Sometimes, I come across headlines that stir up a mix of emotions in me—nervousness, anxiety, or just a sense of being overwhelmed.

On rare occasions, they trigger all these feelings simultaneously.

In an effort to move beyond these unsettling news, I've been channeling my energy into thinking about how I can make a positive impact in the world. This reflection has led me to focus more on contributing to a healthier future.

A particular headline that caught my attention a few days ago read, 'Mark Zuckerberg is building a sprawling, $100 million compound in Hawaii, in addition to $170 million in land purchases—complete with plans for a huge underground bunker.'

Normally, I try to steer clear of such topics, but it's hard to ignore my growing concern that social media, especially platforms like Meta, are causing serious harm to our society.

It felt so f*cked up that I wanted to write it out on LinkedIn.The post didn't seem to attract much attention, but that's alright.

Strangely, these strong negative emotions fuel my creativity.

Doing

I'm currently experimenting with color generators and schemes to enhance Once UI's color management in the 2.4 release.

While our existing system is built on consistent contrast ratios—a crucial factor for color accessibility—it tends to result in somewhat dull colors. The goal is to make the update process more intuitive and less technical.

Expect to see some updates in the docs as well.

Some early experiments:

Besides my work on Once UI, I've recently started exploring Framer. I knew it was a powerful tool, but it has seriously exceeded my expectations.

While it's not perfect and can sometimes feel more cumbersome than Figma, I'm impressed by how intuitive and straightforward even its advanced features are.

Earlier this week, I shared a post on LinkedIn about the value of Figma proficiency for designers. In summary, it's not just about learning a software; using Figma helps you grasp underlying design and development concepts, easing the transition to other design tools or even coding.

I've experienced this firsthand: from writing code in Vue.js to now using Framer, I've realized that you're not just learning a tool—you're learning fundamental principles.

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.

“In terms of learning more about ui/ux in general, do yo have any specific suggestions?”

As answered on our Discord:

You're entering the product design field at a time when everything is about design systems. It's not because of a stupid trend, but because UX practices are mature enough so that companies don't want to reinvent the wheel, rather implement proven concepts.

Although it may sound boring, it's not—but designers wanting to enter / stay in the business need to have different expectations than a few years ago, when everything revolved around UX.

This is what you needed in the past years to enter the field:

-> UX skills: being able to design based on best practices and patterns

-> UI skills: being able to reproduce current design trends

-> Qualitative and quantitative research skills

-> Understanding responsive design

This is what you need to know to thrive in the current market:

Everything from above, plus:

-> Understanding token systems

-> Understanding component systems

-> Being able to write good microcopies / content

-> Being able to stay organized and document your work efficiently

-> Understanding development and its relation to design

It's a lot already, and expectations towards designers are growing by the day.

Fortunately, you can learn really fast with all the available tools and resources today. Don't reinvent the wheel, but try to recognize patterns. Learn the concepts and practices, but instead of creating your own tools and resources, try to find the best match for your workflow.

Some practical advices:

-> Find a few people for inspiration

-> Grow your network on LinkedIn

-> Try replicating existing websites (focus on complete user flows and responsive design)-> Join communities (e.g. our Discord server) and seek feedback and guidance

The most important is to always experiment, continuously improve and set the bar higher and higher.

I'm advocating project based learning so I don't recommend expensive courses. Every knowledge is already out there on the internet, you just need to find it. Spend your money on tools that make you work faster and smarter.

Since I’ve mentioned the importance of resources—my motivation to building Once UI lies in the fact that there are only a few tools available that truly simplify and enhance the design process to the extent modern technology permits.

My vision for Once UI is to provide a solid foundation for next generation platforms and apps.

Creative Friday

Lately, my weekly routine has become increasingly disorganized, which isn't necessarily negative. The shift began when I realized I couldn't dedicate Mondays to marketing—it just felt too mundane. This change led to some work spilling into my Creative Fridays, infringing upon the time I had set aside for undisturbed artistic expression.

Despite these challenges, I'm making an effort to carve out moments for creativity. For instance, the image below is a reimagined version of an Earth render I created a few years back. I remixed it specifically for the LinkedIn post I referred to in the intro.

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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