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Get a seat at the table and build the design career you want. This podcast is for designers looking to break in, level up, and take control of their careers—whether you're freelancing, climbing the corporate ladder, or just trying to get noticed. Every two weeks, we dive into career fundamentals, design best practices, and the hottest topics in the design community.
I'm aware that it's a pet peeve of mine, like, you know, maybe it's just me. But whenever I instruct an AI to help me write something, I always instruct do not use a positive sentence structure. I really want to get it out of the way. I think it's super default, super standard, everyone is doing it. So I don't even care that it's because of AI per se, but I'm more concerned that it's We are kind of live now.
Nick:This is what I always wanted to say. We are live. And we're officially live. We are officially live. Exactly.
Nick:I mean, this is just an experiment.
Tyler:Right, Nick? Let's jump into it. What do we what do we have today?
Nick:Well, today is going to be very special. We're going to help one of our listeners named Loric. So, hopefully, you're listening to this, Loric. Welcome. I mean, he's in a situation like many designers are, like, struggling to find an internship or their first job.
Nick:And he sent over a bunch of his work and his LinkedIn profile, etcetera, etcetera, and he's asking for help, like, what to do, and then a bunch of other questions. So we're going to help him today on this episode, see if we can give him some some examples and some some very solid advice to help him move move forward. Interesting to know, he lives in Kosovo. That's a place in Europe, Eastern Europe, if memory serves me well. And he's also wondering, you know, how to relocate and that kind of stuff, but that's, you know, for the next episode.
Nick:So, Tyler, what you know, any anything jumps to mind for you if you are thinking about a Eastern Europe, you know, design graduate looking to get hired? Like, any any must dos? Any anything you can think of? Yeah.
Tyler:Well, hi, Lorik. I'm excited to jump on to this challenge. Right. So just to read that back, so he's looking to relocate, and he's a recent graduate. Correct?
Tyler:Yes. So that's an interesting one because sometimes I'm not familiar with Kosovo specifically, but I imagine one friction layer you'd have to get past is if there is a cultural difference in terms of how things how products are designed from place to place. So the first place I'd probably investigate is I would do some research on the designers that live specifically where he's looking to relocate, taking a look at what they're doing, what their projects look like, the communication styles, so, like, the copy within their portfolios, and see if there's any differences that you can kind of pick up between the Kosovo style versus where he's planning to relocate, like, a first first layer? Because that could be also a barrier. Like, what are the differences?
Tyler:And so you can set yourself up for success. Curious what you think about that first step.
Nick:I I think that makes makes a lot of sense. I didn't think of that yet. That's very interesting. More on the relocating bits and and advice in the second in the second episode, so the one after this one. But I'm just to stick to it a little bit, and that will help him, is we should talk about language, I guess.
Nick:You know? Because he speaks English quite well, like I found in his in his email, so that's really helpful. And well, actually, that's more for the second episode now that I think of it because that's probably one of the big biggest advice pieces of advice that we can give. One thing I did notice for him is that he doesn't have a portfolio yet. He does have quite a few Figma files that he shares and some text files, which makes me think of that discussion that happened recently on LinkedIn.
Nick:You know, can Figma a Figma file or Figma sites or a Figma presentation, can that serve as a professional portfolio, or does he need his own custom domain with a website attached to it?
Tyler:I'm on the fence on that one. I've seen like, my gut instinct is get yourself a website. Just additional SEO layer, people can find you at something to link to. But I've seen some really good Figma only portfolios done in a very crafty way. So less of a typical, here's my work, click, here's a little slide slideshow.
Tyler:Yeah. It's more of like a so I remember someone creating, like, this journey. So, like, it was a clickable prototype that would bring you to different places, contextual to the different hotspots that you would click.
Nick:Mhmm. And
Tyler:then it would also navigate you to the actual Figma file. So not in presentation mode, but the actual edit screen. So you can dive into how they set up their layers Mhmm. Check out the different Post it notes that were annotating the different works they were doing. Done it.
Tyler:Like, that's a good example of, like, crafting or leveraging Figma to create a, like, a very dynamic, like, portfolio experience. So my answer might be yes and no.
Nick:Like a true like a true designer. It it depends.
