What does 'Lead Designer' even mean?
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
“I think we’re missing a lot more transparency among companies to really align on what a job title actually means. A Lead Designer at a startup means something entirely different than a Lead Designer at a large company. In fact, even companies at the same scale have different design cultures and levels don’t actually translate across them.
One of the most frustrating truisms that have been shared with me is: performance reviews are an art, not a science. That means that the process for advancing in one’s career is far too opaque and circumstantial.”
Gabriel Valdivia in an interview for the UX Collective about career paths in design.
Our industry needs a transparent career path that rewards our craft →
The UX Collective is an independent ad-free design publication that elevates unheard design voices, reaching over 414,800 designers every week. Curated by Fabricio Teixeira and Caio Braga.
Editors’ picks
Design for the in-between →
The future of Aldo van Eyck’s revolutionary thinking?Apple touch bar dreams →
This is what Apple’s touch bar should have been.Women who inspire →
A collection of design books written by awesome women.
A look inside Jim Henson’s defunct Creature Shop in London.
Food for thought
Keeping your design mind new and fresh →
“Seeing a situation with new eyes takes practice, and you can still create the opportunity to see something by not taking your surroundings for granted. How do we do this? For me, I adopted a new philosophy of being WOQE: watching, observing, questioning, and exploring.”
NFTs are a dangerous trap →
“Buyers of NFTs may be blind to the fact that there’s no limit on the supply. In the case of baseball cards, there are only so many rookies a year. In the case of art, there’s a limited number of famous paintings and a limited amount of shelf space at Sotheby’s. NFTs are going to be more like Kindle books and YouTube videos. The vast majority are going to have ten views, not a billion.”
I have one of the most advanced prosthetic arms in the world — and I hate it →
“Don’t get me wrong — I have been psyched about a new arm. But the media’s coverage of these new kinds of prosthetics is so focused on the initial joy or incredulity (on the idea that “lives are changed”) that they forget to ask if these hands are actually useful and what happens in the weeks and months after the unboxing.”
A visual report from Reuters on bats and the origin of outbreaks.
Little gems this week
The 1984 Apple Macintosh — How does it look today?
The Emoji journey: From self-expression tool to multi-million dollar business
Aurora UI and the trend of organic gradient backgrounds
Tools and resources
Adee →
A plugin that brings accessibility right inside Figma and Sketch.Focusmate →
Work quietly in tandem with a random person, for accountability.Ugly fonts →
Well, system fonts don’t have to be ugly.