The personal website...
Changing all the fonts on WSJ.com
“Change the fonts.” It’s a simple mission statement.
In reality, changing the fonts on wsj.com has...
11th Dec 2017
“Change the fonts.” It’s a simple mission statement.
In reality, changing the fonts on wsj.com has involved years of coordination and planning between nearly every team at the Wall Street Journal. In the past month, the last few coordinated steps were executed with an incredible...
Oykun Yilmaz
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
More details and reviews on Amazon
Interesting take on creative minds and struggles. It is almost...
17th Mar 2023
More details and reviews on Amazon
Interesting take on creative minds and struggles. It is almost like a religious book, the author talks about Muses, Angels, how God has created us for a specific purpose equipped with genes/soul to achieve that purpose and how we are destined to...
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...
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
The Turn Signal RSS...
Take-Over Moments: The Hardest Design Problem of Semi-Autonomous Cars
Diving into the research behind the hardest design problem in autonomous cars
1st Jan 2021
Diving into the research behind the hardest design problem in autonomous cars
Retail Design Blog
CELINE store
For any luxury brand, it’s a prerequisite to have a retail presence in Hong Kong, and that has...
2nd Sep 2024
For any luxury brand, it’s a prerequisite to have a retail presence in Hong Kong, and that has certainly been...
Christopher Butler
Less Doesn't Have to Be More. It Can Just Be Less.
How much is enough? So much of what we design assumes that either the question has not been answered...
3rd Sep 2021
How much is enough? So much of what we design assumes that either the question has not been answered or has no answer at all. This must change.
we can do more with less, but not so when our audience does less with our more.
Yes, it’s impressive when we can create something...
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...
Retail Design Blog
Jiangnan House Yangzhou Guangling by B.L.U.E. Architecture Studio
Project Background — The project is located in the old town of Guangling Road in Yangzhou. It...
1st Oct 2025
Project Background — The project is located in the old town of Guangling Road in Yangzhou. It features architectural clusters...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Origami Projector: a Glitch-like app for site editing
2 weeks ago
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Fairway Market logos
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: nypost.com Christopher Sadowski. License: All Rights...
26th Jan 2020
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: nypost.com Christopher Sadowski. License: All Rights Reserved.
Dom Bold and Agenda.
Fairway Market is a chain of grocery stores in the New York metropolitan area. From Wikipedia:
Founded in 1933, it expanded in the New York area...
The personal website...
Ballet dancers and shot putters
Starting a career in design is like crash-landing on Mars. You may have studied it through a...
6th Nov 2022
Starting a career in design is like crash-landing on Mars. You may have studied it through a telescope, but nothing can prepare you for actually being there.
One of the biggest surprises many new designers experience is that design isn’t always about coming up with the most...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Star Wars movie posters from Hungary
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: movieposters.ha.com Image: Heritage Auctions. License: All...
4th May 2025
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: movieposters.ha.com Image: Heritage Auctions. License: All Rights Reserved.
Csillagok háborúja (Star Wars), 1979. The custom acute accents are simple squares. The secondary typeface is ITC Avant Garde Gothic. More info on...
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.
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...
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...
Martyr! book jacket
Contributed by Stephen Coles
Source: lithub.com License: All Rights Reserved.
Martyr! is a...
11th Mar 2024
Contributed by Stephen Coles
Source: lithub.com License: All Rights Reserved.
Martyr! is a novel by Iranian-American writer Kaveh Akbar that combines modern situations with traditional imagery. For the jacket, prolific cover designer Linda Huang did what she does so...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
For students who make websites
WordPress.com maker Automattic is expanding into education with a new, free product designed for...
17th Aug 2026
WordPress.com maker Automattic is expanding into education with a new, free product designed for teachers and their classes called WordPress.com Education. The suite for classrooms includes a full WordPress.com domain for each student, plus free domain names (on the .blog or .art...
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...
Product Identity
Surf the browser
A guest's identity
27th Mar 2025
Christopher Butler
Gestalt Principles of Design – Symmetry
We tend to perceive symmetrical elements as being connected, even if they are not.
The Gestalt...
7th Jul 2023
We tend to perceive symmetrical elements as being connected, even if they are not.
The Gestalt Principles of Design are a set of concepts and guidelines drawn from gestalt psychology, which theorizes that the mind tends to process organized groups of things as a whole,...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
2025 Web Origami year-end report
22nd Dec 2025
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...
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.
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...
The personal website...
The Role of Doubt in Design
At a recent happy hour, I struck up a conversation with a product manager. I told him I was a...
17th Jul 2019
At a recent happy hour, I struck up a conversation with a product manager. I told him I was a product designer, and he asked “one of the good ones, or one of the bad ones?” A designer on his team — a “bad one” — asked too many questions. Questions like “Why are we building this...
The personal website...
Design-by-wire
There’s a lot of fear in the air. As AI gets better at design, it’s natural for designers to be...
2nd Mar 2023
There’s a lot of fear in the air. As AI gets better at design, it’s natural for designers to be worried about their jobs. But I think the question — will AI replace designers? — is a waste of time. Humans have always invented technology to do their work for them and will continue...
