Hey there, design friends!

Every week, it’s the same story, I start writing, and then work or life happens and I don’t publish. I feel terrible about this so today, I’m publishing, perfect is the enemy of done.

This time I’m talking about work-life balance because of this tweet I replied to a few days ago.

Happy reading,
Julie — @syswarren 

Work-life balance isn’t for you… it’s for them.

⏱️ Reading time: 4 min

The other day, I saw a tweet about work-life balance that read: “If you find the work you really enjoy, you won't need a ‘work-life-balance’”

You’ve probably heard the saying: “If you truly love your job, you will never have to work a day in your life.” Is this what life is about?

Loving your work doesn’t mean it’s not work. It doesn’t mean there won’t be hard days, stress, or tasks you’d rather not do. More importantly, it doesn’t mean your work should become your entire life. As someone who tied their identity to their jobs for years, I know what I’m talking about. For solo designers, it’s even easier to fall into this trap: when you have full ownership of your work, it’s hard to separate who you are from what you create. But I’ve learned that detaching identity from work actually leads to more creative freedom, it forces you to explore new things instead of just using your style or what you’re known/hired for in the first place. When you aren’t constantly defining yourself by your output, you can take more risks, experiment, and grow.

Work-life balance isn’t just about you, it’s about the people in your life.

I used to think that if I was passionate enough and if my work felt meaningful, there was no need to separate it from the rest of my life. That's why I chose to become a designer. I was driven by passion. It took me an awfully long time to realize that work-life balance isn’t just about my own well-being. It’s about being present for the people who matter to me: my partner, my child, my parents, and my friends.

Loving your work doesn’t mean it should take up all your time and attention. Even if you work for yourself and control your schedule, that doesn’t mean work and life should blur into one endless stream of productivity. Balance is about making space for relationships, for experiences outside of work, for the moments that actually make life full.

9-5s, startups, independent work and excuses

It’s easier to see the need for balance in a traditional 9-5 job. When work has fixed hours, it naturally creates a boundary. You stop working, and then you have time for family, hobbies, and rest. But startups? When joining a startup, there’s usually an expectation of being 100% committed, even if you're just an employee, and more likely if you’re the only designer at your company. Many solo startup designers struggle with decision fatigue and isolation because they’re expected to handle everything design-related.

Then there’s independent work, freelancing, or building your own thing, where work and life can be fully intertwined. There’s always more to do. And that’s where it gets tricky. When you work for yourself, it’s easy to believe you don’t need balance because you’re choosing to work, but choice doesn’t prevent burnout. And more importantly, it doesn’t mean the people around you don’t need your time and attention. Just because you can work anytime doesn’t mean you should.

There’s also the challenge of personal projects. We love side projects, but when everything turns into projects, it can feel like you never stop working. If you’re turning every hobby into another product, another portfolio piece, or another potential long to-do list you’ll never complete, you prevent yourself from doing things that truly help you relax. Not everything has to be productive.

Sometimes, work isn’t just work. It’s also an excuse. A distraction. A way to avoid dealing with emotions, responsibilities, or things that feel hard, boring, or not as rewarding. Sometimes, staying busy is easier than taking care of ourselves. As designers, we often dive into work because we love it, but it doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. If we’re constantly working, not because we have to but because stopping makes us feel anxious, it’s worth asking: What am I avoiding?

Work-life balance isn’t about choosing between work and life.
You can love your work AND the people in your life too.

Being present matters

The people in your life don’t just need you to be physically there. They need you to be mentally and emotionally present. If your mind is always half at work, if you’re always checking your phone, if you never fully unplug, they feel it. And over time, that takes a toll on your relationships.

I used to daydream about work even when I was with my partner. I truly love what I do, but I’ve learned that being present isn’t just about setting my phone aside, it’s about actually being in the moment. And when I do that, I strengthen my relationships, I learn new things, I build trust, and become more aware of things around me, which helps me refuel my energy and feed my creativity. Taking a break isn’t just good for relationships: it actually makes me a better designer, even if it’s not the main goal.

Work-life balance isn’t about escaping a job you don't like. It’s about making sure the work you love doesn’t take over everything else. It’s about being intentional: setting boundaries, protecting time for loved ones, making sure you’re not just physically in the room but actually present.

Because at the end of the day, the people in your life won’t remember how many extra hours you worked. They’ll remember whether you were there when it mattered.

TL;DR

• Create boundaries: Set work hours and define when you’re “off”

• Schedule non-work time: Block time for activities that aren’t design-related

• Be present: No work distractions when spending time with loved ones (and please, stop talking about your job, it feels like we’re working there too)

• Check your motivations: Are you working or avoiding something else?

• Refuel creativity: Step away, let life outside of work inspire you.

Cheers,
Julie

Hello, design friends 👋

First of all, Happy New Year! I hope you’re stepping into 2025 feeling inspired and ready for whatever’s next. I know I am.

