Toptal Design Blog

A sudden transition to remote work can be challenging. Adopting an iterative approach, maintaining strong communities, and setting up a home office that’s built for productivity are keys to success.

We are living in extraordinary times as COVID-19 continues to cause crises across the world. Could designers make use of design thinking to solve urgent problems and come up with innovative solutions?

There’s significant overlap between UX and Design Thinking. Like UX, Design Thinking is an iterative process where ideas breathe life based on the needs, thoughts, and behaviors of real users.

Stepping away from preconceived notions about “typical” users through an inclusive design process allows designers to create digital products that are user-friendly to the widest range of people.

It’s difficult enough to run a multi-day Design Sprint with everyone in the same room. Doing it remotely is even trickier. These tips help designers overcome the challenges of running a remote Sprint.

Remote work isn’t a novelty, it’s the natural progression of our tech-driven world. We’re sharing nine timely tips for working remotely. Done right, there’s no better way to design.

In a world of abundant choice, choosing a prototyping tool isn’t easy, and new isn’t always better. When designers want to create feature-rich prototypes, there are many good reasons why to use Axure.

User onboarding best practices help designers create an onboarding experience that works well from the start. Knowing which onboarding pattern works best for each type of app puts designers ahead.

The future of branding was no brand at all, and Brandless represented the best the movement had to offer. Until it didn’t. What happened? We share takeaways that no designer or business should ignore.

There’s a lot for people to consider when making decisions. Used properly, persuasive design principles are a powerful tool for building meaningful products that help people make better decisions.

Designers who focus on the business value of design will make themselves more indispensable to companies because businesses aren’t buying design; they are buying outcomes.

Should designers lead? Can design leadership be defined? What leadership style gets the best results? We present six design leadership profiles and examine the pros and cons of each.

Figma has advanced features that are tailored to meet expectations for consistency during the design process. This tutorial outlines how a Figma component library can work well within a design system.

Illustration makes the web a brighter place, but there’s a risk it will grow stale. We explain how designers can avoid imitation with web design illustrations that give clients a competitive edge.

Google’s Material Design guidelines have become the signature look of their websites and apps. Still, there are plenty of use cases outside of Google’s platforms where Material Design is also a solid choice.

Mind maps are widely used as a thinking tool. Designers can use them to organize ideas into an arrangement for clarity as well as untangle system complexity to make things more understandable.