The Pudding
Why some people mow a lawn better than others.
Why some people mow a lawn better than others.
4th Aug 2026
Why some people mow a lawn better than others.
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...
Ryan Mulligan
Horizontal Scrolling in a Centered Max-Width Container
The layout challenge
When I had first assembled a gallery of CodePen projects to include on my...
11th Mar 2022
The layout challenge
When I had first assembled a gallery of CodePen projects to include on my personal site redesign in the summer of 2021, I imagined the following layout and interaction:
The page's main content container is centered on the page with a max-width set.
The first...
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,...
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...
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...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 10
It’s a grey afternoon here in Durham. I’m about to shut down for the evening, put on some music, mix...
1st Dec 2023
It’s a grey afternoon here in Durham. I’m about to shut down for the evening, put on some music, mix up a gin and tonic, and get dinner together for the family.
The kids are eager to open the first drawer of our advent calendar.
These evenings of the twilight of the year are...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Life After Lifestyle
One of the best and most inspiring articles I read this year.
12th Oct 2022
One of the best and most inspiring articles I read this year.
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...
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?
UX Collective
How Estonia, AI gardens, and plywood make designers prolific
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
3rd Nov 2025
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
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...
Product Identity
In awe of InVision
An aftermath promo for the nerdy designer
21st Aug 2024
An aftermath promo for the nerdy designer
Jeffrey Zeldman...
The Human Story of the Open Web
STOP ME if you’ve heard this one: The members of an extended family spend years curating a shared...
2nd Jul 2026
STOP ME if you’ve heard this one: The members of an extended family spend years curating a shared online photo album. Then the website they posted on vanishes, flushing their collective memories away forever.
Or this: A Queer kid growing up isolated in Nebraska discovers a...
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...
The DESK Magazine
How to make a minimalist portfolio with Carbonmade
You don't need anything too fancy. You don't want to work for hours on your site.
9th Mar 2023
You don't need anything too fancy. You don't want to work for hours on your site.
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...
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
Fatih Arslan
Managing friction
I thought lately about what has changed in my life over the years. People change (even if they don't...
8th Apr 2025
I thought lately about what has changed in my life over the years. People change (even if they don't admit it). And there are always some sort of triggers that cause these changes. Some people start a habit of running, maybe; some start hanging out with friends who
The Turn Signal RSS...
The 8 Guidelines for Good Automotive UX Design
The primary goal of a designer is to ensure the safety of the driver. Non-driving-related...
1st Dec 2023
The primary goal of a designer is to ensure the safety of the driver. Non-driving-related activities, like interacting with an…
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
Koos Looijesteijn -...
You're making me buy a new phone
My iPhone SE 2016 is a good one. It’s easy to handle with one hand. The screen is more than...
6th Feb 2023
My iPhone SE 2016 is a good one. It’s easy to handle with one hand. The screen is more than...
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.
Identity Designed
Atypical
Designed by Behalf, Saigon.
23rd Sep 2022
Designed by Behalf, Saigon.
The Pudding
Are you more likely to die on your birthday?
Are you more likely to die on your birthday? Yes.
8th May 2025
Are you more likely to die on your birthday? Yes.
Product Identity
Why Niche design
A few updates + a manifesto?
12th Nov 2025
A few updates + a manifesto?
The personal website...
Who are design systems for?
I’ve spent the past few days feeling an immense amount of FOMO. A major design conference called...
14th Dec 2018
I’ve spent the past few days feeling an immense amount of FOMO. A major design conference called Clarity happened here in New York, and my twitter feed has been full of pictures and quotes from the very talented and articulate speakers. Lesson learned: go to more conferences. To...
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…
Retail Design Blog
phenom israel
Phenom is a global HR technology company that delivers a single-platform solution and...
2nd May 2024
Phenom is a global HR technology company that delivers a single-platform solution and hyper-personalized experiences for candidates, recruiters, and employees....
Nela Dunato Art &...
My policy on the use of generative AI in creative work
I have never used generative AI software to produce original written content, images, code, audio,...
10th Jun 2024
I have never used generative AI software to produce original written content, images, code, audio, or video, and do not intend to in the future. All of the art, design, photography, writing, video, and audio material published on NelaDunato.com and other websites I own have been...
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...
Scott Jenson
Design can be free
As consumer devices get ‘smart’, they tend to sprout a large number push buttons. It’s almost cliche...
15th Jan 2023
As consumer devices get ‘smart’, they tend to sprout a large number push buttons. It’s almost cliche at this point to complain about them. The tiny buttons, hidden modes, and Konami Code interaction encourages mistakes and forces frequent trips to the user manual. Of course, they...
ramsés cabello
festive season + site updates
hola 〜 ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა ❄️
hope you’re having a nice december, wherever (and whenever) you’re reading...
11th Dec 2025
hola 〜 ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა ❄️
hope you’re having a nice december, wherever (and whenever) you’re reading this! hopefully not too cold nor warm 〜
christmas tree · november 2025 · iphone
this year i listened to a lot of music and bought a handful of CDs some of...