It’s been a while since my last newsletter. You might have completely forgotten about ctrlalt.club, but I haven’t forgotten about you. Life got very busy, so I decided to take a break rather than send rushed content. Now that I’m settling into my new life as a full-time solo designer, maker, and parent, I’m excited to say I’m back. 💯

I’ve missed sharing my thoughts, design learnings, and productivity tips that helped and continue to help me as a solo designer. Now that I am back to working on my own products, I’m learning new things every week, so stay tuned.

As always, thanks for sticking with me. Your support and curiosity are what makes this so fun. And a big thank you to everyone who reached out during the break to check-in. I really appreciate it. If you have questions or topics you’d like me to dive into, reply and let me know.


Here is to a creative, productive, and fulfilling year!

See you soon,
Julie — @syswarren

Hey there, design friends!

Spring is here in the North Emisphere, and pollen hasn’t been my friend.

This week I’m talking about UX copy which I initially meant to send last week but couldn't finish as I was busy sneezing 🤧

Happy reading,
Julie — @syswarren

Resources and links
Design with words

✨ Copy Book - A collection of commonly used texts in user interfaces
🤓 Web Writing Checklist - For usability and effectiveness of your content
💯 Readability Guidelines - A collaboratively developed, universal content style guide based on usability evidence

📘 Content Design by Sarah Winters
📙 Strategic Writing for UX by Torrey Podmajersky

Good UI can't fix bad copy

⏱️ Reading time: 3 min 21 sec

As a solo designer, your team probably has no UX writer or content designer.

When designing an interface, you create a way for people to communicate with a product. And words are an essential component, at the same level — if not higher — than icons, colors, or typography.

Developing UX writing skills can help you design better interfaces: one word can increase comprehension, conversion rate, or trust. Good writing can help you be more efficient: changing copy is quicker than redesigning an entire flow.

As someone with a "Lorem Ipsum" tattoo, I beg you not to use fake text in your designs. Creating good interfaces requires viewing copy as part of the design. While the text on your designs may not be final, it should provide direction and context.

Designing content

You could be a great blogger or novelist and be a terrible UX writer. Most people don't know how to talk to users because they don't understand who "users" are.

Users aren't potential leads or people Marketing is trying to attract. Users are already using your product and trying to do something. Keep this in mind and put yourself in their shoes when writing copy.

💡 Good writing rules

• Clear: I can understand even if I'm not an expert

• Short: it focuses on what matters now

• Aware: it takes my current situation into account

• Helpful: it helps me with my goal

• Honest: it's not trying to trick me into something

• Spoken: the interface is having a conversation with me

Who are you talking to?

Your product won't "speak" the same if it's an enterprise product, a gaming community, or a medical platform.

The rules you create for a product might be different from the next. While you have a personal writing style, remember that UX writing is the product speaking. Not you.

💡 Find the product’s voice

• Research how products with similar audiences "speak"

• Create personas to help write copy that works for the users

• Inventory existing copy

An inventory will give you a sense of the existing tone of voice. It'll also help you identify copy that seems off-brand.

Make it clear

Good copy should help users quickly understand what they can do and how, even if they don't read every word.

Don't assume people will understand technical terms, acronyms… or your jokes.

💡 Keep it simple

• Use plain language

• If a technical term is required, explain it

• Avoid idioms, jargon, and acronyms

• Remove unnecessary words

Words in interfaces are meant for interaction, like a conversation between the product and the users. You can read the copy aloud and see if it sounds natural. Make changes if it feels like a speech vs. a conversation.

Aware and useful

Without UX writers, designers are the best positioned to write copy. You understand the problems the design aims to solve, and you are in the context.

If you're designing an error state, you know the user is facing an unpleasant situation. The copy should be aware of the current situation.

💡 Adapt to the situation

• What are the users trying to do?

• What do they need to know?

• What information isn't needed right now?

• If the situation requires reassurance, what can be said?

True and accurate

UX copy is not about promoting something. It needs to be accurate and true. The text on an interface isn't meant to brag about how "awesome" your product is, how "life-changing" the service is, or how "great" this new feature is.

💡 Copy checklist

• Can it be shorter?

• Are there adjectives or modifiers? (amazing, game-changer…)

• Is the copy talking about you? (our company, our users…)

• Is the copy trying to tell users how to feel? (Happy, excited…)

If you answer "yes" to any of these questions, edit your copy.

For a more exhaustive checklist, you can also use the Web Writing Checklist I mentioned earlier.

Your interface's voice

When you speak, you have your style, your voice.
When you write copy for a product, you give it a voice.

Does the interface talk in American English or British English? What are the rules regarding exclamation marks?! Do you use sentence casing or title casing in UI elements? (there is only one correct answer here 😒)

With guidelines, you can create a voice and build a cohesive user experience.

💡 Develop and follow guidelines

• Create rules on how to write

• Create a product vocabulary and stick to it

• Define a tone of voice

Atlassian has solid content guidelines that could help you get started.

Atlassian’s content guidelines

UX copy can also be tested. Simple A/B tests help identify what words or sentences work best. Focusing on text during user interviews can help identify pain points and learn what vocabulary people naturally use.

💡 Test the text

• Test copy during user interviews

• Run A/B tests to make data-driven decisions

• Update the guidelines with your learnings

TL;DR

• Design with words in mind: As a solo designer, you most likely write copy when you design already. See text as a design component.

