Twitter: A Positive Conversation

This week, we talk about how to be meaningfully involved with the design community on Twitter. We share tips for finding people to follow, what to tweet about, and we dig into the value of building online connections with other designers. As always, we share our cool things for the week, including some futuristic-yet-spooky technology emerging in China, and a top-notch film production company.

Golden Ratio Patrons:

Sisu is looking for a thoughtful and data-savvy designer to help build the next generation of analytics software. You can find out more at sisu.ai. (You might recognize Sisu from our interview with Michie Cao)

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Latest VIP Patrons:

Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!

• Arjun Mahesh
• Ankur Priyadarshi Chauhan
• Martin M.
• Thiago Valadares Noleto Damasceno
• Julius
• Guilherme Nogales
• Carly Batson
• Grace Lee
• Dániel Góré
• George Thayamkery
• Shogo Tsuruda
• Claire Jardin

Follow-up:

• We are getting close to 128 Patreon supporters, at which point we'll start getting back into the Design Details merch game!
• Ladies That UX ATL gave us a shoutout as one of their favorite things from 2019 ❤️
• Michael Woodruff gave us some feedback about chapter markers on the show, inspired by the great organization on the Layout podcast.
• Manny has a pro-tip for staying on top of your goals: spend that $$$.
• Adam Carroll is also a huge fan of Mr. Robot. This is the correct opinion.
• Sam Mason is excited for Design Details crewnecks! So are we 🙃

Listener Questions:

Carly Batson asks:

Hi Marshall & Brian! I love the podcast and finally today after listening to one of the episodes I caved and set up a Twitter. Two questions I’d love for you to answer:

1. How is the best way to get involved with the UX community on Twitter and
2. I’m a remote designer and have a hard time leveraging connections because I don’t have any designers nearby. How can I use social media to connect with other designers?

Some of our notes:

• Reply earnestly and engage in conversations consistently
• Don't automate your tweets – stay authentic
• Stay positive – the negative conversations and hot takes are so fun, but are ultimately counter-productive
• Use a consistent and friendly profile photo
• Learn in public, share openly, ask questions
• Organize a community in your city
  • Juan Arreguin helped do this with Marshall in Chicago

Cool Things:

• Brian shared a travel update (following up on episode 265, Travel Edition, with tech notes from China:
  • Embedded illuminated crossing signals in south China
  • Face payments for the metro
    • The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy as We Know It
    • Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret
  • AliPay "smile to pay"
• Marshall shared the filmography of A24, including: Springbreakers, Under the Skin, Amy, A Most Violent Year, Green Room, Ex Machina, The Lobster, Room, Swiss Army Man, The Vvitch, The Disaster Artist, The Florida Project, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Moonlight, A Ghost Story, Killing of a Sacred Deer, It Comes at Night, Mid90s, Eighth Grade, Midsommar, The Lighthouse
  • Brian also mentioned Letterboxd, a helpful app to track movies you've seen or maintain a watchlist.
  • Patrick H. Willems is a nice person to start following for good reviews and recommendations.

Design Details on the Web:

• 📻 We are @designdetailsfm
  • 🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin and brian@designdetails.fm
  • 🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock and marshall@designdetails.fm
• 🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️
• ❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)
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BYEEEEE!