The personal website...
Agile & anxiety
Managing anxiety is a big part of my life.
I have generalized anxiety:1 I constantly feel that...
14th May 2018
Managing anxiety is a big part of my life.
I have generalized anxiety:1 I constantly feel that something will go wrong at any moment. Often, I can’t even identify what I’m anxious about.
Work is a significant contributor to my anxiety. When I’m at work (and often when I’m not), I...
Identity Designed
Apex
Designed by Gold Front, San Francisco.
26th May 2024
Designed by Gold Front, San Francisco.
The Turn Signal RSS...
Why Car Companies Need More Interaction Designers
Why Car Companies Need More Interaction Designers
1st Apr 2019
Why Car Companies Need More Interaction Designers
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
2025 Web Origami year-end report
22nd Dec 2025
The personal website...
Design and machine learning
Machine learning is a powerful tool that drives everything from curated content recommendations to...
30th Oct 2019
Machine learning is a powerful tool that drives everything from curated content recommendations to optimized user interfaces. With Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon leading the charge, machine learning is becoming deeply integrated into everyday product experiences. This means...
The personal website...
Just-in-time design
photo by Tools for motivation
There is a disconnect between product design and product...
12th Nov 2018
photo by Tools for motivation
There is a disconnect between product design and product engineering.
Three factors contribute to this disconnect:
Products get shipped faster every day. DevOps teams automate huge amounts of the delivery process, enabling engineering teams to ship...
Retail Design Blog
NFIB Offices by HLGstudio
HLGstudio reimagined the NFIB offices in Nashville, creating a vibrant, collaborative environment...
6th May 2025
HLGstudio reimagined the NFIB offices in Nashville, creating a vibrant, collaborative environment that maximizes natural daylight and promotes productivity and...
The personal website...
What makes a good design principle?
Like many design teams, the Wall Street Journal team has been thinking through our design...
14th Nov 2017
Like many design teams, the Wall Street Journal team has been thinking through our design principles. Writing design principles comes pretty naturally (especially if you read this excellent list by Jeremy Keith). As we collaborate, we end up with a lot of candidates. However,...
Sarah Parmenter
British Summertime
Aha, the great British Summer. You really never know what you’re going to get and it makes planning...
3rd Aug 2017
Aha, the great British Summer. You really never know what you’re going to get and it makes planning weekends so darn difficult. Us Brits really do love to talk about the weather; as I write this post I started the day in shorts and a t-shirt and I’m about to go and fetch a...
Product Identity
#2 Whereby – In the name of simplicity
The Zoom alternative you probably haven't heard of
14th Sep 2023
The Zoom alternative you probably haven't heard of
Oykun Yilmaz
"Thank You" letter to Designers for 2022
Dear Designer,
You have done an amazing job this year!
Maybe you didn’t achieve everything you...
1st Jan 2023
Dear Designer,
You have done an amazing job this year!
Maybe you didn’t achieve everything you wanted.
Go easy on yourself.
Design is hard!
You are expected to touch everything from stating business problems to communicating your solutions to developers, stakeholders. You work...
Christopher Butler
Replication Is Not Innovation
AI’s efficiency gains don’t justify trillion-dollar valuations.
The economy is both thriving and...
2nd Feb 2026
AI’s efficiency gains don’t justify trillion-dollar valuations.
The economy is both thriving and failing, depending on where you’re standing. The stock market remains strong, driven almost entirely by the valuations of seven companies. Meanwhile, most people experience a daily...
The Turn Signal RSS...
How We Designed a White-Label In-Car Infotainment System
Over the past two years, we created an infotainment system as a product, here is a look inside our...
1st Aug 2024
Over the past two years, we created an infotainment system as a product, here is a look inside our design process.
The personal website...
How to get the best design feedback from your team
In 2015, I wrote out my thoughts on creative feedback. Here’s that article in list format:
Feedback...
13th Apr 2017
In 2015, I wrote out my thoughts on creative feedback. Here’s that article in list format:
Feedback should be concise
Feedback should be action-oriented
Feedback should have a consistent format
At the time, the Planetary design team was growing. We were grappling with one of the...
The personal website...
Functions and the future of design systems
New kinds of computers and interfaces are becoming ubiquitous: in our cars, on our wrists, in our...
12th Feb 2022
New kinds of computers and interfaces are becoming ubiquitous: in our cars, on our wrists, in our ears, at our desks at work, on our TVs at home. In response, we’ve seen innovations in the content, organization, and delivery of design systems: design tokens, interoperability,...
Koos Looijesteijn
How I repaired our oven with a piece of Lego
1st Aug 2026
Ryan Mulligan
Layout Breakouts with CSS Grid
A post about the layout you're looking at right now
The previous structure of this page layout was...
7th Oct 2022
A post about the layout you're looking at right now
The previous structure of this page layout was virtually the same, the foundation of it expertly defined in the article Full-Bleed Layout Using CSS Grid by Josh Comeau. It's a technique I've used on many projects. I've even...
Identity Designed
Norfolk Coast
Designed by Lantern, London.
23rd Nov 2023
Designed by Lantern, London.
The DESK Magazine
A clean, peaceful place to read your articles without distractions
The people who use mymind typically have an intellectual side. They like to think, learn and...
20th Apr 2022
The people who use mymind typically have an intellectual side. They like to think, learn and challenge themselves on their own time. So we knew this brand new feature was not optional: Reader Mode.
Christopher Butler
From Pascal's Empty Room to Our Full Screens
On the Ambient Entertainment Industrial Complex
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s...
10th Mar 2025
On the Ambient Entertainment Industrial Complex
“All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Pascal’s observation from the 17th century feels less like historical philosophy and more like a diagnosis of our current condition. The...
The Pudding
The Middle Ages
Follow hundreds of kids as they navigate their trecherous middle school years.
3rd Mar 2025
Follow hundreds of kids as they navigate their trecherous middle school years.
Fatih Arslan
My Homelab Setup
I replaced my existing Homelab setup from the ground up with Unifi's latest Gateways, Switches APs,...
10th Sep 2024
I replaced my existing Homelab setup from the ground up with Unifi's latest Gateways, Switches APs, and Cameras. Here is what I did and how it ended up.
The personal website...
Beauty in the machine: Post-industrial design
Has design become boring?
A twitter thread by Sheehan Quirke (aka the Cultural Tutor) has been...
21st Sep 2022
Has design become boring?
A twitter thread by Sheehan Quirke (aka the Cultural Tutor) has been making the rounds lately, arguing just that. Quirke describes the many shortcomings of modern design: architecture, urban planning, industrial design, and interior design have all been...
Christopher Butler
We Live in the Uncanny Valley Now
Making virtual worlds can help us understand the real one, but they’re not places we can live...
28th Jan 2022
Making virtual worlds can help us understand the real one, but they’re not places we can live permanently.
Terebithia, the imaginary world he and his friend Leslie create in the woods would have no meaning, no power, and no purpose. Theirs is a story about real children, in...
UX Collective
Liquid Glass isn’t a design failure; it is Apple’s most tactile digital future yet
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
23rd Jun 2025
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Law & Order
Contributed by Nick Sherman
License: All Rights Reserved.
Law & Order is a US television series...
13th Sep 2020
Contributed by Nick Sherman
License: All Rights Reserved.
Law & Order is a US television series set in New York City that first aired 30 years ago today, on September 13, 1990, and ran for 20 seasons until its final episode in 2010. Each episode is split into two segments:...
