2019 roundup: What did the industry teach these designers?
It’s that time of year again, where we take a look at what’s happened.
In keeping with tradition, I spoke with the designer’s that I interviewed for 8px this year to ask them what their favourite tool of the year was, and their professional or personal highlight.
For the industry in general, we’ve seen the design tool wars become even more like a battlefield. Figma have taken some sharp stabs at what was previously the industry leader in Sketch, with Adobe XD coming in hot with their latest releases.
2019 has been a fantastic year for startups, with funding rounds being announced in huge sums for businesses across the globe. We anticipate this continuing into the new decade as startups and, in particular, remote working becomes more of the norm.
I hope you’ve enjoyed 2019, and are looking forward to whatever the new decade brings for the creative industry.
Henrique Ourique
Product Design Lead, Good Money
Highlight of the year was having built an internal admin tool for the company I currently work for in just over 2 months. The collaborative process to to make that happens was fantastic — true synergy between design, engineer, and product.
I’d say Bear. It’s a writing app that I find myself using daily to jot down thoughts, ideas, notes, and more.
Damien Terwagne
Creative Director / Co-Founder, Nonzero.
Highlight of the year
Launching my agency, Nonzero, after 10 years being an employee.
Product of the year
Has to be Figma this year
Chlovis Lobre
Freelance Designer
Highlight of the year
I worked all year on building a product from scratch with a user testing methodology, quite a long mission for freelancing. The approach is extremely different, I learned a lot and I really enjoyed it.
Product of the year
This is the year I really switched on Figma.
Also loving Whimsical.
José Carlos Torre
Staff Product Designer — Shopify Plus
Highlight of the year
Moved to Canada to work for Shopify.
Favourite app or tool
Procreate on the ipad pro.
Principle & Figma on the mac.
After effects as an honourable mention.
Florin Diaconu
Product Designer, Fueled.
Highlight of the year
Landing a job at this amazing product design company: Fueled.
Favourite app or tool
Figma by a country mile. Nothing comes close.
Jamie Syke
Product Designer, Daisie.
Highlight of the year
Working with Daisie to overhaul their product. A great team doing great things.
Favourite app or tool
Sketch. Still the king.
Shirley Wu
Designer, Threads.
Highlight of the year
A highlight for myself has been working on a personal project of mine to launch shecreates.studio as well as working at Threads in parallel.
I think there’s a misconception about startups and working exhaustive hours, and it’s really about finding balance.
Favourite app or tool
Threads. It’s given me more time back into producing, less time in meetings, and an asynchronous way to get to responses in my own time.
Ivana McConnell
Senior Product Designer, Hashicorp.
Highlight of the year
My highlight was starting a new role! I began working at Hashicorp as a Senior Product Designer and I’m super-excited about ringing in the new year here.
Favourite app or tool
Spotify!
Nicola Rushton
Product Designer, :Different.
Highlight of the year
Starting to build out a design culture and team from scratch at :Different. Creating culture, process, and structure around how work is done feels like a super interesting design project.
Direct impact, instant feedback from users/colleagues, iterated on a daily basis.
Favourite app or tool
Finally switched everything over to Figma this year. I am loving team libraries for creating a design system — and even lets PMs mock up small changes without Design being a blocker.
Nemi Banigo
Product Designer — Flutterwave.
Highlight of the year
My personal highlight of the year was learning motion design! Learning motion design that I’d always had on my mind, and I’m glad I took the plunge.
Favourite app or tool
My favourite app has definitely got to be Zoom. It’s simplified work calls and meetings for me in a way I could never have imagined.
Well it looks like Figma was the winner this year, with it being mentioned by several of our interviewees from 2019. The show is not over though folks, 2020 will present us with further tool debates and challengers, and I can’t wait for it.
If you’re interested in my own personal take on 2019, I recorded a quick 5 minute run through for my podcast, Noise. Have a listen.
Follow 8px Magazine for all future articles & interviews.
A selection of our other interviews:
P.s. we’ve teamed up with DesignLab to offer out their courses to 8px readers. Want to learn UX from some of the industry masters? They offer both short and long courses, where you’re teamed up with mentors from Github, Dropbox and the BBC.