• Write for users: Text can affect comprehension, success, and trust in a product. Always keep users in mind.

• Clear and simple: Text should be clear, concise, and free from technical terms and acronyms. It should help users quickly understand what they can do and how to do it.

• True and accurate: UX copy is not about selling; it's about telling. Avoid unnecessary adjectives, and don't tell users how to feel.

• Consistent voice: Guidelines can help create a consistent voice, but text is never set in stone and can always be tested and refined.

Community spotlight

This week, I’d like to shine some light on Camille Promerat, the first UX Writer and Content Designer I had the chance to work with earlier in my career.

Camille shared 2 tips for us designers:
1. Keep it simple, don’t try to look cool or funny
2. Don’t hesitate to write down what you want your interface to say on paper before starting your designs

Cheers,
Julie

Hey there, design friends!

Lately, I've been feeling tired — think cat-after-a-long-nap level of tired. It makes it challenging to find the energy to do creative work, and I bet some of you can relate. So today’s issue will be shorter and inspired by this lack of motivation. We’ll dive (safely) into the world of creative burnout.

I'd love to hear your best motivation and recovery tips, so please send them my way 🤞

Cheers,
Julie — @syswarren

Resources and links
Interesting finds

📙 Just Enough Research - As a solo designer, you might have been put in charge of user research. There are tons of books and resources on this, but this one is a good and short guidebook of methods you can implement, even if you’re a team of one.

✨ Grids for Framer - I’ll be updating my portfolio soon 🤞 I’ll most likely use Framer to do this, and this is one of the templates I found quite affordable and also pretty good… or maybe I’ll do something completely custom.

💯 Places to connect with other designers
Layers - A home for designers so you’re less “solo” 🤝
read.cv - A “show don’t tell” professional network, very visual
Polywork - Partner on side projects, meet other designers and professionals… ask for feedback

Know any other places where we can hang out? Let me know 😊

It's not you. It's creative burnout

⏱️ Reading time: 3 min 6 sec

As a solo designer, your job requires being creative constantly. But contrary to what some people believe, creativity is not a simple on/off switch.

Lately, I've been tired, and it sometimes seems like all my creativity left me. I dread starting a new project because I know it’ll be difficult. Thankfully, there are still moments when I am creative, but they don't last long. I know I’m approaching creative burnout.

Is this creative burnout?

Maybe you're more tired than usual, or maybe this particular project isn't inspiring… just like your last several projects 😖

We're all unique in feeling creative. You and I could have very different reasons for having low energy, but burnout usually means we've pushed ourselves too far for too long.

This is what creative burnout might look like:

• You’re anxious about going to work or starting a new project

• You feel like you’ll not be able to create something good

• Even simple tasks seem too difficult to handle

• You're more irritable than usual

• Other creatives make you feel like you're not talented enough… forgetting that you only see their best work.

There could also be external reasons you feel this way. You might be dealing with hardships in your personal life. Or you could be working in a toxic environment that makes your job more difficult than it should be. It’s important to acknowledge all the different factors to improve your situation.

How do we get out of there?

Burnout is hard on everyone, but it can be crushing for creative workers. It makes it hard to accomplish simple tasks, and innovative work becomes nearly impossible. So here are some ideas to fight creative burnout.


💡 Get your spark back

• Ask for help: Talk with friends, coworkers, or your boss. Sometimes it’s a great way to better understand the problem and find solutions.

• Take a break: Disconnect — forget about work, design, and do things for yourself.

• Build energy: You can only be creative if you have energy. Working out, running, laughing, sleeping enough, eating well, and spending quality time with loved ones are good ways to feel energized.

• Look back: You’re a talented person who convinced people to work with you. Look back at your past successes to fight self-doubt. You're in a temporary situation, but your creativity is still here.

Personally, I created a folder with screenshots of positive reviews from users and co-workers. I also have visuals of projects I'm proud of and articles mentioning my work that I look at when I need to feel better. I encourage you to create your own folder. It could help you when you’re not feeling great.

It'll also be helpful for your annual self-assessment or when you prepare for a job interview 😉

The feel-good folder

Prevention is the best medicine

Everyone experiences creative burnout differently. For me, it makes it hard to do anything remotely creative — from designing to writing a funny tweet or even cooking a meal (food is art, right?) But I know I can get out of this situation and could do a better job at avoiding creative burnout.

Remember, your past wins didn't disappear, and others' apparent successes do not make you less talented.

💡 Be a healthy creative

• Set realistic expectations: Don’t try to do too much to recover from burnout. It could have the opposite effect.

• Take it slow: Warm up with small tasks to build momentum before tackling bigger projects.

• Track your progress: Reflect on your progress, successes, and how you feel—list the work you've accomplished.

• Build a healthy routine: Plan breaks and physical activities. Don't hesitate to talk with a friend, mentor, or health professional.

• Limit anxiety-inducing situations: Big presentations or high-intensity projects shouldn't be a weekly occurrence. Set boundaries if you want to maintain your creative energy.