The Turn Signal RSS...
Driving a Porsche Taycan for a Week, a UX review
I rented the car from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. It turned out to be a brand new Porsche...
1st May 2022
I rented the car from the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart. It turned out to be a brand new Porsche Taycan Cross Turismo 4S. It has a base…
The personal website...
Using Netlify to build an email sign-up widget
You can read this article on CSS Tricks.
2nd Aug 2019
You can read this article on CSS Tricks.
Jeffrey Zeldman...
The eye of God
My doctor sends me to Brooklyn for an abdominal aortic aneurysm screening. As instructed, I fast for...
11th Jul 2025
My doctor sends me to Brooklyn for an abdominal aortic aneurysm screening. As instructed, I fast for six hours beforehand. I don’t even brush my teeth, for fear of swallowing toothpaste and screwing up the test. I wear a Covid-era face mask to avoid breathing on anyone.
The...
Christopher Butler
Persuasion
Good design requires persuasion.
might be persuasive on its own; the notion that a thing “just...
15th Apr 2023
Good design requires persuasion.
might be persuasive on its own; the notion that a thing “just works” implies that its function, however novel, is an intuitive leap from its form. This is what Apple is known for. Apple products are renowned for their simplicity, which is what...
The personal website...
Functions and the future of design systems
New kinds of computers and interfaces are becoming ubiquitous: in our cars, on our wrists, in our...
12th Feb 2022
New kinds of computers and interfaces are becoming ubiquitous: in our cars, on our wrists, in our ears, at our desks at work, on our TVs at home. In response, we’ve seen innovations in the content, organization, and delivery of design systems: design tokens, interoperability,...
Christopher Butler
Human-First Interaction (in a Machine-Driven World)
As artificial intelligence (AI) agents increasingly mediate our digital experiences, the role of...
10th Jan 2025
As artificial intelligence (AI) agents increasingly mediate our digital experiences, the role of human interaction with information is evolving. Machines are becoming our primary intermediaries for searching, synthesizing, and summarizing information, often performing these tasks...
Koos Looijesteijn
Responsive video is (almost) easy now
20th Jul 2025
The Pudding
In pursuit of democracy
Every time someone said 'democracy' in Congress.
3rd Nov 2025
Every time someone said 'democracy' in Congress.
The personal website...
Tiny data visualizations
This is a direct translation of a talk I gave at the NYC D3.js meetup in January of 2016. If you’d...
8th Feb 2016
This is a direct translation of a talk I gave at the NYC D3.js meetup in January of 2016. If you’d like to see a video of the talk, you can check it out on YouTube.
Have you seen this comprehensive list of Donald Trump’s insults? Or maybe this detailed rundown of the 2016...
Identity Designed
Pets at Home
Designed by Nomad, London.
24th Apr 2023
Designed by Nomad, London.
The personal website...
Towards better creative feedback
Creative work — be it designing, writing, coding, or managing — is a collaborative practice. At...
7th Jan 2015
Creative work — be it designing, writing, coding, or managing — is a collaborative practice. At least two parties are always involved: The maker (a designer, developer, or manager) on one end, and the audience on the other.1 Feedback between the maker and the audience is...
Joshua Smith
Brooklyn Bodega
Based on 127 Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NYC. Scratchbuilt 1:20 Scale Miniature...
1st Oct 2018
Based on 127 Albany Avenue in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, NYC. Scratchbuilt 1:20 Scale Miniature created from MDF, Wood, cardboard, plastic card, chalk pastels, spraypaint, wire, plastruct. Created for Urban Art Fair, Paris, 2018. Photo Credit: Ben Neale
The post Brooklyn Bodega...
The Turn Signal RSS...
The Problem With Digital Instrument Clusters and How to Design a Better One
Since the invention of the car, instrument clusters have largely consisted of a speedometer,...
1st Jan 2024
Since the invention of the car, instrument clusters have largely consisted of a speedometer, tachometer, fuel gauge, and engine…
UX Collective
Something big “might” be happening
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
2nd Mar 2026
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
Retail Design Blog
Sunrise Garden Restaurant by M9 Design Studio
Located within an industrial suburb of Bangalore, Sunrise Garden Restaurant emerges as a quiet...
7th Apr 2026
Located within an industrial suburb of Bangalore, Sunrise Garden Restaurant emerges as a quiet counterpoint to its context — transforming...
The Turn Signal RSS...
The Role of Cognitive Load in Automotive UX Design
What is cognitive load and how does it impact driving safety and automotive UX design?
1st May 2023
What is cognitive load and how does it impact driving safety and automotive UX design?
The DESK Magazine
Objects of Affection — From the Desk of van Schneider — Edition №257
As always, if you missed last weeks email, its now on my blog. Last week I shared my big bucket list...
3rd Feb 2025
As always, if you missed last weeks email, its now on my blog. Last week I shared my big bucket list "Designs of my Dreams" with you. Feel free to forward this article to friends or colleagues if you like, its now open to everyone to read.
Designs
The personal website...
Switching to variable fonts
Ever since I first learned about variable fonts, I’ve wanted to use them in my own work. After...
3rd Mar 2019
Ever since I first learned about variable fonts, I’ve wanted to use them in my own work. After learning that Source Serif and Inter both had variable versions, I started switching this site over to use them. Here’s how I implemented the change, and what I learned along the...
Christopher Butler
Discernment in the Digital Age
How elimination, curation, and optimization can help us see through the technological...
8th Apr 2025
How elimination, curation, and optimization can help us see through the technological mirror.
Technology functions as both mirror and lens — reflecting our self-image while simultaneously shaping how we see everything else. This metaphor of recursion, while perhaps obvious...
The DESK Magazine
Our favorite portfolios launched with Semplice in July 2022
Every week, we handpick two portfolios created with Semplice to feature on our Showcase. These are...
1st Aug 2022
Every week, we handpick two portfolios created with Semplice to feature on our Showcase. These are the best of the best, chosen by yours truly from hundreds of beautiful submissions
Ryan Mulligan
Starting Exploration of Scroll-driven Animations in CSS
CSS Scroll-driven Animations has recently made its debut on the main stage in the latest versions of...
21st Aug 2023
CSS Scroll-driven Animations has recently made its debut on the main stage in the latest versions of Chrome and Edge. Before this module became available, linking an element's animation to a scroll position was only possible through JavaScript. I've been (and still am) a huge fan...
Melissa Penfold
SEASON’S TREE-TINGS! THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO CHRISTMAS, 2023
The past few years have been rocky for Christmas. In 2020 it was cancelled. In 2021, it felt a...
5th Dec 2023
The past few years have been rocky for Christmas. In 2020 it was cancelled. In 2021, it felt a little more appealing. Things began to feel more normal in 2022, but having been homebodies for so long we were still flexing our dormant social muscles. In 2023 the weight of current...
Nela Dunato Art &...
Journaling technique: Polarity integration journal spread
Journaling is the most potent way to resolve inner challenges, find solutions to problems, and...
18th Jul 2024
Journaling is the most potent way to resolve inner challenges, find solutions to problems, and develop your own creative voice. Today I’m sharing one of my favorite journaling techniques that I use quite often when I want to explore two sides of a problem.
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Spent most of the day in bed with a cold. Head feels pretty clear though. I feel bad, but I’m...
1st Feb 2022
Spent most of the day in bed with a cold. Head feels pretty clear though. I feel bad, but I’m...
The personal website...
