Maria Grilo

I'm UI & product designer, illustration artist and painter. Known for my love of trashy beach towels, music production, typography and all kinds of pizza.

posts

Design

Large Screen Phones: UX and Usability Design Tips

How big will phone screens get? Will our hands grow as well or is UX design able to save tons of phones from being dropped?

Maria Grilo

February 13, 2020

White line-art signpost icon on a purple-to-pink gradient background with a pattern of white plus signs.

Design

7 UI trends you should be watching in 2026

Curious about what's shaping UI? We've done the homework, and we're sharing the UI trends with you in this blog post.

Maria Grilo

January 8, 2020

Design

The top 8 product design tools you'll need

Designing digital products requires both skills and the right tools. In this post, we're highlighting the tools used by most designers.

Maria Grilo, Mariana Berga

July 11, 2019

Intense face stares past a flood of phone notifications, contrasting the idea of calm technology

Design

We need to calm our technology down

Do we really want to be constantly interrupted to look at notifications and reminders? Calm technology comes with the promise of digital tranquility.

Maria Grilo

June 20, 2019

Design

Good illustration matters

Show emotions and moods through illustration. We're all tired of the same stock photos of laptops on designey wooden tables that no common folk can afford.

Maria Grilo

July 19, 2018

Design

Is timeless UI design a thing?

We see trends come and go, fonts that become uncool, buttons that aren't supposed to have round corners... but what if I want my UI design to be timeless?

Maria Grilo

May 31, 2018

Colorful painting of a blue balcony with pink walls, red pillars, and tropical leaves capturing the joy of enjoying art

Design

The subjective experience of enjoying art

Art doesn’t need to be a deeply emotional or intellectual experience that immediately sweeps you off your feet. In the end, it depends on your own subjective experience.

Maria Grilo

May 29, 2018

Surreal ink-and-watercolor scene of tangled humans and animals exploring what art can express

Design

What is art? (A very brief history of art)

There are tricky questions and then, there's this one question, which usually comes after convoluted discussions that have reached a dead end: "Yeah, but what is art, then?".

Maria Grilo

April 27, 2018