Oykun
Freelancing for 15+ years and building uijar.com. Feel free to ask me anything via "Ask Me Anything" button 😊
Do you think that Instagram is a good platform to share UI/UX projects to get leads?
Ozan Korkut asked to Oykun about 4 years ago
What's the one thing you wish you'd learned sooner whilst building UI Jar?
David Hill asked to Oykun over 4 years ago
How do you find time for personal side projects besides full-time or client works? :)
Daniel Korpai asked to Oykun over 4 years ago
I don't really spare extra time for it. I work on side projects very casually on sofa at nights while catching up with our tv shows 😃
However, if I need to learn something completely new and a bit complex, I give myself few days in between client projects. For example when I started UIJar.com, I gave myself 1 week off after I finished a client project. In that week, I covered all the basics of Ruby on Rails and built the site in the simplest form, then improved slowly at nights.
over 4 years ago
There is also Adobe XD which I collaborated with Adobe recently :D
It's amazing to see so many developments in high quality and very affordable design tools, even free actually! These tools excite me for what is coming next.
I tried pretty much all of them. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. In the end, they are just tools though. You just need to pick one that you are comfortable with and focus on it. They all are very capable.
My choice is usually based on clients and projects. For example, if I'm joining a team who is using Sketch App, I use that. If they don't have any designs yet, I discuss the options with the team and give our decision together.
It's amazing how many choices we have today. When I started my career, we only had Photoshop and it did cost a lot of money! Like I mentioned, just pick one and design with it. You can't really go wrong with any tool today.
AMA: What do you think about the new emerging design tools like InVision Studio, Framer X and Figma?
over 4 years ago
I hear you mate! I'm in a very similar situation. I really want to write these case studies to share some ongoing work too but to be honest, I'm a bit too lazy to do that. It consumes a lot of time and effort that I rather spend with family or for side projects... I also have the NDA problems in recent years.
over 4 years ago
Appreciate the honest answer, mate! You clearly got over this period in years by now, but you brought up a very interesting point. I believe this is a common issue currently for many young designers in the design industry. That's why the number of young designers reaching out to designers like myself for advice has skyrocketed in recent years. This is one of the reason why I started this AMA section.
All these highly funded digital products' pressure on young designers with high expectations must be putting lots of weight on young designers' shoulders in early ages. It of course comes with both goods and bads like many other things in life. I just hope all the young designers can follow their guts, as you mentioned, and be happy in the end.
over 4 years ago
Nice! This makes Tidal the first big scale project I know of that is using Figma as primary design tool. I'm sure there are more out there btw.
I have been thinking to make a switch to it from Sketch App for my client projects as well for 2019. How did you make the transition from the previous application (Sketch, Photoshop, ...)? It probably wasn’t easy to have everybody on board with such a big change :) How did it improve your communication with developers?
over 4 years ago
Exactly Jan, it is hard to predict with the current crazy pace of new developments! What makes more wonder is what we will be designing for in near future! Maybe less interface and more interaction via voice, motion, ...
AMA: What do you think about the new emerging design tools like InVision Studio, Framer X and Figma?
over 4 years ago
I like how you ended :) "a block is necessary, it is part of the process.". So true. Not necessarily taking it as a problem, but accepting it and making the most of it.
Btw, 6 years! I respect that loyalty, considering all the tempting offers you got from other places in years.
That "skill sharing Friday" sounds like a great idea. I imagine it also would be a great way to share with the team what you have learned recently and staying up to date with the recent technologies altogether. You probably had many new great ideas came up for the Musixmatch at those Fridays. I wonder if it is a common practice in companies.
over 4 years ago
It is hard to pick one 😅 I learned a lot with UI Jar and still learning!
First thing that comes to my mind right now is that I wish I added user signup feature from the very first day. I released it way too simple as I did not have any expectations at all. When it became product of the day at Producthunt with 1k+ upvotes on top of all the social media shares, the site got thousands of visits in a short period of time and I missed a big chance to get people signed up and keep them engaged.
So, next time I release something, I will make sure to add sign up feature even if there will be no features for it at the beginning :)
over 4 years ago
Yes I hear you. That's the main reason why I have been considering the figma for my client projects too. All the version problems, syncing via dropbox, etc... It doesn't feel like the experience we should be having in 2018.
I just haven't been confident enough with the symbols system of Figma so far to build my complex client projects, but I'm getting better at that, especially after MengTo's free Figma course at https://designcode.io/design-system-in-figma :)
over 4 years ago
Thanks mate! I totally agree that good personality and enthusiasm is really all you need to build new skills, adapt to a team and create great products. That was very much the situation I was in at the very first agency I worked for, I didn't know much but I was very excited to learn and it didn't long to work on big scope projects with great results.
Turkey based designers, here is your tip regarding Fol Studio! :)
over 4 years ago
I guess it all comes down to doing what you love. Rest is not a problem at all : ) You are doing an amazing and inspiring work in that busy schedule! Keep it up mate...
over 4 years ago
You are a night owl then : ) I used to be similar, until having kids who jumps on our bed at 6-7am :D However even before the kids, I could never sleep long.
I can see how you would speed up your process by the time. That's my struggle at the moment, I really want to keep my Instagram account updated but it takes so much time to arrange desk, take photo, pick one, edit, write content... Especially since I have started putting my free time to coding uijar.com
Your instagram inspires me to get back to it though. Hopefully soon, I will get back to it.
over 4 years ago
Selam Ozan,
I have been using Instagram for a while now to share design/dev work, get feedback and all... It actually works better than many other design specific platforms out there.
Instagram's popularity is undeniable! It actually has become the biggest advertisement platform in human history, if not a bit of an exaggeration :), so this alone makes it a great place to share and reach more people. Plus, it being a visual heavy platform makes it even more suitable for creatives like us.
Even though I don't share too much of a design work in there, I still get DMs about projects.
So, long story short, YES :)
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Btw, a shameless plot here https://instagram.com/oykun :D
about 4 years ago