Working to work
Despite the fact that I build websites for a living, I do a significant amount of work in my...
18th Jan 2014
Despite the fact that I build websites for a living, I do a significant amount of work in my notebooks.
Quick quiz: what does a web developer do for a living? If you said ‘make websites, duh,’ you’re technically correct (the best kind of correct). And you’re in good company; I’d...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Write a very concise static site generator with Origami expressions
2nd May 2025
The personal website...
Crystal ball 1-on-1s
1-on-1s are my favorite management tool. Not only for managing direct reports; sideways and upwards...
25th Mar 2018
1-on-1s are my favorite management tool. Not only for managing direct reports; sideways and upwards management need 1-on-1s, too. Here’s my general definition for a 1-on-1:
Reoccuring - Whether it’s weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly, set a cadence and stick with it.
Informal - Don’t...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Reclaiming the City, Reclaiming Words: Póli Gynaikón – City of Women
Contributed by Maria Paganopoulou
Photo: Maria Paganopoulou. Delfys Feminist Archive,...
6th Oct 2022
Contributed by Maria Paganopoulou
Photo: Maria Paganopoulou. Delfys Feminist Archive, Athens. License: All Rights Reserved.
Covers of the magazine Póli Ginaikón
Marsha Rowe, editor of the groundbreaking feminist magazine Spare Rib, famously recalled: “Suddenly, words...
Christopher Butler
Earning Attention
This is something I say in the course of nearly every conversation I have with every agency design...
6th Apr 2026
This is something I say in the course of nearly every conversation I have with every agency design team I consult.
I remind them, over and over again, that marketing is two kinds of persuasion: FIRST, persuading a person to actually pay attention, and THEN, persuading them of...
Christopher Butler
Friction Can Be Good
Something I have noticed as content, software, and product design have attempted to eradicate...
8th Mar 2023
Something I have noticed as content, software, and product design have attempted to eradicate friction is that friction is not necessarily a bad thing.
Friction is a part of everyday life. It comes from the difference between one thing and another — the encounter of two things....
Melissa Penfold
IF YOU WANT TO SELL YOUR HOUSE, FIGURE OUT WHAT TO RENOVATE FIRST
You want to sell your home, but the kids have scuffed up the floors and chipped the paint. The...
30th Jan 2024
You want to sell your home, but the kids have scuffed up the floors and chipped the paint. The kitchen could use a face-lift and the lawn has seen better days.
Every seller has to decide whether to sink money into their home before listing it, and how much. Lately, the stakes...
Ryan Mulligan
Blog Questions Challenge
Hey there.
It has been a minute since my last post. I was semi-recently tagged by Zach Leatherman to...
25th Mar 2025
Hey there.
It has been a minute since my last post. I was semi-recently tagged by Zach Leatherman to (optionally) participate in this year's Blog Questions Challenge. I had planned on doing it then. But life really hit hard as we entered this year and it has not let up. Energy...
Christopher Butler
What We Do When We See
What does it even mean to design when perception is reality? Do we all ever see the same...
5th Nov 2021
What does it even mean to design when perception is reality? Do we all ever see the same thing?
Visual Intelligence, a wonderful book about seeing and clarity, Amy Herman begins with the story of Derreck Kayongo.
Kayongo had just stepped into the shower in his hotel room...
The personal website...
A website to call my own
Most of this site was built at my favorite coffee shop of late, Sump.
I make a living designing and...
2nd Dec 2013
Most of this site was built at my favorite coffee shop of late, Sump.
I make a living designing and developing, among many many other things, websites. So, for the past few years, I’ve had the embarrassing task of explaining something to all my clients and — worse, if you can...
Christopher Butler
Organization – Office
I am on a continual quest for organization.
After the kitchen, the office is the most used room in...
18th Aug 2023
I am on a continual quest for organization.
After the kitchen, the office is the most used room in our home.
My wife and I work here, Monday through Friday, 9 to 5. Our children play and create in here just as often. It’s where we maintain several workspaces, store supplies,...
Joshua Smith
General Laundry Building
Scratchbuilt miniature based on the Abandoned General Laundry building in New Orleans, United...
7th Jun 2019
Scratchbuilt miniature based on the Abandoned General Laundry building in New Orleans, United States. Created for the Urban Art Fair in Paris showing with Galerie 42b in Paris, April, 2019. Scratchbuilt 1:24 Scale Miniature created from MDF, Wood, cardboard, plastic card, chalk...
Luke Mitchell |...
RSS is calm
I’ve been thinking a bit about how I consume from the web, to improve my digital health. Here’s some...
5th Oct 2020
I’ve been thinking a bit about how I consume from the web, to improve my digital health. Here’s some things I’ve done recently:
Delete all work stuff from my phone (Slack, Email etc).
Clean up my social follows, and use Twitterrific ‘muffles’ more.
Use Drafts to record ideas and...
Retail Design Blog
Roche Diagnostic Center Interior by Studio Alexander Fehre
The Roche Diagnostic Innovation Center in Penzberg, Bavaria, is a 35,500 m² research and workplace...
2nd Jul 2026
The Roche Diagnostic Innovation Center in Penzberg, Bavaria, is a 35,500 m² research and workplace complex realized for Roche Diagnostics...
The DESK Magazine
mymind keeps getting better
We've been hard at work making every aspect of the mymind.com experience better, smoother, faster...
10th Sep 2024
We've been hard at work making every aspect of the mymind.com experience better, smoother, faster and lovelier.
The personal website...
A website to call my own
Most of this site was built at my favorite coffee shop of late, Sump.
I make a living designing and...
2nd Dec 2013
Most of this site was built at my favorite coffee shop of late, Sump.
I make a living designing and developing, among many many other things, websites. So, for the past few years, I’ve had the embarrassing task of explaining something to all my clients and — worse, if you can...
Ryan Mulligan
Detect JavaScript Support in CSS
I had been aware of the scripting CSS media feature but I was still under the impression that...
20th Apr 2024
I had been aware of the scripting CSS media feature but I was still under the impression that cross-browser support was lacking. What a pleasant surprise to discover that it has been available in all modern browsers as of December 2023 according to caniuse.com. With this feature,...
The DESK Magazine
How to reverse AI brain rot — A note to myself
Stop chasing frictionless convenience
Accept some slowness and complexity in your life. Don't use...
1st Oct 2025
Stop chasing frictionless convenience
Accept some slowness and complexity in your life. Don't use shortcuts everywhere even if they're easily available to you. Embrace manual effort to train your mind and body. It's the only way to grow and retain personal agency in a
Ryan Mulligan
Center Items in First Row with CSS Grid
Imagine the following section on a website:
A collection of elements, like a series of cards with...
19th Aug 2024
Imagine the following section on a website:
A collection of elements, like a series of cards with marketing information, are presented in a grid display.
The elements are arranged in rows of three.
When there are an odd number of elements left over, they will be center-aligned...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
10 Years of Fonts In Use
Contributed by Nick Sherman
License: All Rights Reserved.
Fonts In Use officially launched 10...
21st Dec 2020
Contributed by Nick Sherman
License: All Rights Reserved.
Fonts In Use officially launched 10 years ago today, on December 21, 2010. The site, which started as just the Blog before opening up to public contributions in 2012, has grown far beyond our expectations when we...
Fatih Arslan
My feelings about X (formerly Twitter)
This will be short, but I just wanted to rant and vent here because this is my space. I'll use X or...
