Is Sketch Still King? My First Impressions of Figma

I love Sketch — it’s my go-to for wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and even prototyping. I’ve become as proficient as I can, including mastering nested symbols and utilizing JSON data connections to populate real data into static designs. But I recently started helping a client’s design team build out their design system. The problem? They exclusively […]

A “Design Problem” Is Everyone’s Problem

“Well, that sounds like a ‘design’ problem.” It’s a phrase I’ve heard many times in my career. I used to love it. There was a unique challenge, and everyone was relying on designers to find the solution. But recently, it’s started to dawn on me that this phrase has not been used appropriately, or rather, […]

Getting Through Limitation Fatigue in Software Design

Design thrives on rules and limitations. It’s within these boundaries that we can flex our creative problem-solving skills and come up with great solutions. Sometimes, however, a project’s limitations can feel like an absolute brick wall that we can’t see beyond. It can be incredibly draining. How do we get beyond this rut? I want […]

Five Tips for a Successful Design Portfolio Review; Are You Ready?

As a student, it was during my final portfolio review that I got my big break (by talking to the person that would become my first boss and employer). It was also during the portfolio review process that design professionals reinforced what my professors had been teaching us all along (which, maaaaaaaybe, I was too […]

Don’t Pay Consultants to be ‘Yes-People’

I’ve always had a hard time talking to “blue-sky” thinkers and entrepreneurs with the “next big idea.” It’s not because I don’t enjoy talking to them. It’s the opposite — they hate when I question them. I’ve been guilty of this, too. You’re passionate about your good ideas — you love them. And when people […]

Using Sketch Symbols to Build a Dynamic Breadcrumb

While working on a design system for a client, a colleague and I were building out our components in Sketch. It was important to utilize symbols for nearly everything so we could maintain consistency throughout our designs. It was also important that we could make global changes quickly when needed.

Don’t Forget: Design Is Also Agile

Agile methodology, in its truest form, is not a series of processes, sprint cadences, and ceremonies. It’s the ability to quickly adapt or pivot when faced with unforeseen challenges or new information. It often comes into play while reprioritizing a backlog of work or deciding on a quicker/cheaper way to implement a feature during development. […]

Users Absorb Rules (Until They Can’t Trust Them)

The other day, I was golfing in my league, at a course I had played many times. As I was trying to figure out which club I should use for my second shot, I looked around the course for something specific—an indicator to let me know how far away I was from the pin. This […]

Stop Saying “User” when There Is No “User”

But wait, isn’t everything we do for users? Nope! I’m really beginning to hate the term “user.” It has become mainstream. Much as we say “google it” when we mean “search for something on a search engine,” “user” has become synonymous with anything we do in the design/development/product world.

Three Tips for Taking Over Design on an Existing Project

I think it’s fair to say that, in general, designers prefer a blank canvas—a fresh start. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes we have to take over legacy projects or step into projects that are ongoing. There are a few ways to make sure the engagement is positive for the client and fulfilling for […]

Atomic Spin

Atomic Object’s blog on everything we find fascinating.

By: Kyle Harris

Author: Kyle Harris