#34 - Design thinking in primitives

Hey folks,

Here are a few things I thought were worth sharing this week.

Sketch Libraries and primitives #

Using Sketch Libraries and primitives to build a better system of buttons is my second article on working with Sketch Libraries to build design systems. This one presents a case for adopting design thinking in primitives and

looks at how to implement the method when building components. If you’re interested in building the primitive Libraries themselves, check out this article first.

More free CSS courses #

CSS grid with Wes Bos and Learn Flexbox for Free are two more offerings to add to the ever growing list of very good free CSS courses out there.

Email templates: keep it simple #

Does the Perfect Email Template Exist? We Used Data to Find Out.

“Over the years, we’ve seen that our simple 1 column layout gets used the most often, with 48% of sent campaigns utilizing it. The second most-used template is our 1:2 column, and it significantly trails our 1 column layout with only 4.8% usage.”

With millions of customers (including myself!) sending billions of emails, it’s worth reading what Mailchimp have to say about email design.

Improving Typography #

Improving Web and Mobile App Typography – a helpful video on 5 basic guidelines from Sketch Together.

Best style guide resources #

You’re probably already familiar with styleguides.io, the go-to resource for discovering pattern libraries and content style guides. But do you know about Adele, the repository of publicly available design systems and pattern libraries from UXPin? A few of my favourite listed are IBM’s Carbon Design System and Atlassian Design.

The new face of the BBC #

Introducing Reith is well worth watching if systems and scalability in type design interest you. With so many brands launching bespoke type families last year, BBC Reith is still my personal favourite. Whilst you’re on the GEL site make sure you check out the BBC typography guidelines.


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