7th Apr 2024
This will be short, but I just wanted to rant and vent here because this is my space. I'll use X or Twitter interchangeably throughout the post, but they represent the same entity.
Loss of integrity
Since Elon's takeover of Twitter, a lot has changed. But
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Home science and engineering projects that my kids and I enjoyed
2nd Apr 2025
The Turn Signal RSS...
A New Concept for Usable Touch Interaction in Cars
When looking around in traffic, the number of people being distracted by their phones and...
1st Apr 2020
When looking around in traffic, the number of people being distracted by their phones and infotainment systems is alarming. The latter is a…
Koos Looijesteijn -...
The new heroes of design
I used to have several design heroes I looked up to. But when I changed from industrial design to...
21st Feb 2022
I used to have several design heroes I looked up to. But when I changed from industrial design to digital...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Harris/Walz 2024 US Presidential Campaign
Contributed by Stephen Coles
Source: www.flickr.com Kit Karzen/Harris for President. License:...
4th Sep 2024
Contributed by Stephen Coles
Source: www.flickr.com Kit Karzen/Harris for President. License: All Rights Reserved.
The Kamala Harris 2024 campaign identity, designed by Wide Eye Creative, is built around Sans Plomb, a condensed gothic not unlike the Bureau Grot used by...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
UI Pace Layers
Jeremy Keith, Chris Coyier, and others (see Jeremy’s post) have written about the idea of “pace...
2nd Feb 2025
Jeremy Keith, Chris Coyier, and others (see Jeremy’s post) have written about the idea of “pace layers” and now I’m going to take a stab at applying it to user interface primitives.
First, let’s start with a line of reasoning:
Common user interface controls — such as checkboxes...
The Pudding
Dicing an Onion, the Mathematically Optimal Way
What is the best way to dice an onion to get the most uniform piece sizes?
12th Aug 2025
What is the best way to dice an onion to get the most uniform piece sizes?
Fonts In Use – Blog...
März book covers, 1969–1987
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: www.booklooker.de katzensohn (edited). License: All Rights...
13th Feb 2023
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: www.booklooker.de katzensohn (edited). License: All Rights Reserved.
März Texte 1, 1969. Compilation of texts by Bazon Brock, Peter O. Chotjewitz, William S. Burroughs, LeRoi Jones, Uve Schmidt, Hermann Nitsch, and others.
Among German...
The personal website...
A design API in practice
Update 6/12/22: The links to the implmentation of the API are currently broken. I'm updating some...
6th Jul 2020
Update 6/12/22: The links to the implmentation of the API are currently broken. I'm updating some dependencies to make it work again.
A few months ago I wrote an essay titled “Design APIs: the evolution of design systems”. The API model for design systems resonated with design...
Jakob Nielsen on UX
The Big Tough UX-AI Quiz
70 hard questions about the last year in UX and AI.
5th Jan 2026
70 hard questions about the last year in UX and AI.
Retail Design Blog
Junshanye x Gugo Brand – The national tea aesthetics of Valley Creation
Walking in secret places, talking to mountains and seas Transcribing the original power of nature...
2nd Jan 2025
Walking in secret places, talking to mountains and seas Transcribing the original power of nature Starting the journey of seeking...
The personal website...
How to take your team's creative pulse
“Could we explore other options?”
If you’ve been to a design review, you’ve probably heard this...
10th Feb 2019
“Could we explore other options?”
If you’ve been to a design review, you’ve probably heard this question. When I hear it, my heart breaks. It says that our team is out of alignment: the work I’m sharing isn’t meeting everyone’s expectations.
I’d like to share a workshop that I...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Fame & Misfortune
Or, the ins and outs of building and losing a large social media follower account. First, the...
7th Dec 2025
Or, the ins and outs of building and losing a large social media follower account. First, the data:
Follower counts are accurate as of 7 December, 2025.
Twitter – 285.3K followers.
(350K before Elon.)
N.B. I no longer post there.
LinkedIn – 70.5K followers.
Instagram – 21.2K...
Oykun Yilmaz
2023 Letter with 10 Lessons
I’ve been writing my 2023 reflections for myself and I thought I’d share them with you. This is a...
18th Jan 2024
I’ve been writing my 2023 reflections for myself and I thought I’d share them with you. This is a bit of a long and personal one. Feel free to skip it if you like.
OK, let’s get to it!
Write
I've been
The personal website...
Inclusive design on the Tokyo subway
For the past two weeks, I’ve been exploring Tokyo. Until the last few days of 2018, I had never been...
13th Jan 2019
For the past two weeks, I’ve been exploring Tokyo. Until the last few days of 2018, I had never been to Tokyo — or, for that matter, any city as large as Tokyo. And while I have many many great memories of the city, I’m particularly eager to share my impressions of the Tokyo...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Philip K. Dick paperback covers (Panther Science Fiction)
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by
citizen3xx24j....
20th Jun 2021
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: www.flickr.com Uploaded to Flickr by
citizen3xx24j. License: All Rights Reserved.
Now Wait for Last Year (1975). Cover art by Chris Foss. [More info on ISFDB]
Roslyn Gothic arguably saw its most extensive and iconic use on the...
Product Identity
head on the cloud, feet on the ground
A conversation with Sari Azout of Sublime
17th Jul 2025
A conversation with Sari Azout of Sublime
Jakob Nielsen on UX
UX Roundup: AI Judgment | Heuristic Evaluation | Consistent Brand Assets | New Music Model
AI judgment may follow a scaling law | Scaling AI’s judgment of usability heuristics | Generating...
2nd Feb 2026
AI judgment may follow a scaling law | Scaling AI’s judgment of usability heuristics | Generating consistent visual design assets with AI | New AI music model: Mureka O2
Retail Design Blog
FOGO E ÁGUA at ALEA RESORT
FOGO E ÁGUA was built in Bad Orb, near Frankfurt, a place where salt was traditionally extracted...
1st Oct 2024
FOGO E ÁGUA was built in Bad Orb, near Frankfurt, a place where salt was traditionally extracted from a brine...
Oykun Yilmaz
Easy steps to start investing in the stock market
Invest in long term, Diversify, Don't stress to time the market, Stay calm ... It is not that...
16th Jun 2024
Invest in long term, Diversify, Don't stress to time the market, Stay calm ... It is not that complicated.
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Creating a simple blog in Python with Origami concepts
7th Oct 2025
The Turn Signal RSS...
Designing A New UX Concept to Reduce Driver Distraction
is it possible to create a modern interaction model that allows the flexibility of touch screens but...
1st Jun 2019
is it possible to create a modern interaction model that allows the flexibility of touch screens but does not cause driver distraction?
The Turn Signal RSS...
Why Do New Cars Have Speed Limit Warnings, and Do They Work?
New cars have one feature that's infuriating: a beep when exceeding the speed limit. Why are...
1st Oct 2024
New cars have one feature that's infuriating: a beep when exceeding the speed limit. Why are carmakers adding this and does it actually work?
Product Identity
Annoucning Niche design: The Creative Practice
Inside the next issue + patronage
4th Aug 2026
Inside the next issue + patronage
Product Identity
In awe of InVision
An aftermath promo for the nerdy designer
21st Aug 2024
An aftermath promo for the nerdy designer
Identity Designed
The Dinner Ladies
Designed by Universal Favourite, Sydney.
7th Jun 2024
Designed by Universal Favourite, Sydney.
Koos Looijesteijn
Beautiful shadows have beautiful colors
15th Jul 2024
Identity Designed
Jarrolds
Designed by The Click, Norwich.
