Search the archive

CHARTLINE (FIGMA PLUGIN)

Create beautiful chart lines by editing a randomly generated line to fit perfectly in your chart or choosing one of the presets.

WTF IS PROTOTYPING?

Prototyping involves building enough to learn precisely what we need to move forward or pivot to an alternative approach. The prototype's audience must know inherent limitations to avoid being distracted by the apparent abstraction or lack of functionality.

THIS YEAR, SIRI WILL GET CHATGPT-LIKE TRICKS, ONLY MORE PRIVATE

With its new AI-enabled Siri, Apple will offer a native conversational AI experience deeply integrated into all the other apps you typically use. The new Siri can even understand how to connect apps. Unlike other AI tools, Siri will run locally on the iPhone, not on Apple servers, so privacy won't be a problem.

MEET FLAVIO MANZONI, THE GENIUS MIND BEHIND FERRARI’S CAR DESIGNS SINCE 2010

If you have trouble explaining why Ferrari's cars are so beautiful, understanding the genius behind them might help. In this article, Flavio Manzoni, Ferrari's Chief Design Officer, talks about how he shares his vision with his team, the impact of electric cars and autonomous driving on Ferrari's future, and what inspires him.

NETFLIX WON'T BE COMING TO THE VISION PRO, BUT HERE'S WHAT THE STREAMING APP COULD LOOK LIKE IN SPATIAL VR

Netflix confirmed its app won't be available on the Vision Pro app store. That hasn't stopped designers from making versions of these apps. Harshita’s implementation of Netflix on the Vision Pro shows how immersive the streaming service could be.

CHECKBOX UI DESIGN: BEST PRACTICES AND EXAMPLES

To be truly effective, checkboxes must follow a consistent design language. This article explores the anatomy of the checkbox, its different states, and the distinct types of selection.

ONLINE REVIEWS: AN UNTAPPED RESOURCE FOR UX RESEARCH?

Online user reviews offer a low-cost alternative for understanding user pain points, desires, and perceptions. Even though inherent limitations exist, they can be analyzed and compensated for.

YOUR REFERRAL LINK - https://tldr.tech/design?ref=2613930

WHAT’S NEXT FOR DEV MODE: ANNOTATIONS, COMPARE CHANGES, PLUGINS, AND MORE

Figma's Dev Mode has introduced annotations, enhanced change comparisons, plugins, and a VS Code extension update. The service is transitioning from a free beta to a paid service on January 31. These updates aim to improve collaboration between designers and developers by streamlining handoff processes, providing live updates, and allowing customization with plugins.

MMM.PAGE COULD MAKE YOU ENJOY THE INTERNET AGAIN

mmm.page is a unique online platform described as a blend of Tumblr, Animal Crossing, and Mii Plaza. It allows users to create and design free websites, fostering a creative and individualistic space on the internet. The platform's anonymous founder aims to maintain independence and freedom, rejecting the corporate pressures that dominate other online spaces.

GOOGLE’S NEW AI FEATURE TRANSFORMS YOU INTO A HISTORICAL ART PIECE

Google has launched Art Selfie 2, an improved image generator that uses AI to transform selfies into a historical artwork style with custom costumes and backgrounds. It makes artwork in over 25 unique styles, offering an educational experience with pop-up information about the chosen theme while you wait for the transformation.

TRUST THE PROCESS

The team behind many branding and graphic design works at Smith & Diction shares their process in this article. They start with introductions, proceed to the proposal, take care of the contract and deposit, do the discovery work, use mood boards, start work on identity design and brand work, present their work, ask for feedback, and roll it out.

DESIGN BOOM

Designing with seniors in mind is becoming more critical than ever, considering that 20% of the U.S. population will be 60 or older by 2029. Unlike previous retirees, this new generation is more comfortable adopting technology. As designers, we have the opportunity to empower and make a difference to so many of these users, who are often unknowingly or intentionally overlooked as marginal cases or outliers.

IMPROVE YOUR LOGO DESIGN SKILLS

A close examination of Paul Rand’s UPS logo uncovers that it uses the golden ratio to make the logo beautifully proportional. Designers who want to improve their logo design skills should redraw those they like, analyze them, and find out if there’s an underlying grid.

GROWING COLLECTION OF 3D SHAPES IN UNIQUE TEXTURES

This incredible library of hundreds of 3D objects includes three styles for every artifact.

LEGIBILITY (BOOK)

Based on experiments and extensive research, this free eBook is a prime resource on typographic legibility and designing documents that are easier to read.

35 BOOKS EVERY DESIGNER SHOULD READ

This collection features book recommendations from some of the industry's best designers.

LOOKING BACK ON 40 YEARS OF MACINTOSH

Those who buy Macs spend the money because they plan to use them, often for many years. The reuptake of ports on computers aimed at professionals, keyboards that don’t seem to break from using them, and three revisions of the Mac Pro in five years leave the impression that Apple is again willing to meet its users a little closer to where they are.

