Design Faster: UI Kits, Templates & Tips

25/07/2025

Heyyyy guys!

So first off, I’m sorry I’ve been away from posting on the page. I’ve been swamped with work, taking a coursera course and even been under the weather to boot but next week, I’ll be returning with fresh posts, some freebies, and giveaway designs for web/product designers.

Be expectant!!😌

02/07/2025

NEW POST ALERT!!
NEW POST ALERT!!!

The Best YouTube Channels to Learn UI/UX, Web & Product Design (For Beginners)

Free, beginner-friendly resources you can binge today.

You are sitting in your living room, scrolling through X or LinkedIn and seeing lots of "Thank you, Figma" posts of people's new MacBooks, Cars, and even houses and wondering about how to start learning without spending N80,000 on some course or bootcamp that is "guaranteed to help you master design and land a six-figure role in less than 6 months". 🤣

Well, I am here to give you the secret: you don't need to spend all that on a course to learn. All you need is data, your device, and a hunger to learn.

YouTube is your best friend.
But not all channels are created equal.

After years in the design space, here are the channels I personally recommend for anyone serious about learning design the smart way — not just making pretty UIs.

🎓 1. Mizko
Best for: UX strategy, real-world product design, mentorship mindset
Mizko doesn’t sugarcoat. His channel is filled with design breakdowns, UX case studies, and career mindset content that will whip you into a professional’s shape. He’s one of the few creators showing how to actually think like a product designer.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧠 2. Flux Academy (Ran Segall)
Best for: Web design systems, freelancing, and Webflow/Framer
Ran breaks down not just design but also the business of design — super helpful for freelancers. Great for learning design thinking, process, and building stunning responsive websites.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧩 3. Jesse Showalter
Best for: UI/UX, career advice, productivity, and Figma
Think of Jesse as your design big brother. His tutorials are practical, beginner-friendly, and super real about freelancing, workflows, and what it’s like being a working designer.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧠 4. Self-Made Web Designer (Chris Misterek)
Best for: Beginners, career switchers, and practical web design
Chris focuses on helping everyday people (especially career switchers) learn design and start freelance web design careers. Super down-to-earth and motivational without being fluffy.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

💡 5. Kole Jain
Best for: UI case studies, design storytelling, and strategy
Kole’s style is clean and smart. He walks through how to approach UI problems, with solid design rationale. If you want to stop making random pretty UIs and start designing with purpose, follow this guy.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

⚙️ 6. Charles Postiaux
Best for: Figma techniques, freelance tips, career acceleration
Charles delivers punchy, real-world advice for new designers and freelancers. His videos often explore topics like pricing, Figma efficiency, and building a strong design process.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🎨 7. Payton Clark Smith
Best for: Web design tutorials, Framer, no-code design
If you want to learn how to actually build sites with modern tools like Framer or learn clean design composition, Payton’s your guy. He also shares his personal design workflow and business insights.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🔍 8. AJ&Smart
Best for: UX strategy, design sprints, team-based product thinking
One of the best channels to learn what real product design looks like inside companies. If you want to go beyond screens and think like a problem-solver, AJ&Smart is a goldmine.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

📐 9. DesignCourse (Gary Simon)
Best for: Web UI design + frontend awareness
Gary's videos are ideal if you want to understand both the look and function of modern web design. He also helps you understand how frontend developers work, which will 10x your collaboration skills.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧰 10. Punit Chawla
Best for: Clean UI tutorials, app design, and Figma use
Punit is focused and visual. His tutorials are a mix of real app design, redesigns, and UI challenge walkthroughs that sharpen your attention to detail.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

✍️ 11. CharliMarieTV
Best for: In-house designer POV, career development, and daily workflow
Charli shares her life and lessons as a product designer at ConvertKit. If you're curious what it's like working in a real tech company, her insights are gold.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🔧 Bonus Channels to Check Out:
Kevin Powell – Learn CSS as a designer

Figma Official – For tool deep-dives

NNGroup – For deep UX theory and usability research

Piximperfect – For graphic clean-up and polish

🧠 Final Thoughts
You don’t need to pay thousands to become a great designer.
You just need curiosity, consistency, and the right mentors — many of whom are already on YouTube for free.

Pick 2 or 3 of these creators, subscribe, take notes, replicate what they teach, and apply it to your own projects.

We rise by lifting others — and YouTube is a great place to start that climb.