5th Oct 2023
Designed by The Click, Norwich.
Fonts In Use – Blog...
John & Paul & Ringo & George / &&& T-shirt
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Source: walkerart.org License: All Rights Reserved.
Experimental...
14th Dec 2019
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Source: walkerart.org License: All Rights Reserved.
Experimental Jetset designed the original John & Paul & Ringo & George T-shirt (referencing the names of the Beatles) in 2001 for Yoshi Kawasaki at the Japanese apparel company 2K/Gingham. The...
Koos Looijesteijn
Hey Koos, do you still recommend WordPress?
29th Jun 2018
Koos Looijesteijn
New design pattern: Drag To Tag
10th Sep 2013
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Handwritten notes in the time of AI note takers
“Here is the thing people get wrong about AI in meetings. The transcript captures what was said. It...
9th Apr 2026
“Here is the thing people get wrong about AI in meetings. The transcript captures what was said. It does not capture what mattered.”—Lucas Radke
The best project management tool is still a pen, plus the discipline to notice what the machine cannot.
The post Handwritten notes in...
Christopher Butler
The Road Through Your Screen
2nd Jun 2023
The Turn Signal RSS...
The eHMI: How Autonomous Cars Will Communicate With the Outside World
A lot of communication happens between drivers and other road users. How will self-driving cars...
1st May 2021
A lot of communication happens between drivers and other road users. How will self-driving cars handle this?
Christopher Butler
How to Know When to Use AI
Maybe this will help.
In my circles, AI is either everything or it is nothing.
It is the...
2nd May 2024
Maybe this will help.
In my circles, AI is either everything or it is nothing.
It is the thing to use in every case because if we don’t someone else will or it is the thing to never use because it is a sin against humanity.
Capitalists and artists have almost always...
The DESK Magazine
How to build your secret repertoire
As a creative, your repertoire is your secret weapon.
2nd Jul 2024
As a creative, your repertoire is your secret weapon.
julian.digital
The case against conversational interfaces
01 Intro Conversational interfaces are a bit of a meme. Every couple of years a shiny new AI...
27th Mar 2025
01 Intro Conversational interfaces are a bit of a meme. Every couple of years a shiny new AI development emerges and people in tech go “This is it! The next computing paradigm is here! We’ll only use natural language going forward!”. But then nothing actually changes and we...
ramsés cabello
nested folders @ sketch
hola! 〜 ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )
i hope it is not very cold at the moment you’re reading this post 〜 although...
21st Nov 2025
hola! 〜 ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )
i hope it is not very cold at the moment you’re reading this post 〜 although here is freezing and dark-ish, i wanted to write a few words about something i designed at sketch a while back and recently released + some other misc 〜
let’s start with a photo...
The DESK Magazine
When did our tools become our religion?
Designers love to argue about design tools. Some treat it as their religion, as if their design tool...
6th Sep 2022
Designers love to argue about design tools. Some treat it as their religion, as if their design tool is the only thing that gives them meaning or an identity.
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Blogging or posting on social media—what's better?
I wrote about the benefits of blogging before. That was four years ago. Now I have some things to...
30th Oct 2022
I wrote about the benefits of blogging before. That was four years ago. Now I have some things to add...
Scott Jenson
Design for a Small Planet
Back in 1971, “Diet for a Small Planet” by Frances Moore Lappé made it clear the costs of eating...
18th Mar 2025
Back in 1971, “Diet for a Small Planet” by Frances Moore Lappé made it clear the costs of eating meat were far greater than we had assumed. If we wanted the planet to thrive, we needed to shift to a more resource-efficient way to eat. UX Design is going through its own “you cost...
Permanent Style
How to dress like Luciano Barbera
Luciano Barbera is a menswear icon for many reasons. For me, however, the most important is that he...
1st May 2026
Luciano Barbera is a menswear icon for many reasons. For me, however, the most important is that he always emphasised dressing comfortably, appropriately and in an understated manner. Dressing comfortably means eschewing the uber-tight suit... > Read more
The DESK Magazine
Tutorial: How to make an illustration & animation portfolio with Carbonmade
Some portfolios look so good, you can't imagine how they did it. They must have hired a developer...
1st Jan 2023
Some portfolios look so good, you can't imagine how they did it. They must have hired a developer and worked for hours on the design.
Sarah Parmenter
Geek Mental Health Week
This has been written as part of the Geek Mental Health Week – starting on Monday October 3rd 2016. ...
29th Sep 2016
This has been written as part of the Geek Mental Health Week – starting on Monday October 3rd 2016. You can hear me read this as an audioblog – 8 minutes. T his time of year is a strange one…
Ryan Mulligan
Transition to the Other Side with Container Query Units
Managing the position of an element as it travels across the length of its parent container can be...
11th Oct 2025
Managing the position of an element as it travels across the length of its parent container can be tricky. Assuming they both have dynamic, responsive dimensions, we might rely on JS to check the width and/or height of each element and do some calculations for a proper end...
Identity Designed
Donut Shop
Designed by TwoPoints.Net, Hamburg, Barcelona.
11th Mar 2024
Designed by TwoPoints.Net, Hamburg, Barcelona.
Jakob Nielsen on UX
Gestalt Principles for Visual UI Design
Users parse a layout before they read its labels. Whitespace, borders, alignment, color, and motion...
2 weeks ago
Users parse a layout before they read its labels. Whitespace, borders, alignment, color, and motion determine what belongs together. When these cues fight the content, users attach the label, price, warning, status, or action to the wrong object. Proximity, similarity, enclosure,...
The Turn Signal RSS...
The Process Behind the Touch Interaction Concept
If you haven't yet seen the concept I created, click here Below is the rough design process that I...
1st May 2020
If you haven't yet seen the concept I created, click here Below is the rough design process that I followed.
One of the main reasons…
The Turn Signal RSS...
Guidelines for Designing an In-Car Voice Assistant
I turned all the research that I did for my previous article, about the impact of voice interaction...
1st Sep 2022
I turned all the research that I did for my previous article, about the impact of voice interaction on driver distraction, into concrete…
Luke Mitchell |...
Warm email
I have an email address that you’ll find in the footer below this post,
I rarely get emails to it,...
29th Dec 2025
I have an email address that you’ll find in the footer below this post,
I rarely get emails to it, the ones I do get fall into two categories: very,
very kind people paying compliments to me about this website; secondly some
sort of cold email, usually from a SEO expert...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 May 20 - June 1
Faces
The last two weeks have been unusually busy and routine-disrupting. Half the input to the...
1st Jun 2024
Faces
The last two weeks have been unusually busy and routine-disrupting. Half the input to the book as usual, but still, something is better than nothing!
I intended to make the collage on the right only black and white. Couldn’t resist a bit of color.
Very...
Christopher Butler
sketchbook – 2024 March 9 - March 16
Putting these up on my website is a new thing I am doing!
Either nothing is magic or everything...
9th Mar 2024
Putting these up on my website is a new thing I am doing!
Either nothing is magic or everything is.
We are doing solar this year!
The back is better than the front.
UX Collective
When the canvas starts acting, who’s really in control?
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
a week ago
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
The Pudding
Bears Will Be Boys
How and why do we gender animals in stories?
7th Jul 2025
How and why do we gender animals in stories?
The Turn Signal RSS...
The Struggle to Find Out How Cars Manage Your Personal Data
Cars today collect more than 200 different data points. Most of these data points are not only...
