🧵 Are you prepared for the new year? Here are 15 things I always revisit by the end of the year:

1. Turn off all your notifications:

– email
– LinkedIn (linkedin.com/help/linkedin/…),
– Whatsapp (faq.whatsapp.com/79706952152288…),
– Twitter (help.twitter.com/en/managing-yo…) etc. 2. Revisit your meeting availability times (Calendly, Doodle etc.):

– Block out 1–2 days entirely if you can;
– For those days when you are available, set out just a 2–4h time window to avoid a pile of back-to-back meetings.

The time of stock images is over. In our design process, we can't rely on AI's work, but we can use it as inspiration and research tool. Interesting ideas from @erikdkennedy in his recent newsletter Design Hacks (learnui.design/newsletter.html) (very recommended, btw): – For AI Portraits, use Lexica Aperture (lexica.art/aperture),
– For AI headlines and CTAs, use ChatGPT (chat.openai.com),
– For AI textures, icons and visual assets, use DALL-E (openai.com/dall-e-2/),

🔖 Design inspiration! Where do you find interesting websites? Below is the list of websites that I frequently visit to explore some unusual designs for inspiration:

– Minimal design (httpster.net/2022/nov/) curated by Dominic Whittle and Tom Fitzgerald at Guvnor, – Low Carbon Websites (lowwwcarbon.com) curated by @Nickylewlew,
– One Page Love (onepagelove.com), with landing pages, templates and resources, curated by @robhope,
– Interaction patterns DesignVault (designvault.io), curated by @daleanthony

50 Things To Do Before Leaving For A Trip, with just a few things I always check before leaving house for a trip (except the obvious things):

1. Take a shower in the morning
2. Create a new expenses report
3. Take foreign coins
4. Take foreign charging adapters if needed 5. Take the HDMI cable
6. Charge the tooth brusher
7. Charge the razor, take the blades
8. Charge the headphones
9. Charge the external power bank
10. Charge the Bluetooth keyboard
11. Charge the laptop fully
12. Check weather forecast
13. Check car sharing services (Lyft, Bolt)

🔖 Design KPIs. We often think that design is subjective, a matter of taste or preference. It doesn't have to be. We should be able to measure how well a particular design solves a particular problem. That's why recently I started setting up Design KPIs for every project. These design KPIs inform, shape and restrict design decisions. They also tend to eliminate personal biases and remove personal preferences out of equation. This is what @gerrymcgovern calls “evidence-based design”. We measure and we improve usability, testing over time.