#16 - Always good to be prepared
Hello my friend! 👋
Hope you have a great week so far!
Life is quite the same for me today, as I even don’t know what to say in the beginning of this newsletter. Yeah…it’s just one of those days.
But luckily, I get many things prepped to share, so it’s not that bad. Tip: always good to get prepared. It won’t be much different when things go right, but when things go wrong, preparation will show its value.
Here’re a few things I’d like to share with you today 🙂
ChatGPT research by NNGroup
Easy with Figma and Meta’s Segment AI for only 2 clicks!
My favourite ChatGPT prompt(for now)
Hire an immigrant, and the outcome is often better than you expected
A Few Thoughts on Google I/O
ChatGPT research by NNGroup
This is not just another post about ChatGPT - this is from Jakob Nielsen, published on NNGroup’s website. As a designer, you know you should read it.
I’ll just summarise it here (without ChatGPT’s help): a research with 444 professionals from MIT shows that involving ChatGPT in making business reports can increase productivity (we kinda of knowthing that) and report quality(this is new).
It shows that productivity can be increased by 59%, and the quality (reviewed by graders who don’t know if AI is involved) increased from 3.8 to 4.5.
Wow!
New tool to learn, designers!
Easy with Figma and Meta’s Segment AI for only 2 clicks!
Uncover the power of tracing complex images into vector layers using Figma and Meta’s Segment Anything! I’ll guide you through the entire process, making vector layers with just two clicks!
My favourite ChatGPT prompt(for now)
I just feel that there are more AI KOLs than actual AI use cases out there. Thought I should share the AI scenarios, tools, and cases I frequently use rather than sharing those 1001 quick news from AI trends.
One of my most commonly used prompts at work is my personal Slack assistant.
It’s quite straightforward. I first inform the AI about my role and the common work scenarios, then ask it to organize my rough draft and output it in my tone.
Usually, I just jot down a few lines as soon as I think of something to say, then use the syntax ‘scene description’ to set the context (content in ''' won’t be included in the output), and the results have been excellent. It helps maintain the information I want to convey without me spending too much time fussing over the wording.
Hire an immigrant, and the outcome is often better than you expected
Seeing many people get laid off from tech companies brought back the memory of my first laid-off experience 😑
It was not good for sure, but I was lucky that I got the resident visa already at that time, and I got the UX working experience and the confidence that I could find another job soon. As an immigrant myself, totally understand how hard and challenging it is for an immigrant to find a job aligned with his/her career path 🥲
If you are a recruiter or hiring manager, consider giving immigrant job seekers more shots. Their competency of problem solving and resilience have been validated by the immigration experience itself, especially for those non-native speakers. They have a strong work ethic, and they may have different skill sets than domestic workers. They are multilingual, and can bring a fresh perspective to the workplace 💪
Just give them a chance, and the outcome is often better than you expected 🌈
(image source: Visualcapitalist)
A Few Thoughts on Google I/O
Just finished Google I/O. Here are my personal highlights:
Image watermarking and metadata tagging. Only a giant like Google would tackle this. Responsible move.
The combination of AI with Google Workspace opens up unlimited productivity and commercial possibilities, especially considering the 2 billion active users worldwide.
Google remains a pure tech company, and the nuances of their launch event stood out starkly from Apple’s.
Their seven AI principles are quite interesting. For my designer and product friends who want to grasp the essence, these could be a good place to start. I’ve added studying the Google AI site to my learning plan for this year.
Have a great one and see you soon!
Bear Academy Newsletter
Non-crap tips and thoughts on design, product and technology ✨
🐻 Bear Who?
Hi there 👋, I’m Bear, a seasoned Product Designer with 15 years of overall design experience and six years in product design, transforming the user experiences for millions 📝
As an Apple Award-Winning Podcast Host at BearTalk and a Design Mentor at Springboard and CareerFoundry, I apply my self-taught design skills and science background to solve complicated problems and mentor budding designers 😃
In my downtime, you’ll find me reading, drawing, podcasting, and making videos about everything from tech to design and productivity 👨🎨
🤓 Work
💼 What I do:Product Designer at Xero
🌃 I also do:Design Mentor at Springboard and CareerFoundry / Founder at Bear Academy
🎤 Side hustle:Podcast host at Award-winning podcast BearTalk
💡 Goodies
Bear Academy - my courses around UX Design, AI, etc
Bear Academy Newsletter - my free newsletter, which you are reading now
Beartalking.com - all my posts, English and Chinese
Youtube.com/@Bearliu - A video is worth a thousand words
💬 Contact
https://twitter.com/bearbig - Majorly I post in Chinese
bear@beartalking.com - The old fashion email way
LinkedIn.com/in/bearliu - My professional life