Designers, YC is calling for you. @ycombinator just put out a "request for startups" for more designer founders. starting a group chat for designers who want to build their idea/startup... we’ll share: - product ideas - best frameworks and tools - design engineering talks - design founder chats reply if you wanna join

More designers should be founders. And we want to back them at YC. Over the next decade, as new coding tools make it easier than ever to build and ship products quickly, great design is going to matter even more.

Let’s retire “it must be nice.” Because here’s what it really says: “I’m uncomfortable with your success and it’s easier to believe you were lucky than to admit you worked harder than I did.” Oof. Truth hurts, huh? If you stop throwing shade and start doing the work. (And maybe ask them how they did it instead of writing it off.)

lol

“It must be nice.” You say it like it was handed to them. Like they didn’t sacrifice sleep, sanity, and weekends to get there. You didn’t see them working that 9-5 and the 6-2. Didn’t see the anxiety attacks, the self-doubt, the “should I even keep going?” moments. Didn’t see the years of invisible effort behind the one shiny moment. So no—it’s not “nice.” It’s earned. And the price? You probably wouldn’t have paid it.

Designers: if you are going to solicit feedback - a simple ui element posted asking designers to validate will not improve your skills. Post entire screens, flows and context of the problem you are solving. Let’s not turn design twitter into and other useless feedback engine like dribbble

I’m looking for a UX designer with strong UI skills and some web3 experience to join my team. - 4/5 days per week - fully remote - mid-senior level - individuals, not studios - growth mindset We work on a range of exciting product design projects in the crypto space

I’ve opened pandora’s box. My 4 year old is asking me everyday if she can talk to “the phone”, ChatGPT advanced voice mode. high signal She speaks, Swedish, Spanish and English with ChatGPT, and they make up all sorts of games and play. Now, I understand that letting a 4 year old reign free with an LLM is not ideal nor the idea. So I’m sitting there with her. The reality hits me. This is the new interface. not a fad, not a trend or joke. this is it. Voice will be the next big frontier in how we operate machines. computers, robots, everything. What’s more insane, it’s not an overnight thing, we’ve been primed for voice as THE interface in science fiction for decades. The big difference this time around, we cracked how to have natural conversations. Paired with action models, and smarter and smarter neural nets. we’re truly going to see an absolutely mad change in computing in the next couple of years. it will seem like it all happened so fast. but remember this is a looooong time in the making.

Change always comes with risk, effort, discomfort and the unknown. No one is prepared for all of what could happen but if no leap is ever taken the wonder of “what if” is the only certainty.

So many companies need to re-think notifications. Its insane how bad they are across the board and how the user needs to spend countless amounts of time customizing this to reduce interruptions. @Apple so bad - and yes I am only speaking about your native apps @LinkedIn - seriously? Like did you just say fuck it and turn everything on be default. Not to mention how dark the pattern is you use by saying "you have something to check on our site but we wont tell you what.... great way to skew stats for your investors and reports. I have now classified any email from you as SPAM @figma - wow, just wow. Fucking INSANE how bad you are at this being a design tool and designers program. Have you ever though about your core personas? Absolutely mind blowing These are just a few but holy shit is the state of this bad. This is a HUGE part of UX and the interaction model of the product. All of you can and know you should do better here.

bsky.app/profile/conor-sween… Trying out this community as well - anyone on blue sky?

This might be my favorite project I’ve ever worked on — a completely redesigned eyedropper in @figma. Out now!

UI/UX Designers, Here are Some Alternatives to Using Pure Black (#000000) for Text and Backgrounds. Bookmark It For Later 💜

Sometimes you just need to get it all out.

