Rafa Conde - Make your designs memorable

Rafa Conde com/rafahari) is a design engineer at Retro and one of the most creative designers I know. I still remember where I was when I first saw the video on his personal site design/) 😂 In this episode we unpack what it means to design experiences that bring delight:) Some highlights: - Finding ways to introduce delight - How to make users feel something - The power of humor in your design - How to lean into video as a superpower - Balancing accessibility and delightful UX - Behind the scenes of Rafa's side projects - + a lot more

- Metal Gear Solid (PlayStation 1) — directed by Hideo Kojima, referenced for its fourth-wall-breaking design moments (Meryl’s codec frequency hidden on the game box; Psycho Mantis boss fight requiring the controller to be switched from port 1 to port 2) - Sunlit app — gyroscope-based app for tracking sun position and light direction, referenced as a recent example of surprising UI: coloringworld&pli=1 - Retro app — private social network for friends and family (what Instagram used to be); Rafa’s current employer: com/us/app/retro-photos-with-friends/id6443709020 - Splat app — Retro’s generative AI app for iPad/iPhone that turns photos of kids into coloring book pages:

com/us/app/splat-magic-coloring-book/id6749165093 - Hand Mirror app — Rafa’s most popular side project, a menu bar camera app: app/) - Gabe Valdivia’s episode — early Dive Club episode (~ep. 30) where Gabe talked about designers needing to be like “little TikTok creators” inside their orgs: club/deep-dives/gabe-valdivia - Final Cut Pro — Rafa’s video editing tool of choice: itscg=20201&itsct=acs-sem-187498456050-794866723417&pt=2003&ct=css-187498456050-794866723417 Dive is where the best designers never stop learning 🤿 🌐 club 🐦 com/joindiveclub Now you can join advanced courses taught by the top designers to help you take a huge leap forward in your career 💪 Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:04 What shaped Rafa's design journey 12:36 Designing Retro's onboarding UX 20:25 Rafa's creative process at Retro 25:24 Rafa's hybrid role at Retro 29:41 Why roles are converging at Retro 33:30 Leaning into video as a design superpower 41:20 Designing personal projects like Hand Mirror 47:39 The power of humor in design 51:32 Finding ways to introduce delight to your designs