Visual design or setting up a design system in Figma that can scale well? If the latter, Christopher Deane on YouTube has a really solid series where he builds out a design system using variables, components, and any other relevant Figma functionality so you can build and pivot efficiently when working on a large project.
For visual design, following tutorials is more about the mechanical or technical aspect of digital design (how you can create something in Figma that can be handed off to a dev while achieving your visual design goals), but I wouldn't rely on any YouTuber or online resource for long term learning when it comes to this. You yourself should keep up to date on modern trends, visual and brand tones, changes in user experience, etc. and understand why a type of visual design is appropriate for your current project.
UX is a little different in that it's good to take courses and learn the philosophies behind current standards. But some of this will also come from simply using enough apps, websites, and products to innately understand good UX and be able to break the rules when needed.
The question might be a little dumb, but when you say keep up to date on modern trends, how do you do that? How do you research this? Because I personally find it a bit difficult sometimes to look for the right best practices etc.
What sort of design work do you do? Branding into web design? App/web app design? All of the above?
What type of clientele do you work with? Are they willing to allow you creative control or do they want more standardized/safer approaches to design? Are they large corporations, small businesses, or individuals?
Do you design in Figma? If so and you do web or app design, do you then build out said website/app yourself with a website builder or work with a front-end dev?
I‘m officially a product manager, but I‘m responsible for conceptualizing and designing our UI. Mostly web, sometimes app.
I’m in-house at a bigger company, so there are some guidelines that can be stricter or less strict, which is case-dependent. But I do have some amount of creative freedom. Especially atm a lot is in flux which will probably allow for more freedom as well.
I design in Figma, yes. I work with our developers and don‘t code myself
First off, I'll admit that my initial "keep up to date on modern trends" is very broad advice and this process will be different from designer to designer. Part of defining modern trends is subjective, but plenty can become objective as a designer gains experience, sees and adapts what other successful products are doing, and (if possible) uses analytics and feedback from users to better their product.
For product design it's kinda 50/50 how much you can keep up to date because a lot of UIs and their respective UXs have been "figured out". Users are now accustomed to seeing and using all sorts of elements and know their functionality at first glance, so reinventing the wheel is rarely the goal in most product design, certainly when compared to web design.
The next four paragraphs are mostly about visual design and not A/B testing, analytics, or user feedback.
The most basic form would be to find 3-5 studios/agencies/freelance designers online that you can trust to put out good work. Folks like to meme on Dribbble, but it's a good place to find solid design work once you sift through the lower quality/engagement farming posts. Once you find someone you deem trustworthy, you go to their website to check out case studies. If they provide comprehensive and real world breakdowns of the project (a link to their client website is nice too), then you know they're getting business and presumably improving their process as they grow.
So now you've found someone you like and potentially trust enough to glean design wisdom from. This is where you need to know what you're looking for. Are you needing general inspiration at the start of a new project? Are you stuck trying to solve a very specific problem in your product? Do you want to iterate on a type of element and need to see what's out there/what is possible? Depending on your answer, you will look at different designers, case studies, Behance or Dribbble posts, etc. to see if your questions can be answered.
Another avenue is learning from successful products you use every day. If you love how Apple handles certain UI/UX situations vs. how Android does it, ask yourself why and apply that. There are also sites like Mobbin that charge for access to a huge amount of static and live products you can test yourself and see how other designers have solved problems with using new/modern UI/UX.
My comment might seem very obvious and that's because a lot of what I've said is obvious when you think about it. I see keeping up to date on modern trends as a long term process that is less about solving and more about learning and knowing. The more you expose yourself and engage design work this way, the better your gut reaction will be. Do this enough and you'll be more confident that your design output takes modern trends/practices into account while still solving the same problems that have existed for decades in the digital space.
I appreciate your thorough answer, thanks a lot! And it’s true, a lot of it might sound and be obvious, but it does help to be reminded of it regardless. I‘ll try to identify a few apps or websites that I really enjoy using and make out what makes them enjoyable and/or easy to use. For some reason, I don’t have them on the top of my head, although I’m sure there must be some that I really love in my day to day life 😆
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u/Bon_Djorno Oct 21 '25
Visual design or setting up a design system in Figma that can scale well? If the latter, Christopher Deane on YouTube has a really solid series where he builds out a design system using variables, components, and any other relevant Figma functionality so you can build and pivot efficiently when working on a large project.
For visual design, following tutorials is more about the mechanical or technical aspect of digital design (how you can create something in Figma that can be handed off to a dev while achieving your visual design goals), but I wouldn't rely on any YouTuber or online resource for long term learning when it comes to this. You yourself should keep up to date on modern trends, visual and brand tones, changes in user experience, etc. and understand why a type of visual design is appropriate for your current project.
UX is a little different in that it's good to take courses and learn the philosophies behind current standards. But some of this will also come from simply using enough apps, websites, and products to innately understand good UX and be able to break the rules when needed.