Need a free 1:1 mentorship for a week? Drop a comment below and tell me about your design journey so far. I will make sure to get back to you as soon as I can.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WALK THIS JOURNEY ALONE AND CONFUSED.

Let’s make this resource go far.

02/07/2025

The Best YouTube Channels to Learn UI/UX, Web & Product Design (For Beginners)

Free, beginner-friendly resources you can binge today.

You are sitting in your living room, scrolling through X or LinkedIn and seeing lots of "Thank you, Figma" posts of people's new MacBooks, Cars, and even houses and wondering about how to start learning without spending N80,000 on some course or bootcamp that is "guaranteed to help you master design and land a six-figure role in less than 6 months". 🤣

Well, I am here to give you the secret: you don't need to spend all that on a course to learn. All you need is data, your device, and a hunger to learn.

YouTube is your best friend.
But not all channels are created equal.

After years in the design space, here are the channels I personally recommend for anyone serious about learning design the smart way — not just making pretty UIs.

🎓 1. Mizko
Best for: UX strategy, real-world product design, mentorship mindset
Mizko doesn’t sugarcoat. His channel is filled with design breakdowns, UX case studies, and career mindset content that will whip you into a professional’s shape. He’s one of the few creators showing how to actually think like a product designer.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧠 2. Flux Academy (Ran Segall)
Best for: Web design systems, freelancing, and Webflow/Framer
Ran breaks down not just design but also the business of design — super helpful for freelancers. Great for learning design thinking, process, and building stunning responsive websites.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧩 3. Jesse Showalter
Best for: UI/UX, career advice, productivity, and Figma
Think of Jesse as your design big brother. His tutorials are practical, beginner-friendly, and super real about freelancing, workflows, and what it’s like being a working designer.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧠 4. Self-Made Web Designer (Chris Misterek)
Best for: Beginners, career switchers, and practical web design
Chris focuses on helping everyday people (especially career switchers) learn design and start freelance web design careers. Super down-to-earth and motivational without being fluffy.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

💡 5. Kole Jain
Best for: UI case studies, design storytelling, and strategy
Kole’s style is clean and smart. He walks through how to approach UI problems, with solid design rationale. If you want to stop making random pretty UIs and start designing with purpose, follow this guy.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

⚙️ 6. Charles Postiaux
Best for: Figma techniques, freelance tips, career acceleration
Charles delivers punchy, real-world advice for new designers and freelancers. His videos often explore topics like pricing, Figma efficiency, and building a strong design process.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🎨 7. Payton Clark Smith
Best for: Web design tutorials, Framer, no-code design
If you want to learn how to actually build sites with modern tools like Framer or learn clean design composition, Payton’s your guy. He also shares his personal design workflow and business insights.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🔍 8. AJ&Smart
Best for: UX strategy, design sprints, team-based product thinking
One of the best channels to learn what real product design looks like inside companies. If you want to go beyond screens and think like a problem-solver, AJ&Smart is a goldmine.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

📐 9. DesignCourse (Gary Simon)
Best for: Web UI design + frontend awareness
Gary's videos are ideal if you want to understand both the look and function of modern web design. He also helps you understand how frontend developers work, which will 10x your collaboration skills.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🧰 10. Punit Chawla
Best for: Clean UI tutorials, app design, and Figma use
Punit is focused and visual. His tutorials are a mix of real app design, redesigns, and UI challenge walkthroughs that sharpen your attention to detail.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

✍️ 11. CharliMarieTV
Best for: In-house designer POV, career development, and daily workflow
Charli shares her life and lessons as a product designer at ConvertKit. If you're curious what it's like working in a real tech company, her insights are gold.

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/

🔧 Bonus Channels to Check Out:
Kevin Powell – Learn CSS as a designer

Figma Official – For tool deep-dives

NNGroup – For deep UX theory and usability research

Piximperfect – For graphic clean-up and polish

🧠 Final Thoughts
You don’t need to pay thousands to become a great designer.
You just need curiosity, consistency, and the right mentors — many of whom are already on YouTube for free.

Pick 2 or 3 of these creators, subscribe, take notes, replicate what they teach, and apply it to your own projects.

We rise by lifting others — and YouTube is a great place to start that climb.

Need a free 1:1 mentorship for a week? Drop a comment below and tell me about your design journey so far. I will make sure to get back to you as soon as I can.

