Boring designs, using AI for 3D rendering, 58 rules for beautiful UI

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.

Just like buildings, a chair must have certain qualities to qualify. They need to be functional to fulfill their objective. Secondly, a chair needs to be stable to withstand weight. This includes the choice of material to increase its lifespan and repeated use. Lastly, a chair should be appealing enough to invite a person to sit on it. Beauty, comfort, and delight are some emotions when it comes to chairs.

When I mention these three qualities of a chair, those with an interest in ancient architecture will remember the Vitruvian Triad: stability, utility, and beauty.

A case against boring designs →By Darren Yeo

Build user-centric roadmaps with AI-powered product intelligence →[Sponsored] Zeda.io is an AI product discovery platform designed to assist B2B & SaaS businesses in identifying customer problems and guide product development decisions. You can create revenue-first product roadmaps effortlessly, by leveraging customer insights and product intelligence.

Editor picks

AI vertigo →
Where do we go from here as designers?
By Raoul Flaminzeanu
Asking the hard questions →
And resisting the urge to ask ChatGPT.
By Ida Persson
Beyond the UI: the 5 layers of design systems →
A service design perspective.
By Marie Lu Vinh
Bringing down the Digital Divide →
A historical opportunity for UX designers.
By Luis Berumen Castro
The buzzwordification of Co-Design →
And the commodification of lived experience.
By sahibzada mayed | صاحبزادہ مائد

The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about their work.

What does the Future of User Research look like? →Maze is working on a new report to capture how product teams conduct research to inform their decision-making. Complete this short survey by January 16 to weigh in and help identify the top research trends for 2024 and beyond. Take the survey.

Make me think

Speculative calendar events →
“So I don’t want to add them as real events. Because they are not real events. They are speculative possibilities of events. The majority of them won’t be filled, and having both speculative and real events looking and behaving like the same type of thing is messy and confusing. I can’t glance at my calendar to get a quick read on how busy my day or week is.”
What if money expired? →
“A long-forgotten German economist argued that society and the economy would be better off if money was a perishable good. Was he an anarchist crank or the prophet of a better world?”
Sit →
“In the past decade, the Web has become a sort of a shitty metaverse. Every step you take is watched and assessed in terms of its monetisation potential; every interaction is meant to extract value from you. Fine, IndieWeb and Mastodon are making things marginally better, but there’s so much more to be done outside of their little bubbles (which I love dearly).”

Little gems this week

Using AI for 3D rendering — a practical guide for designers →By Antoine Vidal

Embracing the absurd in your design practices →By Karina Chow

How not to lose yourself to the AI storm →
By Yuna Shin

Tools and resources

58 rules for beautiful UI design →
Elevating a product from functional to unforgettable.
By Taras Bakusevych
Figma: creating a color ramp using color modifiers →
How to reduce the tedious color ramp work.
By Katie Cooper
How to build a strategy, not a roadmap →
Crafting an effective design system strategy.
By Sepeda Rafael

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Boring designs, using AI for 3D rendering, 58 rules for beautiful UI was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.