If I reflect on what pushed me to feel this way, I know that long daily debates with co-workers drained me of the last bits of energy I had left because I was struggling with personal issues. Since I’ve set boundaries regarding debates, I’m feeling slightly better, but getting my energy levels back up will take some time.

TL;DR

Creative burnout can have long-term consequences if not addressed… If you're dealing with stress, irritability, and self-doubt, here are some things you can do to feel better.

• Get your spark back: ask for help, take a real break, start with small tasks, and look back at past successes to fight self-doubt.

• Prevention is key: Reflect on your progress, build a healthy routine with breaks and self-care, and set boundaries to protect your energy.

• Your talent is still there: It's just taking a break to rest. Others' successes don't make you less talented. Focus on personal growth and self-awareness to avoid and recover from creative burnout.

Community spotlight

A few days ago, William Channer, who you might know because of Lovers Magazine, announced Spaces, another place where we could all hang out.

See you next week 😊
Cheers,
Julie

Hey there, design friends!

It’s been a month since I started writing this newsletter, and I can’t believe how many of you have taken the time to subscribe, read what I wrote, and give me feedback. I’m incredibly thankful to have you with me on this journey.

Today, we’re discussing a requested subject: self-directed learning.

Happy reading,
Julie — @syswarren

Table of contents

1. Resources and links

2. A self-directed learning guide

3. TL;DR

4. Community spotlight

Resources and links
Learners’ links

📁 Fabric - Collect bookmarks, ideas, and files to build your personal search engine. This could be helpful in your learning journey.

🗓️ Week Planner - If you spend your time in Figma, use this planner to visualize upcoming events and deadlines… or plan your learning sessions.

🤓 Hack Design - This isn’t new, but since we’re talking about self-directed learning today, it’s good to share this amazing resource. It’s worth bookmarking it.

✅ 101 UI Checklist items - it’s free, it’s by the talented UI expert Matt D. Smith, and it’ll help you make your designs look even better.

And some books that I’d recommend to anyone wanting to learn or refresh their design skills and knowledge:

• Universal Principles of Design 

• Universal Methods of Design

• The User Experience Team of One: A Research and Design Survival Guide

• Articulating Design Decisions: Communicate With Stakeholders, Keep Your Sanity, and Deliver the Best User Experience

Are they making these books look ugly on purpose?! 😭

A self-directed learning guide

⏱️ Reading time: 4 min 15 sec

With new tools, concepts, and tech constantly changing design, it's essential to keep learning whether you've just started or have been working for years. Being a solo designer can make it tough to learn without other designers guiding you, but it’s not impossible.

If you're like me, you're trying to figure out what you should learn next. Learning can help improve your skills, gain confidence, and even reduce work-related stress… or get new skills to land a better job.

Self-directed is a way to keep learning throughout life and stay relevant in our competitive field. Plus, it allows you to customize your knowledge to fit your needs and shape your career exactly how you want.

So, where do we start?

I don't know what I don't know

Well, we start by figuring out what we don't know. And yes, it might sound tricky because how can you know what you don't know? So for this, I'm going to use a video game analogy.

I love video games, and if you're a bit of a gamer yourself, self-directed learning is — in some ways — very similar to playing a game.

First, you need to know your character's strengths, weaknesses, and inventory. This will help you understand where you stand and what you need to acquire to play the game.

You, the designer in a video game

💡 Learn more about yourself

• Conduct a self-assessment

• Ask for feedback from your coworkers, or other designers

• Create a skill graph to visualize your current abilities and future goals

A skill graph can be a valuable tool to help you focus on what you need to learn to get where you want to go. Here's an example of a skill graph for a solo designer.

An example skill graph for a solo designer

Once you've created yours (it doesn't have to be polished, a rough sketch is fine), you can start by outlining what you'd like to learn. To help with this, you can create a mind map — or ask AI to make one. As a designer, a mind map should be a familiar concept, and it'll help build your learning strategy.

💡 Define what you'd like to learn

• Create a mind map for the topic you'd like to study

• Highlight the topics you want to learn

• Don't forget possibly outdated skills and knowledge

Play by your rules

If self-directed learning is like playing a video game, you need to set some rules to be good at it. It's probably something you won't do during your workday – although there's always the possibility of learning on the job. Self-directed learning will most likely be an activity you do in your free time.

💡 Create your own rules

• Establish a routine and schedule regular learning times

• Manage your energy

• Focus on progress over performances

Your goal should be to create a long-lasting routine that enables you to continue learning. There's no point in learning everything "now" and never revisiting the subjects later, as they'll become outdated at some point anyway.

Create your game plan

Okay, now you have some rules for scheduling your learning sessions, your skill graph, and your mind map. Which subject should you tackle first?

It's up to you to decide. You're your own teacher here. When I have to choose, I ask myself two questions: "What do I need to learn for this upcoming project?" and "What sounds most interesting to me right now?"

Motivation is a powerful tool to better memorize your learning. Being able to apply newly acquired skills is incredibly important, too. So when deciding what to learn next, focus on motivation and possible applications.

