Vol. 008 - What are the best practices to use mockups in your portfolio?

Hi designers,

Welcome to Vol. 008 of the UX Jetpack Newsletter, where I share job searching tips weekly. This week we are talking about:

1. What are the best practices to use mockups in your portfolio?
2. 👉 We no longer need UI designers?!
3. 🏗️ Practical Guide to Design System Components
4. Can AI pick and pair fonts better than you?

If you enjoy those tips, please consider sharing them with your friends. They can sign up at https://uxjetpack.com/newsletter

What are the best practices to use mockups in your portfolio?

Here are 4 best practices when using mockups in your portfolio.

1. Avoid using generic stock-photo-like mockups
   Try to shoot your own mockup or design a unique background. So all your visuals feel cohesive with your website or your design.
2. Only use isometric mockups for hero images
   Isometric mockups can be really cool to look at, but sometimes the novelty of the mockup can overshadow your design. People want to appreciate your design, not the mockup.
3. Using animated mockups to make your site more fun
   Animated mockup can be a great tool to add some playfulness to your website. Be careful tho, you don’t want to overdo it and make it difficult for people to view your design. You can do this with tools like rotato.app or jitter.video/templates/devices

1. Make sure everything is aligned correctly
   The last thing you want to do is to put your design in a mockup that doesn’t fit. Small detail like this definitely matters.

👉 We no longer need UI designers?!

Vercel is launching a private beta for their AI-generated user interface system. Simply tell it your needs, and the AI will generate the design and React code, based on Shadcn UI and Tailwind CSS.

https://v0.dev/

But that's not all. Relume has recently released their largest Figma and Webflow library. Just tell the AI what website you want, and it will generate the sitemap and wireframe in seconds.

https://library.relume.io/

We're witnessing a turning point in design. With numerous design systems and components, coupled with AI's ability to comprehend natural language and code, the days of being a mere drag-and-drop component Lego player are done. AI can now do that for us.

So, what's next for us? It's time to shift our focus to the strategic side of design. We need to dedicate more time to understanding why we design and the impact we, as designers, can make on our users and the world.

🏗️ Practical Guide to Design System Components

Might be the best free guide out there to teach you how to build your design system. From research to release.

https://redesigningdesign.systems

Can AI pick and pair fonts better than you?

Have you ever considered using AI to help you pick fonts for your next projects?

In this article, Matej Latin explores how well AI tools like FontJoy and ChatGPT can pick and pair fonts for you.

https://betterwebtype.com/is-ai-better-at-picking-and-pairing-fonts-than-you/