Trends 📊

Hello makers,

This is the last Serial Maker issue of 2020. I'm going to be taking some time off until the new year to focus on some personal projects.

Despite the adversity the world faced in 2020, there has been some amazing development on the maker front. It's easy to get carried away keeping up with the latest cool trends, but there are a few that are worth paying attention to, as they are true game-changers.

Let's dive into some current design and development trends.
 

TLDR

• Figma for design, prototyping, and developer handoff

• Tailwind for React component styling

• A strong focus on Health & Fitness

Figma Figma Figma

When Sketch came onto the design scene, it turned the creative world upside-down. Here was a design tool that seemed to be tailor-made for digital UI. The most noticeable difference to me was the sheer speed. You could build enormous documents with screen after screen, and Sketch wouldn't even hiccup. Compare that to the behemoth Photoshop files we've dealt with in the past, and there was simply no going back.

Sketch integrates nicely into several workflows.

After designing in Sketch, you can automatically sync your designs to Zeplin. This proved to be an excellent workflow to hand off designs for client approval, or to developers to start production. I've been on both sides of the developer handoff, and it's very smooth.

You can also sync your Sketch designs with InVision. From here, you can create interactive prototypes before actually pouring hours into programming everything.

But now there's a new kid in town.

This year, I had one client move from Sketch to Figma. At first, I was skeptical, because Sketch was just so good. But Figma takes many of the elements that make Sketch so powerful and puts them into the browser and on the cloud. This is a giant leap. No more shuffling .sketch files around. Just like we're all used to collaborating on Google Drive, now we can design in the cloud. And whenever I find a shortcoming in Figma, there's usually a plugin that fills that gap. So the potential for Figma to cover all UI design needs is immense.

And developer handoff can happen right in Figma! You can add people to a project as read-only. This means you can set up elements for export without worrying about anyone making changes to a design. And with Figma, there's no more need for another tool to generate prototypes. Build and share prototypes right from your design files.

Recently, Sketch has been promoting Sketch Cloud. It's still in its early stages, so I'm watching as it matures. There may be some design-tool wars in the near future. But for now, I'm very bullish on Figma and all its potential.

Check out just how popular Figma is right now in this 2020 Tools Survey Results from Uxtools.co.
 

Tailwind

Tailwind CSS has come a long way. I was super-skeptical of its utility at first. But by discovering how easy it is to build a component-centric system using a framework like React, I have seen the light. Layering utility styles onto components is very straightforward, and you can get really far with nicely styled elements right out of the box.

But the really impressive new development is their Tailwind UI system. These are beautifully designed, and polished UI components, built on Tailwind CSS. I see this as a whole new ecosystem, where developers can build and distribute Tailwind UI components — similar to Bootstrap. Just plug and play.

See more CSS trends in The State of CSS 2020.
 

Health

In the year of a pandemic, health has suddenly become top of mind. I see a number of trends heading towards health and fitness-centric themes.

The Apple Watch is now a health and fitness product. Sleep tracking, heart monitoring, emergency services, hand wash tracking, blood oxygen levels, and an ECG. All on your wrist.

Apple released Fitness+ this year. And with many people staying in their homes, having a service to help you get in shape from home is invaluable. Home gyms are now digital. Like biking? Get a Peloton. Rowing more your speed? Check out Hydrow. And Mirror offers a digital fitness mirror for any workout.

I expect to see a lot more products and services moving towards health and fitness in the near future. It's worth giving some thought to how your product can fit this trend.
 

Goodbye, 2020. I'll see you all in 2021!

Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌

Hit reply to tell me what you're making. I'm looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you'd like to appear in Serial Maker. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. Check out the past editions if you missed them, and don't forget to continue the conversation on Discord! 
 

Until next week,
Craig 👋