Sketch makes the day-to-day life of a user interface designer a lot better. Mundane little things such as measuring distances and sizes are now much easier and quicker. You can automate parts of your workflow and use real data in your Sketch designs. You can also organize your files more optimally, and more. If you’re a UI designer and are still using mostly Photoshop or Illustrator, Lachezar Petkov highly recommends you try Sketch. You might never want to look back!
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As UX specialists, you have varied and diverse backgrounds, but visual interfaces are what you spend most of our time on. You are visual thinkers with a highly trained eye. That’s why it’s tempting sometimes to jump straight to the visual UI design stage when starting a new project, and one of the reasons why you may be bored by some other tasks. In this article, Javier will give you some hints and tips on how to put that app design you are working on to the test, and to see whether it’s ready to be released into the wild. Changing your workflow might be challenging in the beginning, but after a while you will enjoy working within the constraints. This will also transform the way you think, and hopefully help you to move away from focusing on the visual details.
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Node.js has helped to bring uniformity to software development. Writing command line tools has also become easier than ever before because of Node.js. Tools such as Yeoman ask for runtime inputs that eventually help you to customize a project’s configuration as well. Some generators in Yeoman help you to deploy a project in your production environment. That is exactly what you are going to learn today. In this tutorial, Nihar Sawant will develop a command line application that accepts a CSV file of customer information, and using the SendGrid API, he will send emails to them.
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Due to its similarity to Sketch, Figma was easy for Chrstian Krammer to grasp right from the start, but it also has some unique features to differentiate it from its competitor, such as easy file-sharing, vector networks, “constraints” (for responsive design) and real-time collaboration. In this article, Chrstian would like to compare both apps in detail and highlight where each of them shines.
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Is copywork really for you? Unless you’re known the world over for your inimitable style, then yes, you would probably benefit from it. Copywork is a technique that writers and painters have been using for centuries. It is the process of recreating an existing work as closely as possible in order to improve one’s skill. In your case, this means recreating a user interface (UI) design pixel for pixel.
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How exactly does one make a “good” app icon? A beautiful, identifiable and memorable app icon can have a huge impact on the popularity and success of the app. In this article, Michael Flarup has put together some tips and advice to guide you on your way to designing great app icons. He’s been designing, making resources and giving talks about icon design for the past couple of years. In this article, and in the video at the end, he’ll sum up what he’s learned about this amazing craft.
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How do designers design a website? Do they just mess around in Photoshop or Sketch for a while until a pretty design appears? You don’t have to be blessed by the design gods with special talent. So, how should you, a developer, learn design? This article is for design beginners. So, throughout the piece, Mason Gentry will use simplified definitions of user experience (UX) and visual design.
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In this article, you’ll find an overview of all of the obscure little things that I forget about every year; so, I decided to gather them all in one place once and for all. The list below serves as a personal reminder for yours truly, and I thought that it might be useful for you as well. In fact, I set up a yearly reminder on December 28th just to have a couple of days to free the mind for the more important things in life and to start the next year without second thoughts or unresolved issues. Curious? Well, let’s dive in!
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In this article, Kyle Cassidy shares his thoughts and experiences on how lean thinking helped to instill efficiencies within his UX design process. For clients undertaking multiple projects, the lack of consistent wireframe deliverables was confusing and disorientating, with the client having to remember multiple URLs and logins while also learning how to navigate the various outputs. Many routine tasks were unnecessarily repeated across multiple projects. It was clear that they needed to establish some rules and guidelines to create a more cohesive approach. They needed to set a new direction, and now was the time to start.
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In this article, Cameron McEfee will give you a taste of how GuideGuide can change the way you use guides in Photoshop and Illustrator. If you’re one of the many people who already use GuideGuide, you may discover some unconventional uses that are not immediately apparent. Cameron will provide an overview of the major features, and then give some examples of advanced and unusual ways it can be used to make you a more efficient designer.
While he’s going to focus this post on Illustrator, nearly everything is applicable to Photoshop as well.
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