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UX and product design demand in the UK now spans well beyond tech — finance, healthcare, government and education are hiring too — and remote/hybrid roles have widened the map past London. Real demand doesn't mean easy entry-level competition, though.
intelligentpeople.co.uk
The core toolkit — usability testing, heuristic walkthroughs, task analysis — is still what separates a junior portfolio that convinces from one that doesn't. It's established practice, not a trend to chase, and it's cheap to do properly.
alistapart.com
Design tokens — named values for colour, spacing, type — are the established backbone of keeping design systems consistent across Figma, Penpot and production code. Not new, but still the bit a lot of junior portfolios skip entirely.
radical.design
Penpot published a practical walkthrough for moving files and workflows over from Figma, leaning on its open CSS-based Inspect tab and native Flex/Grid layout support. Worth a look if you're curious about open-source alternatives — it's not a Figma-killer, but it's maturing.
penpot.app
NN/g's ongoing tracking of AI design tools shows real improvement since 2024, but not the leap that replaces design judgement. For juniors, the win is using AI for the boring bits, not outsourcing decisions.
nngroup.com
