Nolan Perkins

Many designers fall into the trap of getting way too attached to their own designs. David Fano has seen designers get caught up in all sorts of stuff: — Buttons that look cool but don't really do much — Interfaces that are more flash than substance — Design systems that are more complicated than they need to be The thing is that none of that matters if you're not solving the user's actual problem. The best product managers know that the user is king. They focus on solving the user's needs, not just making things look good. It's easy to get lost in the weeds when you're deep in the design process. You might find yourself going down the rabbit hole of pixel-perfect layouts and animations that are super on-trend. But that’s how to lose sight of why you're designing in the first place. Your job is to make the user's life better, not just to make something that looks cool. As designers, we need to be real with ourselves: — Does this feature actually make the user's experience better? — Are we solving a problem that users actually have? — Or are we just geeking out over our own design skills? Always keep the user front and center. — How do you balance making great designs with actually solving user problems? Watch the full episode with David for more talk on user-centered design, now live on our new content series at minimumviablepodcast.com.

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Consumer apps and AI - I want an app that can take my bank statements for a decade, and accurately categorize my spending, and show me my actual historical budget. This should be so easy to create. Anything that can't be categorized with certainty could be "personal spending" and I'll teach the AI as we go. What consumer AI apps would you like to see? Right now AI news is all about Can businesses make money? But I want to use AI at home. How about you?

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If you’re doing client work for B2B startups, it’s SELFISH to design websites using anything other than proven patterns. Last week, a friend of mine asked me for some help on a Webflow problem. He designed a hero section that, on the surface, didn’t seem that complex. But when you really looked at it, it had an oversized background element that needed to overlap some other elements. Not that big of a deal... or is it? -- In the past, I’ve worked on teams where I was working directly with traditional developers, handing off designs, collaborating with a dev to make sure everything was implemented nicely. Over time, I started to figure out what would cause a dev headaches when it came to implementing my designs. Now, I design and develop websites myself using Webflow. But I still have that designer <> dev conversation, just with myself. For years, I would try to convince a dev that a design is worth the extra effort to build something “really cool” — but in reality — I was almost always just slowing things down for my own ego. I just wanted to make cool stuff, without really considering the downsides. -- Sure, there are times when it makes sense to really push the limits of what is possible in design. But in my opinion, if you’re doing client work, like I am — you should design with proven patterns. I will never recommend that an early-stage B2B SaaS company builds a website that is on the absolute “cutting-edge” of web design. Even if their product is cutting-edge. I am going to design using BORING layouts. Layouts that people are familiar with. The hero section is going to have a headline, subtext, a call-to-action, and some type of product imagery. -- Anytime I find myself wandering outside of this, I remind myself that my goal is to help a business. A startup that is trying to figure out how to make it. They are looking for any advantages they can get. And I used to think that their advantage would be the super awesome, floating, interactive 3D elements that explode on hover. But in reality, these types of designs should be saved for a personal portfolios of designers, not a B2B startup’s website. These fancy designs are: - More expensive to design - More time consuming to develop - Less clear to customers The temptation is that these types of designs look good on a portfolio. They impress people, especially OTHER DESIGNERS. And all designers want to feel like they are a part of the group. It feels nice when your peers like your work. I still fall into this trap sometimes. I have to remind myself that I am, in fact, designing in order to help a business. This is not for me to prove anything about my ✨creativity✨. -- That doesn’t mean that it is going to be low quality. It means that I am going to put all of the effort into the few things that do matter. I am going to make sure the typography looks good, the colors are nice, and the overall look and feel is consistently applied throughout the site. That's basically it.

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The #1 question I get asked: "How do you get leads?" I've been running Halaska Studio over the past 12 months have have generated ~$1M in rev with ZERO cold outreach. Here's what's worked for me... Most designers focus on the wrong things: • Polishing their portfolio • Lowering their rates • Posting content that appeals to other designers But none of these truly move the needle. The real formula for attracting clients comes down to three elements: Trust Building genuine relationships and showing up consistently. Authority Demonstrating deep expertise in your field and owning it. Impact Proving the tangible results your work delivers, not just pretty designs. When you nail these three elements, clients start coming to you. No cold outreach needed. No race to the bottom on pricing. No desperate portfolio updates. Just authentic connection and proven results.

