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Building better UI in Figma

 June 18, 2023

Thanks to everyone who joined us the night of June 15 with Jennifer Smith for another session of our monthly speaker series.

Jennifer shared with us a beginner’s guide on building a UI in Figma to convert it into a reusable design system and create shareable prototypes.

If you missed the presentation, you can view a recording on the UXPA Boston YouTube page.

If you would like to work alongside the presentation, you can download a copy of Jennifer’s files.

In this session, you’ll learn how to build a UI in Figma to convert it into a reusable design system easily.

You see how artwork is prepped to become viable components and learn to override and update layout constraints. You also learn best practices for naming and organizing your design elements and other content. This session includes helpful tips and tricks throughout.

  • Frames in more detail
  • Layout controls and constraints
  • Components
  • Styles
  • Best practices for naming and organizing layers

Taking it to the next level

If you want to build on the topics discussed in this session, we have a companion, in-person workshop planned for next weekend: Taking Figma to the Next Level.

About our workshop

Take Figma to the next level in this informative in-person workshop.

This Figma workshop is for those who have been creating basic user interfaces and prototypes but want to focus on more responsive and reusable components. You’ll see how to create and build UI patterns and add them to a design library. You’ll also discover best practices for naming and organizing type, color styles, and components. Lots of tips and tricks are demonstrated throughout this workshop.

  • Frames vs Grouping and Auto Layout
  • Layer organization
  • Components, variables, and more
  • Prototyping tips and tricks

Register for the workshop

About our speaker

Jennifer Smith, she/her

Jennifer co-founded American Graphics over 25 years ago, leading the experience design practice. Over the years, she has had the opportunity to work closely with user experience and visual design teams from hundreds of organizations, from Fortune 500 companies to smaller organizations. She helps agencies and internal teams discover how to build information and visual designs to create successful experiences. Jennifer continues to take on projects and has designed websites, mobile apps, and IoT devices. Jennifer is also a 3X Microsoft MVP and a Microsoft artist in residence.

 

About our partners

American Graphics Institute (AGI)

For more than 25 years, American Graphics Institute has provided training programs to 50,000 clients, including 90 Fortune 100 companies. We’ve been hired by Adobe, Apple, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to deliver UX training, Photoshop classes, InDesign courses, and more to their employees.

Humana

We have always believed everyone should be able to achieve their best health. While healthcare can be complicated, when we work together, it doesn’t have to be. Humana makes it simple by offering personalized care, from people who care. We combine innovation with compassion to change the future of healthcare. We get to know the unique needs of our members and our communities, and, together, we create solutions to help people achieve the best version of themselves.

Meet our Speaker: Ryan Rumsey

 April 14, 2023

As part of our UXPA Boston’s monthly speaker series, we’re thrilled to have Ryan Rumsey as our April speaker.

His presentation, “It’s Time We Claim Our Collective Agency,” will provide designers with pragmatic ways to make business sense, challenge the status quo, and be the leader they want to work for.

Register for the event on Eventbrite.

It’s happening online on Thursday, April 20 · 6:30 – 8:30pm EDT. Attendance is free.

 

About the Presentation

There’s a gap. Can you see it?

We know we have valuable insights, yet we aren’t always heard in the ways we expect. We want to push for more human, societal, environmental, and communal value, but our colleagues lack some of the same enthusiasm or understanding. We fight hard for a seat at the table, but sitting there isn’t relieving our frustrations.

Changing how business decisions are made is the hardest problem for designers at all levels. To get there, we have to leave our comfort zones. We have to claim our agency as design leaders. This talk will provide pragmatic ways to make more business sense, challenge the status quo and be the leader you want to work for.

 

About our Speaker

Ryan Rumsey (he/him)

Ryan Rumsey is the author of Business Thinking for Designers, founder of Chief Design Officer School, and CEO of Second Wave Dive, a foundational community for the next generation of design leaders and executives.

For 20+ years, he worked as a designer and executive at Apple, Electronic Arts, USAA, Nestlé, and Comcast. Highlights include designing the first capitally funded Learning Management System at Apple, using CSS as a security measure, selling design systems before asking for buy-in, and building teams of incredibly talented and impactful designers, developers, researchers, PMs—humans.

He is a father, a husband, and an avid fan of Liverpool Football Club. His life experiences include working on a farm, acting in a Staind music video, and living in an eco-cohousing community.

 

Want to learn more about him?

Get a free copy of Business Thinking for Designers from InVision. The book discusses how to bring a business mind to design and transform your career and company. In the book, he shares the essential vocabulary and strategies to effectively communicate with your business partners, plus tools, tips, and frameworks that you can put right to work. The book is available as a free download in epub, pdf, and audiobook formats.

In this interview with InVision, he discusses the value of business thinking for designers and why it’s more important now than ever that designers bring a business mind to design.

You can also listen to “Anything But Design,” a podcast about weird, wonderful, and unexpected stories about designers that are anything but design. Host Ryan Rumsey welcomes different design leaders each week, and together, they talk about what they want to discuss. They take these conversations, mix them up, and see what happens each week.

Subscribe to the podcast, Anything But Design.

2022 Conference Recap

 February 1, 2023

Running a conference takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication.

On Friday, October 14, at the Sheraton Boston Hotel, we had 18 sponsors and over 640 attendees at our annual UXPA Boston Conference – our first in-person conference in over three years.

A big shout out to our attendees, sponsors, volunteers, group mentors, lunchtime table topic leaders, conference submission reviewers, and the UXPA Boston Board of Directors. You rock!

We had many highlights, including:

  • Over 640 attendees
  • 18 sponsors
  • 42 sessions, including:
    • Group Mentoring session
    • Lunchtime Table Topics session
    • Ten-Minute Talks session
  • 68 speakers
  • Over 80 volunteers and contributors

This year we decided to recruit five thought leaders in the UX field, who curated five tracks for our conference:

  1. “Career Development and Personal Growth,” curated by Darren Hood
  2. “Design for Belonging,” curated by Amy Bucher
  3. “Design in Society,” curated by Rachael Dietkus
  4. “Strategy and UX Entrepreneurship,” curated by Susan Rice
  5. “User Research” curated by Meena Kothandaraman

All the work that went into the reviews and curation of the conference submissions resulted in 40 first-time presenters (out of 68 total) at the conference.

The networking at the event was fantastic. It was wonderful catching up with old friends and making new ones. I hope everyone enjoyed the conference as much as I did.

Our UXPA Boston community is vital. We will continue planning new events, including monthly meetings and annual conferences. But we need your help.

Reach out to us at https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/7071498/Help-Us-Make-UXPA-Boston-Even-Better and let us know how you can contribute to this great community of ours, which now has over 4,000 members.

2022 Conference Slides

Hey UXPA Boston Community!

Did you know you can find links to slide decks of speakers from the UXPA Boston conference on Sched?

To find a slide deck:

  1. Go to https://lnkd.in/e326HvUd
  2. Click on the session you want the slide deck for
  3. Find the link to the slide deck just under their speaker profiles.