Using Nested Symbols in Sketch to Build Powerful, Customizable, Enterprise UI Mock-ups – Part 3: Putting it All Together

In the previous two posts, we went through creating some basic building blocks, such as colors and icons as symbols, and combining them into nested symbols for buttons and table cell elements. If you’ve already read those two posts, I hope you were able to think of other elements that could be “symbolized”–such as primary […]

Using Nested Symbols in Sketch to Build Powerful, Customizable, Enterprise UI Mock-ups – Part 2: Buttons and Table Elements

In Part 1, I covered some basic building blocks for nested symbols—colors and icons—as well as grouping symbol groups and proper naming conventions. In this post, I want to expand on nested symbols to create buttons and table elements that you can quickly customize on the fly.

Using Nested Symbols in Sketch to Build Powerful, Customizable, Enterprise UI Mock-ups – Part 1: Getting Started

If you have found this article, chances are you are working on some Enterprise-level UI mock-ups. Chances are, you find yourself recreating the same navigation elements, buttons, filter lists, table headers, and cells…Chances are, you’ve noticed that there are many elements that are quite similar, but have minor differences. And chances are, using customizable symbols […]

Creating a Dynamic Catalog with InDesign Templates & XML Data

My task for a recent project was creating a print catalog. The catalog content was constantly being updated, but each entry needed to have the same visual style. I knew there must be a way to do a majority of the design work and then “data merge” the content to the style, but it sure […]

How InVision’s Inspect Can Give Your Team One Source of Design Truth

Turning your visual designs into a polished product can be a challenge. This is especially true when the person creating the visuals is not the one to create the code. Depending on your project’s team structure, you as a designer may have heard questions like this: “Can you just send me the Sketch file?” “Can you […]

SVGO – A Handy Command-Line Tool for Compressing SVG Images

I recently wrote a series of posts about image optimization and the importance of reducing image file sizes on websites (Part 1, Part 2). When it comes to optimizing images, there are many techniques and tools available. One of my favorites is a tool called SVGO, short for SVG Optimizer. As you might guess, SVGO […]

Prototyping with AngularJS & Google Sheets

I just spent a week prototyping with AngularJS and Google Sheets. It turned out to be a powerful and relatively simple way to get a working prototype up and running fast! I wanted to share what I learned to hopefully help other designers leverage these tools for quick prototyping.

An Introduction to Website Animation with Velocity.js

Have you tried adding animation to your websites? Introducing motion can delight users, and more importantly, it can be used to provide affordance to information on the page. This post walks you through your first animation, including how to set up your webpage and how to animate a list.

Heuristics and Practical Plans for Content Strategy

In my last post on content strategy, I talked about some high-level practices for strategizing around website content. I advocated for aligning content with user goals and being merciless toward your content when you prioritize quality over quantity. Successful content is useful to users and entertaining. Now I’d like to look at some tactical practices […]

Create a Local Copy of a Website with HTTrack

I’ve recently been experimenting with HTTrack, an open-source utility that makes it possible to download a full copy of any website. HTTrack is essentially a web crawler, allowing users to retrieve every page of a website merely by pointing the tool to the site’s homepage. From the HTTrack homepage: “[HTTrack] allows you to download a […]

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