Tyler:Let me pick an answer. I'm gonna I'm gonna but I'd prefer a website as your portfolio piece. Yeah. There's more things you could do around lead capture, linking to a Calendly thing. There's more dynamicism in terms of, like, what we're you can use it as a Swiss army knife.
Tyler:There's more things you can do with a website versus a Figma presentation.
Nick:Yeah. I think that's true. And as far as I know, or at time of this recording at least, if you open a Figma file, it struggles on mobile. Okay. So that yes.
Nick:So you you see that too. And, also, it takes a while to load. Oh. You have to you have to be fair yeah. I mean, that's it.
Nick:Yeah. So so you have to be very specific, and you have to really make sure your file is, you know, lightweight, and it doesn't just load the file, but it also loads the specific frame where you want people to start. You know? I mean, you can select a frame then click share, and then the link will take you to that specific frame. You know?
Nick:That kind of stuff you have to be super certain that that is what is going to happen. And Yes. You know, what you're saying about it works, but not in every situation. You know? Maybe a recruiter is, you know, on a train somewhere or public transport in general, and then they have mail on their phone.
Nick:They see your application. They click on your link on their phone, and then they're like, oh, this is slow. This is hard to read. It's not responsive. And then, you know, I hate to say it, but then you're out already.
Nick:You know? Yeah. So maybe it's a hybrid solution. You have a website, and it's fine to link from your website to a Figma file. Or, like we discussed last time, you know, create a video where you go over a Figma file and perhaps link to a Figma file in your comments or below the video or whatever.
Tyler:I think when you when you mentioned the loading time, my blood pressure increased ever so slightly. I think that might be the crux of it. I think there is a hybrid strategy or a stepped approach. So number one, the same way you optimize images for web, you can do the same within Figma. So I don't know if you've seen some of the plug ins where you can reduce the size of images within your Figma file.
Tyler:It's more relevant when files get quite large. Yeah. But you wanna optimize your your portfolio or Figma portfolio for the best outcome, and loading is not something that you want. Of it it frustrates me, and it most likely will frustrate the hiring manager.
Nick:Oh, for sure.
Tyler:So the strategy might be if you're crunched for time and that you're eager to get the ball rolling, I would suggest starting off your portfolio in Figma, whether that's just designing how your website might look so that it's you have a clickable prototype that acts like, and then start applying in parallel, build the website. Yes. I think so. All signs point to build a website, but if you wanna take the iterative approach and not spend weeks and months getting that final thing, my suggestion is always get something out, start applying, and while also building the full fledged thing or the or the desired outcome.
Nick:I kind of agree, but I also feel slightly different maybe about the order of doing this, because I think your website I mean, it's, I think, a good idea to get on day one, like, the fur the moment you listen to this, get your own domain, hopefully, a .com domain if you can. And all you have to do is put your name on it, what you do and what you're looking for, plus a button to send you an email. And it's basically just a business card, name roll, contact info, and that means, congratulations. You have an online presence. When you're there, people can BPS.
Nick:People can find you. And then in parallel, work on your Figma skills and the design, and then you can port it over and, of course, maybe it's more of an addition to what you're saying. Get that domain today. I think that's very important.
Tyler:Yeah. But add on to that specific piece. Hook back to what you said earlier. What if they're on mobile? A strategy might be to quickly launch that web page with a book me now, but also have a link to your Figma portfolio, one for desktop, one for mobile, optimized for
Nick:both if
Tyler:you quickly wanna get something out as an as an idea.
Nick:Oh, that's interesting because you can put the you can code it in a way on the website that each link only displays on a certain viewport, certain breakpoint.
Tyler:Yes. I think that was quick chat GPT away of spinning out that code for you.
Nick:It's very silly because, yeah, you say a quick chat GPT away, and that's true. While I you know? And this really shows my age, but I still know how to do it by hand even though I would probably not do that today anymore because, I mean, we don't have to anymore. Anyway, not important. Another thing for Lorac that I really noticed is, like, I have his one of his Figma files open, and I'm not sure if we ever discussed this.
Nick:If not, very curious what you think. But I think people can designers can be way stronger in their language. So what I'm looking at now is an internship assignment. It looks like it's been a if I understand correctly, it's a test. Like, you know, hey.
