Bonus: SOL75 Live Redesign

In this Live Redesign Session, I do a makeover on SOL75, a site for 3D printing enthusiasts to customize and print mechanical components. This is a submission from Learn UI Design student Erika.

Key points of the redesign:

• Working with a futuristic/techie brand
• Designing with a dark theme
• Making a more usable nav

Lessons and links:

• Figma source file. View the file in full resolution.
• Light comes from the sky. This is the most important idea in how to think about lighting and shadows in UI design. We talk about it in the context of having a lighter header, but it pops up everywhere.
• Analyzing geometric fonts. We discuss the finer points of a handful of free geometric fonts, like Rubik and Bai Jamjuree.
• The Law of Locality. The most important layout idea we cover in this redesign. Simple concept; pops up everywhere.
• Color variations: a practical framework. We use this framework for creating lighter color variations – but with a more interesting twist – we saturate the lighter variations further, adding a bit more visual interestingness.