Issue 008: Product Design School, Women Who Design, History of Emojis

The Guide to Design (uxdesign.cc)

Way back in our first issue, we had an item titled “Product Design Is a Thing.” The truth is that the field is exploding because there very few barriers to creating digital products—which all need to be designed. Caio Braga and Fabricio Teixeira from UX Collective have pulled together a multitude of online resources to create a “free, self-guided class to help you take your first steps into digital product design.”

There won’t be a design job waiting for you at the end of this guide. The question we want you to answer is: Is UX, as a career, what I’m interested in?

One thing that’s lost with self-paced online courses, however, is the studio aspect of design education. Without honest feedback through critiques from teachers and other mentors, I believe it’s hard for learners to get the aesthetics right.

Women Who Design (womenwho.design)

Jules Forrest made a Twitter directory of women designers. Similar to the previously-mentioned Blacks Who Design, it’s great to listen to such diverse voices in our industry.

The 9th annual 3% Conference is happening—virtually, of course—July 27–29.

How the Coronavirus Compares With 100 Years of Deadly Events (nytimes.com)

Timelines can be very cliché. But this vertical scroller from the New York Times is pretty incredible. It is so compelling precisely because it is so simple. A scale on the left of the screen indicates the mortality rate multiplier. And a history timeline is in the center. It is just type, lines, and a lot of space.

The UX of punctuation (part 1): Period, comma, colon, semicolon (uxplanet.org)

Jon Robinson writes:

Punctuation marks are the UI elements of our written language. And just like those early oration marks aided the speaker in delivering an optimal performance, modern copywriters rely heavily on punctuation to provide an optimal reading experience, or in turn, a desired user experience.

The Illustrated History of Emojis (appinstitute.com)

Emojis started as typographic art in 1881. ???? IKR?!

Apple follows up their Underdogs spot from last year with a new hilarious WFH short film.

However, Rain Noe over at Core77 points out that these spots feature four non-designers trying to design packaging. ????