Design Picks #009: Skeuomorphism that drives action

See how Nils and Marco leverage familiar real-world cues to make interfaces great again.

Oct 13, 2025

Handhelders,

I’m coming to you with the best mobile design work out there this week to help you with your current project. Let me know what you steal.

If you haven’t already, check out the Resources tab where we’ll be dropping Figma files, code, prototypes and everything in between to help you design and ship faster.

The Updates

Health action dashboard by Nils Eller

There’s always something about bringing real-life elements to flat digital design, and I enjoy it a lot with the book covers, showcasing action plans. It really makes me want to get my life together.

Friend payment interface by Studio Sphere

Interfaces never need a lot of complexity to get the main point across and have “great design.” Studio Sphere understand those principles to the highest level.

Event ticket wallet by Marco Cornacchia

When Marco started dropping Turf screenshots on his profile, I couldn’t help get excited, and to see it here in the flesh — I love it even more every single day.

Focus session tracker by Michael Nowak

The use of shadows and highlights here have been done to a great ability. Well done Michael! Can’t wait to see more from this project.

Currency wallet onboard by Olátòmíwá

Illustrations are the MVP for onboarding screens and this illustration, with the construction of the text font sizes, colours and button styles — it’s a very great screen to enter an app with.

Crypto social stream by uxkosta

This Tierra project from uxkosta really gives Twitter (now X), something to think about when it comes to functionality in social networking apps.

Mobile gaming hub by Sajon

When you have very intense visuals like these 3D images, you really need the UI to take a step back to let them breathe! Sajon has that balance here.

That’s a wrap!

If you’re building mobile apps and any of this helped, share it with someone who ships. Follow the daily inspiration on X here, subscribe for the next drop, and tell me what you stole this week. I’ll feature the best.

See you in the next issue.

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Handheld is curated by me, Cam, a Product Designer specialising in mobile design. Follow me if you love mobile design as much as I do.