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Manuel Ryan Espinosa is a southern California-based mobile product designer whose passion for creating new projects is rivaled only by his desire to constantly seek out new tips, techniques, and tools to help him realize his concepts. This combo of making and learning continues to push his practice, prototypes, and professional studies; we caught up with him to talk about impressive student work, surprising interfaces from the future, and why it’s a good idea to get out of the gym and into the world around you. (And because we’re all friends here–you can call him Mico.)

What drew you to UX/UI design, and how did you get your start?

When I was little—starting from when I was about one year old—my dad would sit me on his lap while he painted famous painters’ paintings; all kinds of art from all kinds of artists. He would do this over and over again, and he said that I never got sick of it or bored watching him. I remember when he did Picasso’s Don Quixote; at first, it just looked like black blotches to me. But as I got older, those blotches became a man on a horse, with a sidekick on a horse, and little windmills in the background. I was fascinated by that evolution, and always kept that style and sense of discovery in my head.

I always loved art—admiring it, and later making it—but it wasn’t ever something I felt someone could make a living doing. It was more of a hobby.

Then in 1998, I was studying Biochemistry at UCSD. My roommate at the time was a programmer, and snuck me into the digital media lab one night to show me what was going on with computers, and specifically Adobe Photoshop. It was incredible: I made him go back the next night; and the next; and after a few weeks, I realized I wanted to change my major to Digital Media, with a minor in Visual Arts.

From there, I picked up work with a record label doing everything from CD imprints and jewel cases to stadium posters and freeway billboards. Eventually the iPhone came out, and my mind lit up when I saw it. I became super focused and finally thought: ‘Designing for this is something I can do, as a career. Now I can make a living doing what I really love.’ I was hooked.

How does Adobe Creative Cloud fit into your creative process?

I do research before anything else, which includes interviews, looking at studies, web searches, and figuring out personas (basically who I’m designing for). Based on that information, I’ll create a sitemap using Post-Its, which I’ll quickly convert into a low-fidelity wireframe; flow it all together; then made I’ll make a high-quality version, with graphics from Principal for Mac, for user testing–all in Adobe XD.

I used to use a variety of tools—but XD lets me do all the things I used to do in these other programs, like logos, background blurs, and web pages.

Plus the layout templates are great; they’re great for keeping me up to date with what’s possible for material design in iOS and Android. They’re not just helping me create—they’re helping me learn as well.

XD helps me express my vision for mobile apps way more quickly and much more easily, which saves me a lot of time and frustration. Even though it’s still in its infancy, it’s an incredible tool and I want to grow my skills alongside it.

Let’s look at one of your projects. What was your process creating Circuit Express—a mobile app for mixing up your regular workout routine?

Circuit Express is part of my series of 365 series—over the course of a nine-year period, I’m going to finish 365 videos for mobile app prototypes. It’s a way for me to practice, learn, and develop new ideas and skills.