What I try to say every time. If you're building a consumer product that does not feel like a game, you're wasting precious time. I'm not talking about vanilla "gamification", as we talk about in product management circles i.e. meaningless points and leaderboards to nowhere. I'm talking about leveraging game psychology at the core of your product. BTW, so many of the biggest consumer products are now 'games'. 1. Robinhood — a game you play with money and stocks 2. Temu — a game you play with discounts and shipping times (lol) 3. TikTok — a slot machine for entertainment and virality 4. Duolingo — a game where you incidentally learn a language What am I missing?

Stoked to see @midjourney continuing to push the boundaries. Still the best image generation tool in my opinion.

Anthropic announced Claude "Computer Use" recently and it's the job eliminating AI everyone has been worried about. How many people are just pushing data from one program to another & providing minor insights along the way? Accountants. Lawyers. Bankers. Consultants. Regulators. SEO folks. Ad Buyers. Inventory Managers. Insurance Providers. Customer Service folks. etc. MOST white collar computer jobs are just moving info from one program to another and this is now automating that. Maybe not today or this version or even tomorrow. But 5 years from now... it's going to be very difficult for humans to hold an edge over AI agents for most of this kind of work. Then what? Hard to say.

This is hilarious and I love it. Meme language finally gets a chat worthy of it. "@Roblox could absolutely become the @Snap for Gen Alpha. It’s much more than games and all about the socialverse - as I call it. But, in the meantime, Snap is still THE only place most younger Gen Zs (high school & early 20s) connect. And sometimes actually text words instead of a photo of their forehead hashtag#IYKYK But people are craving more visual connection and editorial frameworks- regardless of your age! See one of my other 🔮 about Visual Blogging below👇 Which is why I have my 👀 all over Daze - a soon-to-launch free-form texting app by Willem Simons. It looks as visual as it is engaging and exactly what the kids want - fun! (also what I want which is why I signed up for the waitlist) 🤩 Major waitlist & curiosity 🤩 Vertical waterfall texting and image curation powered my AI 🤩 a16z is already a backer 🤩 A growing Discord with tons of insight The “chat” feature across the board is ready for a visual and creative upgrade (Sorry, Apple, but the recent text effect upgrade in the new iOS is kinda lame, at best) and Daze seems to be putting that solution right at the top of its list." - Quote and video from @RebeccaOrlov

In 2010's I designed SO MANY "Gamified" apps. From Nike Fuelband gamifying fitness, to a game for the Chicago Board of Exchange that taught futures trading. The trend died prior to 2020's, but it's BACK BABY! In a BIG way! Gaming is everywhere now. The industry is bigger than movies, music, and TV combined. But now showing up across movies, music, and TV as well. With good reason too. Games are social, interactive, fun, engaging, and hook you with progressive challenges. Taking all those features and cramming them into an app that ISN'T a game has always been a challenge, but with better tools, UGC platforms, and design best practices, it's easier than it's ever been. Stoked to see gaming get it's time in the spotlight FINALLY. What's your favourite gamified app? Big Duolingo guy myself! Here's a great round up of some examples from Gamify on YouTube 👇 Go give them a follow.

I've been designing apps for brands for a decade. My team ships dozens a year at about 4 months a piece. Started building games in UEFN in Q1, shipping multiples a MONTH. It's a new era. UGC gaming is going to eat the world. I'm not saying Roblox & Fortnite is going to replace the App Store. But it's going to replace big parts of it. Roblox is Facebook for tweens & teens right now. It's where they hang out, it's where they explore interests, and it's where they craft online identity. Fortnite is todays LAN party / couch-co-op / Blockbuster rental sleepover. It's what teens play with their friends online. It's where they explore games, laugh, hang out, and explore the medium. And this is just the tip of the iceburg. With AI quickly destroying the old world of "functional software as a service" and FLOODING traditional online media (YouTube, music, etc.), gaming is going to continue to rise as the biggest opportunity for young creators. Given that, we can all expect it to continue to explode in the coming years. Gary Vaynerchuk talks about looking for "underpriced media opportunities" well, this is it. UGC gaming is the #1 opportunity right now and it's not slowing down.