Herculano Campos

Designers! Stop Donating Your Talent and Say NO! to Take-Home Tasks! I wrote a post looking at the shocking state of the design market 7 months ago. When it was clear that the market had fully switched to favouring employers. As a result: → Hiring processes got longer and more convoluted → Job ads got sillier → Application numbers soared → Waves of talent left the industry for good Months later, the situation has turned even seedier. Take-home tasks were initially dished out by inexperienced hiring managers. Now it's common to hear of 4-day design tasks deliberately set up to exploit and steal designers' work without compensation. There's a simple response to this: Say no! By rejecting 5-stage interviews and take-home tasks: → We stop validating broken hiring processes → We honour the value of our craft → We force employers to optimise their recruitment methods → We protect our sanity Desperation can be a powerful motivator, but consider this: If a company needs 5 rounds and free work to make a hiring decision, what does that reveal about their internal culture and how they'll value you after you're hired? The industry only gets better if we demand better!

760

150 σχόλια

Lack of autonomy. After mentoring dozens of designers this year, the pattern is impossible to ignore. So I recorded a short video on one of the most powerful articles I’ve read. How communicating intent is the key to earning real autonomy. https://lnkd.in/e7zqVCk2 #productdesign #designcareer #clearcommunication #growth

19

Product designers are expected to be great problem solvers. And yet, problem solving one of the most challenging skills to understand, train, and improve. The truth is that even though it might seem overwhelming at first, any problem can be broken down and solved as long as: - You have the right team - You look at the right data - You ask the right questions The following guide will help you understand how to problem-solve as a product designer, with clear steps and realistic examples. If you found it useful, consider reposting ♻️ (Swipe to get started 👇) #productdesign #uxdesign #uiux

611

44 σχόλια

6 Alignment Myths I Still Hear in Design Teams 👁️‍🗨️ 1. “If it’s mathematically centered, it’s fine.” → Not always. Circles and odd shapes need visual tweaks to feel centered. 2. “Bounding box alignment is accurate.” → It’s not. Bounding boxes cheat especially with letters like O, T, and A. 3. “Text and shapes should sit on the same baseline.” → Fonts are designed with optical illusions. Perfect lines often look off. 4. “Auto-layout handles spacing perfectly.” → Math spacing ≠ optical spacing. Shapes decide balance, not numbers. 5. “Equal padding means equal balance.” → Our eyes don’t calculate they sense. Some sides will always need extra breathing space. 6. “Developers will fix alignment later.” → If it’s wrong in design, it’ll only look worse in the final build. 🎨 Design isn’t just precision, it’s perception. Trust your eyes more than your rulers. (Repost this to help bust them ♻️) #UIDesign #VisualDesign #DesignTips #DesignLeadership #Figma

712

54 σχόλια

As we get our design system AI-ready at Allica Bank, one thing keeps standing out: Parity is key. The closer your components match between Figma and code in atomic structure, props and behaviour, the easier it becomes for AI to understand, translate and actually use them. It's not just about being tidy. It's about removing friction so AI can help designers and engineers move faster with fewer gaps to bridge. I'm keen to share ideas with other people in the design system space, so please connect! #DesignSystems #AIInDesign #DesignEngineering

730

40 σχόλια

Great design isn’t enough—if no one understands it. In this video, I break down 5 powerful habits that help you communicate your design decisions, build trust with stakeholders, and grow your influence as a designer or design leader. https://lnkd.in/g2UEmzfB

38

Bad design is concluding in your hierarchy of importance that volume adjustment (which you can hear happening) is more important than your directions. What a bizarre decision, not only to black out the entire screen, but to have such a massive volume indicator - AND to keep it up for so long. Solution: - visual indicator is a secondary signal, so only a tiny area needs to be utilized - provide a visual indicator in the controls areas (there are two outside of this screen - if you use the screen, make a tiny floating area only, no black out.

24

13 σχόλια

Most design systems today still rely on variants. But variants don’t scale. Every new dimension multiplies complexity. I show in this video how to rebuild your components with variables: 5 control points (size, shape, intent, state, primitive) No explosion of frames Direct design to code alignment Ready for dev binding and AI workflows This is how to treat your design system as an API, not as static assets. Watch here: https://lnkd.in/dRQ4UUa2 #Figma #DesignSystems #DesignOps #UX #UI #ProductDesign #Variables #ParametricDesign #NoVariants #DesignEngineering #SystemThinking #VariableVisualizer

130

3 σχόλια

The design skills that got you hired will get you fired. Harsh truth time 👇 - Your ability to create pixel-perfect mockups? → AI does it better. - Your mastery of design systems? → AI generates them instantly. - Your prototyping skills? → AI builds functional apps faster. So what's left for designers? Strategic thinking. Business acumen. Problem identification. The designers who survive won't be those with the best Figma skills. They'll be those who understand: - How design drives revenue - Why business context matters more than user preferences - How to influence executive decisions - Which problems are worth solving I just wrote about this uncomfortable reality and the specific skills you need to develop to future-proof your design career. Read my survival guide: https://lnkd.in/enJ_bddb #DesignCareers #DesignStrategy #ProductDesign #AIDesign #AI

47

7 σχόλια

We’ve been redesigning our Dropdown list component and aligning with designers across teams. A few things that made this smoother: 1. A quick example of the proposed design 2. References from other systems 3. Breaking down all design decisions with alternatives 4. Stating our rationale for each decision (including if no strong rationale) 5. Asynchronous feedback via Figma comments This helped us achieve 90% alignment before the design review, so the meeting focused on deeper discussions on the few topics that needed further alignment. Plus, teams were able to debate decisions without my team having to act as intermediary.

304

14 σχόλια

Spend less time defending your design decisions and more time earning trust, buy-in, and better outcomes. 💪 Gestalt principles help you get there. When your layouts follow these principles, your interfaces feel instantly clearer, and your flows feel more intuitive. Start using these 6 (plus 6 more!) today and start building better UIs with our free resource. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/d5rjt4u #UXUI #InteractionDesign #Holidays

63

1 σχόλιο

Design efficiency is rarely about working harder. It is about reducing unnecessary effort in the process. Senior designers optimize for clarity. Clear flows for stakeholders. Clear structure for developers. Clear context for decision making. When mockups are instant, content feels real, and user journeys are easy to map, teams move faster with fewer revisions and less confusion. That is not just a productivity win. It is a trust win. Strong design workflows are invisible when they work well. But their impact shows up everywhere in delivery speed, communication quality, and consistency. Tools do not replace design thinking. They protect it. #FigmaPlugins #Design

40

Just dropped a new case on Behance - a healthcare app we at Sigma Software Design redesigned after some serious deep dive into patient and doctor experiences → https://lnkd.in/deEgF8zE We didn’t start with the UI. We started with people. Patients, doctors, admin teams, all trying to navigate systems that often make things harder, not easier. We spent weeks talking to users, mapping their pain points, and testing flows until it actually made sense. And honestly, that kind of deep, sometimes messy research is where the real value of design shows up. It reminded me again: mature design isn’t about fancy visuals or chasing trends. It’s about clarity, empathy, and asking the right questions (over and over again). That’s what drives real impact! If you’re curious about how we approached it, from research to UX/UI to workflow simplification, here’s the full story https://lnkd.in/deEgF8zE #SigmaSoftwareDesign #HealthcareDesign #UXResearch #UIDesign #ProductDesign #MobileAppDesign #DigitalHealth #Telemedicine #OnlineMedicine

39