YOU DON'T HAVE TO WALK THIS JOURNEY ALONE AND CONFUSED.

Let’s make this resource go far.

25/06/2025

How to Beat Out 80% of Designers in 2025

No fluff. Just honest checkpoints to outpace the crowd.

You didn’t misread that title. This post is especially for new web/product designers just starting their journey in 2025.

No, I’m not selling you a “land your first job in 6 weeks” dream. Design isn’t a sprint — it’s a marathon.

But if you're serious and willing to do the work, I’m going to show you the 8 checkpoints that can help you leave 80% of other designers in the dust.

🧭 1. Know Why You're Here
Before anything else, be honest with yourself:
Why did you start designing?

Because someone on Instagram said “Thank you Figma” while posing beside a new Benz?
That’s not going to keep you motivated when things get tough.

Design is a real career. You train, gain experience, grow — just like in law, medicine, or engineering. (I should know. I’m a lawyer-turned-designer. Still called to the Bar, by the way 😂)

Here’s the truth:

Design is not about pretty colors. It’s about solving problems for companies and users.

If you're not solution-driven, now is the best time to rethink your decision.

🧱 2. Master the Foundations
This sounds obvious, but most beginners skip this.
They jump straight into Figma, throwing components around without truly understanding:

Color theory

Typography

Composition

UX principles

Hierarchy & spacing

Want to be better than 80% of other designers?
Study the basics like your career depends on it — because it does.

👁️ 3. Train Your Eyes for Design
Seasoned designers will tell you — after a while, you see design in everything.
Posters, cereal boxes, app layouts, dashboard widgets — they all become references.

But you don’t need to wait for years to reach that point. You can train your eyes now:

Explore functional, real-world design:
Sites like godly.website, siteinspire.com, or darkmodedesign.com

Study what makes designs work. Ask:
“Why is this layout effective?”
“What could have been improved?”

❌ Stay cautious of overly-aesthetic Dribbble or Awwwards work. Many are designer flexes — not functional solutions.

🧪 4. Replicate Great Work
It’s not enough to admire great design. Recreate it.

Use tools like the HTML to Figma plugin to import real sites, then practice pixel-perfect replication beside them. Recreate the:

Layouts

Spacing

Typography

Buttons

Your first few will suck — that’s normal. But if you recreate 1–2 great designs a day, you’ll leapfrog most designers in a matter of months.

🎯 5. Niche Down
Here’s the unpopular truth:

Generalists blend in. Specialists stand out.

When starting out, many shout: “Learn everything!”
But if you want to grow fast — niche early.

Here’s how:

Use what you know: Got a degree in law? Design for legal tech. Studied medicine? Target health tech.

Follow your hobbies: Love anime and gaming? Focus on entertainment and gaming products.

Specialize by type: Web apps, mobile apps, dashboards, or even startup MVPs.

Specialize by industry: Fintech, SaaS, NGOs, churches — there's space everywhere.

🔁 A generalist gets 50% of many industries. A niche expert can dominate 100% of one and still compete in others.

🏡 6. Start From Home
You’ve built some solid skills and you’re ready to land gigs.

Here’s what NOT to do:
Don’t start by applying to every job board out there.

Instead:

Help a friend’s business with a website or redesign

Offer to design for a family member’s startup

Add a missing feature to your favorite app

Solve real-world problems you care about

💬 Your first 3–5 projects should come from referrals and your network. It builds trust and gets you early wins.

🤝 7. Join a Community & Find a Mentor
You don’t need to do this alone.

There are thriving communities on:

Facebook Groups

Telegram & WhatsApp design circles

LinkedIn comment sections

Discord servers

Share your work. Ask for feedback. Connect.

And when looking for a mentor, don’t beg or overwhelm.
Grow alone first, then reach out with intention and respect.

Also:

💰 You don’t need to spend a fortune on bootcamps or courses.
YouTube is your best friend. (Want my top design channel list? Let me know in the comments!)

📢 8. Post Your Journey Publicly
This one’s big:

The best-paid designers aren’t always the best. They’re just the most visible.

Start documenting your progress online.
Post 3x a week about:

What you're learning

Projects you're working on

Mistakes you’re making and fixing

Tools you’re using

Pick your platform (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram) and start building your personal brand.
You’re not showing off — you’re building proof of growth for future clients and employers.

