December 03, 2018
After spending the latter of last week attending the 2018 Awwwards Digital Thinkers Conference, we’ve whipped up the moments that resonated the most through our collective experiences.
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Pablo Stanley Talks UI Animation
Pablo’s humorous animations and illustrations on designteam.io and the enthusiastic breakdown on creating thoughtful UI animations was yummy designer candy.
“Think of UI animation as the body language of a product” – Pablo Stanley
Guiding principles of UI animation, according to Pablo:
- It’s Functional
Let animation point people to the right path, guide them, or help them. - Feels Natural
Create movement that makes sense, is tactile, and feels like the real world. - Adds Character
Celebrates moments of the user journey and expresses brand style.
More on Pablo:
The Design Team Comic
PabloStanley.com
A Scalable System for Creating and Retaining Diverse Talent for Your Team
Ryan Carson of Treehouse shared an inspiring project they’ve been working on over the past year, with the goal of opening up the door to women and people of color into the tech space. We’re strong believers in if you always pick the person with the most experience, you’ll always end up with the same kinds of people that have always been given those opportunities.
“If you don’t see anyone like you in the tech industry, and no one around you is in the tech industry, it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll even know or believe you can get a job in tech.”
“Not everyone can afford a $15,000 bootcamp” – Ryan Carson
Where the idea started: FutureTech
How it’s evolved: TalentPath
Generative Design, A Walk Through Nike's Generative Track Shoe Design
Lysandre Follet, Nike’s Director of Generative Design, motivated us with the unlimited design potential of the generative design space. Instead of months and weeks, new shoe prototypes are being created in hours. Instead of creating a shoe mold at one size and scaling up and down from there, Lysandre showed how they are now creating custom patterns and forms for each size. Makes sense to us!
“Computer becomes a partner in creation” – Lysandre Follet
Dana James Mwangi on Lessons of Confidence
Dana inspired and entertained us with insights on how to gain confidence as a designer (and person). She reminded us that most people, whether client or creative, deal with ‘imposter’ syndrome.
“Fear is your tool, not your enemy.” – Dana James Mwangi
Making Technology More Human with Claudio Guglieri
Based on the work of over 100 employees, Claudio Guglieri’s presentation was a research-driven look into Microsoft Fluent design. It didn’t feel like a commercial, just a beautiful retelling of thousands of hours of work and research at the intersection of design and technology. How to maintain those human qualities within new technology is a very important design challenge that we dig into everyday at Valtech.
“Design trends are irrelevant when you focus on users needs” – Claudio Guglieri
Thanks for the Replenishment, Awwwards
Overall our team would recommend the Awwwards Digital Thinkers Conference. Whether looking for inspiration, new tools, or just validation that you’re already doing it all right :), this is a good one. We left feeling creatively charged and thankful.