Nick:Do this thing for us. It's more like a a assignment, you know, to do at home as part of the the interview. Direct quote from his text is through visual design, my aim was to capture user attention immediately upon landing on the page. I I really think that my aim was I want to, I like to, you know, that I can, you know, that that type of language leaves the door open too much. You know, I think you can also you can be way stronger there by saying some something like through visual design, I captured the user attention immediately instead of my aim was to Yes.
Nick:What do you think there about about your writing style? Any thoughts?
Tyler:Yeah. I think there I think you nailed it. I think the first one is a bit of, like, weak language. You need to be confident. You're again, you're pitching yourself to the hiring manager.
Tyler:You need to be confident in that Yeah. In that language as well. So it's not I can or it's I it's I designed. Our goal Yeah. Our goal is to like, we Mhmm.
Tyler:We deployed ourselves to using military language. But, yes, a 100%, you should have we have to be strong and then be confident in the work that you're presenting because Yeah. The work you're presenting was the outcome of your work, and you're tied to it.
Nick:Yeah. You know, as if you continue with his text, he says, the chosen colors reflect the brand's identity while also highlighting, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I would say something like, I've picked colors that reflect. You know, it makes it more obvious, like, this is what I do. This is what I can do.
Nick:I think about these things. A, you know, a quirk or a pet peeve of mine is I don't like the a positive sentence structure. It looks very formal like a press release where you say every visual choice is intentional, comma, verb, you know, guiding users towards the desired outcomes. You know, that that's something, you know, to me, it it's worse than the Emdash, to be honest. Yeah.
Nick:But I'm aware that it's a pet peeve of mine, like, you know, maybe it's just me. But whenever I instruct an AI to help me write something, I always instruct, do not use a positive sentence structure. I really want to get it out of the way. I think it's super default, super standard. Everyone's doing it.
Nick:So I don't even care that it's because of AI per se, but I'm more concerned that it's like everyone else, and that's no way to stand out.
Tyler:Actually, if you're open to it, would you mind sharing your screen? I can always no. It's be very descriptive for our audio listeners.
Nick:Yes. Well, you know, we're going to be descriptive for people in, you know, Apple Podcasts and Spotify and these kind things. But then for YouTube, we can show people.
Tyler:Absolutely. And to your point about that that copy, I think, like, stuck to brand, yes, but you have to speak to what the current situation is and what you deployed. Mhmm. You might construct that, like, lack of lack of brand consistently, consistency contributed to current state. I deployed a consistent brand plan across all touch points too, and then the outcome.
Tyler:Okay. Great. Yeah. Let's take a look at this.
Nick:So this is his his file, and the thing I you know, we just spoke about a few minutes last few minutes is this bottom part here. So here, you can see that my aim was to etcetera. You know, for people listening, you know, we're just browsing a Figma file, and the text we are discussing is, I think, annotation, you know, guiding text where he explains what he's done in the frames to the left of his.
Tyler:Yes. Okay. Now that I see it, quick thing here. When you are setting up or if you're leveraging a Figma file to kind of go through a presentation, just be aware that people are reading from left to right. So if I'm looking at this file, how it's constructed currently, we see the the design on the left, both desktop and mobile.
Tyler:And on the right, there's the description or annotation. I would, as a quick win, place that to the left so that we're giving the best chance to the reader not to skip directly to the design. So you they're properly getting the context.
Nick:Yeah. And then also when you share the link, make sure you select this text if you want it to be the first thing people see. Mhmm. Because then it brings you directly towards it. Do you feel like we should go into, you know, the UI hard skills, or do you think, you know, if someone's looking for a job, it's more about presentation and soft skills?
Tyler:I think it's both. I think we can always get better at UI stuff, but presentation is number one. How you set up and present or communicate. So it's bit of both, but let's I think it would be good to start with how we communicate and present our work.
Nick:Okay. I mean, it's solid advice from you already to have to keep in mind the structure of the file. At the same time, I'm also thinking if you if you know this will be a file you present, you should probably hide your components on a separate page. Yes. And when you know it's going to be presented, you should probably and, you know, cannot believe I'm saying this, but you should name your layers.
Tyler:Yes. The one time where naming your layers is super important.
Nick:Yes. Exactly. Yeah. Because I never do. But if I know it's going to be presented, I will.