DIXONBAXI OVERHAULS THE CW WITH CLEAN SIMPLICITY AND BURSTS OF COLOR

The CW recently removed the “The” from its logo. Now, we see the broader branding concept where the CW logo extends into a “stage” shape. The new typeface, a sans-serif F37 Bolton, complements the branding nicely and achieves the premium and deadpan aesthetic that DixonBaxi was after.

ARE DESIGN SYSTEMS A ZERO-INTEREST RATE PHENOMENON?

Design systems prevent a host of potential problems down the road. Despite our understanding of the intrinsic benefits of a consistent user interface over one-off solutions and maintenance nightmares, convincing management that it is the right course can take time, especially given the time and resources required.

'IT'S OKAY TO JUMP FROM ONE STYLE TO THE NEXT', JOSH PATTERSON ON CARVING OUT AN ILLUSTRATION CAREER

Changing styles isn’t only desirable for illustrators, but it’s an important part of commercial illustration as they must adapt to clients asking for a specific style.

VIRAL TIKTOK VIDEO HILARIOUSLY IMAGINES FONTS HANGING OUT

An interesting video by a digital creator imagines how different fonts interact. The cool guy is Helvetica, the old gent is Courier, and Papyrus is just trying to get an invite to hang out.

THIS ARTIST BRINGS EARTH’S HIDDEN DATA SETS TO LIFE

Geologic data is another material Sarah Nance uses to guide her interactions with other materials, such as Mylar film and knitting patterns. Data functions expressively and abstractly in her work, offering new ways for people to relate to geologic time personally.

YOUR REFERRAL LINK - https://tldr.tech/design?ref=2613930

CHROME IS GETTING 3 NEW GENERATIVE AI FEATURES

These experimental AI features enable users to organize their tabs, create custom themes, and get help writing on the web. Chrome users can enable these experimental features in settings, but because these features are early public experiments, they’ll be disabled for enterprise and educational accounts for now.

LUMIERE IS AN IMPRESSIVE NEW TEXT-TO-VIDEO AI FROM GOOGLE

Lumiere is a new text-to-video diffusion model from Google AI that creates realistic, diverse, and coherent motion in videos. Instead of spatially distant keyframes followed by temporal super-resolution, Lumiere's architecture generates the entire video duration in a single pass, enhancing motion fluidity and coherence. Examples of early animations show remarkably smooth camera movements and complex object animations that span multiple seconds.

KITTL RAISES ANOTHER $36 MILLION FOR ITS BROWSER-BASED DESIGN TOOL

Kittl raised another $36 million just a year after raising $11.6 million during a Series B round led by IVP and including some existing investors. The startup intends to become the go-to tool for creating logos through its built-in illustration library and collection of copyright-free photos, t-shirt designs, cards, social media posts, and other media. It recently added AI-based features like AI background removal and image generation using Stability AI's and OpenAI's APIs as well as its own in-house technology.

16 LESSER KNOWN ACCESSIBILITY ISSUES

Lessons learned during auditing a bilingual application for a public sector organization in Wales. This article contains sixteen specific accessibility insights, ranging from making context explicit for assistive technology users to considerations in design, such as using color effectively for interactivity and ensuring compliance with guidelines like GDPR in web development.

DESIGN TEAMS CAN PARTNER BETTER WITH DEVELOPERS — HERE’S HOW

Common roadblocks for designers and developers include communication issues, messy handoffs, and ineffective collaboration. This article offers tips on how to enhance workflows and collaborate more effectively, like adopting design systems to create a shared language and considering technical constraints when building the design vision.

WHY ADOBE IS FRUSTRATING WEB DESIGNERS

The demise of Flash was followed by the introduction of Muse, which also declined and was eventually discontinued. We are nearly 30 years into the Internet age, and Adobe, the leading provider of publishing tools, still has yet to provide web designers with appropriate web tools.

TYPOGRAPHY MANUAL

Boost your typography skills with these 11 simple and effective rules.

FREE PIXEL-PERFECT ICONS

Iconic is a collection of 200 free stunning icons with weekly additions.

FIGBRUARY

Experiment and design things daily in February using Figma to push your creativity limits. The first challenge invites you to create a landscape illustration of a city, skyscraper, or whatever your imagination leads you to.

HOW TO NAIL PRODUCT MARKET FIT WITH CLEAR JOBS-TO-BE-DONE

Letterboxd is an app where users can keep track of movies they watched, share their lists with friends, and discuss them, like a social network on top of IMDB. The app needs to stand up to user expectations because of a lack of focus on two main jobs to be done: keeping track of watched movies and engaging socially with other users.