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Rezilion got $8,000,000 investment after this design was presented to the VCs. If you just launched your product, but you’re struggling to get investor interest? Great looking design is just what you need. Isn’t it time for to get the funding you really want? I executed designs that made it rain for over a dozen startups. - Sayata - Datricks - Minereye and others Want jaw-dropping design? See the link in bio.

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If the client knew before the loss. When hiring designers or developers, many focus on cost and speed. (This often leads to setbacks.) In my journey, I listened from clients that choosing based on price alone is risky. Here's what they mentioned me for this: - Missed Value: Hiring quickly without checking skills means your solutions might not solve your real problems. It's like buying a tool that doesn't fit. - Distraction: When you don't do proper checks, you might hire people who aren't qualified. (This creates chaos instead of clarity in your projects.) - Lost Potential: It's not just about saving money. It's crucial to find someone who aligns with your vision and can deliver meaningful results. We often say we want quality, but do we prioritize it? Reflect on this: Are you focused more on cost than on value? Changing your approach can transform your outcomes. Consider this next time you're hiring. What are you really looking for? #hiring #designer #uxdesigner

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Join me Thursday @ 9:00am CST as I dive into the process that I take as an agency owner, builder and FlutterFlow developer. Something I would consider a best practice when approaching @flutterflow projects. https://lnkd.in/gshTS2v6 #uiux #ui #designthinking #flutter #flutterdev As I dive back into more #agency work, I'm going to be focusing primarily on establishing best practices and #SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures). Join me as I explain my process and the steps that I find important as I build out my next product in #flutterflow.

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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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Here are the 10+ things I do as a Squarespace developer to a SQPS site before I build a single page: 1. Add color palette + assign colors 2. Select base font size (16px) 2. Select heading font + styling 3. Select paragraph font + styling 4. Style primary + secondary buttons 5. Select site width (3000px) + margin 6. Set site to private + add password 7. Set up CSS organizing template 8. Add any custom fonts + global styles 9. Create Style Guide page, one section for each color theme used 10. Organize asset library with pages

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As you craft your next website or app, remember this ↴ Focusing on small details isn’t just a design choice; it’s a strategic advantage that your users will appreciate. Pay that design debt before you add a bunch of new features.

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I'm still thinking about Dovetail's AI release from last month... ...because I think it's one of the best examples we have of the power of agentic UX. It's not that any one feature is supremely valuable. Imagine if Dovetail had just shipped one of these features, like suggested highlights 🥱. That would have been a snooze. (This is how most companies are approaching AI UX right now.) Instead, Dovetail looked at each step of the user journey and figured out how an AI agent could pull cognitive weight 💪 from end to end. 💪 ✨ Magic Transcribe ✨ Magic Summarize ✨ Magic Highlight ✨ Magic Cluster ✨ Magic Search Yes, it makes implementation more complicated. But we know the power of a holistically designed experience: the whole becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Together, these features transform the UX from a solo SaaS endeavor into a partner-based journey. Dovetail's features are still early-stage (they acknowledge the quirks), but it gives us a vision for the future of agentic UX. And boy, do we need a collective intuition for what that looks like. Two other predictions about the agentic future of UX: 1️⃣ I don't think an AI agent has to autonomously take actions on the user's behalf to be defined as an "AI agent." Every experiences will blend autonomous actions and passive support...based on the user's comfort and difficulty of the task. 2️⃣ I don’t think it matters if the AI agent is labeled as an “agent” or if it exists as a collection of unbranded agentic features. (As long as agentic workflows are supporting throughout the user's journey.) ----- Follow Empathy & AI for more ✨ Research, Design, Humanity in the AI era. ✨ ----- #innovation #userexperience #ai #artificialintelligence #genai #humancenteredai

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The UnifiedUI input fields just got their finishing touches. You’ll be getting the best customizable input fields possible! w → UnifiedUI 👀 Have a look at → unifiedui.com

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You should NOT be waiting over a week for your website to be finished. I get if it's 20+ pages but no website should have that many pages in the first place. A lot of developers want to use you so they can benefit instead of YOU. All I focus on is results for YOU, that's why I think like a customer. Guess what? No customer is going to go through 20+ pages on your website, which means it's a total time waster. Start turning your audience into customers, then conversions → elysiumfocus.com

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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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Subtle Swipe Guidance Problem: Some users don’t realize they can swipe cards sideways. Client’s solution: add a bubble hint. That’s lame. Of course, we’re not going to do that. A better, more elegant solution: use a transition to show where the new card is added.

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