Tyler:Yes. You can communicate to the hiring manager that you are super detail oriented in naming by and that's conveyed through the naming of your layers. When you're on the job, that could be a different story. Who really cares? Yeah.
Tyler:But if you're sharing this piece of this this asset, I would name the layers for sure.
Nick:Yeah. I mean, that's silly. Right? Actually, I mean, I I agree, but, you know, you are presenting yourself in a way, you know, just to be better. But you already know that it's not something you're going to do on the job, so it's super silly that we have to do that.
Nick:But it's it's how it is. 100%.
Tyler:If you wanted to be more specific, you can probably create different pages. If this okay. So sharing a Figma file works in two ways. It's one, you're presenting your ideas, and two, it also shows you how you organize your how you work, like, in Figma. So Mhmm.
Tyler:You should probably have pages dedicated to different spaces if you're allowing them to navigate. So number one is they're gonna be landing on this presentation layer, and then you can move your components to a separate page. So you're you it's you're showing how you would construct or design a design system around creating this new website.
Nick:Mhmm. Yeah. I think so. You know, if if I'm thinking about some of my bigger projects, and I have multiple pages. I have a components page, a guidelines page.
Nick:They are all very much at the bottom of the list because you do not go there too often. And then a page per feature. But, again, you know, that's personal preference. If I would present something, I would really make, you know, a dedicated page. So, yeah, plus one on what you are saying.
Nick:If I switch to this project, can you see it still while sharing
Tyler:this screen?
Nick:Okay. Yes. And I'm I know I've used the used the right settings. One thing I noticed, if you want to go into, you know, the design UI's, you know, hard skills Mhmm. Is that I'm I'm really strict on layout and grids.
Nick:You know? So what I see here is that there's nine pixels between label and then the input field, and 30 for this icon above and below, 26 to the right, And then over here, it's 29, and then it's 11 above. So, you know, I'm talking about eleven and nine and and twenty six and thirty. Like, it's it's not very consistent. You know, people don't really notice.
Nick:But if a designer is reviewing this Mhmm. The designer will probably say, like, hey. There's no real structure here. And that's not only designers being, you know, very elite. Like, look at me.
Nick:I'm a designer. I use a grid, but it's also good for a nondesigner to see that if you would use a grid, it's way easier for a developer to implement because
Tyler:100%.
Nick:Some of the big CSS frameworks, you know, like Tailwind and Bootstrap, they all use a four pixel or an eight pixel multiple grids. So four, eight, twelve, sixteen, etcetera. Like you say said before, you know, being detail oriented, that's important here too. It shows that you design something in a way that a developer does doesn't have any extra work just to understand it and to prep it. You know?
Nick:So for your website, if you were going to create a website, I would clean this up. You know, use you know, bring everything to its nearest neighbor if you use multiples of eight. So wherever you use 11, change it to 12. Wherever you use nine, use eight, etcetera. Mhmm.
Nick:And, you know, that will make a massive difference in how professional the design looks. Like, if I could change only one thing about any random landing page, I would always go layout first because it makes it everything so much easier to read and digest.
Tyler:100%. Use the four or eight pixel grid, please, which is the designer's Fibonacci sequence, for a lack of a better word. Yeah. 100%. Yes.
Tyler:One thing I would call out as well, I see a lot of placeholder or ghost UI.
Nick:Mhmm.
Tyler:This goes back to something that I think is super important. I think back in the day, which I think we're moving away from, we used a lot of lorem ipsum. So it's let's focus on the design, and then we'll put some placeholder text. We, as designers, have a bit more ownership or we should have more ownership on the copy as well because copy is super important to my other point. Yeah.
Tyler:Put in the copy. Put in don't leave anything to imagination. Make you you're designing the experience of this website. Copy is part of that experience as well.
Nick:Yes.
Tyler:That goes along with placeholder text for the inputs that I see here on the page. Mhmm. What might the drop downs look like? Super important.
Nick:Yeah.
Tyler:I think that's one thing I see. Yes. You you you have you can design well, but you copy as part of that. Your your design is facilitating an understanding of a product or service. That's super important.
Nick:Yes. Additionally Oh, yes. Yep. Go ahead.
Tyler:Yeah. Additionally, I'm seeing so this is a shop experience. So it's I can't read the text here, but I'm assuming this is for people who are rescuing pets or dogs in this case. Mhmm. And I see where you can kinda filter by, I guess, breed.