1st Jun 2021
Cars today collect more than 200 different data points. Most of these data points are not only interesting to car manufacturers themselves.…
Product Identity
Beautiful ugly websites
Form is cheap, function is everything(?)
7th Mar 2024
Form is cheap, function is everything(?)
Koos Looijesteijn -...
100 ways to slightly improve your life without really trying
"1 Exercise on a Monday night (nothing fun happens on a Monday night).2 On the fence about a...
12th Jan 2023
"1 Exercise on a Monday night (nothing fun happens on a Monday night).2 On the fence about a purchase? Wait 72 hours before you buy it.3 Tip: the quickest supermarket queue is always behind the fullest trolley (greeting, paying and packing take longer than you think).4 Bring...
Christopher Butler
Out-Random the AI
If you are a creative person, AI is frightening. It should be. It is yet another technology that we...
1st Apr 2024
If you are a creative person, AI is frightening. It should be. It is yet another technology that we know more than enough to not pursue, but will anyway because our culture is an untethered, nihilistic avarice addiction cloud in which we are all entrapped.
The truth is that...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
“Incalculable Loss” front page of The New York Times for May 24th, 2020
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Source: store.nytimes.com The New York Times. License: All Rights...
25th May 2020
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Source: store.nytimes.com The New York Times. License: All Rights Reserved.
The front page of The New York Times for Sunday, May 24th, 2020, was a stark wall of type, and only type: a long and somber list of Americans who have lost their lives...
Ryan Mulligan
CSS Custom Property Fallbacks in Shorthand Values
CSS Custom Properties are incredibly versatile and have become especially useful as customizable...
14th Jul 2023
CSS Custom Properties are incredibly versatile and have become especially useful as customizable props in common layout and component style patterns. Here's an example derived from the SmolCSS site:
.grid {
--min: 15ch;
--gap: 1rem;
display: grid;
gap: var(--gap);
...
The Turn Signal RSS...
Apple's Risky Bet on CarPlay
What is Apple's strategy with CarPlay?
1st Apr 2024
What is Apple's strategy with CarPlay?
Nela Dunato Art &...
Nela Dunato Art & Design got a brand refresh!
My previous brand identity design lasted from 2015 until 2023, and it has served me quite well. But...
3rd Dec 2023
My previous brand identity design lasted from 2015 until 2023, and it has served me quite well. But my new professional photos sparked the need to overhaul the website, which led to a more substantial brand redesign including new typography and updated logo design. Come see what...
Retail Design Blog
Purple Garden Restaurant
Located near Hangzhou’s famed West Lake, the project takes inspiration from Ming Dynasty gardens and...
3rd Jun 2024
Located near Hangzhou’s famed West Lake, the project takes inspiration from Ming Dynasty gardens and fuses them with a contemporary...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Promoting a design and development tool through comics
8th Jan 2026
The personal website...
Know thyself
Throughout the series, we’ve covered four of the major ethical movements in philosophy. Here’s a...
8th Jun 2020
Throughout the series, we’ve covered four of the major ethical movements in philosophy. Here’s a brief recap:
Virtue ethics is the belief that well-being comes from having the right personality traits or dispositions. The key to virtue ethics is finding those special skills that,...
Product Identity
We should seek communities anew
Notes for the aspiring designer
29th Dec 2025
Notes for the aspiring designer
Koos Looijesteijn
Who is responsible for the impact of innovative products?
7th Dec 2023
Jakob Nielsen on UX
UX Roundup: Corkboard Mockup | Loss-Making Promos | AI Movie | Video-to-Music | Mainstream AI |...
Corkboard mockup of project history | Are promotions profitable or not?
1st Sep 2025
Corkboard mockup of project history | Are promotions profitable or not?
Christopher Butler
From the Desk Of
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could actually peer over another designer’s shoulder once in a while and...
27th Aug 2021
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could actually peer over another designer’s shoulder once in a while and see what they actually do?
design means different things to different people, as does the title Designer. As much as I prefer the simplicity of Designer to, say, Interaction...
The personal website...
Breaking looms
Let’s talk about Luddites. The actual, real, historical Luddites.
“Luddite” was the label given to a...
4th Feb 2020
Let’s talk about Luddites. The actual, real, historical Luddites.
“Luddite” was the label given to a group of English workers’ rights activists in the early 19th century. They owe their name to a man who may never have existed — Ned Ludd. The Luddites were working-class people...
Retail Design Blog
CNC & Active Offices by Studio Reaktor
The new office spaces of Czech News Center and Active Radio were built within the new Hagibor...
4th Aug 2026
The new office spaces of Czech News Center and Active Radio were built within the new Hagibor administrative complex on...
The personal website...
Using Netlify to build an email sign-up widget
You can read this article on CSS Tricks.
2nd Aug 2019
You can read this article on CSS Tricks.
Jakob Nielsen on UX
UX Roundup: Email UX | Sora 2 | AI New Business Capabilities | AI Consumer Surplus | Latent...
Email user experience | New video model Sora 2 compared with older models | AI offering new business...
6th Oct 2025
Email user experience | New video model Sora 2 compared with older models | AI offering new business capabilities instead of just replacing old jobs | Most of AI’s economic value is consumer surplus | Latent affordances for AI feature discovery | Simple ambient AI scribes help...
The personal website...
The legacy of NFTs
A new trend is sending shock waves through the world of art, collecting, finance, and...
29th Dec 2021
A new trend is sending shock waves through the world of art, collecting, finance, and investing.
It’s the result of a perfect storm: one part scientific breakthrough, one part new financial paradigm, one part reflection of world events. Some people attribute it entirely to the...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
A not so gentle intro to web3
Almost everything web3-related is a grift based on getting people to buy crypto. Although the...
30th Dec 2021
Almost everything web3-related is a grift based on getting people to buy crypto. Although the distributed part of blockchain technology...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
“A streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era”
Posted today for no particular reason:
“A streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era” is the slogan...
4th Feb 2026
Posted today for no particular reason:
“A streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era” is the slogan that replaces “A free press means a free people” in Frank Capra and Robert Riskin’s 1941 classic film, “Meet John Doe.”
The threat in the film is incipient fascism led by a...
The personal website...
Pictures of websites
A scene from the 2001 movie Zoolander1:
INT. THE PALATIAL OFFICE OF FASHION MOGUL JACOBIM MUGATU...
13th Mar 2021
A scene from the 2001 movie Zoolander1:
INT. THE PALATIAL OFFICE OF FASHION MOGUL JACOBIM MUGATU (PLAYED BY WILL FERRELL)
MUGATU
Without much further ado, I give you...
MUGATU
The Derek Zoolander Center for Kids Who Can't Read Good!
ZOOLANDER
(suddenly enraged)
What is...
The DESK Magazine
Addicted to ideas
Having an idea is like taking a hit of a fine drug.
10th Oct 2023
Having an idea is like taking a hit of a fine drug.
Fatih Arslan
Plotter Notebook System
Taking notes, in my opinion, is the best thing one can do for themselves. Writing is a form of...
24th Feb 2025
Taking notes, in my opinion, is the best thing one can do for themselves. Writing is a form of thinking, and writing manually, in an analog manner, elevates the process. It has a positive impact on your well-being. It’s akin to working out for hours and then returning
The personal website...
Generative art Open Graph preview images
I like writing and sharing essays on twitter. I especially like the way the link previews look when...
