The new iOS redesign is bold. It’s a radical shift toward a polar opposite direction from its felt, faux-leather, lifelike user interface aka Skeuomorphism. Now it’s completely bare and it’s shocking. Apple, known to execute confidently to the smallest details can no longer fulfill that promise. The icons are horrendous, the user interface lacks structure and everything feels unpolished. But it’s not all bad. Far from it.

There are many iOS prototyping tools out there: Briefs 2, POP, Prototypr just to name a few. The one that really struck me as the most efficient is Flinto by far. Ironically, it’s the only Web-based tool amongst them. And there is nothing better out there. It will literally take minutes to create a prototype that looks like it was made using Xcode Storyboard.

The purpose of prototyping in Xcode is to be able to create a super high fidelity flow using the exact same software that builds iOS Apps. In Xcode, there is no limit. You can embed beautiful interactions, transitions, animations, sounds to produce a true native experience. In this tutorial, I will focus on the Storyboard feature, a powerful tool in Xcode that allows you to design an App without a single line of code. You will be able to create a functional prototype in a matter of hours.

Experimentation is a highly rewarding part of a creative process. When you execute an idea and give yourself enough room, you can come up with inspired solutions. Ask yourself: what can you design if you had no superficial rules or trends to follow; only strong design foundations? In this article, I’ll share my methodologies on how I experiment with these two important aspects of design.

There has been a recent shift to Flat UI, No Interface and Hiding Navigation Menus. The basis of simplifying is good, but can be counter-intuitive if badly executed. “Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”, Albert Einstein said. When a product is too simple, it can become sterile or worse, it can be deceptive and frustrating at times.

This is a follow-up post to The Best Hidden Features In Sketch. After 5 months, I still find myself learning new design techniques in Sketch. It’s a very mature design tool now thanks to their constant updates. Some of their features are really useful, yet not obvious and probably underutilized. With this article, I’m hoping to reveal more of these hidden features and show how to use them.

I love the iPhone 5. The extra 640×76 pixels for content is very useful. But, I’ve had a lot of trouble accessing the most used button of all: the back button. As a rule in user experience, when a function is this frequently used, it should be made easily accessible. 49% of mobile users use their phone with one hand, this means that almost 1 out of 2 users use the back button several times a day. That’s billions of awkward taps daily. It’s even worse with bigger phones because you would almost certainly have to use your 2 hands to reach the back button. I guess that could be one reason why Android has their hardware back button on the bottom left, but still, it’s not that great since the back button can differ from the “up” button.

Many requested that I write a tutorial on how to get started with Sketch so here it is. Sketch is the best alternative to Photoshop and is completely focused on user interface design. I must admit that the resources for Sketch are underwhelming right now and I am on a mission to fix that. Note: while it’s good to learn through analyzing (or even re-using) works of others, do it only so that you can start your own. Re-imagine based on the problems you’re trying to solve. Learn the techniques so that you can apply your very own design thinking.

This will be part a series as I’m still in the middle of learning and updating my processes for Android. I used to not pay much attention to their guidelines because I considered them inconsistent and unactractive at the time, but I believe that now things have changed. I’m starting to see a pattern. That’s a good thing when it comes to a platform’s maturity.

It’s hard to learn a new design application. And especially when you’ve already invested many years in Photoshop, Illustrator or Fireworks. Luckily, Sketch isn’t hard to learn as explained in my previous articles Sketch VS Photoshop. But I’ve failed to explain all the intricate features that make this gem a lot more than meets the eyes. Simplicity can be deceiving. It is my aim with this article to show you that behind the curtains lies indispensable and brilliant features unique to Sketch that make this application a real beast.

Giving that extra care shows your passion as a designer. Yes, it does take more effort but as a reward, you will sleep better knowing that the 1x users will also enjoy your design. “Make the back of the fence look as beautiful as the front. Even though others won’t see it, you will know it’s there, and that will make you more proud of your design.” – Steve Jobs

Mobile is shaping the Web in a dramatic way. It is now more exciting than ever to design for the Web thanks to CSS3 / HTML5 and a plethora of accessible new tools like Sketch, Espresso, Slicy, xScope and frameworks like LESS, SASS, Bootstrap, Meteor etc. It is now a whole lot easier to get a Website out, make it cross-browsers and adaptable, mobile-friendly by typing a few beautiful lines of codes.

Working on a large project often requires you to design wireframes to communicate complex ideas before spending countless hours polishing. There are many tools for wireframing ranging from the simplistic Balsamiq to the highly collaborative Axure, which costs a fortune. Personally, I use Sketch, a powerful vector-based design tool. With features like Artboard, Linked Styles and Export Slices to PDF, Sketch is the perfect wireframing tool for designers obsessed with pixel perfection.

As one dream ends, another begins. I’ve had the incredible opportunity to have lived and worked in San Francisco for a little longer than a year. I’ve learned so much. As I met new designers, I made new friends. I will be missing them dearly as I am about to open a new chapter in my life. I will be traveling around the world, starting in South East Asia. I will be absorbing cultures like a sponge and I will seek those inspirations to influence my design.

About a month ago, I decided to start a new discipline: write a short piece about design every day using Day One, which has a useful daily reminder. My goal was to become a better designer. It worked. I started to obsess more over my design process and made many fascinating case studies. I had no idea that by sharing my design decisions and techniques to the world, it would help thousands designers improve their own. During that one month period, over 70 thousands unique visitors came to my blog seeking information about Sketch, Android design and Solving The Back Button. Many came back. Designers would ask me questions directly on Twitter, to which I happily replied. With this article, I’d like to share with you what I learned through this humbling journey.

There is a common technique in fine art: painters and sculptors would take a real life model and use that as a reference to create something entirely new. While that approach is not foreign in the digital world, far too often designers would use references that have already been created and well polished. That becomes a problem when the difference between the reference and the finished product is too little, thus we get thoughtless copies.

A lot of designers throw around the term pixel perfection. But what does it really mean? Googling it really didn’t help. With this article, I am going to not only attempt to define it but also give clear examples on how to achieve it. I will also share design files from which you can deconstruct and analyze.