Shift Nudge is professional interface design training for working designers who struggle with visual polish and design confidence. Founded by Matt D. Smith (MDS), it teaches a systematic approach to typography, layout, color, and spacing, helping you stop guessing and start knowing why your design decisions work.
Shift Nudge is designed for working product and interface designers who can ship functional designs but struggle with visual polish and refinement. Designers who know something feels "off" but can't articulate or fix it. Those who rely on trial-and-error or copying instead of confident decision-making, and want to advance to Senior Designer or Design Lead roles.
Experience level: Most members have 2-7 years most common, though the training works for anyone ready to level up their visual craft fundamentals.
Working designers consistently describe the same challenges. These aren't talent gaps, they're training gaps. Most designers never learn the systematic fundamentals of visual interface design.
Shift Nudge teaches the visual craft fundamentals that differentiate professional interface work.
Stop guessing at font sizes and weights. Learn how to create clear, confident typographic hierarchies that guide users effortlessly.
Understand why certain layouts feel "off" and how to fix them. Master the spacing decisions that create professional polish.
Move beyond copying color palettes. Build intentional color systems and style decisions you can defend with confidence.
Develop repeatable processes for consistent, polished interface design, eliminating trial-and-error and accelerating your work.
Designers trained at companies like Figma, Pentagram, Google, Microsoft, Shopify, Spotify, and Slack, from design-led startups to global enterprises like Atlassian, Datadog, BP.
I spent 6 months practicing and being coached by MDS on improving my gaps in UI design. I doubled my income within a couple of years of doing Shift Nudge. Turns out a strong command of visual communication and UI is a valuable skillset in the industry.
Just met MDS at Config 2023! 2 years ago, his course Shift Nudge leveled up my craft and equipped me with the confidence to land my first product design role. I appreciate you, Matt!
A big shout out to MDS for creating such amazing and thorough training on interface design! I took a big chance by self-funding Shift Nudge, and it really paid off. I'm now a Designer on the PBS Innovation Team. I often revisit lessons for concepts and rules-of-thumb.
Members have advanced to Senior Designer, Design Lead, Head of Design roles, built portfolios that open doors at top companies, and developed the craft differentiation that AI tools can't replicate. *Individual results may vary and depend on individual effort, experience level, and market conditions.
A structured approach combining intensive training, live mentorship, and professional community support.
Focused instruction on typography, layout, color, and visual systems at 5-7 hours/week. Apply principles directly to your current work projects.
Regular critique sessions, design reviews, and community workshops. All sessions recorded for flexible scheduling.
Ongoing access to complete curriculum, live critiques, critique vault with 1,000+ design reviews, and community during membership.
Connect with 4K+ working designers at similar experience levels. Get feedback, share progress, and build your professional network.
Ensures member quality and professional community standards.
Free tutorials and bootcamps can teach techniques, but Shift Nudge provides systematic training from someone with 20 years of interface design experience, 10+ years of design education, and a track record of training 4K+ designers who've advanced to roles at leading companies.
The real differentiator isn't the format or exercises, it's who's teaching and what they've built. You're learning methodology developed through decades of shipping real products, creating patterns adopted by Apple and Google, and training thousands of working designers, not theories from someone who learned to teach but never shipped.
Many design bootcamps cost significantly more and are taught by instructors without comparable industry experience. Three-month bootcamps front-load learning and end. Shift Nudge provides year-long mentorship, ongoing community, and continuous access to training throughout your membership.
AI tools can generate layouts in seconds, but they can't feel visual tension, understand rhythm, or know when something needs refinement. The designers who lead the next era will use AI for speed while maintaining the craft that turns generated output into polished work.
Anyone can generate. But few can refine. AI gets you to 80 percent, but it can't finish the work. It doesn't know how to adjust spacing for rhythm, refine type hierarchy for clarity, or make the microadjustments that separate professional interfaces from good-enough output.
Manual design practice trains the eye that directs AI. If you skip foundational training and only learn to prompt, you'll get stuck at good-enough because you never built the skill to finish. The future isn't either-or, it's both. AI handles labor. You guide vision.
Shift Nudge teaches the systematic visual craft that lets you use AI as a multiplier, not a crutch. Learn to start fast with AI and finish strong with taste. In a sea of AI-generated interfaces, craft is the differentiator.
Matt D. Smith (@mds)
Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Georgia. Twenty years in interface design for agencies, startups, and companies worldwide. Creator of the Float Label pattern, adopted by Apple, Google, and many others. Designer of Figma plugins Contrast and Flowkit. Currently advancing AI collaboration with FloatPrompt. Founder of Shift Nudge, training designers to lead with clarity and craft.
Annual membership at $1997/yr provides ongoing access to complete curriculum, weekly live mentorship, critique vault with 1,000+ design reviews, and community of 4K+ designers. Time commitment is 5-7 hours/week with company reimbursement available.
Answers to frequently asked questions about Shift Nudge training.
Ready to stop guessing and start knowing why your design decisions work?