Retail Design Blog
HAVV by Widarto Impact
OVERVIEW Soy milk commands 37.4% of the $23.8 billion plant-based milk market, holding the largest...
5th May 2026
OVERVIEW Soy milk commands 37.4% of the $23.8 billion plant-based milk market, holding the largest share of any plant milk...
Nela Dunato Art &...
Why people avoid social media detox (let’s bust those excuses)
I truly believe everyone would benefit from taking a long break from social media at least once a...
30th Oct 2023
I truly believe everyone would benefit from taking a long break from social media at least once a year. In my many articles on this topic I gushed about the benefits of digital media sabbaticals, and my own experiences with increased mindfulness, focus, and productivity. So let’s...
Product Identity
#5 Kubera: What's my net worth?
Respect master spreadsheet
8th Feb 2024
Respect master spreadsheet
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...
The personal website...
The paradox at the heart of A/B testing
A/B testing began with beer.
At the turn of the 20th century, William Sealy Gosset was exploring new...
9th Jan 2020
A/B testing began with beer.
At the turn of the 20th century, William Sealy Gosset was exploring new ways of running experiments on his production line. Gosset was trying to improve the quality of Guinness’s signature stout but couldn’t afford to run large-scale experiments on...
Ryan Mulligan
Penguin!
My partner and I finally finished our epic three-part claymation saga. It's our first attempt at...
6th May 2024
My partner and I finally finished our epic three-part claymation saga. It's our first attempt at creating stop-motion videos with clay and it truly is a lot of work for such a short result. That claymation episode of Parks and Recreation is a little too real. I won't compare our...
The DESK Magazine
Make it invisible
Our approach to building products may seem counterintuitive. Our goal is to make a product so good,...
5th Oct 2022
Our approach to building products may seem counterintuitive. Our goal is to make a product so good, you don't think about the product at all.
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Who turned off the juice?
Beloved reader, I spent 90 minutes on hold with Con Edison yesterday, getting my power turned back...
1st Apr 2025
Beloved reader, I spent 90 minutes on hold with Con Edison yesterday, getting my power turned back on after a billing contretemps.
The whole 90 minutes, my brain’s shrieking, “You’re having a panic attack!”
And maybe I was.
I could rattle off my diagnoses, but the simplest way...
Alex Baldwin
Artisanal outbound with Clearbit Connect
For press releases, advertiser requests, or similar sales campaigns you’re sending a small batch of,...
11th Sep 2017
For press releases, advertiser requests, or similar sales campaigns you’re sending a small batch of, usually cold, emails out with a specific ask. Finding potential recipients, writing an email that’s helpful, and tracking the results doesn’t need to take all day or be painful....
Koos Looijesteijn
Things I learned from doing a side project
20th Mar 2018
Christopher Butler
Doing (and Directing) Great Design Requires Detail Obsession
Every great design has one organizing detail that unlocks everything else, and the best design...
15th Aug 2025
Every great design has one organizing detail that unlocks everything else, and the best design leaders never stop looking for it.
Every good piece of design has at least one detail that is the “key” to unlocking an understanding of how it works. Good designers will notice that...
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...
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?
Koos Looijesteijn
Brutalism is not great for looking relatable
2nd Aug 2018
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.
Oykun Yilmaz
Why Visual Design Matters
Visual Design often doesn't receive the respect it deserves among other disciplines such as UX,...
24th Jun 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...
The 8 Guidelines for Good Automotive UX Design
The essence of automotive UX design turned into 8 fundamental guidelines aimed at designers in the...
1st Dec 2023
The essence of automotive UX design turned into 8 fundamental guidelines aimed at designers in the car industry
Jeffrey Zeldman...
She’s the Boss.
SNOW WHITE is my jailer. She reclines near me while I work, watching closely for the moment I stand...
1st Jun 2026
SNOW WHITE is my jailer. She reclines near me while I work, watching closely for the moment I stand up. The instant I leave my desk, she directs me to her feeding area so I can open another can of cat food and arrange its contents neatly on a plate. She’ll eat a few bites, then...
Jakob Nielsen on UX
UX Roundup: Ecommerce Usability Fails | Social Media Less Social | Overseeing Agents | Your Team as...
Summary: The two most conversion-killing ecommerce usability fails | Social media use remains strong...
1st Jun 2026
Summary: The two most conversion-killing ecommerce usability fails | Social media use remains strong but the platforms are becoming less about connecting with other people | The usability of overseeing AI agents | Team-building image idea: design video game characters | Professor...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Ramones presidential seal logo
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Source: sinistersaladmusikal.wordpress.com License: All Rights...
4th Nov 2020
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Source: sinistersaladmusikal.wordpress.com License: All Rights Reserved.
Source: i-d.vice.com License: All Rights Reserved.
Arturo Vega had the logo tattooed on his back with his own name incorporated and a type style that is less stylized...
The personal website...
Well-designed interfaces look boring
3 billion people used the internet for the first time in the past decade. Can you imagine what that...
15th Jul 2015
3 billion people used the internet for the first time in the past decade. Can you imagine what that was like? When I began using the internet, the web was pretty much just text. Interface design required finagling websites from knots of spreadsheet-like tables, and even the most...
