Paying off design debt

How to decide which Design Debt to fix without causing friction

Hi there 👋 I'm Michelle and welcome to Edition 62 Design Insight. A weekly newsletter for creatives with a focus on design.

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This week I spent some time working on shiny new business cards as I prepare to start my adventure as a freelance web designer. I’m equal parts excited and nervous so please send good vibes!!

P.S. head to the tweet below and you’ll find a link to the Figma template you can use for yourself 😉

Michelle Mac @heymichellemac

After another iteration + here's what I've settled on: A "branded" front and a minimal back. This is the best of both worlds, pretty future proof, I can write on the back if I need to add anything. Plus I'm sharing this template on @figma. Link below👇

Let's get started.

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📃 3 Articles

Paying off design debt

The article in 3 ideas:

1. Design debt refers to all the imperfections in the UI and UX of an app that appears over time due to growth, innovation, and a lack of refactoring.

2. Start overcoming design debt by doing an audit of all design debt issues and prioritizing them into a dedicated Design Debt Backlog.

3. Use t-shirt sizing to estimate design debt from S to XL depending on the scope/scale of the change.

Read The Full Article ➜

Mental model examples: How to actually use them

The article in 3 ideas:

1. Mental models are frameworks for thinking. They help you to figure out how things work help you to make decisions without needing to know everything about a situation.

2. The one level higher mental model forces you to question: is it more beneficial to optimize a level above the one I'm focused on?

3. The theory of constraints is a mental model for moving through stagnation. Ask yourself: doubling which of these inputs (constraints - time, money, knowledge) would help me progress towards my goal.

Read The Full Article ➜

The Pomodoro Technique – Why It Works & How To Do It

The article in 3 ideas:

1. Pomodoro is Italian for tomato 🍅

2. You do focused work within pomodoro sessions, with a short break in between.

3. This method allows for sustained concentration and helps to prevent mental fatigue.

Read The Full Article ➜

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🔨 2 Tools/Resources

CSS Shadow Gradients ➜

• A free tool for generating shadow gradients using CSS.

W3C Patterns ➜

• Learn the best practices for creating accessible web experiences for users of assistive technologies and keyboard interfaces

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🎨 1 Design Tip

Design Tip

Peter @peterondesign

UI Design Tip ✨ Using visuals to describe options, along with adding context, make a selection process easier

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📰 Classifieds

• Social Media Kit (Figma) - This social media kit is a useful quick start for anyone looking to build a presence on social media. Created by me and available for FREE.

Do you want to see your ad here? Buy a classified ad spot

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In case you missed it, here are last week's most popular links:

1. Tailgrids - Tailwind Components ➜

2. Using a work journal to create design case studies ➜

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You’ve reached the end of this week’s edition of Design Insight. Thank you for reading, I truly hope you found value in the design insights I shared today.

Til next week 👋

Michelle

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