Daily UI challenge and why I am doing it
The idea behind a daily UI challenge is that you receive design prompts for 100 days on your email, and then you design them. It is a good way to practice and can be helpful to your portfolio.
This summer, I focused mostly on UI and divided this task into pieces. First, I created a pixel-perfect clone of Airbnb and OpenSea. Then, I started working on my first real project, read books about UI design, and started (again) the daily UI challenge.
According to more experienced designers, the main drawback of the daily UI challenge is the inconsistency when you design a calculator one day and a music player on the other day.
You don’t develop a single product and stick with a happy path where everything works perfectly.
I share their opinion.
On the other hand, this challenge can be helpful if you are a new designer like me. I am searching for my first job and don’t have much to show in my portfolio. Because of this, practicing and designing something daily is crucial for me.
Keeping all those drawbacks in mind, I decided to choose an artificial project within the scope of the challenge. It was not always possible. For example, I started designing an artificial nail salon app — Flamingo, but I could not design a music player for this app.
1. Sign up
I created a signup screen for an artificial salon — a Flamingo nail bar. The color scheme was inspired by a Flamingo. I used only necessary inputs — name, email, password, and mobile number. Inspired by Airbnb, I chose gradient for the button, because this way button looks more fun and stands out.
2. User profile
The user profile is also from the Flamingo nail bar. For images, I used Unsplash, and for icons — the material icons.
3. App icon
For the app icon, I used a Flamingo illustration.
4. Landing page
5. Checkout
It is hard to observe how you have grown until you see the difference. While designing the checkout screen, I found an old version (on the left) of this challenge in the files. I was delighted to see how I grew within a few months. Pro tip: always save some of your old work — it will give you a motivation.
6. Calculator
Conclusion
Keeping in mind all the drawbacks, I think dailyUI still is good enough to give a shot. Probably, I won’t do it for 100 days, but it is a good challenge for practice.
You can subscribe to dailyUI here, or if you don’t want to receive emails every day, just use Collectui.com. You will find every challenge there.
Don’t forget to share your work.
