Toptal Design Blog

The Toptal Design Blog is a hub for advanced design studies by professional designers in the Toptal network on all facets of digital design, ranging from detailed design tutorials to in-depth coverage of new design trends, techniques, and technologies.

authors are vetted experts in their fields and write on topics in which they have demonstrated experience. All of our content is peer reviewed and validated by Toptal experts in the same field.

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authors are vetted experts in their fields and write on topics in which they have demonstrated experience. All of our content is peer reviewed and validated by Toptal experts in the same field.

The Benefits of a Design System: Making Better Products, Faster

Design systems increase collaboration, ensure consistency, and accelerate design and development cycles. Toptal product designer Molham Bakir lays out how—and shares insights and tips from his experience building them.

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Molham Bakir

Molham is a product designer who specializes in building design systems. His clients include Snap Inc. and e-commerce websites Dubizzle and Mumzworld, the largest online baby shop in the Middle East.

4 UX Tips to Reduce Users’ Cognitive Overload and Burnout

Knowledge workers spend most of their workdays using digital tools. These low-friction UX strategies help reduce techno-stress and increase healthy user engagement.

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Rodrigo Perez Estrada

Rodrigo is a product designer who specializes in creating early-stage digital products and services for companies in fintech, healthcare, and insurance. His contributions to Yerbo, a healthcare product whose clients include Nubank, Gitlab, and Pandadoc, improved user burnout scores and helped the platform achieve a 20% exercise activation rate. Rodrigo holds a bachelor’s degree in graphic design and an MBA.

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UX Design Job Interview Tips for Global Candidates: Landing Your Dream Role in the US

Searching for a design job is never easy—and it’s even more challenging if you’re new to the country and culture you want to work in. Here are steps one designer took to build a successful design career in America.

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Elena Bukhonok

Elena is a multidisciplinary product designer and educator from Ukraine who now works in New York City. She has worked for numerous companies in the US and Ukraine, including fashion-technology startup CreateMe, healthcare startup Outcomes4Me, and EPAM, an enterprise software company used by Google, Salesforce, and Adobe. She holds a bachelor’s in architecture from Lviv Polytechnic National University in Ukraine and speaks four languages.

Supporting Diverse Needs: A Rebranding Success Story

Brand designer Bari Keenam shares how he turned a tricky logo redesign into a brand overhaul that helped his client establish an emotional connection with its customers.

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Bariledum Keenam

Bari is a brand designer with a user-centric approach to brand ideation. With a background in engineering and marketing, he excels at problem-solving and brings diverse perspectives to brand creation. Bari teaches typography and UX design at the Lagos Engineering Career Expo and the Àṣà Coterie design community.

Haptics in Healthcare: An Opportunity for Designers to Help Revolutionize Telemedicine

Telemedicine has exploded in recent years, expanding access to healthcare services. But it’s missing an indispensable element of medical care: touch. Enter haptic technology.

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Kiran Khan

Kiran is an award-winning Toptal UI/UX designer and expert in healthcare UI/UX. She led the development of VR and AR products for Janssen pharmaceuticals (now Johnson & Johnson) and has also worked on biosensor-based apps that improve users’ sleep patterns and prevent intoxicated people from driving.

The Allure and Impact of Minimalist UX Design

Minimalism is a prevalent design approach, but putting its principles into practice is challenging. Follow these minimalist UX design strategies to build frictionless digital products that help users reach their goals.

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Ravi Talajiya

Ravi is a UI/UX designer and certified IBM Enterprise Design Thinking Practitioner. He has designed mobile products in the healthcare, finance, and sustainability sectors, and was a senior UI/UX designer at IndiaNIC, a leading web and mobile solutions developer with a global client list that includes McDonald’s, Cartier, Adidas, AstraZeneca, Gulfstream, and Best Buy. He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering.

Business Is Booming: A Guide to E-commerce UI/UX Design for Older Consumers

As the world’s population ages, retailers hoping to attract and retain customers will have to tailor their e-commerce interfaces to appeal to savvy older consumers.

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Laurence Brothers

Laurence is Toptal’s Senior Writer for Technology and Software. A former analyst at Google and ITA Software and researcher at Bell Communications Research and Verizon Laboratories, he now writes about the intersection of technology, business, and design. Laurence has five patents for AI and internet applications and a master’s degree in computer science from Columbia University.

Toptal Design Expert

Paula Barcante

Paula is an award-winning UX/UI designer, advisor, and illustrator with more than six years of hands-on experience in making complex interfaces delightful and user friendly. She has made a significant impact in large corporations, such as Amazon, Zillow, Google, as well as startups. Her mission is to create efficient, beautiful, innovative, and high-quality experiences for the greater good of society.