Stop Doing The Daily UI Challenge

Aspiring designers should stop wasting their time

I should begin by saying I think Daily UI is a neat concept, and I commend the team behind it. They’ve done an excellent job of getting people excited about design challenges and building their portfolio.

Daily UI encourages eager newcomers to embrace the mindset that becoming a skilled designer is a step by step journey that requires learning something new every day. In that regard, it has done a lot for the community, and I commend them.

That said, there are some critical flaws with merely doing a daily UI challenge and believing it will make us a well-rounded, or even worse, a qualified designer.

In this post, I discuss why daily UI doesn’t teach us a whole lot that applies to a real product design profession and what we can do instead.

Why Daily UI is falling short for beginners

Most designers that I see applying for product design positions aren’t showing their genuine passion for design in their portfolio. They’re not presenting their artistic style through work that they’ve created on their own accord.

Beginners are often unsure of what to work on, or they assume they need client work or a job to build their…