🔧 9. Learn Supporting Skills
Design doesn’t live in a vacuum. It thrives when supported by other skills.

Here are 5 that’ll level you up:

UX research

UX/copywriting

Product/project management

Sales/pitching

One no-code builder (Framer, Webflow, WordPress)

🎯 Start with copywriting and one no-code tool. It’ll improve your thinking, portfolio, and confidence — instantly.

🚀 Final Thoughts
To beat out 80% of designers in 2025, you don’t need a miracle.
You need:

Clarity

Commitment

Consistency

There are no shortcuts — only smart checkpoints.

Get clear on why you're here.
Master the core principles.
And post your journey like your future depends on it.

We rise by lifting others — if you want me to drop that YouTube list or create a free checklist version of this post, just let me know in the comments.

23/06/2025

Dear designers,

Here are some of my top website design platforms for inspiration for your next project.

You're welcome!

18/06/2025

3 Systems Every New Web Design Freelancer Needs to Land Clients & Avoid Burnout

💡 Freelancing as a web designer? You need more than just good taste.

Here are 3 systems I wish I knew earlier — they saved me from burnout, ghosted clients, and endless “tweak this” requests.

🎯 1. The Client Clarity System
Before anything else, ask yourself:
👉 Who do I serve?
👉 What problem do I solve?

When your niche and message are clear, attracting the right clients becomes way easier. No more awkward pitches.

(I will make a dedicated post for designers just starting out about niches soon, so stay tuned.)

⚡ 2. The Speed Stack
Truth? You can’t scale if every project takes forever.
The trick is using tools that let you work fast without sacrificing quality.

👉 Layout starters
👉 UI Kits
👉 Pre-built components

It’s not cheating — it’s called working smart.
(I personally use resources like Produce UI — it’s like having a senior designer on my team 24/7.)

📁 3. The Portfolio Proof System
Even if you're just starting, build 2–3 solid case studies.
They don’t have to be client work — fictional brands count too.

🔥 Tip: Use Notion, Framer, or a clean portfolio site. Keep it real, clean, and focused on results.

✨ Start here. Not with 10 browser tabs open and no plan.
Which one will you implement first?

✅ Need speed + quality in your workflow?
Check out [Produce UI] — the kits speak for themselves with the link below 👇🏾
https://produce-ui.com?aff=ZYLze

P.S., Yes, I know I have many tabs open, but in my defense, you should see how many I had open yesterday 🤣

Also, note that the link is an affiliate link. I will never promote any product I don't use. In fact, I promote produce ui because I fell in love with it and reached out to their company to help promote it.

We don't gate-keep design gems here 🤗

04/06/2025

🎉 Hey there, welcome to the page!

I figured a proper introduction is the best way to kick things off. 👋

I'm Olumide Adetifa, a passionate web and product designer who has spent the past 5+ years learning, unlearning, and building smarter design workflows—especially with tools like Figma, Notion, and one of my favorite secret weapons: Produce UI.

I created this page to help designers (and design-curious devs!) like you:
✅ Skip the overwhelm
✅ Design cleaner, faster, and more confidently
✅ Discover underrated tools, kits, and time-saving tricks
✅ And maybe even laugh once or twice along the way 😄

💡 What you’ll find here:

Actionable UI/UX tips

Breakdown posts and Figma how-tos

High-quality UI kits (and how to actually use them well)

Occasional giveaways and free design goodies 🎁

🎯 Why?
Because I wish this kind of page existed when I was getting started.
And honestly? I just love helping designers build cool stuff—without burning out or staring at a blank frame for hours.

💬 Say hi in the comments or drop your favorite design tool emoji below 👇
(🎨 🧩 ✍️ 💻 — let’s see your go-to!)

Thanks for being here—let’s design smarter together!

03/06/2025

🎯 If I had to start over as a web designer in 2025... I’d skip 80% of the things I used to waste time on.
(And no, it’s not about learning another design trend.)

I just published a new post on Medium breaking down the 7 underrated things I wish I’d done differently — from smarter workflows to tools I now swear by (yes, I even became an affiliate for one because it’s that good).

👉 Whether you're new to web design or making a comeback like I am, this might save you time, frustration, and maybe even burnout.

🔗 Read it here:

I’ve been away for a while — life pulled me in every direction, and I had to hit pause. But I’m back now, stronger than ever. You know…