Melissa Penfold
HAVE YOU PREORDERED YOUR COPY OF MELISSA’S NEW BOOK YET?
In her best-selling book, Living Well By Design, Melissa Penfold addressed the basics of interior...
3rd Mar 2025
In her best-selling book, Living Well By Design, Melissa Penfold addressed the basics of interior decorating. Now she turns her attention to demonstrating what a powerful force design can be in boosting our physical and emotional well-being in her newest book, ‘Natural Living By...
Product Identity
#1: Are.na – The social network antithesis
In this world of distraction, Are.na presence is a bliss
21st Aug 2023
In this world of distraction, Are.na presence is a bliss
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.
Scott Jenson
The Ma of a New Machine
Fast AI requires slow thinking The current Silicon Valley flex is trading notes on your favorite new...
13th Apr 2026
Fast AI requires slow thinking The current Silicon Valley flex is trading notes on your favorite new AI tools over lunch. Each week brings another one to explore. Some of these tools are very impressive; I’ve been able to reply to someone with an alternative UI design in less...
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...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Making semantic sidenotes without JavaScript
One of the first things I learned about professional writing is that it’s best to remove all...
12th Oct 2020
One of the first things I learned about professional writing is that it’s best to remove all unnecessary words. Problem...
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 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
Melissa Penfold
YOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO SHOPPING ANTIQUES
Whether you’re a collector or a new devotee, there’s a renewed energy in the industry and an...
8th Aug 2023
Whether you’re a collector or a new devotee, there’s a renewed energy in the industry and an explosion of interest as online auction shopping gives all the convenience of mass-produced decor without the environmental impact. The benefits of decorating with antiques are almost...
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Fonts In Use is not active on Instagram
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Fonts In Use. License: CC BY-SA.
The Fonts In Use staff was never...
15th Jul 2025
Contributed by Nick Sherman
Fonts In Use. License: CC BY-SA.
The Fonts In Use staff was never especially enthusiastic about maintaining our account on Instagram. The platform is antithetical to so much of the what we love on the web: hyperlinks, web feeds (e.g., RSS),...
Oykun Yilmaz
Video Gamer skills that make a Great Designer
Enjoy your time with video games, do not see it as a waste of time as society thinks. This is YOUR...
8th Apr 2022
Enjoy your time with video games, do not see it as a waste of time as society thinks. This is YOUR time, use it as you like it. It will make you a better designer.
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...
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...
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 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...
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 personal website...
The service-based design org
Last year, I joined SimpleHealth with the mission of building a design org from scratch. On my first...
23rd Jan 2021
Last year, I joined SimpleHealth with the mission of building a design org from scratch. On my first day, there were no in-house designers — just a rotating cast of freelance designers hired by various departments as they were needed.
A blank slate is a design leader’s dream....
Product Identity
It started as a blog post; now it's a magazine
Niche design is finally available
18th Sep 2025
Niche design is finally available
Nela Dunato Art &...
How can selling services be easy?
I find selling easy, but it has nothing to do with my “ability to sell”. I’m not a good sales...
17th Feb 2023
I find selling easy, but it has nothing to do with my “ability to sell”. I’m not a good sales person. I’d hate doing a sales job for a living. But I happen to do a lot of other things that remove all the pressure from the sales conversation. I do the hard work in the marketing...
Ryan Mulligan
Click Spark
Last week I had made this fun little experiment. When clicking or tapping on the page, sparks (of...
2nd Jan 2024
Last week I had made this fun little experiment. When clicking or tapping on the page, sparks (of joy) fly out from the mouse cursor/tap position. It started with me just messing around a bit in CodePen, but after sharing and getting a few friendly nudges on my Mastodon post,...
Identity Designed
Champ
Designed by Jesús López, Hermosillo, Mexico.
29th Apr 2024
Designed by Jesús López, Hermosillo, Mexico.
Jakob Nielsen on UX
UX Roundup: UX Leaders Need Profits | In-depth AI | Emotional Avatar Animation | Construction Time |...
UX should quest for profits, not a seat at the table | In-depth AI reviews of draft academic papers...
1st Dec 2025
UX should quest for profits, not a seat at the table | In-depth AI reviews of draft academic papers | Emotional lip-synching of avatars when singing | Time needed to build AI supercompute data centers | Discover user needs
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...
Permanent Style
Reader Profile: Jaime
Jaime is a reader based in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s a pastor there, and works particularly on social...
2nd Jan 2026
Jaime is a reader based in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s a pastor there, and works particularly on social justice projects and inter-faith relations. Church has always been an excuse for him to dress up, but also an excuse to talk to young men in t... > Read more
Identity Designed
Apex
Designed by Gold Front, San Francisco.
26th May 2024
Designed by Gold Front, San Francisco.
Permanent Style
Steven Hitchcock tweed bespoke coat: Review
This is the first English overcoat I’ve ever had made - or a traditional one anyway. There was the...
