Episode 351 | Laura Elizabeth - Designing Life

Guest:

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Laura Elizabeth talks with Dave Rael about lifestyle, passion, learning, designing software and websites, and teaching

Laura Elizabeth is a designer with a hankering for cross stitch and rockets. She runs Design Academy which aims to help developers conquer their fear of design. She's also launched her first product called Client Portal—a client-friendly way to keep your projects organised.

Chapters: 1:24 - Dave introduces the show and Laura Elizabeth3:33 - Design for developers8:19 - Reuse in both development and design11:56 - Laura's lifestyle and devotion to her craft13:23 - Laura's path to learning how to really design, identifying the elements she learned, and becoming an educator16:48 - What is taught in (Laura's) schooling for designers and the inherent deficiency18:40 - Making sense of good design21:43 - The content of what Laura teaches28:50 - The barriers to creating Laura's first course and long path to getting there31:35 - Laura's story of failure - freelancing woes35:20 - The idea that became Client Portal and the process of turning that into a product37:15 - Laura's natural relationship with developers38:57 - Laura's book recommendation40:06 - The importance of noticing good design and building a cache of knowing what you like42:58 - Laura's top 3 tips for delivering more value44:42 - Keeping up with Laura

Resources: Design Fundamentals - Laura's Course Do Not Repeat Yourself Client Portal - Laura's WordPress Plugin for Managing Client Projects Laura's Email Course on Principles of Design

Laura's book recommendation: Badass: Making Users Awesome - Kathy Sierra

Laura's top 3 tips for delivering more value: Share everything you're doing Don't underestimate what people don't know - you don't have to know everything to provide value Always think about your target audience and what they want and think about - and ask them and listen to what they tell you