Thinking

It's been over a year since panic about AI replacing us swept through the industry. Thankfully, that hasn't happened. Design is still crafted by humans, and code is still written by humans.

Has AI changed our workflows? Undoubtedly.

We sometimes turn to GPT instead of Google, and occasionally, we copy-paste from GPT rather than Stack Overflow.

But has it drastically altered our work? Not really.

From my perspective, AI has mainly contributed to cluttering the web with unnecessary, mediocre solutions, fake content, and insincere interactions. To me, it represents the first significant step towards a web experience that feels dull, uncanny, and unsettling.

A web dominated by robots.

Soon, only a few words like "meticulously," "digital landscape," "competitive edge," and the redundant summaries at the end of each response will hint that we're interacting with a bot. There's an "Edit with AI" button on LinkedIn, in email editors, on our e-commerce dashboards, and seemingly everywhere.

I've used ChatGPT. I still do occasionally. But I'm trying to use it less. I'm focusing on quality over quantity, and I suggest you do the same.

It's tempting, but resist hitting that ✨ button.

Doing

I’m currently putting the final touches on my ebook, The Design Dividend.

My original plan was to simply make minor improvements, but I ended up completely overhauling it.

Once UI operates with advanced tokenization concepts to make your life easier, such as automatic scaling and responsive spacings. I wanted to explain and illustrate these approaches in an intuitive way.

Designers seem a little bit scared when they hear about these concepts, while in reality, they are not that complicated, and their contribution to a smooth and responsive design workflow is remarkable.

We're gearing up for our Product Hunt launch next Tuesday! Stay in the loop by subscribing to our pre-launch. I'll also send a reminder on the big day. If you're feeling supportive and excited as much as me, you can even pre-order it now.

My mission is to help the design community with affordable resources, so the price starts at $5, but you can pay what you want.

You’ll not only get the 40-page ebook, but also the .fig and .css files.

This release will be my first milestone since I became self-employed a month ago, but it is just the start of an exciting journey.

My next project will be Once UI 2.4, packed with:-> Typography system based on variables (still waiting for the Figma update)-> Modules: a new layer built on our component system-> Marketing extension upgrades

I’m sure this upcoming release will blow your mind, but unfortunately, you will have to wait a little longer, since it’s scheduled for early next year. I will begin sharing some details with you starting next week, so stay tuned!

Figma update

Figma has recently released a few minor improvements while we’re waiting for the typography variables with excitement.

Release notes ->Feature demo ->

(Also, as a side note, pwnies from Figma has confirmed that they’ll be working on a feature to allow exposed props selectively for nested components. Hooray!!)

Q&A

Every week I publish an answer to some interesting questions from the design community. Ask / Tag me on our Discord or Reddit, and it may get featured here.

“Should I set up my design tokens as a spreadsheet using “Modes/Variables” or arranged vertically like .css“

The beauty of Figma for me is that it gives you a wide range of opportunities, and doesn’t force you into a single concept. Of course, it doesn’t mean that all workflows are equally good. Experimenting with different tokenization approaches is great, but when considering production, you need to be mindful about many different aspects.

While you could technically use variable modes for state management, and it may even suit your workflow, I wouldn't go down this road. First of all, even the org plan is limited to only 3 modes.

Furthermore, it's just not meant for that:-> It limits your prototyping capabilities, since you don't have variants to set up component interactions-> It goes against the logic of development, which would potentially lead to issues in the design-to-code workflow-> It would conflict with theme management. Even if you don't plan to introduce it now, I don't think you want to cut off the possibility for the future-> And probably more concerns arise as you start implementing

Variable modes are designed to control global properties such as theme and layout, and not the style of individual elements.

I quickly mocked a draft with the mentioned approach just after my response, and I realized that theme management is not a concern. Still, my opinion didn’t change. You can limit the number of variants with other component properties and deep nesting, so I’m not afraid of component maintenance.

Creative Friday

We’ve just watched Klaus with my partner last week. That’s how we prepare for the holidays :) It’s such a wonderful story and the visuals are beautiful. It has inspired me to paint something in a similar style.

I really enjoyed working on it!

We’ve ordered a 50 x 70 cm print from Printful.I’ll share how it looks like on the wall when it arrives.

Useful links

Join our DiscordI’m available for a few portfolio reviews (with public feedback).I may offer private portfolio reviews later on.Let me know if you’re interested.Connect on LinkedInI know there’s a lot of clutter on LinkedIn.I’ll try my best to share valuable content.Check out our productsThough *some* may claim a service like this doesn’t exist, it does:We offer 180-day money-back guarantee for individuals for Once UI.

Lastly,☕ Buy me a coffee - I really need one :)

Reply - let me know how you liked this, and forward it to your creative friends!Speak soon,Lorant

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