💡 Decide what's next

• Use your skill graph and mindmap to prioritize learning

• Learn what's more interesting to you now to optimize memorization

• Pick a subject that you'll be able to use soon

Once you've chosen a topic, it's time to gather some resources. And without noticing, this first step already teaches you about the subject.

💡 Build your inventory

• Hunt for books, articles, and videos

• Contact people who know about what you're trying to learn

• List your resources in a file or a to-do list — it'll help you track your progress

Ask for recommendations from other designers to find good resources on a topic. Read reviews and check the author's credentials. Focus on free materials first, and if you want to dive deeper into a subject, consider paid courses or events.

Time to learn

Now that you've collected resources and you're motivated by a topic, it's time to engage in the learning process actively. Listening to hours of podcasts or watching videos passively might help you "know" some stuff, but to truly learn, you need to be an active learner.

💡 Engage in active learning

• Take handwritten notes and paraphrase concepts to better memorize

• Apply your learnings with exercises, tutorials, or projects

• Discuss your learnings with others: Explaining something to someone is a good way to see if you've correctly understood and retained information.

TL;DR

What I've shared today are the rules I've created for myself for my own learning. They might work for you, or they won't. Nobody can tell you how to learn once you're outside a classic course or school program. You're the main character here. So it's up to you.

• Learn more about yourself: do a self-assessment and create a skill graph to visualize your skills and future goals.

• Set a routine and manage your energy: The key to successful learning is to be motivated and consistent.

• Build your learning strategy: Create a mind map and highlight the topics you want to learn. Customize your learning experience.

• Engage in active learning: Take notes, apply learnings through exercises or projects, and discuss concepts with others.

• Progress over performances: Revisit and adjust when necessary to keep your learning goals aligned with your career aspirations.

Community spotlight

She comes recommended by not one, not two, but three different people! Her name is Grace Walker, and she’s an independent designer and Webflow developer from Canada. Last year, she created a Twitter-like portfolio, which I find incredibly cool to show your work in an informal way to reach a maximum of people.

Grace’s work

I’m keeping the recommendations I’ve received for future issues in this newsletter. If you’d like me to share your work here, let me know!

See you next week 😊
Cheers,
Julie

Hey there, design friends!

I hope you all had a nice and productive week after the last newsletter. Here, I’m still stuck at home with my broken foot, but in two weeks, you’ll see me wearing shoes (yay!) and running wild in the streets.

But for now, I’m incredibly thankful for the book recommendations you sent my way. I’m currently reading The Subtle Art Of Not Giving A F*ck which was recommended by Victor Kernes.

Today, I’m talking about cross-functional collaboration and how it can help you become a better designer and open new doors for your career.

Happy reading,
Julie — @syswarren

Table of contents

1. Resources and links

2. Design team of one collaboration

3. TL;DR

4. Community spotlight

Resources and links
The most random collection of links

💕 Silktide - If accessibility matters to you (it should), I highly recommend using this Chrome plugin to create better experiences. The most useful feature for me is the screen reader simulator. It helps understand how people without enough vision read a website.

🕊️ Brandbird — If you keep getting requests to “design an image for a tweet” send them this tool and fly away. You’re free now.

🤓 IDEO shared 5 Ways We're Using AI at Work: And apparently, they’re using AI for a lot of things, from research to ideation and critique and even to help build presentations.

📽️ Design and Engineering collaboration: an epic battle — an AI-generated EPIC video on UX/UI designers and Developers. Kinda relevant to today’s topic of cross-functional collaboration.

The logo needs to POP!

Design team of one collaboration

⏱️ Reading time: 3 min 34 sec

As a solo designer, you might have read articles about design collaboration and wondered, 'How am I supposed to do this by myself?!' You might have even tried running a workshop, only to find it didn't go as expected.

The usual design collaboration methods might not be helpful in your situation, but it doesn't mean you have to work in total isolation. Collaboration with non-designers is possible and valuable. Using your coworkers' expertise and perspectives can help you gain new insights, discover better solutions, improve your presentation skills, and make you a better designer.

Brainstorming solo

Thinking outside the box

When you involve non-designers in the design process, you get to hear about their points of view, problems, and ideas. Adding their perspectives to yours is a great way to find solutions outside the box.

Working with engineers, support, or marketing means you get access to fresh ideas. You might learn of technical limitations or possibilities that can help you reframe a problem. A few years ago, one of my coworkers showed me the technical capabilities of the tag. It sparked so many ideas. We spent an afternoon building demos. I learned a lot, and we asked another coworker who worked in Sales for feedback. He made some suggestions, and by Monday morning, we had an incredible demo. On Tuesday, it was sold for half a million dollars… And a few weeks later, it was presented at SXSW.

By talking with people outside of your direct collaborators, you can approach challenges with a better understanding and think of new solutions. As a designer, you know how important user research is, and involving your coworkers in your process is very similar.

Getting out of your box

💡 Involve non-designers in your work:

• Reach out to one colleague you rarely work with. Ask them for feedback and offer to help them.

• When you start working on something new, ping people you think might have ideas or could be impacted by your work.

• Build a friendly rapport with your coworkers to support each other better.

