Most people think that secret talent is the key to success in a specific discipline.

If you are an experienced designer, you surely know that this is bullsh*t.

If you start your design career, you probably seek this secrey recipe. A shortcut to developing your skillset faster. Something that helps achieve this might be design tips. Do you agree? I have got the good and the bad news for you.

Growing as a designer

The truth is that there is a lot of truth in saying that success is 99% practice. To become a better designer, you have to design more. This will gain your experience and confidence in what you are doing.

But… it is not enough to practice everything or anything. Imagine that you are going to prepare to lavish dinner. If you combine ice creams with pickled cucumber, your guest will not probably fall in love with such dessert. You have to know the principles, the direction you want to move.

 

 

It’s the same thing in design. Discover what & how to practice to level up your design skills quickly. Design tips might be a collection of recipes that will show you that direction.

So, is it worth learning with them?

 

Tactics, not talent?

If you have a tight deadline and are trying to solve the issue, that is probably a common thing. Do not try to reinvent the wheel (unless you are an iPod designer).

Good designers have got their own tactics they use to solve issues. If you are an experienced designer, you probably see a similar thing for the fourth time. You know what to do.

You do not have to gather your team for a design thinking session to figure out the most intuitive method of password creation.

You do not have to prepare to perform usability testing to validate the alignment of content inside the tables.

There are tactics that, once applied, let you focus on more challenging things.

So, what if you would like to discover those tactics? Where to learn them? There are multiple articles, blog posts, or video tutorials. (I also wrote and recorded some).

However, you have to pay a lot of attention to choose them wisely. Why? Let me explain this in the next section.

 

Some tips are fake advice

I remember the inspiring article by Graeme Fulton. He noticed that UI Tips have become so popular recently. They are the promise of solving every aspect of your design. However, some authors’ intention was just to gain 10k followers in their Instagram profile.

 

 

So is this a reason to avoid learning from the tips? Definitely not. Even Apple and Google knows that this is a good method of sharing knowledge. You just have to know how to differentiate valuable tips from junk.

 

How to find good design tips

You have to be more careful with the content you read. Do not take every tip for granted. Here are some that may help you find valuable tips.

The most obvious thing in finding good tactics is to pay attention, who is posting the tips. Is this the next young designer using social media just to promote themself? Or maybe a person that tested their skills in dozens or hundreds of complex projects. Wisdom comes with experience.

The second thing is that the real design tip starts with a common issue that really exists. If you were witness of a similar problem, you might be more sure that that the tip is real. Some fake mentors create the issue by themselves and present a fix for this imaginary problem.

The benefits of Design Tactics

Now you know the darks side of design tips. But why do so many designers love to learn from them?

The first thing is that UI design tips are also extremely helpful to discover various aspects of design in a concise form. You do not have to read the entire chapter about the button anatomy to know which padding will work better.

What’s more, learning from real examples is always more efficient. You are able to see the difference between good practics and the bad approach.

This type of tactics are very helpful because you may notice subtle changes like applying same hue of gray to the UI. You probably wouldn’t pay attention to this delightful detail, which may improve the quality of your design.

 

The book – a collection of tested tactics

I also decided to gather the collection of over 100 tips I used and discovered through the years of my design career. The form of eBook grouped in chapters like Color, Typography, Icons, UI Elements, Layout, and Visual Hierarch is, in my opinion, the most efficient one to learn from. It is easy to find the needed issue & fix it in a specific category.

Is it worth it to get it? Check it out. You now have the knowledge to validate the quality of the tips, so use it and decide on your own!

Summing up

We live in times where everyone may share their knowledge. This is wonderful because once you gain your skills, you may help others to grow too! However, you have to pay attention to the quality of the tips. Don’t be afraid to learn from them, but pick them carefully to solve your real design challenges.

Good luck!