22nd Oct 2025
This is the first English overcoat I’ve ever had made - or a traditional one anyway. There was the topcoat from Michael Browne , but that was his own particular style and structure. And there was the wrap coat from Whitcomb & Shaftesbury , b... > Read more
The personal website...
The Role of Doubt in Design
At a recent happy hour, I struck up a conversation with a product manager. I told him I was a...
17th Jul 2019
At a recent happy hour, I struck up a conversation with a product manager. I told him I was a product designer, and he asked “one of the good ones, or one of the bad ones?” A designer on his team — a “bad one” — asked too many questions. Questions like “Why are we building this...
Permanent Style
Dress codes: The meaningful tailoring of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
By Robbie Collin. It’s a formative stage in every man's sartorial journey: when the height of good...
2nd Mar 2026
By Robbie Collin. It’s a formative stage in every man's sartorial journey: when the height of good taste means trying to dress like a spy from a film. There’s James Bond of course – and goodness knows there’s enough advice out there for anyo... > Read more
Permanent Style
Our favourite restaurants in London
By Lucas Nicholson. When tailors and other artisans visit us in London, they nearly always ask about...
1st Dec 2025
By Lucas Nicholson. When tailors and other artisans visit us in London, they nearly always ask about the best places to eat. Their hotel is already booked after all, and they know what they’re doing all day. But local restaurant recommendati... > Read more
The Turn Signal RSS...
The State of UX Design of Chinese Car Brands
The Market Potential Today, the sales numbers from Chinese car manufacturers don't seem threatening...
1st Jul 2020
The Market Potential Today, the sales numbers from Chinese car manufacturers don't seem threatening to established car companies but they…
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
Luke Mitchell |...
Markdown is really good
I was reading Manu’s post about ‘old tech’ and suddenly thought, markdown is really, really...
4th Feb 2025
I was reading Manu’s post about ‘old tech’ and suddenly thought, markdown is really, really good.
What is it?
Markdown is a markup (get it?) language which aims to make formatting text as easy as possible, while still being easy to read. Markdown can be processed into HTML, which...
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...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Staying relevant
Or not.
My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of...
5th Aug 2025
Or not.
My fears melted away. And in their place came acceptance. All this vast majesty of creation. It had to mean something. And then I meant something, too. Yes, smaller than the smallest, I meant something too. To God, there is no zero. I still exist. —
The Incredible...
The personal website...
The hand and the brain
Prescriptive feedback limits creative collaboration. I’ve seen it time and time again, but I’ve...
18th Nov 2020
Prescriptive feedback limits creative collaboration. I’ve seen it time and time again, but I’ve struggled to articulate the exact reasons and their remedies. Recently, though, I got some insight from an unusual source: a game of chess.
Even though it wasn’t the last move, pawn...
Fatih Arslan
Vitsoe vs USM shelving
I have an extensive Vitsoe 606 shelving setup but plan to extend certain places with USM cabinets....
23rd Jun 2024
I have an extensive Vitsoe 606 shelving setup but plan to extend certain places with USM cabinets. What are the main differences?
The Turn Signal RSS...
Bringing the Coolest Car of the Carrera Panamericana to Life
I recently came across the work of Ralph Morse, a photographer who worked for Life Magazine. Many of...
1st Sep 2019
I recently came across the work of Ralph Morse, a photographer who worked for Life Magazine. Many of his photos are made available by Google…
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
What is quality anymore?
One might say the quality of everything has improved – our TV screens have never been more crisp &...
21st Nov 2023
One might say the quality of everything has improved – our TV screens have never been more crisp & vivid, our systems and software never more refined, our roads and highways never more paved.
Retail Design Blog
STRAUSS CI FACTORY
Engelbert Strauss is one of the world’s leading work brands. The CI Factory is a progressive...
1st Jul 2025
Engelbert Strauss is one of the world’s leading work brands. The CI Factory is a progressive production site and high-tech...
The Turn Signal RSS...
The Problem With Digital Instrument Clusters and How to Design a Better One
Is it possible to design a digital instrument cluster that is better than its analog counterpart?
1st Jan 2024
Is it possible to design a digital instrument cluster that is better than its analog counterpart?
Fonts In Use – Blog...
Gestaltungsprobleme des Grafikers by Josef Müller-Brockmann
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: www.theideaofthebook.com The Idea of the Book. License:...
28th Apr 2023
Contributed by Florian Hardwig
Source: www.theideaofthebook.com The Idea of the Book. License: All Rights Reserved.
Book jacket (second edition by Niggli, Teufen, 1964)
Dan Reynolds, esteemed friend of the site, writes on Mastodon:
125 years ago today – at exactly...
The personal website...
Design-by-wire
There’s a lot of fear in the air. As AI gets better at design, it’s natural for designers to be...
2nd Mar 2023
There’s a lot of fear in the air. As AI gets better at design, it’s natural for designers to be worried about their jobs. But I think the question — will AI replace designers? — is a waste of time. Humans have always invented technology to do their work for them and will continue...
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...
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...
Retail Design Blog
Ophie Lip Oil by Apoorva Ghule
Ophie is a clean beauty lip oil designed to feel as good as it looks. Vegan, cruelty-free, and...
