools in Japan with access to Figma and FigJam through Chromebooks and Google Workspace for Education. The goal is to foster design skills and creativity among students, preparing them for future job opportunities in a digital world while also aligning with Japan's commitment to education access and equity.

figma.com · 3 min

TLDR Design

MULTIPLE PROJECTS

Once we understand three key aspects of time management for creatives, it suddenly stops being such a challenging topic. First of all, we are creatives who feel like our work is never done. We also need uninterrupted blocks of time for work (and don’t get it). Finally, people often don’t fully understand the design process.

dataanddesign.substack.com · 10 min

TLDR Design

HOW TO CREATE A COLOR RAMP USED IN DESIGN SYSTEMS

A color ramp, also known as a color scale, is a visual representation of how colors transition from light to dark smoothly and continuously. The steps required to create a color ramp are: start with your defined brand colors, adjust lightness at each color stop, adjust saturation as needed, check contrast ratios, repeat for all other colors, and aim for similar lightness and saturation for each stop as the other colors.

uxdesign.cc · 6 min

TLDR Design

FORM ACCESSIBILITY AND USABILITY BEYOND THE BASICS

Accessible forms unlock new audiences and improve the user experience for all users. Equipping fields with autofill, investing in well-designed error messages, and tweaking date fields are minor adjustments that lead to more accessible forms.

blog.pope.tech · 6 min

TLDR Design

LEVEL

Alpaca, an AI plugin for Photoshop, can generate images and convert sketches into detailed images. Artists can start with sketches and reference images to guide the composition of their artwork. This feature allows users to draw an image, import it, and then generate a detailed image from the sketch.

geeky-gadgets.com · 2 min

TLDR Design

INCLUSIVE

In the not-so-distant future, voice-activated AI chatbots will be able to understand diverse accents and languages, making technology more inclusive and universal. This evolution will be coupled with the capability to sense emotions from our voice's subtle cues, creating more empathetic digital assistants.

lifewire.com · 4 min

TLDR Design

USE GOOGLE SEARCH LIKE IT’S 1998 TO MARK ITS 25TH BIRTHDAY

Neocities’ replication of old Google homepages allows users to experience the search engine from 1998, 2009, 2011, and 2013, when the major visual changes were introduced. The webpage accurately emulates how Google Search used to look back in the day, complete with the drop-down menu to choose the number of results to display per page and the “I’m feeling lucky” button.

androidpolice.com · 4 min

TLDR Design

HOW TO USE UX DESIGN TO BOOST YOUR SEO

Google states that web page usability and content quality are key factors that determine page ranking. Creating user-centered and well-structured content, focusing on findability, having a mobile-friendly UI, and having fast loading times are UX improvements with the most direct impact on SEO.

careerfoundry.com · 13 min

TLDR Design

DESIGNS

A gigantic minority of one billion people experience some form of disability and are often let down by design. Multiple aspects can improve their lives. Maybe you could add better color coding to your product. Your typography may lack legibility. Or do you need to genuinely explore options for allowing users to customize their purchases? No matter what the improvement is, the important thing is to start now and generate the momentum that triggers continuous inclusive design initiatives.

dezeen.com · 4 min

TLDR Design

STRAVA EXPANDS USER EXPERIENCE WITH NIKE RUN CLUB INTEGRATION

Strava users can now seamlessly synchronize their Nike Run Club (NRC) and Nike Training Club (NTC) activities with their Strava accounts. The new integration will make it easier for athletes to monitor their progress and achievements across platforms.

runningmagazine.ca · 2 min

TLDR Design

TEXTAREAS WITH AUTO-INCREASING HEIGHT USING CSS

Textareas are great when it comes to accepting a large amount of text from the user. However, the problem with them is that they have a fixed height, which has a detrimental impact on accessibility and usability. Thankfully, an experimental CSS rule with a form-sizing property is coming that will allow the increase of the height of textareas automatically based on the amount of text the user enters.

amitmerchant.com · 1 min