Your Weekly Dose of Design Junk
Random Access Design Memories
In this issue
Portfolio: Joe Coleman, Copywriter
New Tool: Flawless Feedback
AMA: I’m Dan Mall. Ask me anything!
Illustrator: Josie Portillo
Tool: Artboard Manager Plugin
Inspiration: Web Design Museum
Job Opportunity: Product Designer at InVision
Thoughts: Hick’s Law
This newsletter was originally sent on 09/09/2019.
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Joe Coleman, Copywriter—Portfolio
Joe’s portfolio shows his writing ability by allowing you to modify the lenght and loudness of his description. Play with the slider in the bottom to see the results — make sure to reach both ends.
Flawless Feedback—New Tool
With Flawless Feedback, you can quickly review and comment on live iOS apps or test builds. You can even capture GIFs to annotate animations and flows. This feature is especially cool for those interactions that are hard to interpret without looking at it moving on the screen.
I’m Dan Mall. Ask me anything!—AMA
Dan Mall answers questions about work/life balance, design systems, book recommendations, and some advice for freelancers. Dan is a jewel in the community — he’s always willing and open to help other designers.
Josie Portillo—Illustrator
Josie is an illustrator from Los Angeles, whose work has been featured in The New York Times, WaPo, GQ, VICE, and others. She uses an earthy and lively color palette in her cheerful illustrations. Follow her on IG or check out her portfolio.
Artboard Manager Plugin—Tool
With this Sketch Plugin, artboards are arranged automatically when they’re moved or resized in the canvas. You can choose the vertical and horizontal spacing, plus the ability to rename artboards too. I’ve been using this plugin for a while to keep my documents nice and tidy.
Web Design Museum–Inspiration
This site has a collection of carefully selected web sites that show design trends between the years 1994 and 2006. Remember skeuomorphic design? Splash pages? Flash sites? And GIFS? (oh, no… we still use those!) This site is a total blast from the past.
Product Designer at InVision—Job
InVision is looking for a product designer to join the Core Team. If you’re someone with some dope visual design skills and you’ve got the interaction chops nailed down, you should apply! I work at InVision, and I love jamming with some of the smartest people I’ve met. Plus, you get to work remotely! How cool is that?
And no, InVision didn’t ask me to send this, lol.
Thoughts
Hick’s Law
Hick’s Law states that the time and the effort it takes to make a decision increases with the number of options. In other words, the more stuff we put in front of people, the longer it will take them to make a choice. Our challenge as designers is to display the most useful options to the user so they can be more efficient and avoid mistakes.
This guideline, while obvious, is often forgotten. I’ve also tried displaying as much functionality to the user but then realizing I crammed the interface with a ton of buttons and icons. The intention is to strike a balance offering the most useful actions at a top-level without overloading people with choices.
Maybe this idea is better explained by the KISS principle. Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication — Leonardo da Vinci
Hola, I’m Pablo Stanley, a designer who also writes comics. Every week I email this newsletter. I share a list of design-related gems, including inspiring work, cool typefaces, people to follow, articles to read, tools to try, and job opportunities. If you give me your email address, I’ll spam you every Monday with this stuff.