2nd Jan 2026
Ophie is a clean beauty lip oil designed to feel as good as it looks. Vegan, cruelty-free, and infused with...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Do you really need to set a theme color to color Safari's UI?
When it was announced that websites can change the color of Safari’s UI, I was eager to try it...
11th Oct 2021
When it was announced that websites can change the color of Safari’s UI, I was eager to try it out....
Identity Designed
Imio
Designed by G—W Studios, Stockholm.
8th Mar 2023
Designed by G—W Studios, Stockholm.
The personal website...
UI Density
Interfaces are becoming less dense.
I’m usually one to be skeptical of nostalgia and “we liked it...
20th May 2024
Interfaces are becoming less dense.
I’m usually one to be skeptical of nostalgia and “we liked it that way” bias, but comparing websites and applications of 2024 to their 2000s-era counterparts, the spreading out of software is hard to ignore.
To explain this trend, and suggest...
The Turn Signal RSS...
Overcoming Automotive Overconsumption Through Design
Is it really necessary to buy a new car every couple of years or do car companies make us believe...
1st May 2019
Is it really necessary to buy a new car every couple of years or do car companies make us believe that?
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Design better by avoiding your cognitive biases
Good UI design is all about guiding attention to what’s important. When making the right thing for...
30th Sep 2020
Good UI design is all about guiding attention to what’s important. When making the right thing for the user the...
Melissa Penfold
THE MOST THOUGHTFUL GIFTS THAT NO ONE ELSE WILL GIVE
We’re always here to help you find gifts that elicit “you really know me!” enthusiasm, even from the...
2nd Dec 2024
We’re always here to help you find gifts that elicit “you really know me!” enthusiasm, even from the normally taciturn. This year, we aimed higher, aspiring to choose items with such eternal appeal, and of such high quality, that some might become heirlooms—used and loved by both...
Scott Jenson
Tactile Controls In A Digital World
This article was written by Scott Jenson and Michael DiTullo and published at Core77 in April 2024 A...
31st May 2024
This article was written by Scott Jenson and Michael DiTullo and published at Core77 in April 2024 A few recent tech writers have leaked that the new AirPods case will likely have a touch screen. Other earbud makers have tried this as well but it’s Apple, so people will naturally...
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?
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
Contrast Is Clarifying
Which is best?
Generalist or specialist?
Native or web?
Web site or web app?
JavaScript or...
2nd Dec 2024
Which is best?
Generalist or specialist?
Native or web?
Web site or web app?
JavaScript or Typescript?
Framework or library?
Server side or client side?
Photoshop or Sketch or Figma?
Designing in a tool or design in the browser?
Skueomorphic or flat?
Mac or PC or Linux?
This list...
Retail Design Blog
Good Job Games Offices by Jeyan Ülkü Architects
Good Job Games is a mobile gaming technology company characterized by a predominantly youthful...
2nd Dec 2024
Good Job Games is a mobile gaming technology company characterized by a predominantly youthful workforce. Right from the beginning we...
The personal website...
UI Density
Interfaces are becoming less dense.
I’m usually one to be skeptical of nostalgia and “we liked it...
20th May 2024
Interfaces are becoming less dense.
I’m usually one to be skeptical of nostalgia and “we liked it that way” bias, but comparing websites and applications of 2024 to their 2000s-era counterparts, the spreading out of software is hard to ignore.
To explain this trend, and suggest...
Retail Design Blog
Monarch by OPEN Strategy & Design
MONARCH – A ROYAL WELCOME CRAFTING A LEGACY For forty years, Mansion House has stood for ‘A Warm...
1st Apr 2025
MONARCH – A ROYAL WELCOME CRAFTING A LEGACY For forty years, Mansion House has stood for ‘A Warm Welcome’, a...
The Turn Signal RSS...
An in-depth look at the UX Design of the Porsche Taycan
An in-depth look at the UX Design of the Porsche Taycan
1st Nov 2019
An in-depth look at the UX Design of the Porsche Taycan
The personal website...
Goldilocks your graphs
Data visualization is everywhere. From analytics platforms to infographics, across newsrooms and...
11th Nov 2015
Data visualization is everywhere. From analytics platforms to infographics, across newsrooms and social media channels, there are vast swaths of the internet devoted to delivering data in non-tabular format. There are entire blogs devoted to the subject, such as the ubiquitous...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
A morning’s tale
Editor’s Note || Our New York apartment is home to three humans and three cats: Snow White, Mango,...
10th May 2025
Editor’s Note || Our New York apartment is home to three humans and three cats: Snow White, Mango, and young Jasper.
Woke to pee 2:00 am. Entered bathroom. Narrowly avoided slipping on a small lake of Snow White’s urine. Beheld a giant fat shit she’d left on the stone bath...
Identity Designed
Donut Shop
Designed by TwoPoints.Net, Hamburg, Barcelona.
11th Mar 2024
Designed by TwoPoints.Net, Hamburg, Barcelona.
ramsés cabello
web iterations @ sketch
hi everyone 〜 ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪
just wanted to share a few bits of work i’ve been recently doing at Sketch 〜...