29th Oct 2022
I like writing and sharing essays on twitter. I especially like the way the link previews look when they have images that stand out in the timeline. In the past, I’ve created illustrations for each of my posts. But I have two problems: 1. Creating illustrations takes time, and 2....
The Pudding
Is the Love Song Dying?
Is love dead in pop music? We checked all 5,141 Top 10 hits since 1958.
11th Nov 2024
Is love dead in pop music? We checked all 5,141 Top 10 hits since 1958.
Ryan Mulligan
Inverted Media Queries and Breakpoints
The occasional breakpoint
Nowadays I lean on modern CSS solutions, fluid layout patterns, and...
5th Jul 2022
The occasional breakpoint
Nowadays I lean on modern CSS solutions, fluid layout patterns, and intrinsic sizing over viewport dimension-based media queries – typically referred to as breakpoints – that adapt a design at particular screen sizes. Let's not forget that container...
The DESK Magazine
How do you know what you like anymore?
"Did you see Turtle Boss yet?" Tim asked over brunch.
"I saw it," said Katie over a mouthful of...
27th Sep 2023
"Did you see Turtle Boss yet?" Tim asked over brunch.
"I saw it," said Katie over a mouthful of hash browns. "It was so freaking good."
"Good?" said Sam. "You actually thought it was good?"
"Yeah, it was incredible.
The Turn Signal RSS...
Bringing the Coolest Car of the Carrera Panamericana to Life
Restoring an amazing picture from the 1953 Carrera Panamericana
1st Sep 2019
Restoring an amazing picture from the 1953 Carrera Panamericana
The DESK Magazine
How much YOU is in YOUR work?
I started my design career by accident and never enjoyed a classical educational foundation in...
29th Apr 2024
I started my design career by accident and never enjoyed a classical educational foundation in anything I'm doing professionally. As a result, my approach always had a bit more of a "punk" approach.
The Pudding
Comparisons as Predictable as the Sunrise
An analysis of 200,000 similes from popular fiction.
4th May 2026
An analysis of 200,000 similes from popular fiction.
ramsés cabello
a new space
over the years, I’ve used multiple services to host my website. from geocities, to the most recent...
19th Jan 2025
over the years, I’ve used multiple services to host my website. from geocities, to the most recent read.cv — which is getting sold to perplexity — ive enjoyed building, designing and planning my personal site.
i moved to pika.page today and im excited to build a small space where...
The DESK Magazine
Beautiful mistakes
I recently saw a short video about how the red wax seals on the famous Maker's Mark whiskey bottles...
27th May 2026
I recently saw a short video about how the red wax seals on the famous Maker's Mark whiskey bottles get applied. They're still dipped and sealed by hand which makes it special because no two bottles are exactly alike.
But what I didn't know
The Turn Signal RSS...
How Waymo Uses Design to Create Trust in Driverless Cars
How Waymo Uses Design to Create Trust in Driverless Cars
1st Feb 2020
How Waymo Uses Design to Create Trust in Driverless Cars
abdz.do - Have you...
3D & motion design spotlight: Abacus - Pathways
3D & motion design spotlight: Abacus - Pathways
abduzeedo0421—23
...
21st Apr 2023
3D & motion design spotlight: Abacus - Pathways
abduzeedo0421—23
Abacus, Switzerland's leading software development company, is embarking on a new chapter in its journey by collaborating with Hup.Studio to revamp its visual identity. This bold...
Jakob Nielsen on UX
UX Roundup: AI is the Computer | Disrupting Filmed Entertainment | UX Trends | GOMS | Nano Banana 2...
Summary: The AI is the computer | AI is disrupting the filmed entertainment industry | UX trends for...
2nd Mar 2026
Summary: The AI is the computer | AI is disrupting the filmed entertainment industry | UX trends for 2026 | AI can use the GOMS UI analysis method | New image model: Nano Banana 2 | New music model: Lyria 3
The DESK Magazine
People are talking about me, and I started it
People talk about you the way you talk about yourself.
12th Jul 2023
People talk about you the way you talk about yourself.
Koos Looijesteijn -...
The future of blogging
I still frequently post things on social media, even if I prefer blogging. Publishing a blog post...
10th Nov 2022
I still frequently post things on social media, even if I prefer blogging. Publishing a blog post with preview images,...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
The Climate Game — Can you reach net zero?
I lost my position as global minister for future generations because I spent my effort points to...
5th May 2022
I lost my position as global minister for future generations because I spent my effort points to fast to reach net zero.
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Advice for job seekers
I recently heard from an accomplished former colleague who had failed to impress the recruiter...
2nd Mar 2026
I recently heard from an accomplished former colleague who had failed to impress the recruiter evaluating their initial application for an open position. It was a position for which they were more than qualified. So why hadn’t they scored so much as an initial interview?
Turned...
Nela Dunato Art &...
Why I don’t want to grow my freelance design studio into an agency
As of September 1st 2023 I’ve been self-employed for 10 years. For this anniversary, I decided to...
2nd Sep 2023
As of September 1st 2023 I’ve been self-employed for 10 years. For this anniversary, I decided to answer a question I'm often asked by family, friends, colleagues, and even strangers: do I plan to hire more people and grow my own design agency? I don't, and in this article I...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 20 – Localized Computing
At a time of ubiquitous computing, there is still something to be gained from its...
16th Oct 2024
At a time of ubiquitous computing, there is still something to be gained from its opposite.
There was a time when computers were furniture. It’s easy to note all the reasons why it’s good that this is no longer so. After all, I remember how exciting it was to slide the first...
Retail Design Blog
FENDI store
FENDI has upgraded its presence in Osaka‘s downtown Shinsaibashi area by relocating to new and...
1st Jul 2024
FENDI has upgraded its presence in Osaka‘s downtown Shinsaibashi area by relocating to new and bigger premises a few blocks...
The personal website...
The micromanager's dilemma
Here’s a riddle: Nobody I’ve ever worked with likes micromanagement. Yet, on every team I’ve been...
13th Dec 2022
Here’s a riddle: Nobody I’ve ever worked with likes micromanagement. Yet, on every team I’ve been on, there is at least one micromanager. How is this possible?
Harvard Business Review says, “Micromanage at Your Peril.” Forbes says “Micromanaging is one of the most damaging habits...
Christopher Butler
Organization – Office – 2024
After the kitchen, the office is still the most used room in our home. This is how we have optimized...
21st Dec 2024
After the kitchen, the office is still the most used room in our home. This is how we have optimized it this year.
About a year and a half ago, I wrote a long entry to this blog about how we keep this office space organized. While much of it is still as it was then, it is...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Holograms, light-leaks and how to build CSS-only shaders.
"With mix-blend-mode finally gaining wide browser-support, we now have access to many of most common...
9th Jul 2022
"With mix-blend-mode finally gaining wide browser-support, we now have access to many of most common shading techniques in CSS. With some choice images and a bit of careful layering it’s possible to build some surprisingly high-quality effects without the need for introducing any...
Koos Looijesteijn
How I design ‘mobile first’
10th Feb 2014
The personal website...
What it means to design a platform
After four months of parental leave, I came back to work and noticed something different. Many of...
11th Jan 2023
After four months of parental leave, I came back to work and noticed something different. Many of the words, phrases, acronyms, and figures of speech I took for granted no longer held the same meanings. Specifically, the word “platform:” before my time off, I would breeze over it...
The DESK Magazine
How to make a copywriting portfolio
Talk to any creative person about building their portfolio and they’ll tell you: copy is the hardest...
