Designers🎤alk #43 with Ruben Cespedes ( Senior Product Designer at Dell | Adobe XD Ambassador)| PHASE 4]

Date: 20th Dec 2021

Ruben is working at Dell as a Sr. Product Designer. He’s Adobe XD Ambassador and running one of the great Insta Design Page(86K+ ~uiuxcreative) as a content creator where he’s sharing his knowledge. In this talk, he has shared his opinions regarding:

1️⃣ Ways to improve UI Skills;

2️⃣ Time estimation in freelancing;

3️⃣ Personal branding importance &, etc;

Q1. Hi Ruben, nice to meet you. Let’s start with a short background story. How did you get started in design?

Since I was little, I was always interested in the arts and in the functionality of things. I was very curious and always wanted to know how things worked; I think that’s where my engineer side comes from.

My love of design and engineering has helped me to mold myself into the product designer that I am today.

I have over 16 years designing solutions and I love my entire journey.

Q2: What’re the ways to improve the visual design skills as a designer?

Make sure you have a great understanding of Design Principles, this is something that will definitely help you improve your visual skills. Understanding:

• Balance,
• contrast,
• alignment,
• white space,
• emphasis,
• repetition,
• typography

are some of the pillars you need to know as a designer.

Q3: How to get started without a client’s work in your design portfolio?

You can start by creating concept designs, design an app that you like and redesign/conceptualize it in your own way. You can also redesign pre-existing websites, connect with local businesses in your area and redesign their logos, social media graphics, websites and print work.

Getting out there is very important to start building your portfolio.

Q4: How does the designer estimate the timeline in the design process especially in freelance work?

It all depends on the project. Every project calls for a different process. When estimating the timeline you have to think about research, planning, designing, front-end/back-end development, testing, evaluating and much more.

Be sure to be flexible and communicate any changes in the timeline with your clients.

Q5: What’re the things new designers forget to learn when they start their design journey?

They need to be curious and ask questions.

Sometimes as new designers they tend to be reserved and do not ask questions because they are afraid to speak up. Also, they forget to learn new skills or software because they focus on only one area.

They need to experiment and learn new things every single day.

Q6: Why is personal branding important for freelance designers? How one should achieve it?

Having strong personal branding will set you apart from the competition.

There is a lot of freelancers out there and you need to stand out from the crowd. How can you achieve it? By being yourself, don’t try to mimic someone else. Be You!

Q7: What things do you look for first when looking at a junior UI/UX designer’s portfolio?

I want to know how they think, I want to know their design process and thinking.

It’s very important Junior UX Designers have case studies in their portfolios. I also look at the design visuals and how they present their work.

Last, I would like to know what you like, what you’re interested in and any fun facts about you.

Q8: Designers Talk: Wrap Up round(One word or Choice-based)

1. Design in one word: Innovative
2. A product that inspires you: Camera
3. Favorite design blog/publication: theinspirationgrid.com
4. Favorite gadget: AirPods Pro
5. Dribbble or Behance or Medium: Behance
6. Linkedin/Twitter/Instagram: Instagram
7. DesignersTalk in one word: Resourceful
8. Favorite Design Series/Video/Movie: The Great Gatsby
9. Love to Design(Website or App): App
10. Favorite Design System: Google Material design
11. Android or iOS: iOS
12. XD/Figma/Sketch/Invision Studio or any other tool: Adobe XD
13. Taking Design Inspiration From: Everything! Literally everything.
14. Go-To Tool for you as a researcher: Adobe XD
15. Research Hero: Don Norman

Thank you 🙏 Ruben💚⁣⁣⁣ for giving your precious time
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HOSTED BY: designer.akash

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The motto for this DesignersTalk is to “Bridge the gap between Experienced Designers and New Designers”.

Why text-based? Because it’s precise, to-the-point opinions and it also gives freedom to those designers who want to share but not comfortable in front of the camera and who don’t want to give their too much time but still wanted to contribute.

If you like it, please follow this publication and share it with the design community and help them to learn from the experience of the great designers without investing your and their tooooo much time…

Akash ✍️💚

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