Learning opportunities

Including non-designers in your process is an excellent way to better understand their work and the overall problems you're trying to solve as a company.

It means learning about the sales process, getting a private lesson in javascript when discussing an idea with an engineer (Should Designers Code?! 😉), or learning some SEO tips when asking for feedback from the SEO expert… that could be useful for your personal website.

As you get better at understanding your teammates, you get better at explaining your design choices in a way that speaks to them. You naturally start to present your work in a way that promotes the value of design. And in the future, it'll make presenting your work to stakeholders, interviewers, and even users easier.

💡 Grow your toolkit:

• Be curious. Ask for an explanation if you don’t know something.

• If you can, shadow a coworker to learn what their job is.

• See yourself as both a teacher and a student.

• Actively ask for feedback and be precise about the type of feedback you want.

I got promoted because I demonstrated I communicate and work well with non-designers. Communication is key to getting that famous seat at the table. And over time, the relationships you forge with your coworkers can become valuable connections that might help you get hired at their future company.

Building a strong design culture

Collaborating with non-designers is like an intensive course in communication. You'll have to forget the design jargon and explain your choices in a way that's clear and easy to understand… but that also resonates with the person you're talking to.

When you include people who typically aren't invited to the design process, you help them care about design. They gain a better understanding of your work and your expertise. And when people understand, they care and tend to put in their best effort.

Involving your coworkers in your work doesn’t mean designing by committee. You’re still the designer, but it’s a good way to build a strong design culture. When non-designers experience the design process, they better understand what design means and how it can help achieve your company's goals.

💡 Communication is a design tool:

• When presenting work, explain why you made certain choices and the impact you hope for.

• If something is obvious to you, it might not be to others: take a minute to provide context.

• Adapt your communication to the person you’re talking to. Show that you care about what they do.

• Show gratitude and give credit to people when you’ve worked together. Appreciation goes a long way.

Solo designers aren’t alone

Finally, just because you're the only designer at your company doesn't mean you can’t work with other designers. Team up with other designers you trust: Help each other level up your skills or brainstorm solutions to challenges you're facing. It's also a good way to learn how to give and receive design-focused feedback.

While I’m not entirely “solo” at my current job, I still share work with designer friends outside of work to get their feedback, and in exchange, I do the same.

💡 Build your secret design team:

• Engage with designers online to build your design team.

• Go to meetups, conferences, or online events.

• Share work in public if you’re allowed to.

• Find a mentor, or mentor younger designers.

TL;DR

Even if you’re the only designer at your company, you can include non-designers in the design process and learn from their expertise and insights. It’s a good way to create meaningful connections while improving your work.

• Involve non-designers in your work: Talk to colleagues who aren't usually working with you, share your work, and ask for feedback. Build meaningful connections with them to support each other.

• Embrace learning opportunities: Be curious, and shadow coworkers to understand their roles. Ask for explanations when you don’t know something. It’ll help you learn new things and grow your skill set.

• Build the foundations for design culture: As a solo designer, you're in charge of the design culture. By improving your communication and adapting your message to different audiences, you’ll be a voice for design within your company.

• Network with other designers: Connect online, attend events, join a small trusted group of designers, find a mentor or be one, or work together on side projects. This will help you grow professionally and receive valuable design-focused feedback.

Community spotlight

🌭 You might already know him… but if you don’t, you definitely already know his work. To me, it’s one of the most talented product designers out there. He’s also an amazing illustrator. I had the chance to work with him a few years ago: Adrien Griveau. He’s a Founding Designer at Linear.

linear.app/readme

To end today’s newsletter, a question since we just talked about meeting with other designers. Are any of you planning on going to Figma Config 2023? It’ll be in June in San Francisco, but it’s also possible to attend online. Reply to this email to let me know!

See you next week 😊
Cheers,
Julie

Hey there, design friends!

I’ve been stuck at home for the past 3 weeks because I broke my foot and I am getting bored. Very bored. I’m halfway through recovery, so if you have any books, tv shows, or things to do that don’t require walking, send them my way!

Today, I’m talking about the difference between activity and productivity and sharing tips to help you design for outcomes and impact.

Happy reading,
Julie — @syswarren

Table of contents

1. Resources and links

2. Designing for outcomes and impact

3. TL;DR

4. Community spotlight

Resources and links
AI as your teammate

I’m sure you’ve heard, but AI is everywhere… and you can definitely use AI tools to facilitate your work or help you find inspiration. I’d still recommend making edits to what is AI generated, just like collaborating with a teammate.

AI tools
✏️ Relume Ipsum — Generate website copy directly from Figma.
🤖 FigGPT — Figma plugin that helps you compose and edit copy.
🧠 Galileo AI — A copilot for interface design.


Interesting articles
How to Create a Survey with ChatGPT: ChatGPT can assist you in creating UX surveys, limiting bias, and avoiding leading questions.

Embracing AI in Brand Design at Alan: Edouard Wautier, Lead Designer at Alan.eu, explains how they trained an AI model to generate more illustrations of their mascot.