Tyler:But I see the images, they're repeated. Yeah. I would make it this more realistic. It goes on the same lines as the copy. If we are featuring a filter or search results, I should be able to see not the same dog with the same name with
Nick:descriptors.
Tyler:So if I'm looking for a dog and I see these this card layout, I am not just looking as a user or a person looking to adopt at the person's name. I'm looking at the breed, the age of the dog, maybe their story or a snippet of that story, which will lead me to click on that card, which will send me to, I imagine, the details page. Yes.
Nick:Yeah. So one thing to to to help here, And I have an example right away is I think that there there isn't really any AI help that's super how should I say this? The you know, there's a lot of AI help everywhere. But in terms of UI design, I think it's still pretty basic. But one place that will AI will be really helpful for you is creating placeholder names, you know, placeholder images of dogs.
Nick:Like, I'm a, you know, useless tit for for this part of the show, but I'm a cat person. So I don't know much about dogs. Say if I would well, nice. Nice. That's why we're so good good friends, I guess.
Nick:What I think is really helpful here or what I would do is, you know, ask one of your, you know, AI tools of choice. Like, hey. Give me six dog breeds that I can use in a mock up. Example is that I just took a picture of the filters to the left, and it turns out it's Albanian for breed, race, color, age, and name. So you were on the right track there.
Nick:Mhmm. I think for this footer here where you have the I think you call it ghost UI. So for people who aren't able to see this, you know, there are instead of words, there are lines, horizontal lines. There's no excuse, I think, today to put this type of placeholder in. Like, it's super easy to create anything random.
Nick:Like, hey. Give me the structure of a footer menu on a dog rescue website. It's called future skew, few rescue, few rescue. Challenging word for me. Yeah.
Nick:I mean, that's way better. And I think another bonus point is, you know, make it clickable. You you have a few pages here already. Mhmm. You know, the the filter page, main page, detail page, you know, make it clickable.
Nick:Just drag around a few of the blue lines in Figma. Mhmm. And, you know, potentially record a video where you explain it. I mean, that will make your case way stronger.
Tyler:A 100%. And then and one additional thing I would say for this. So this is a website. It may seem standard, like, use case is specific to a rescue, but, essentially, it's a ecommerce shop for for dogs. I think it's important to map out the entire journey.
Tyler:So Yeah. Not just what it looks like, but also what are the different edge cases or flows they're in. So you're coming to this website. You're looking to rescue a dog. You select one.
Tyler:What happens after you select you you wanna inquire about a dog? Is does it send you to a form? What happens after you submit the form? Do you receive an email? Do you like, what's the consequence of any of these actions?
Tyler:I would love that mapped out in, like, some kind of flowchart Yes. Appended with these designs as well.
Nick:Mhmm. Yeah. I mean, maybe that's that's the key here. Like, if you share a case study, really think it through and do more than the things you would see on Dribbble and Contra and all these places where it's all happy flow. Yep.
Nick:You know, if you disconnected random screens, I mean, that's what everyone's doing. But if you do slightly more, remember everything you're saying, that will really help you stand out. So, you know, let's summarize for for Loric. A few things for him to do. Create a website right away.
Nick:You know, I think that's that's key. Do all the things Tyler just said around case study. So really flesh it out. You know, have all the steps, make it clickable. You know?
Nick:And then a few of the AI tips and tricks for, you know, dog breeds and images and that's that kind of stuff. What else? Did we mention anything else?
Tyler:I think packaging annotation on left, organize your Figma file in the proper way, have the different pages, move your components to the components page. If you want someone to know that, name them name your layers correctly. You can not name them on the job if you want. But when you're presenting, please name your layers.
Nick:Yeah. That's true. Yeah. I I I mean, I think that's that's a very solid package for him to to well, it hope hopefully, it's going to help him, which will bring us also to the next step, which is, you know, what if he wants to move from Kosovo to another place, which is the topic of the next episode.
Tyler:Great. We'll see you on that next episode. That was a great episode. So if you like this content and wanna hear more, please like and subscribe.
Nick:Yeah. And if you want to see more, please go to designtablepodcast.com, Spotify, Apple Music, all the big players, and more.