1st May 2022
Talk to any creative person about building their portfolio and they’ll tell you: copy is the hardest part.
Product Identity
The Dumbification of our smart screens
Re: Enshittification: How screens might become dumber
3rd Jul 2024
Re: Enshittification: How screens might become dumber
Koos Looijesteijn
I like watercolor painting
3rd Jan 2024
The personal website...
Design better data tables
Poor tables. Where did they go wrong?
Table tetris
After being the bread and butter of the web for...
3rd Aug 2016
Poor tables. Where did they go wrong?
Table tetris
After being the bread and butter of the web for most of its early history, tables were cast aside by many designers for newer, trendier layouts. But while they might be making fewer appearances on the web these days, data tables...
The personal website...
Delight comes last
Paul Adams put it bluntly:
“Grid, font, colour, and aesthetic style are irrelevant if [outcomes]...
23rd Jun 2019
Paul Adams put it bluntly:
“Grid, font, colour, and aesthetic style are irrelevant if [outcomes] haven’t been resolved first … [but] sometimes it’s just more fun to draw nice pictures and bury oneself in pixels than deal with complicated business decisions and people with...
Oykun Yilmaz
Why Visual Design Matters
Visual Design often doesn't receive the respect it deserves among other disciplines such as UX,...
24th Jul 2023
Visual Design often doesn't receive the respect it deserves among other disciplines such as UX, Development, and so on.
I have faced situations like:
Devs have already started the development based on UX. Just spend a few hours adding colours, please.
We do not need visual...
The Turn Signal RSS...
In-Car Climate Control Design: How It Has Gone Backwards and How to Fix It
To illustrate how climate controls have evolved, I'll compare two generations of Mercedes S-Class:...
1st Feb 2023
To illustrate how climate controls have evolved, I'll compare two generations of Mercedes S-Class: the W140 from 1991, and the newest…
Luke Mitchell |...
IKEA Bekant Standing Desk: Personal Review
Since the lockdown, all of us at thoughtbot have been working from home. I took the opportunity to...
21st Sep 2020
Since the lockdown, all of us at thoughtbot have been working from home. I took the opportunity to upgrade my home setup. The biggest change was a new desk.
I’ve wanted a sit-stand desk for a long time, this gave the perfect oppurtunity to try one. I settled on the IKEA Bekant,...
The DESK Magazine
5 hard truths for young designers
Stop reading right now if you’re looking for feel-good advice. This is not going to be that kind of...
4th Jun 2024
Stop reading right now if you’re looking for feel-good advice. This is not going to be that kind of article.
Ryan Mulligan
Sticky Page Header Shadow on Scroll
We've seen it plenty of times around the web where a website's page header follows us as we scroll...
2nd Apr 2023
We've seen it plenty of times around the web where a website's page header follows us as we scroll down the page. CSS makes doing this a breeze with sticky positioning:
.page-header {
position: sticky;
top: 0;
}
What if we desired something a little bit extra, like applying a...
Ryan Mulligan
The Infinite Marquee
The deprecated tag
The HTML <marquee> element had blessed (cursed?) the early days of the internet...
6th Aug 2022
The deprecated tag
The HTML <marquee> element had blessed (cursed?) the early days of the internet with the ability to insert scrolling text onto a webpage. It even included options to control text behavior once it reached the end of its container with a handful of attributes....
The personal website...
Copying is the way design works
CC-BY SA 4.0
(more on that in a bit). You can download, copy, remix, excerpt,
...
28th Oct 2020
CC-BY SA 4.0
(more on that in a bit). You can download, copy, remix, excerpt,
change, and repost it however you see fit.
I
Charles Eames said
it best: “We don’t do ‘art’ — we solve problems.”1
2
They...
The Turn Signal RSS...
Is Gesture Interaction a Valid Alternative To Touch Interaction in Cars?
Are air gestures a valid alternative to existing interaction modes or is it just a gimmick?
1st Dec 2021
Are air gestures a valid alternative to existing interaction modes or is it just a gimmick?
The personal website...
Flight crews don't decide where to fly
Airbus A320 - Photo from Wikimedia
When an Airbus A320 takes off, there are typically 10 people who...
11th Feb 2018
Airbus A320 - Photo from Wikimedia
When an Airbus A320 takes off, there are typically 10 people who are operating it. Between the pilots and cabin crew, their responsibilities include:
Understanding how the plane works
Monitoring the flight’s progress
Evaluating the weather...
The personal website...
Product thinking is a lifeline for struggling design systems
Here’s a common problem: a design team creates a design system. They craft beautiful documentation,...
12th Dec 2019
Here’s a common problem: a design team creates a design system. They craft beautiful documentation, crystal-clear guidelines, and meticulously organized files. But the design system never gains traction. Engineers don’t use it, and other designers quickly stop maintaining it. It...
The Turn Signal RSS...
Overcoming Automotive Overconsumption Through Design
The average car consists of around 30,000 parts. They are built up from many different resources...
1st May 2019
The average car consists of around 30,000 parts. They are built up from many different resources that come from all over the world. These…
Oykun Yilmaz
Hustle Culture for Designers
We all have our aspirations and goals in life and career.
For me, it goes from having an impact on...
23rd Sep 2023
We all have our aspirations and goals in life and career.
For me, it goes from having an impact on my full-time work to helping designers via my blog, email newsletter, and other educational content.
I need to work damn hard to achieve these goals! Making the most of every...
The DESK Magazine
Dear Young Designer, Part II
(this is a timely continuation of Part I of Dear Young Designer)
→ You don't need to become a...
4th Nov 2025
(this is a timely continuation of Part I of Dear Young Designer)
→ You don't need to become a grifter to be successful. I know it seems that way today (given the context of 2025), but trust me there is another way that's more meaningful and
The personal website...
What happens when things go wrong
The rise of the startup economy – and the abundance of millennial entrepreneurial wisdom it has...
6th May 2014
The rise of the startup economy – and the abundance of millennial entrepreneurial wisdom it has produced – means you can hardly go a day without seeing Samuel Becket’s words writ large:
“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
In celebrating...
Product Identity
What’s the future of AI hardware?
I don't have answers
17th Jun 2024
Scott Jenson
Reactive Haptics
When people think of haptics, they usually think of typing on mobile keyboards or tapping on...
11th Feb 2025
When people think of haptics, they usually think of typing on mobile keyboards or tapping on trackpads. While impressive, these are fairly limited uses of haptics, both attempting to recreate a simple “click.” These are one-shot user events that don’t respond dynamically to the...
The Turn Signal RSS...
A New Concept for Usable Touch Interaction in Cars
A design concept exploring how to improve touch interfaces in cars
1st Apr 2020
A design concept exploring how to improve touch interfaces in cars
Nela Dunato Art &...
5 things you need before raising your prices
Many freelancers feel like they “deserve” more money, but are confused about how to make that...
11th Jul 2023
Many freelancers feel like they “deserve” more money, but are confused about how to make that happen. The hard truth is, you may not be able to raise your prices overnight. But in this article I'll tell you exactly what you need to do in order to become appealing to higher-paying...
The personal website...
Just-in-time design
photo by Tools for motivation
There is a disconnect between product design and product...
12th Nov 2018
photo by Tools for motivation
There is a disconnect between product design and product engineering.
Three factors contribute to this disconnect:
Products get shipped faster every day. DevOps teams automate huge amounts of the delivery process, enabling engineering teams to ship...
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