Alan’s mascot, generated by AI

Designing for outcomes and impact

⏱️ Reading time: 3 min 08 sec

Last week, I received a "productivity report" from the tasks management app we use at work, saying that I completed fewer tasks than my teammates. First, I was like, "Ouch, thanks. It's really motivating." But then I started thinking about what this meant. Did they confuse activity with productivity?

A hamster running on a wheel moves a lot but doesn't go anywhere… and activity doesn't necessarily equate to productivity.

Made by MidJourney, my imaginary teammate

While it can be helpful for big teams to keep an eye on the number of tasks completed because it informs planning and hiring needs or for a design agency to aim for a specific number of deliverables because it’s in the contract, for solo designers, productivity is all about the outcome and impact of your work.

Lazy is a quick way of saying efficient

I recently worked 5 minutes on a design, which resulted in a 160% increase in one of our main goals—these few minutes of work had more impact than all the tasks I completed these past 6 months.

Sadly, this didn't count toward my "productivity report" because I didn't bother to create and complete a task. Does it mean I wasn't productive? Was I more productive when I completed dozen of tasks every week that didn't have much impact? 🤔

Outcomes and impact

When working on a project, I don't think of the number of hours or designs I’ll present to the team. Instead, I focus on the goal and the why.

The goal is a simple sentence with the outcome and measurable impact. 

The outcome is the effect on the users, the problems solved, or the new experiences you create.

The impact is a change you can measure (increased conversion rate, change in revenue, number of people mentioning your company on social media…)

The why provides facts and assumptions to help you understand the problem and work on smart solutions.

💡 Design for outcomes and impact

• Define your goal with outcomes and impact at the start of a project to stay focused on what matters.

• Help frame your work using the why.

Work smarter, not harder

Be smart about how you spend your time. Instead of taking 20 hours to design icons, take 5 minutes to find a nice icon set. It frees your time to focus on what is truly important and helps support designers who create and share resources.

💡 Use resources when it makes sense

• When your goal is to make an impact, it's smart to use resources that others have created.

• When you have time, creating things yourself and learning new skills make sense.

Give yourself time to focus

A crucial aspect of productivity is finding your flow state, where you feel creative and focused.

💡 Protect your flow state

• Use asynchronous communication to avoid interruptions. Pause your notifications when you're focused.

• Schedule blocks of time for deep, focused work on your calendar, and protect these periods from distractions.

• Allow breaks and recharge time to ensure you have the energy needed to maintain productivity throughout the day.

• Instead of scheduling a meeting to present your work in the middle of your day because it is the only time that works for everyone, record a video with Loom or Screenity when it's best for you and ask your teammates to provide feedback when it's best for them.

Know when to stop

Perfection is fleeting in an iterative design process, so focus on making progress instead.

💡 Don’t waste your time

• Share your work early to get feedback from your team.

• Don't spend excessive time refining a design that nobody has seen just because you have time before the deadline.

Note that deadlines can inadvertently foster procrastination, something I'm very good at, and according to Parkinson's Law, I'm not alone.
Deadlines can also make us lose sight of our goals. If you're like me:

• Replace deadlines with a simple to-do list with your main goals for the week.

• Create momentum and a positive mindset by completing easy tasks first.

Rest fuels creativity

Never underestimate the power of recovery and rest. Ensuring you're well-rested and taking time for yourself will fuel your productivity and help you stay creative.

💡 Recharge your productivity and creativity

• Take a break and go outside or have lunch with a friend.

• Recharge by doing work that's less energy-consuming for you.

• Plan time off regularly.

By prioritizing your work, leveraging available resources, protecting your flow state, and allowing time for recovery and rest, you'll be better equipped to tackle your design projects and maximize your productivity as a design team of one.

TL;DR

Being busy doesn’t necessarily mean being productive.
As a solo designer, here are things you can do to be productive:

• Set goals that include outcomes and impact. If you don’t work in an agency, don’t focus on the number of deliverables; work on what will have the most impact.

• Use resources when it makes sense. As a solo designer, use all the resources available to you. Other designers created them to help you in your work.

• Protect your flow state. You can’t do great work if you can’t focus. Silence notifications, and when possible, replace meetings with async communication.

• Don’t waste your time: Share your work early to avoid spending too much time on the wrong things. Don’t try to stay busy until the deadline.

• Recharge: Take breaks and time off to stay creative and productive.

Community spotlight

Because we talked about AI this week, it makes sense to shine some light on Ayda, next-generation AI-driven solo designer, who recently launched her new (and first) Framer website.

interfacer.co by Ayda

I’d also like to thank everyone who took the time to reply to the first issue this week. Getting your feedback and your questions was really helpful and motivating. Special thanks to Kyle U. for the discussion about using resources. It was inspiring.

See you next week!
Cheers,
Julie

Hey there, design friends!

Welcome to the first issue of ctrlalt.club, a newsletter for solo designers and designers at startups. Together, we'll discuss various topics: the hiring process and day-to-day challenges, design tips, product strategy, and career development… I’ll try to share a mix of practical tips, interviews, updates, and tools useful to design teams of one.

