Design Details 290: Transitioning to Product Design
This week, we answer listener questions, including how to transition from engineering to product design, how to wrap up before moving to a new company, and what we think of apps that allow you to change the launch icon. In Follow-up, we read some listener feedback about last episode, and Marshall fills in a couple details on his file organization tips. In News, we lament the untimely death of AirPower (rip rip). And as always, we share a couple cool things like a sci-fi movie and a sci-fi book trilogy.
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Follow-up:
- We had some good feedback from our last episode about design file hygiene:
- Cal Rowston noticed a few gems among all the babbling
- Tim Bendt could listen to layer organization tips forever (which is a totally normal thing btw)
- Katherine's heart was warmed by Marshall's obsessive compulsions
- Ryan Hayen wants to start a layer organization OCD support group
- Anthony Collurafici pointed us to a Medium article by Andy Detskas that explains how to organize your artboards with serialization
- Marshall adds a couple details to his file organization tips:
- Layer Tools has a couple especially useful renaming actions: "Find and Replace..." and "Prepend/Append to Selected Layer Names..."
- In addition to "thinking in divs," try to order the layers and groups in your Layer List just as they appear in the mock, from top-left to bottom-right
- Keyboard Maestro is a super-powered macro utility for Mac
- ICYMI, here's the Sketch file for Marshall's unsolicited NYT Crossword app redesign that he shared last episode as an example of maniacal file organizational
News:
- AirPower has been cancelled:
- Video: Phil Schiller announces the AirPower charging mat
- Article: Apple cancels AirPower wireless charger
- Article: "Apple's Phil Schiller explains why the white iPhone 4 took so long"
- AirPower is pictured on the new AirPods packaging
- Video: "The Death of Airpower: Explained!"
Listener Questions:
>> If you'd like to ask us a question, we're @designdetailsfm on Twitter, or email us: hi@brianlovin.com or marshallbock@gmail.com
- Sofia F asks what we think about apps like Streaks that offer different launch icons
- We love it! Here are some other apps we use that do this:
- Bear is "a beautiful, flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose"
- Tweetbot is "a Twitter client with personality"
- Pocket Casts is "the world's most powerful podcast platform"
- Apollo is "a beautiful Reddit app built for power and speed"
- David Lanham is an illustrator with an endearing style
- Anonymous asks what we think about transitioning from Engineering to Product Design
- Do some side projects or case studies to beef up your portfolio and gain some experience
- Sit with your fellow product designers and offer to help wherever needed
- Anonymous asks about transitioning to a new company
- Leave your active projects in good shape, either finishing them yourself or handing them off to an informed successor
- If you've already gotten an offer, they're probably gonna be cool with you wrapping up your active projects before transitioning
One Cool Thing:
- Brian shared Prospect, a sci-fi movie about "a teenage girl and her father who travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich"
- Pedro Pascal
- Sophie Thatcher
- Andre Royo
- The Wire is a show about the Baltimore drug scene, seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement
- Marshall shared We Are Legion (We Are Bob), the first book in a sci-fi trilogy about a software engineer who unwittingly becomes an AI and humanity's last hope for survival
- Ready Player One has a similar tone but tries a little too hard
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BYEEEEE!