Liwei Yu

There’s still time for folks to sign up for my Fundamentals of User Experience Design class at SVA which runs three weeks, meeting twice a week, starting next Tuesday. That's six weeks of UX goodness packed into three. More information below if you're interested or want to pass this on to someone else who may be. #UX #UXdesign #IA

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🚀 Streamlining Complexity: From 408 Button Variants to 1 🚀 We faced a challenge with our legacy Design System—408 button variants, each covering various sizes, states, and purposes. Managing this complexity was no small feat. 🌟 The Solution: We are rebuilding our Design System from the ground up. By leveraging Figma variables, we created a new, streamlined system. 🔧 The Result: As an example, we have a single, highly customizable button component with auto layout, covering all states and types. This new system not only simplifies our design process but also replaces the 408 variants with just one component! Swipe through to see how we achieved this and the impact it has on our design consistency and efficiency. 💡 👉 What do you think? Did you find this useful? Drop a comment below—I’d love to hear your thoughts! #DesignSystem #Figma #ProductDesign #FigmaVariables

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Do you want consistency between designers and front-end developers? Use of design tokens. When everyone uses the same terms, it simplifies things for both teams. Here's Google's introduction to design tokens and how you can implement them: https://lnkd.in/gpWMwqVz

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Hello fellow designers and creatives. I’ve decided to jump back into writing. Find me on Substack where my musings will focus on industrial design, design, strategy, sustainability, and systems thinking. Thanks for the sub. :) https://lnkd.in/e4Wpfbrp #industrialdesign #designstrategy #systemsthinking #sustainability

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Oh, I cannot ignore this post without saying something about it! Yes, I have only four years of experience as a UX designer. Yes, I am not a design system expert. Yes, I am not a UX design wunderkind. However, what I've learned while building Guidesight - how to actually build a product and not just design pretty screens, how to transform design into front-end development, integrate with back-end systems, and connect to databases (AWS IAM, Cognito, DynamoDB, etc.), collaborating with developers, testing with UX leaders, and be a problem solver, is something I would never have learned in a regular UX job. I recently said to someone that the past six months have felt like a full-time design, coding, marketing, and sales bootcamp. The challenges life has thrown at me over the past six months have taught me lessons I’m convinced I wouldn’t have learned in many years as a FAANG designer. If Guidesight were to fail tomorrow, I would still have a huge smile on my face. I wouldn’t regret anything; I still won gold (pun intended!) in terms of how much I’ve learned.

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🤖 Design AI-dea #16 Just a quick illustration exercise on Midjourney to get the rhythm again after a long and deserved PTO. What is your biggest challenge to keep AI alive in your design process?

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🤹‍♂️ “I had no idea you could do that” As we attempt to scale and white-label our design systems, we've run into providing some options that leave our team a bit stumped and scratching our heads. After doing some research, I’m appreciating all the efficiency gains you can pull off with just a few Figma tricks and tutorials. → Small components are easy, but as components get more complex or resemble layouts, tracking all the possible nested variations is impossible. → Sometimes components have optional elements that show and hide depending on the needs of a specific client or context. → “You get a logo, you get a logo, everyone gets a logo“ Everyone has their own branding, which means toggling between multiple logos and lockups. With some digging, we found resources to help with all of these use cases: 🖼 Building flexible components with "slots" by Luis Ouriach is a super useful walkthrough for experimenting with the concept of slots in Figma. “Slots” allow you to create a placeholder component inside a more complex “container” component allowing you to build more flexible and context-specific layouts. https://lnkd.in/gp2JEFFU 🙈 An Introduction to Boolean Variables in Figma by UI Collective offers a simple overview of how to apply use the hidden gem of variables options. Boolean variables allow you to show and hide elements not just in prototypes but in component variants. This was useful when we wanted to toggle elements within components for various themes. https://lnkd.in/gWt8QRit 🎭 Modes: Changing a Branded Header by Nate Greenwall was exactly the solution I was looking for when I needed to offer multiple logo options from a centralized library. The playground file maps out how you can pull this off with string variables and modes. https://lnkd.in/gJhcemcm 💎 I hope some of the resources that we've leveraged at Exygy can be helpful for you and your teams working in Figma. → Leverage slots for nesting smaller components within larger container layouts. → Utilize boolean variables to show and hide elements across variants. → Experiment with using string variables to switch elements like logos for different brands. #figma #ui #design #DesignSystems #variables

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I had an amazing chat with Sera Tajima on her podcast about modern work life, navigating a design career, being Head of Design of a startup, and living your life with intention. Hope you all enjoy this one, episode below!