I didn’t think many of you would be there already, so thank you for joining me on this ride. I appreciate the support! (also, I’m nervous now)

Okay, let's dive into today’s topic: the hiring process and what it's like to interview for a solo designer role.

Happy reading,
Julie — @syswarren

Table of contents

1. Resources

2. Interviewing for a solo designer role

3. TL;DR

4. Community spotlight?

Resources: 3D…esigners in one!

Here are three tools that can help you with 3D:

🦄 Spline AI — I’m sure most of you are familiar with Spline; if not… you should definitely try it and follow the amazing tutorials, but what’s great is that they’ll be launching Spline AI very soon, so join the waitlist. As a design team of one, I’m sure it’ll save you plenty of time!

Note: I’m not sponsored by Spline (or anyone for that matter) just a big fan.

Made with Spline.

😉 Womp — While I haven’t tested Womp myself yet, here is what Lillian, a talented multi-disciplinary designer, had to say about it: “10/10 would use again, and 10/10 would continue to bug all my friends to go womp.”

And finally, if you don’t have time to create custom 3D illustrations for Janet’s unreasonable request for the landing page, check this and ask for your company’s credit card:
💯 Craftwork — Design assets for busy designers like us.

Interviewing for a solo designer role

⏱️ Reading time: 3 min 19 sec

The first time you apply at a startup looking for its first designer, especially if you've researched the classic hiring process, looked at videos on how to present a case study… you might be surprised because startups love nothing more than to break the rules.

I speak from experience, having interviewed at FB, Google, and companies past the startup stage. I've flown to other countries to do whiteboard exercises. I've toured campuses and had lunches with employees to get the vibe.

But at startups… the process was not even close. Even though I came prepared (when I was aware that it was an interview), I rarely had the chance to present a case study. More often than not, I directly talked to the founders, was given an ongoing problem, and they'd look at me, expecting some magic trick.

So, how do you land a job as a magician 
first designer?

1. Build your network

Most startups under 50 employees don't have recruiters in-house. They rarely pay to promote job listings for designers… but they might contact you directly if they know you exist. And if you apply, knowing someone who already works there can help you get hired.

💡 Put yourself out there

• Show your work on popular platforms like Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn that are NOT for designers only.

• Engage with founders, engineers, and other product people so they'll think about you when it's time to hire a designer.

2. Adapt to the situation

Interviewing can be very long at tech companies. It tends to be shorter at startups, but it can vary significantly from one startup to another. So be flexible and see this as part of the exercises: when you are a design team of one, you are expected to adapt and move fast.

💡 Be ready but flexible

• Have work ready to show: update your online portfolio regularly or keep a deck of your work ready to be shared.

• Know the impact of your work: how you increased conversion rate, or how you improved cross-functional collaboration within an org…

• Don't rehearse a speech; you might get destabilized if you end up in a situation you weren't expecting.

3. Know your interviewers

If you only have time to do one thing before the interview: research the founders. Finding information about new companies may be difficult, but you can usually find info about the founders.

💡 Research before you interview

• Search the founders online. What do they post on social media? Do your values align with theirs?

• Research the mission and tech. Who else is making similar things? How are they doing things differently?

• Do they already work with designers? Are they designers themselves?

4. Interview the company

Before investing too much time and effort, ask yourself some questions. Being the only designer on a team you don't like, and working for a mission you don't believe in is a sure way to burn out and prevent you from finding a job you actually like.

💡 Ask the right questions

• Did you feel energized after your conversation with the interviewers?

• Did you feel inspired by the mission and have questions or ideas?

• Do you see yourself working there 12, 24, or 36 months?

• Did anyone made you feel uncomfortable during the interviews?

Additionally, if you need to find a job now because you don't have a choice:

• Apply to companies with designer(s) already on the team to share the workload.

• Don't hesitate to ask them if they are leaving!

If you join a company you don’t believe in as the only designer, you might not have enough energy left to find a better job.

5. The job description is a starting point

There is a reason why we say "design team of one." The work ranges from UI/UX to branding, research, copywriting, prototyping, illustrations, motion design, code, product management, or even decorating the office… If you're a generalist and like wearing multiple hats, the job is for you.

💡 Leverage your skills, curiosity, and hobbies

• Mention what you can do outside of the job description that you'd like to do at work.

• Use your side projects to your advantage during the interviews. They usually display your best non-design skills.

TL;DR

The hiring process for solo designers differs from what you usually find online. Forget the recruiter's screen call, the 1-hour case study, and the whiteboard exercise:

• Skip the detailed case studies and polished speeches. Instead, be ready to discuss metrics and user feedback alongside your design work as you'd do during a conversation with someone who isn't a designer.

• Have an honest discussion with your interviewer. You're interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you.

• Research the founders, the mission and the tech. Try to understand the vocabulary of the people you'll be talking to.

• Be aware of what you're getting into: it's called "design team of one" for a reason. And if you're not entirely interested in that job, it might prevent you from finding something you truly like.

Community spotlight?

I’d love to be able to shine some light on you and your work in this last section of the newsletter… but I don’t know you yet!

Don’t hesitate to reply to this email to introduce yourself, give feedback, or simply say hi! 👋

Cheers,
Julie