I have covered in a previous post some tools that are useful for designers and developers. Today, I am going to take a dive into some tips that could be (or could not be) useful for you as a designer, developer, or both!

Let's take a dive

I think one of the most frustrating things whether you are designing or developing a project is sometimes not seeing progress or something not clicking. This might be something that you have experienced where you end up wanting to start over, giving up, or just moving onto another project. This feeling is not the greatest, you may feel like your work is meaningly or not going anywhere. I will tell you, after the years I have had so far with both, that feeling is what will transform your work over time.

When I first started building Habite, the app looked terrible. I do not know what I was thinking at the time with releasing such an ugly first version, but I am so happy I did. Habite v1 is what started most of my current journey, if it was not for those grey and green initial colors, I would not have improved my design techniques and continued forward. The app itself with functionality has come a long way, but as has the design. There's a lesson there that continually working on something over time will make things better. That might sound cliche with the idea of 'practice makes perfect', but in reality, I can really agree with that statement just with how my journey has been so far.

A few small tips for you

Now, let's say you are either a starting designer interested in designing websites, or you are an aspiring developer getting started in mobile development. Things are not going to start off perfect, great, or just how you want them to go right off the bat for you. There may be some things that you are crazy good at, but then also some things that you cannot get right. That's how it should be, you will always have things to improve on and that should not frustrate you. It is all apart of growth in whatever field / area you are in, it is how you get better and gain experience (when you focus and work on those more difficult areas).

Shifting to something like designing a website or mobile app, it might not look the greatest initially, and that's how drafts are supposed to be. You most likely will not design / build the next best thing on your first try (or maybe you will, prove me wrong :) ), and not have to redo any parts of it. We can also looking at building a project, when you first start it most likely (same situation as above) will not be the perfect product for everyone to use and love it right away. There really is no such thing as overnight success because behind that one night where everything goes viral for a person / team / company are hours and hours of frustration, sleepless nights, and hard work. So to put it simple, do not let frustration get the best of you, keep working on that problem / thing you are trying to get done (whatever it may be).

We have covered the tips of not letting frustration get the best of you, building skills take some time, and with hard work come great rewards (like I said, it takes time). There are super general, they are not anything that are out of blue, or that have never been said before. Though, what I shared with you through this post are my own experiences / examples of how even a little bit of improvement / work will go a long way over time! It is also important to note that you NEED to take breaks especially when feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes a walk to the kitchen, bathroom, park, or anywhere can help your brain refresh, and find a solution to a problem you may have. If you are interested in learning a bit more on some of my personal tips, feel free to reach out to me here, cheers!