Riley Battaglini

Hey Designers, Just a quick reminder: your NDA isn’t just a piece of paper—it’s a legal obligation. Sharing password-protected portfolios without permission isn’t just risky, it’s illegal. Here's a hypothetical but all-too-real scenario: what if your competitor needed some insights? They reached out to designers at rival companies under the guise of potential job opportunities. As UX designers, we work on ideas and projects that may not be implemented today but in years to come. Imagine your company’s long-term strategies being exposed, some user research data shared, and performance and accessibility KPIs revealed. Sketchy, right? For Recruiters: If a candidate says their portfolio is under NDA, respect that. It shows they value confidentiality and will protect your info too. If they’re willing to break an NDA for you, what’s stopping them from doing the same to you down the line? Remember, many designers work on projects that are never meant to be displayed publicly. Let’s keep things above board and respect each other’s legal boundaries. Remember the Golden Rule: treat others as you would want to be treated. Thanks for understanding!

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A portfolio is a window into a designer's growth and an artifact to attract interest in their work. I've recently updated my website and want to share some of the things I've learned after building dozens of versions over the past 12 years. 1. Be open and curious. 2. Document everything about your process. 3. Define the Problem. 4. Be original about your methodology to find solutions. 5. Share your key learnings and how you will apply them in the next project. Read more about it here: https://lnkd.in/dJ6u5u6E Feel free to take a look at my latest portfolio update on this link: https://lnkd.in/d8kW-gxp #DesignPortfolio #CareerAdvice #DesignTips #Design #DesignProcess #Designers

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This is very funny and surprisingly accurate in some ways.

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Really annoyed at Figma's price gouging here. There is no reason other than greed: https://lnkd.in/gfdrEiWH Oh, and I emailed them about it and this line from their reply was particularly poignant: "Additionally the minimum for enterprise is a $5k invoice minimum. 6 enterprise seats or made up with other products." To put that in context... our monthly Adobe bill (for 8 CC, 7 PS, 6 Acrobat licenses) is ~NZ$2k... Amazing how quickly enshittification sets in... #Figma #Design #SoftwareLicensing

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Another test using Luma AI. This one used a prompt but the camera move is still wonky. I tried a couple of others without prompts and the camera moves it chose did not impress.The tools will get there but just aren't quite there unless you want to lean into the wonk. #aiart #aiartwork #aicc #aicccreators #midjourney #midjourneyart #midjourneyai #illustration #nijijourney #NIJI #characterdesign #characterart #generativeart #generativeai #LumaAI

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Designers want to know how to level up and charge more. The path there is not as complicated as you think. First, analyze the market you are serving. Do they have large budgets? If not, shift to a market with more financial resources to invest in design.

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Google's Project Astra has the potential to revolutionize the way designers work. 🤯 This innovative AI assistant understands real-world context through video and audio, potentially transforming how we brainstorm, find references, and present to clients. As a designer, I am eager to see how this technology could streamline my workflow and inspire new creative possibilities. 🎥🔊 Explore Google's announcement to learn more about this groundbreaking tool and how Project Astra could elevate your design workflow. 🚀 #GoogleIO #ProjectAstra #AI #GraphicDesign

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Figma does slides! I just made this quick study in minutes without training. Adding slides, duping slides and objects, and building transitions are easy. I’ll keep you posted as I try out all the features. I’ve just been using “smart animate.” So far, so good!! Share your experience so far in the comments. #figma #figmaslides #presentationdesign

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If you're a designer trying to get up to speed on a new team or project, check out this quick talk based on a recent blog post I wrote for Lab Zero Innovations Inc. (https://lnkd.in/gDw4bR8Y)! Have you picked up any tips of your own? Let me know, or—if you're looking for a designer who's prepared for situations like these—reach out to us at info@labzero.com! #designteam #designteamwork #designthinking #productdesign #uxdesign

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There's a trend going on with scammers/bad actors - specifically in the Design Industry. I've been reflecting a lot lately on a troubling issue in our design community: scammers targeting hardworking professionals. It's super sad to see so many fake job postings designed to waste your time, steal intellectual property, or even worse, scam you out of money. With how much effort and time/years dedicated to perfecting my skills as a graphic designer, UI/UX designer, branding, and logo designer; it's incredibly frustrating to think that there are people out there trying to take advantage of those of us who are genuinely passionate about our craft and striving to make a living in a tough industry. This is really sad and bad. Fellow designers, let's look out for each other. Double-check opportunities, trust your gut, and don't let these bad actors get the best of us. I thought of sharing my experience and observations so far. On a positive note though, if you need someone with expertise in graphic design, UI/UX, website design, branding, and logo design, I'd love to connect. I'm always excited about new roles and projects and I'm passionate about delivering quality work. You can check out some of my works here https://nddplatform.com/ Or https://lnkd.in/eXhU67j Stay safe out there and keep creating beautiful things! #logo #logodesigner #scammers #designindustry #design #graphicsdesgin #graphicdesign #websitedesigner #websitedesign #uiux #freelancing #freelance #freelancer #nddplatform