THE COST OF PERSONALIZATION

The “personalization paradox” refers to the clash between personalized experiences that save us time and concern about the personal data they require. However, privacy isn’t the only trade-off we make for the convenience of personalization. Personalized content recommendations are engineered to keep users on platforms longer and get users into a trance-like state.

WE NEED TO DESIGN FOR HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IF WE'RE EVER TO GET RID OF SINGLE-USE PLASTICS

Businesses can reduce single-use plastics by designing reusable packaging, but this has yet to be successful at scale. Consumer motivation for environmentally friendly behavior is high, but we shouldn't ignore people's tendency to prefer convenience, even when it has tragic consequences. While you can't control what people do with packaging once it leaves your premises, you can still influence them by considering behavioral psychology in packaging design.

IF THIS IS WHAT AN APPLE SMART RING COULD LOOK LIKE, I NEED IT RIGHT NOW

Designer Jonas Daehnert has envisioned a new Apple Ring based on patents that suggest Apple may be working on a similar product. The ring features an exciting-looking OLED that is invisible when not in use and capacitive buttons that can be pressed to check the weather, monitor blood oxygen levels, and more.

THIS ARTIST BRINGS DYING ART OF BOOK FORE-EDGE PAINTING INTO THE LIMELIGHT

24-year-old British artist Maisie Matilda is reviving the rare art of book fore-edge painting. She's got over half a million Instagram followers. Her process involves selecting a book, preparing it, and then delicately painting on the fore-edge.

ISOMETRIC STUDIO’S BRAND IDENTITY FOR NATIONAL BLACK THEATRE PAYS HOMAGE TO ITS HISTORY AND POWER

The Brooklyn-based design studio created a system that amplifies the institution’s relevance, liberatory practices, and social consciousness. The project involved developing a new typeface and unified visual identity and creating greater consistency in the letterform design and spacing to align it more with the historical signage.

YOUR REFERRAL LINK - https://tldr.tech/design?ref=2613930

THE PIXEL 9 LEAKS ARE ALREADY HERE

Details about the Pixel 9 Pro have been leaked. Renders reveal a phone with redesigned features, flat edges, a new camera bar design, and a slightly smaller 6.5-inch display. While technical specifications are not yet confirmed, these changes may help the Pixel 9 stand out in the competitive smartphone market, with rivals like the Samsung Galaxy S24 and iPhone 16 on the horizon.

GBOARD PREPS ‘SEAMLESS VOICE TYPING’ THAT LETS YOU INSTANTLY START TALKING

The latest beta version of Gboard has a new feature called "Seamless voice typing." With this feature, voice typing will automatically start when the keyboard is shown, eliminating the need to tap a microphone icon manually. This improvement aims to streamline the voice typing process on Android devices and could work with non-Pixel speech-to-text options.

FORD’S NEW 48-INCH DIGITAL DASHBOARD IS A LOT OF ANDROID FOR ONE CAR

Powered by Epic's Unreal Engine, Ford's new car OS features a 48-inch curved display and 4K graphics that stretch the entire dash. Along with its fantastic screen, the system offers more personalization and modularity, with Android's native OS and 5G wireless connectivity for over-the-air software updates. Each driver can have their own settings and custom display.

THE VISION PRO’S FIRST KILLER APP IS THE WEB, WHETHER APPLE LIKES IT OR NOT

There aren’t many native apps for the Vision Pro headset yet, so Apple will need Safari to work well on it to make the headset a success. The browser will come with some platform-specific features, such as the ability to open multiple windows simultaneously and move them around in virtual space and support for WebXR, which could enable more immersive web experiences.

WHY A DEDICATED IPHONE VIDEO BUTTON IS A GREAT IDEA

Both iPhone 16 models will get a new camera capture button on the lower right side - right under the user’s forefinger when they flip the phone into landscape mode. It may be pressure and swipe-sensitive for even more control.

THE QUIET DEATH OF ELLO’S BIG DREAMS

Ello, a social network founded by artists and designers, wanted to create a platform for prioritizing community and creativity over advertising revenue. It could not sustain itself financially and was forced to shut down in June 2023.

COLOR FUSE AI

Use the power of AI to generate color palettes by style from an already-picked color and use it directly in Figma, Illustrator, or Photoshop.

AI IMAGE UPSCALER (FIGMA PLUGIN)

This image upscaler uses AI to upscale up to 8 times the original resolution. It works straight in Figma and is perfect for various image types, including avatars, background images, Midjourney renders, marketing images, and designs.

VARIANTS RANDOMIZER (FIGMA PLUGIN)

This Figma plugin simplifies adding variation to your designs by allowing you to randomize multiple variants, including boolean and nested props.

THE USER EXPERIENCE OF ONBOARDING

An effective onboarding process can help improve retention since its main objective is introducing core values to users as quickly as possible. User onboarding is about establishing credibility, teaching key features, and motivating regular use until users reach a steady state.