24th Apr 2025
hi everyone 〜 ♪(๑ᴖ◡ᴖ๑)♪
just wanted to share a few bits of work i’ve been recently doing at Sketch 〜 together with the team we updated the typeface on the web app and adjusted all the icons to match the look & feel of the mac app.
i wrote a little bit more about icons...
Identity Designed
Ashton
Designed by LG2, Quebec.
11th Jul 2024
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...
Fatih Arslan
Braun Börse 2024
The Braun+Design Börse is an annual event and fair focusing on Braun products. Braun might not be...
5th May 2024
The Braun+Design Börse is an annual event and fair focusing on Braun products. Braun might not be the design icon it was 40 years ago, but starting in 1955, it profoundly impacted the design world, starting with its cooperation with the Ulm School of Design.
With Dieter
Kat Snyder
No, I don’t want to sign up for your newsletter — horrible uses of exit overlays
When a user moves their mouse from the middle of the page toward the navigation bar — presumably...
23rd Oct 2018
When a user moves their mouse from the middle of the page toward the navigation bar — presumably to abandon the page — there are...
Product Identity
Inside the dark forests of the internet
This is the second part of a series on the identity of social networks:
12th Feb 2025
This is the second part of a series on the identity of social networks:
Christopher Butler
An Old, Restless Wish
We do not know what is going to happen. This is a hard truth; we desperately want to believe the...
2nd Jun 2026
We do not know what is going to happen. This is a hard truth; we desperately want to believe the opposite. And so the most successful corners of the modern internet have been organized, very deliberately, around that desire to convince you that someone, somewhere, knows what is...
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...
Fatih Arslan
New homepage design
I changed my website’s design. I'm using the previous design since September 30, 2022 (when I moved...
4th Nov 2024
I changed my website’s design. I'm using the previous design since September 30, 2022 (when I moved to Ghost from Cloudflare Pages).
The previous design served me well for the past two years, but it was time for a change. Firstly, I wanted to create a
Product Identity
Beautiful ugly websites
Form is cheap, function is everything(?)
7th Mar 2024
Form is cheap, function is everything(?)
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 Turn Signal RSS...
Driving a Porsche Taycan for a Week, a UX review
My thoughts on the UX design after spending a week with the Taycan
1st May 2022
My thoughts on the UX design after spending a week with the Taycan
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...
Jakob Nielsen on UX
Hamlet Remixed: Using AI to Convert Content into Alternative Formats
AI can translate a single source across media, styles, and audience frames. That makes it possible...
2nd Apr 2026
AI can translate a single source across media, styles, and audience frames. That makes it possible to reuse core material in formats better suited to different platforms and audiences. Shakespeare’s Hamlet serves here as a case study in a wide range of AI media transformations.
Identity Designed
WHEN
Designed by Universal Favourite, Sydney.
16th Dec 2024
Designed by Universal Favourite, Sydney.
The DESK Magazine
A digital tool built like a physical product?
Does it seem like there's more bad TV these days?
More mediocre writing?
More low quality...
8th May 2023
Does it seem like there's more bad TV these days?
More mediocre writing?
More low quality clothing?
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.
Koos Looijesteijn
What I learned from my second Astro-Jekyll migration
10th May 2026
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Write a very concise static site generator with Origami expressions
2nd May 2025
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);
...
Luke Mitchell |...
Good Case Studies
I’m currently thinking about writing case studies for my work, I didn’t know
where to start, so I...
25th Jul 2021
I’m currently thinking about writing case studies for my work, I didn’t know
where to start, so I did what I do when starting any project, some research; I
needed to define what I think makes a good case study.
Here are my thoughts so far.
Structure
I am a fan of detailed...
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...
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...
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...
Jakob Nielsen on UX
UX Roundup: Long-Running AI | Consistency | What AI to Use | AI Anxiety | AI Helps Blind Users | NPS
UX for long-running AI tasks | Consistent user interface design | What are the best AI models to use...
3rd Nov 2025
UX for long-running AI tasks | Consistent user interface design | What are the best AI models to use now | AI anxiety in the workplace | AI helps blind users, but a study found that accessibility challenges remain in current AI UI | NPS scored
The Turn Signal RSS...
Is Voice Interaction a Solution to Driver Distraction?
In the '90s, the average new car came with simple climate controls, a radio, and a CD player. That...
1st Aug 2022
In the '90s, the average new car came with simple climate controls, a radio, and a CD player. That is very different from a new car today…
The Turn Signal RSS...
Mercedes vs Lucid: Different Views on Luxury UI Design
Exploring the UI design of two different luxury car brands
1st Nov 2020
Exploring the UI design of two different luxury car brands
The Pudding
How the Words We Teach English Language Learners Changed
How the words we teach English language learners changed
25th Jul 2026
How the words we teach English language learners changed
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...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Knots 3D
"Feel free to explore our knot catalog and learn how to tie over 150 knots!
"
1st Jun 2022
"Feel free to explore our knot catalog and learn how to tie over 150 knots!
"
The personal website...
The history of album art
Album art didn’t always exist.
