The Miscellaneous Debris of a UX Designer: Week 31, 2020
Every week, I’ll share with you how I find UX inspiration. I’ll literally go through my browsing history and share the creative nuggets and helpful resources that keep me on this creative path. The UX practitioner must embrace continuous learning and a commitment to constant creativity if they want to stay relevant in the product industry.
Here’s my miscellaneous debris for this week:
Apps
The following apps caught my attention this week. In some way, they are inspiring me, well designed, and helping me explore new thoughts, perspectives & hobbies.
YouTube Music
Oh, it’s a sad day! Google announced they are no longer going to support the Google Play Music app, which is where I house a majority of my music collection. They are however transitioning over to the YouTube Music app, which I’m experimenting with this week. I have to say, I’m liking the interface thus far. In a world of Spotify, YouTube, Amazon Music, and other big players in the music industry, Google is trying hard with their music app. It was a seamless, UX-friendly process to transfer my music over.
It’s available on iOS and Android:
Books
Whether I’m listening to an audiobook or feeling the pages on my fingertips, UX inspiration comes to me in the form of a good book by an exceptional author. The key is to then go practice what you read!
The Making of a Manager, by Julie Zhuo
Julie is well-known in the UX circles as one of the top design executives in Silicone Valley. I love the way she writes in her blogs & articles, and her new book doesn’t disappoint! Julie so beautifully reminds us that our consistent, constant writing will come back to us as a gift when we need to recall information. That’s been one of the most helpful pieces of advice I’ve ever received!
Fonts
Fonts give character, life, and meaning to a design. Throughout my week, I’ll usually have a chance to try something new and give my designs a bit of flair with some new fonts.
Paytone One
I came across Paytone One while designing some YouTube video thumbnail screens for my wife. I loved it for its sans-serif, bold roundness and it’s casual, fun nature. Check it out on Google Fonts:
Podcasts
There a so many podcasts, it’s hard to find the time to listen to just one consistently. But, finding just a little bit of time to let one hit your ear throughout the week can give you a creative spark!
User Defenders Podcast
My buddy Eric Lund introduced me to Jason Ogle’s fantastic podcast, User Defenders. Want to improve in all areas of UX? Listen to this one. Jason brings on some fantastic guests and dives deep to uncover the secrets that will help catapult your design career.
Quotes
Sometimes you come across that one quote in the week that changes your whole perspective on work, life, or things greater than yourself.
John Dewey
“To maintain the state of doubt and to carry on systematic and protracted inquiry — these are the essentials of thinking.” ~John Dewey, Educational Philosopher
The word protracted is an adjective that means: lasting for a long time or longer than expected or usual. You could define it as an amount of time that is longer than you feel comfortable.
In the product design process, don’t be so quick to jump to your first solution. Embrace the uncomfortable, continue the search for feedback and truth, and accept that you could be wrong.
Social
We all consume design content through various forms and mediums. Occasionally, I like to peruse the various designers on social platforms and quickly take in some inspiration for the day. You’ll find amazing, popular content on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and other social sites.
UX Goodies, Ioana Teleanu, Instagram
Ioana Teleanu is a UX Manager at UiPath and runs a fantastic Instagram page called UX Goodies, with well over 200,000+ followers. Her content is relevant, helpful, and consistent with the material designers need to know in order to excel in the industry. She’s a mentor and extremely helpful to young designers trying to carve their way into UX.
Check her out here:
https://www.instagram.com/uxgoodies
Tools
Ah, the neverending list of UX tools! There are so many tools to help in your creative process. I won’t be able to cover even a fraction of what’s out there, but here’s what I’ve been using this week.
Muzli by InVision
I start every day with the Muzli plugin from InVision. It’s a browser extension (Chrome browser for me) that changes your start page to a curated, design inspiration homepage. I’ve had the plugin for years and haven’t changed it since. I love the breadth and depth of articles and inspiration that comes from this beauty of a plugin!
Who to Watch
There are so many great leaders and voices in the design space, people that are championing others and making a difference around the world. These are the folks I’ve been paying attention to this week.
Mariah Hay
If you don’t know Mariah, do everything you can to get to know her. I’ve never met anyone who champions others more than Mariah. Previously head of Practices at Pluralsight and now VP of Product at Help Scout, Mariah is changing the landscape of design leadership, bringing psychological safety into the workplace, and setting the precedence for ethical UX practices.
You can search for Mariah Hay on YouTube to find a number of excellent talks and presentations from the past few years or head on over to Twitter to find her.
YouTube
Each week brings new opportunities to find exceptional, educational content on YouTube and from other videos across the interwebs. These resources help me be a better UX practitioner and a better person.
Femke van Schoonhoven, UX Designer
I recently came across Femke’s YouTube and immediately found a ton of value in the content. She currently works at Uber and talks about everything from getting your first design job to tool-specific videos. Very helpful!
Stay tuned for next week’s miscellaneous debris!
