TLDR Design 2024-03-26

WhatsApp AI Features 💬, iOS 18 Updates 📱, 3D Showcase with RealityMAX 🪑

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News & Trends

WhatsApp’s Upcoming AI Features are Game Changers: Redefining User Experience (3 minute read)

A new beta update for WhatsApp for Android features Meta AI integrated directly into the app's search bar. The new feature lets users ask questions through prompts within the search interface, making it easier to interact with Meta AI. WhatsApp is building an AI-powered tool for users to edit their photos, including adjusting the background, restyling, and expansion.

iOS 18 Lets Apps Be Placed Anywhere on Home Screen Grid (1 minute read)

While app icons will likely remain locked to an invisible grid system on the Home Screen to ensure uniformity, users may be able to arrange icons more freely on iOS 18. The update will reportedly introduce the ability to create blank spaces, rows, and columns between app icons.

Cloud-Based Platform RealityMAX Empowers 3D Creators Showcase Their Work Better (5 minute read)

RealityMAX is a cloud-based 3D collaboration tool that lets users create, compose, and present work in 3D. It allows users to add multiple 3D models to their workspace, arrange them, adjust their properties, and transform them to create 3D scenes. RealityMAX immerses users into an environment that changes how 3D is perceived, improves collaboration, and speeds up review and approval.
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Opinions & Tutorials

The new frontier of design systems (2 minute read)

Brad Frost, author of Atomic Design, shares his thoughts on why we should build a universal design system, how he uses AI to elevate design systems, how design systems designers can succeed in an AI world, the highest leverage activities for DS designers to do, and how designers can communicate better with engineers.

Design is all “BS” (6 minute read)

Not every tool in a designer’s toolbox is suited for every challenge — a part of being a good designer is knowing which tool is the most appropriate for the specific problem. Instead of focusing on tools alone, designers should visualize and validate visions, continuously cultivate consistency, demonstrate value, and rationalize design decisions.

Crafting Experiences: Uniting Rikyu’s Wisdom With Brand Experience Principles (18 minute read)

Rikyu is an ancient Japanese tea ceremony that goes beyond preparing tea - it is about creating a harmonious, meaningful experience. A compelling brand experience follows similar principles, balancing intention and harmony and attracting valuable attention from those invited into our brand spaces. Using Rikyu's wisdom as an inspiration, this article outlines the principles of building long-lasting customer relationships.
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Launches & Tools

AI Interaction Patterns (Website)

This growing library will help you understand the emerging patterns of interaction, affordances, and heuristics in AI.

Website Section Design Inspiration (Website)

Unsection streamlines inspiration processes with an extensive focused collection of website section designs.

Clueify (Figma plugin)

Simulate user behavior and pinpoint potential usability problems more efficiently.
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Miscellaneous

A first look at POV Budapest: a spanking new design conference taking over the city in September (3 minute read)

This September, Hungaria's capital will become home to the country’s first design conference — POV Budapest. Among the studios and designers set to give attendees a peek into their practices are Pentagram, Porto Rocha, Kurppa Hosk, Snøhetta, Koto, Bleed, and Anna Kulachek.

How Screen Readers Read Special Characters: An Update (27 minute read)

Users with visual impairments rely on screen readers to tell them what is on the screen. Generally, this works well for regular text, but other types of content can be harder to predict — until now. This deep dive explains how screen readers output special characters and offers best practices for using them more effectively.

Surviving the Taste Gap (3 minute read)

The taste gap is the difference between what you think is good and what you create. If you realize your work could be better, it means you have the potential to do better. You must live with the gap until your true potential is realized. Fortunately, there are a few ways to make this process less frustrating: keep a positive mindset, surround yourself with creatives, eliminate everything inhibiting your progress, and always be shipping work.
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Quick Links

Klara Graah’s illustrations are full of funny quips and childlike charm (1 minute read)

Inspired by things “made for or by children,” Klara Graah, a Copenhagen-based illustrator, boils scenes down to their essential parts.

The Three Capabilities Designers Need to Build for the AI Era (3 minute read)

Direct interaction between humans and machines creates experiences outside the constrained pathways we have become accustomed to providing - to navigate that new landscape, designers must master AI strategy, AI interaction design, and AI model design.

Six Styles for Naming Design Tokens (5 minute read)

Find inspiration for naming your design tokens with this comprehensive exploration of widespread and well-known naming conventions and their pros and cons.
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