After writing 10 Figma Tricks I Wish I Knew Earlier, and receiving such awesome feedback, I decided to take it a step further and share more ways that I’ve been using Figma and Figma plugins to design at warp speed.

1. Breakpoints

I’m consistently impressed by all the useful features Figma has baked into their app. What used to be a workaround in Sketch is now a thought out feature in Figma — a breath of fresh air.

I frequently stumble upon time-saving features that I wish I knew about sooner — hopefully, some of these are as exciting for you as they were for me when I discovered them.

1. The easiest progress ring you’ve ever made in your life

Tutorial: https://youtu.be/g4jIVFNMBpg

I rolled over in my bed and reached for my phone. Blackout curtains created the illusion of night with only a few pockets of light able to sneak through the corners revealing the daylight beyond them.

As I squinted at the piercing blue light from my smartphone, I made out the time, 11:08 am. I could hear the chirping of motorbike horns from the bustling nearby road and smelled the thick aroma of beef soup from the street food vendor beneath my studio apartment in downtown Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. …

Typography involves so much more than choosing a great font. When used effectively, it can enhance usability, readability, accessibility, and hierarchy within an interface. In this piece, I’ll share some tips and industry-standard principles for using type like a pro in a UI.

1. Typography Terminology

Typography terminology creates the foundation of our knowledge of type. Think of typography terms like kerning, leading, and weight as levers that we can pull to create more readable and aesthetically pleasing designs.

Tracking

Designers are often eager to jump straight into UI animations, trendy UIs, and high performing roles before really honing the basics.

Well, I’m here today to take a step back and explain topics like creating a usability test or the perfect color palette as simply as I can.

1. How to space objects properly

Following a convention for spacing brings uniformity to our designs and ensures that we create consistent designs while collaborating with other designers.

There are two methods that designers frequently rely on to accurately space elements on the page. …

I wrote this article to help designers, product owners, product managers, UXers, developers, and anyone else to craft more inclusive product experiences.

It’s normal to approach design through the lens of our own perspective, believing our experiences reflect those of everyone else. This natural bias in our human nature can work against us when solving design problems since we’re only solving for people who are like us.

The challenge in design is to create experiences that are adaptable, flexible, scalable, and most importantly, usable by as many people as possible. …

This post was guest written by Shannon Groom, Senior UX Designer.

I stumbled into UX several years ago after working in a combination of communication, marketing, and graphic design roles. I was unhappy in my position at the time, and I had filled my Google search history with sad entries like “how to find your passion,” “does anyone like their job?” and “where do I belong?”. After endless googling, I found some advice that resonated with me, and I still 100% agree with — work for a company about which you are genuinely passionate.

This was the best, most-actionable career…

The design space is awash with countless design tools, plugins, websites, resources, and more promising to improve your workflow and make you a savvier designer. I’ve tried my hand at a lot of them over the years, but there are only a few that really stand out.

This list is the cream of the crop — the most obscure, creative, unique, helpful or exceptional. Some are fun sites to be inspired from; others are tools and resources that will absolutely make you a better designer.

I hope you enjoy! Let me know what your favorite tools are on Twitter.

1. The preposterous web portal of Erik Bernacchi

eeerik.com