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As designers, we get asked about our opinion on the quality of a digital experiences pretty regularly. Much of the time there’s a lot of variables that make it difficult to give people a straight answer. Other times, the experience actually does have some standards of what you should expect from it. Data tables are an absolutely vital enterprise UX pattern - so the P&P crew actually assembled some standards you can use to assess your UX for data tables. We recently created a web page for our UX checklist for data tables, so I wanted to share it (it’s in the comment below). I hope it’s helpful! #enterpriseux

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So this is just fabulous. Seemingly with the new Terms of Use Adobe now has the right to go through your Adobe Cloud data and do basically WHATEVER THEY WANT with it. https://lnkd.in/dg_vtmzz #adobe

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Presentation decks during an interview? 😫 I haven't been on the job market for years, but I've hired designers over the years and noticed candidates are bringing in presentation decks recently. I've opted not to let designers present them during the interview, and I don't even look through them during the interview process. Has the job market become so insane now people are bringing in even more than a portfolio/resume/cover letter? I can get so much from all of these, and then an interview is really a personality fit check. After seeing your work, I know you could do the job. You're qualified. Is this the new unspoken norm while interviewing? Is it just in the design field or are other jobs experiencing this too? Womp shrimp for reach.

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🎈Pretty colors aren’t good enough. Color needs to do the hard work of balancing brand voice with utility and accessibility. Fortunately there's color tooling to help designers with the complexity of managing contrast across multiple colors, tints and shades. A valuable color tool should allow you to do a couple of things: → Seed your palette with brand colors → Provide sufficient tints and shades with documented accessibility contrast → Generate output that can be leveraged by design and engineering team members 🌈 Genome Color Tool by Kevin Muldoon The Genome Color web app allows you to create custom color scales from brand colors by leveraging recommended tints/shades from proven color systems. The thinking behind the tool is so smart it makes my head spin and the video tutorial provided makes it super easy to use. Writeup: https://lnkd.in/gjAmBJq6 Tool: https://lnkd.in/ggumsweN Figma plugin: https://lnkd.in/gr6B_Cpi 👨‍🎨 Leonardo by Nate Baldwin Leonardo is a web app that allows you to build out multiple color ramps for a uniform theme that share the same contrast ratios. It offers a number of slick visualizations, accessibility options and ways to export everything. There’s even a plugin that allows you to pull your palette directly into Figma. Writeup: https://lnkd.in/gufQhmFT Tool: https://leonardocolor.io/# Figma plugin: https://lnkd.in/g-FFqJuW 🎨 Supa Pallete by Angelo Libero Supa Pallette is an elegant Figma plugin with a paid option. I’ve tested a fair share of Figma plugins, and this one is packed with features and worth the license. Starting with a seed color, the tool allows you to customize WCAG or APCA accessibility contrast scale, export visual color tiles for preview and even generate Figma variables. Tool: https://lnkd.in/ge92ND2N Figma plugin: https://lnkd.in/gX7sq25U 💎 For as complicated as color can be, we’re lucky to have access to so many resources. Some takeaways our team at Exygy now uses to make color decisions: → Align the team on accessibility guidelines like WCAG or APCA → Meet with designers to find out what Figma tooling and color method, including HEX or HSL, are the most intuitive for them → To ensure adoption, talk with engineering to find out what a valuable output format looks like, whether that’s CSS or tokens I’ve posted about managing color before including more helpful resources: https://lnkd.in/g6E3zYjA #color #ui #design #designsystems #figma #accessibility #branding #color

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Friday fun... The last post in motion 1 of 2. From last post... "Sharing some detail 3D work highlighted in the FY24 Studio reel I recently shared. Utilizing the new color palette from the Microsoft Brand these metaphors created for the Microsoft Cloud visual identity celebrate fluidity, harmony, diversity, transformation, and imagination. Waveforms showcase the human element, expressing these ideas organically with texture, imperfection, and inherent optimism." ACD's Juliet Park Tierney Cunningham 3D Artists Steve Lee joseph andrade Handel Eugene #Microsoft #BrandStudio #CreativeTeam #BrandIdentity #VisualDesign #Teamwork #Grateful #Brand #C4D #MicrosoftCloud #creativedirector #creativedirection #visualidentity #promotion #motion #motiongraphics #motiondesign

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Here's what inclusion looks like in practice, this article highlights lived experiences and offers guidance for designers aiming to make everyday experiences better for everyone!

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Figma’s ConFig ’24 released several new features that caused many to continue to sing their praises. However, there is a trend their business model that is problematic. New features are initially available to all in beta. Once the feature goes into production, there will be a charge to use the new feature. Figma seems to be building an a la cart feature menu creating a nickel and dime growth strategy. The problem is that Figma has already surpassed the exorbitant pricing of Adobe products. Has Figma considered the full spectrum of their user base? While some enterprises may be able to float that price tag (For managers, it still can be a hard sell for budget approval), small businesses and independent designers will find the cost to be challenging or prohibitive. While Figma may generate some initial profit, it may not work in the long-term once the romance is gone.

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