How to Improve Your UI/UX Design Skills in 30 Days

Constant improvement is also an important part of a UI/UX design career. Beginners and also more experienced designers need to watch and learn all the time, new design principles and trends, in order to deliver the best outcome possible. 

Can you accept this challenge to improve your UI/UX design skills in just 30 days?
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Let me tell you how you can learn new UI/UX principles and new trends by only enjoying a captivating movie or reading a design book. 
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In this article, you will find a wide selection of the best movies, books, podcasts, and TED talks that you can watch to become a more specialized UI/UX designer. 

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1. Steal Like an Artist - 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative

Not necessarily a book that includes design principles and trends, but “Steal Like an Artist,” written by Austin Kleon, is a good design resource for those who are looking to generate new creative ideas. 

This book is not the usual type of book, with only text on pages that ends up being boring, because Austin Kleon wrote this book as an enjoyable reading design resource for designers who want to stand out with their projects. 
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2. Refactoring UI - design book

Published by Steve Schoger in collaboration with Adam Wathan, Refactoring UI teaches UI/UX designers how to create impressive UI projects based on different UI design principles. Written from a developer perspective, this design book can give readers a good perspective on what UI/UX means. 

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3. 23 Laws Of Design by uinkits 

Offering a wide range of UI/UX principles and guidelines, 23 Laws of Design can be purchased directly from the uinkits website. This represents probably the book that contains information for both specialists and beginners in the design industry. 

So, if you are looking to improve your skills or you want to start your successful career in design, this book represents the best choice for you. 

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4. ‍Laws of UX: Using Psychology to Design Better Products & Services

Written by Jon Yablonski, this book represents a guide that combines design principles with real-life examples of designs that failed, even if they seem to be great. Laws of UX is a great book designed for those who build websites, apps, or even digital products because it gives great insights into how to design using user-friendly principles. 

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5. Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products

If you want to see the real process of creating a successful digital product, then you should definitely read this UI/UX design book. Written by Nir Eyal, this book explains the entire process of building the customer experience.

This book represents the perfect choice for those designers who want to learn how to create products that users will love. 

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1. Simplicity sells 

If you want to find out all the secrets of the user interface through musical numbers, this TED Talk might be the one for you. In Simplicity Sells, David Pogue, the former New York Times columnist, reveals some of the worst designs that push off every potential customer. 

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2. 404, the story of a page not found

Because no designer likes it when a webpage doesn’t work properly, Renny Gleeson explains exactly how designers can take advantage of errors in their projects. This TED Talk will surely offer you a great perspective on design errors. 

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3. How Airbnb designs for trust

In this valuable TED Talk, Joe Gebbia, the co-founder of the booking platform Airbnb, explains the insights behind the process of creating one of the most popular booking platforms. Starting with the story of Airbnb, the co-founder describes the concept along with the difficulties that the creators experienced during the development process. 

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4. Reinventing User Experience

All designers indeed want to create engaging products, but Kes Sampanthar clarifies the fact that the most important aspect is to learn how to motivate users instead of focusing only on aesthetics or usability.

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5. The first secret of design is… noticing.

In this TED Talk, the valuable man who created the concept of the Pod and Nest thermostat is sharing his design expertise. So, if you want to learn more about design insights, the Ted Talk of Tony Fadell is a great resource for you. 

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1. UI Breakfast

Held by an independent UI/UX consultant, UI Breakfast is the main source of discovering the most recent UX trends. Jane Portman works as a SaaS consultant and helps companies in their process of building profitable web apps. 

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2. High Resolution

This represents a video podcast that is worth your time. High Resolution offers a series of 25 videos that help designers figure out how to design great projects to attract users. 

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3. Hacking UI

A podcast was created especially for the design community. Hacking UI is a great resource for developers, entrepreneurs, and creative enthusiasts. 

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4. UX and Growth 

A UX designer at HubSpot, Austin Knight, who is also a mentor at Columbia University, shares some valuable tips and insights from the design community and teaches listeners how to design their projects to have great success. 

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5. Writers in Tech 

This show interviews some of the most popular leaders of the UX design industry, and each of them shares their experiences and difficulties. So, if you want to learn from the most skilled designers, this podcast is for you. 

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1. Her 

This movie represents a good and reliable source, especially for interactions that happen between humans and technology. As you already know, this type of interaction represents the base of the user experience design, so Her movie, released in 2013, can display the emotional connection between the star of the movie and an artificial intelligence system. 

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2. Prometheus 

Even though it was launched in 2012, this movie is still a great resource for UI/UX designers, because it shows great designs that can be implemented in your future projects. So, assign 2 hours of your time to see this great movie that features a natural style. 

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3. Design Thinking 

Launched also in 2012, it is more like a documentary that shows the core ideas of UX design through the perspective of bigger problems in society. So, this movie wants to explain beyond the basic design processes and help designers learn more about uncommon design solutions. 

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4. Helvetica 

A relatively old movie, Helvetica was released in 2007 and is able to explain the basics of typography and what impact typography has on a website’s user experience. If you are a font enthusiast, this movie is the perfect choice for when you want to relax a little bit after a long and stressful day. 

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This movie will give a perspective on why Helvetica is the most used font in the majority of designs, and what impact it has on the user navigation experience. 

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5. Objectified

Even if it might seem a little bit boring at first glance, the Objectified movie is able to display the tough process that product developers have to go through when designing a project.

This movie will provide another perspective on how designers must think further and make sure that every element and component is working seamlessly to offer the best user experience. You will see that even if it was launched in 2009, this movie still maintains its authenticity in 2025. 

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We at uinkits understand the importance of great user experiences and creating amazing UI designs. That’s why we’ve developed a Figma UI Kit with design components that include these essential UI elements that enable you to design intuitive and user-friendly interfaces effortlessly.

“You press the button, we do the rest.” – Kodak.

Inspired by this iconic tagline from Kodak, we believe in simplifying the design process for you. Our Figma UI Kit, uinkits, is a complete design system with UI components that allows you, as a UI UX designer, to create your products as quickly as pressing a button.

Our design system includes UI components, icons, variables, cards, buttons and everything you need for your design process. All you have to do is take your UI design component needed, and you’re ready to use it in your designs!

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