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Being Designerly 102 has designerly content about the state of design, AI transparency, AI icon issues, visualization of $100 across the US, Sonos' “App-ocalypse”, and JD Powers Car experience survey ▸ Link in comment #Designerly #Design #UX

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Jason Allen won $300 and 1st place at a fair for his AI-generated image Théâtre D’opéra Spatial. The larger outcome is the resulting conversation. Is AI art. I think we're concerned about answering the wrong question. Opposition to the premise that Artificial Intelligence is capable of creating art supposes a simplistic and singular truth that art is completely bound to the experience, message, and meaning an artist directly and originally intends. This is an inaccuracy. Art evokes an experience, message, and meaning as received and perceived by a spectator - whatever that might be. The intention of art is not the sole catalyst for the appreciation or worth of it. Viewed from this lens... The source of art does not determine whether or not the outcome is art. The questions really hover around toolsets + artistry and the changing definitions and categorizations of same. And there's another big question - ownership. Matthew S. Schwartz tells us a story and gives us some more to think and talk about. #aiart #artisticexpression #aidesign #digitalart #AIpoet #mousetomousepad

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The 'lofi vs hifi' design debate has an element I think gets overlooked. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with more experienced designers jumping immediately into hifi work. As long as you are able to apply the 'lessons' from lofi design at the same time (e.g. layout, flows, hierarchy, etc). For experienced designers, stakeholder management is actually the problem with hifi work. If not managed, stakeholders can jump to conclusions, get tunnel vision on the pixels infront of them. Juniors need to be careful about rushing to hifi work because it can lead to focusing on the wrong details.

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I used AI in combo with my drawings to create this reel. I dont consider this animation or film making but some do lol. Question...Can one call themselves an animator or a film maker using generative AI prompts?

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Tom's recent post really resonated with me, and I wanted to share my thoughts. 📣 In 2024, design shouldn't be a nice to have. Design is a crucial element in creating successful products and businesses. 📣 As a designer, my goal is simple: to add value. I focus on solving user problems while aligning with business objectives. It's about creating experiences that work for everyone - users and companies alike. 🔥 If you see design as a strategic asset, I'd love to connect. Let's explore how we can turn good design into great results. 🔥

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Product designers take note. The world is changing so quickly. If you're not designing these kinds of experiences, you are creating something that is already obsolete: 👉🏼 AI agents that work for you proactively 24/7, and autonomously complete tasks and workflows on your behalf. 👉🏼 Multi-modal discussions that include voice, text, and visuals all at once. 👉🏼 Tools that combine all your data into a single knowledgebase that empowers AI with extreme understanding and real-time context across multiple channels and touchpoints. ❌ Wrappers around ChatGPT don't count. You'll be cannibalized. ❌ Co-pilots added on to legacy products don't count. That's still old-paradigm, human-first thinking. It needs to be an end-to-end experience (not a point solution!) that solves valuable niche use cases and replaces labour. (The labour budget is way bigger than the software budget!) That's the future of all software. If you're not building the future, find another job that will allow you to. Anyone disagree? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

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We started remx.xyz with a clear mission: "Empower artists to make a living doing what they love." Although we are starting small, the Collect2Earn program is our first step to help realize this mission. In a complex earning landscape, our model is simple. Collect free digital on-chain artwork from amazing artists and earn crypto for doing so. Brand sponsors have an opportunity to support artists and collectors by spending marketing dollars in an authentic way that promotes brand loyalty. We have another amazing lineup of Collect2Earn drops this week featuring Neothereal by Jen Panepinto and Far Away by nftloremipsum (Featured below). You’ll find new Collect2Earn artist drops on Remx every Tuesday and Thursday at 12pm EST. #blockchain #art

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Built an AI chatbot running Gemini API, using SwiftData so conversation is saved and persists across sessions. Styling and text formatting next. #ios #swiftui #iosdev

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DEV SESSIONS is my brand new offer officially launching THIS week. Here are 5 facts about DEV SESSIONS: ✨ 1 week Squarespace dev intensive + training & support ✨ you create mock-ups, I build a pixel-perfect site based on those mock-ups ✨I do all essential backend setup (domain connection, favicon, SEO foundations) ✨ Included are digestible training materials for you + your clients ✨ $800 OFF if you snag THE LAST BETA spot It's time to rethink the Development Phase:

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