In the early 1900s, recorded music was still a novelty, overshadowed...
2nd May 2025
Album art didn’t always exist.
In the early 1900s, recorded music was still a novelty, overshadowed by sales of sheet music. Early vinyl records were vastly different from what we think of today: discs were sold individually and could only hold up to four minutes of music per...
The personal website...
My management philosophy
After reading Lara Hogan’s post and getting some inspiration from my own manager, I thought it’d be...
10th Jun 2018
After reading Lara Hogan’s post and getting some inspiration from my own manager, I thought it’d be good to write up my management philosophy. This reflects my approach at this moment in time — I’m still pretty new to management, and will be revisiting this over time.
My...
Scott Jenson
Hype is a Business Tool
Remember WAAAY back in late 2022 (what feels like ancient history now) when you first started...
6th Aug 2025
Remember WAAAY back in late 2022 (what feels like ancient history now) when you first started playing with ChatGPT? Like everyone else, you probably created a poem in a pirate’s voice. “Pirate Poetry” was fun, exciting, and even playful. Today, EVERYONE is talking about AI, and...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Home science and engineering projects that my kids and I enjoyed
2nd Apr 2025
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,...
Ryan Mulligan
Someone Great
Where to start? The grief is heavy and far too real. I barely slept last night. The brain fog is...
13th Mar 2024
Where to start? The grief is heavy and far too real. I barely slept last night. The brain fog is thick but finding the words and placing them here may provide some catharsis.
I lost someone great. Oscar was so much bigger than most folks will ever understand. His love, not just...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
Organizations are ant colonies
After I had played Universal Paperclips for a couple of hours, I thought I understood the game’s...
7th Oct 2023
After I had played Universal Paperclips for a couple of hours, I thought I understood the game’s message. I put...
Ryan Mulligan
CSS @property and the New Style
The @property at-rule recently gained support across all modern browsers, unlocking the ability to...
2nd Sep 2024
The @property at-rule recently gained support across all modern browsers, unlocking the ability to explicitly define a syntax, initial value, and inheritance for CSS custom properties. It seems like forever ago that CSS Houdini and its CSS Properties and Values API were initially...
The DESK Magazine
Death by a Thousand Buttons — from the Desk of van Schneider — Edition №268
Welcome back to DESK!
New York threw us another perfect weekend so I took the Escape Machine down to...
4th Jun 2025
Welcome back to DESK!
New York threw us another perfect weekend so I took the Escape Machine down to Balthazar in SoHo for some overpriced eggs benedict (a Tobias favorite, although I prefer it at PASTIS in Meatpacking District, same owner, better food).
While enjoying my brunch...
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...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Cold Storage
I furnished my last design studio with bespoke Danish shelving, three Eames desk units, nine glass...
2nd Jan 2026
I furnished my last design studio with bespoke Danish shelving, three Eames desk units, nine glass tables, 12 chairs, etc. When I closed the studio I moved the furnishings plus a few hundred design books—including books I’d written, foreign translations of my work, books by other...
Scott Jenson
Thinking with your hands
UX is less about technique and more about teamwork. Getting everyone to agree on a common goal is...
24th Aug 2021
UX is less about technique and more about teamwork. Getting everyone to agree on a common goal is where the real magic lives. But too often UX designers inadvertently sabotage that teamwork. Not intentionally, it’s just that, as a group, we UX designers have strong opinions that...
Koos Looijesteijn
The most important question in design: who’s gonna pay me?
9th Nov 2023
Ryan Mulligan
Style Review
Donut dessert lollipop dragée pudding marzipan jelly
Danish icing cake sugar plum chocolate bar...
5th Nov 2021
Donut dessert lollipop dragée pudding marzipan jelly
Danish icing cake sugar plum chocolate bar candy canes macaroon pie.
Bear claw bear claw biscuit fruitcake icing brownie. Jelly-o pudding tart cake ice cream jelly-o. Danish sugar plum chocolate cake wafer cake pudding sweet...
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...
Oykun Yilmaz
Communicate Value over Long Hours of Work as a Designer
The tagline for my newsletter goes as below:
Grow As Designer | Helping Designers Grow Their Value...
23rd May 2023
The tagline for my newsletter goes as below:
Grow As Designer | Helping Designers Grow Their Value and Income.
It's a bit unclear, right?
What the heck is "Value" anyway? How can you grow it?
Well, there are many meanings to it and ways to grow it for a designer, but let's focus...
Christopher Butler
Know What You Need
Knowing what you need makes knowing what you want much easier.
It is often said about successful...
16th Nov 2024
Knowing what you need makes knowing what you want much easier.
It is often said about successful people that they “know exactly what they want.” I’m sure this is true, because in our modern culture, where we are constantly made aware of new choices and possibilities, knowing...
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...
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?
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...
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...
Retail Design Blog
Coor Seongsu Flagship Store by ATELIER KHJ
When planning a commercial space, it is not easy to sacrifice usable space. This is especially true...
2nd Dec 2025
When planning a commercial space, it is not easy to sacrifice usable space. This is especially true in areas with...
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,...
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