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...
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...
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.
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...
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...
Identity Designed
WHEN
Designed by Universal Favourite, Sydney.
16th Dec 2024
Designed by Universal Favourite, Sydney.
Alex Baldwin
See, Think, Design, Produce
Jonathan Corum, New York Times
See
Practice until your eyes can see it
See what others have done
See...
7th May 2014
Jonathan Corum, New York Times
See
Practice until your eyes can see it
See what others have done
See what’s possible
Look at more than you can use
Think
Find a clear thought and get it on paper
Sketching is visual problem solving
Sketches are not commitments
What are you trying...
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
Ryan Mulligan
The Pixel Canvas Shimmer Effect
I recently stumbled on a super cool, well-executed hover effect from the clerk.com website where a...
3rd Dec 2024
I recently stumbled on a super cool, well-executed hover effect from the clerk.com website where a bloom of tiny pixels light up, their glow staggering from the center to the edges of its container. With some available free time over this Thanksgiving break, I hacked together my...
Koos Looijesteijn
How I repaired our oven with a piece of Lego
1st Aug 2026
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…
Identity Designed
The Bond
Designed by Common Curiosity, Birmingham, London.
1st Sep 2023
Designed by Common Curiosity, Birmingham, London.
Christopher Butler
Ten Books About AI Written Before the Year 2000
This by no means a definitive list, so don’t @ me!
AI is an inescapable subject. There’s obviously...
1st Feb 2025
This by no means a definitive list, so don’t @ me!
AI is an inescapable subject. There’s obviously an incredible headwind behind the computing progress of the last handful of years — not to mention the usual avarice — but there has also been nearly a century of thought put...
Product Identity
Annoucning Niche design: The Creative Practice
Inside the next issue + patronage
4th Aug 2026
Inside the next issue + patronage
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...
Melissa Penfold
THE 23 MOST DEFINING PIECES OF FURNITURE FROM THE LAST 100 YEARS
How do we define furniture? It might seem like a silly question, but it’s one that kept coming up in...
20th Jan 2025
How do we define furniture? It might seem like a silly question, but it’s one that kept coming up in October of last year, when, in a conference room on the 15th floor of The New York Times building, six experts — the architects and interior designers Rafael de...
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,...
UX Collective
Figma and the cost of collaboration
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
5th Aug 2024
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
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....
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...
The personal website...
Research, empathy, simplicity, speed
photo by Toa Heftiba
Earlier today, I read a thought-provoking tweet from John Maeda:
"Salt Fat Acid...
17th Oct 2018
photo by Toa Heftiba
Earlier today, I read a thought-provoking tweet from John Maeda:
"Salt Fat Acid Heat" as the perfect set of ingredients for a meal makes me wonder what a similar set of essential ingredients might be for digital products. https://t.co/z1w1PUyQsD
— John Maeda...
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…
The Turn Signal RSS...
Why Car Companies Need More Interaction Designers
The Citroën DS was designed by Flavio Bertoni who, together with aviation engineer André Lèfebvre,...
1st Apr 2019
The Citroën DS was designed by Flavio Bertoni who, together with aviation engineer André Lèfebvre, created some of the most influential…
The Turn Signal RSS...
Mixed Reality: The Future of Automotive UX Prototyping
My dream scenario is one where I can send my prototypes remotely to my car's infotainment system and...
1st Mar 2024
My dream scenario is one where I can send my prototypes remotely to my car's infotainment system and try them while driving. Unfortunately,…
Identity Designed
Ashton
Designed by LG2, Quebec.
11th Jul 2024
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...
Koos Looijesteijn
Your lifestyle won’t save the world
1st Sep 2024
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...
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:
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.
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...
Oykun Yilmaz
Stop charging hourly! Start charging for the Value!
Money has always been an uncomfortable topic to talk about, especially for us creatives. We value...
10th Aug 2022
Money has always been an uncomfortable topic to talk about, especially for us creatives. We value our creation, get satisfaction from the process and the result so much that we often do not really give the importance it deserves to this money topic.
I have been designing for many...
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...
Luke Mitchell |...
My favourite albums of 2023
I don’t have a Spotify wrapped to share this year. So, in no particular order, my favourite albums...
8th Dec 2023
I don’t have a Spotify wrapped to share this year. So, in no particular order, my favourite albums of the year:
boygenius – the record
I have followed the work of this supergroups members for a little while. When they come together they create something incredible. This album is...
The personal website...
Stop brainstorming
“Brainstorming” — the problem-solving technique of coming up with as many ideas as possible in a...
18th Jan 2022
“Brainstorming” — the problem-solving technique of coming up with as many ideas as possible in a short period of time — has been showing up on a lot of my leadership meeting agendas lately. Many of my peers are employing brainstorming in the belief that, as thought-leading...
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...
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....
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...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Home science and engineering projects that my kids and I enjoyed
2nd Apr 2025
The personal website...
How to generate color palettes for design systems
It used to be easy to pick colors for design systems. Years ago, you could pick a handful of colors...
20th Apr 2024
It used to be easy to pick colors for design systems. Years ago, you could pick a handful of colors to match your brand’s ethos, or start with an off-the-shelf palette (remember flatuicolors.com?). Each hue and shade served a purpose, and usually had a quirky name like “idea...
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...
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...
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
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...
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 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...
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...
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 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...
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...
Nela Dunato Art &...
How to create a brand mood board
A brand mood board is a collage that represents your core values and aesthetic brand qualities in a...
9th Jun 2023
A brand mood board is a collage that represents your core values and aesthetic brand qualities in a visual way. It’s the first step in translating these abstract concepts into visual language. Whether you decide to work with a designer or by yourself, creating a mood board is a...
ramsés cabello
web app inspector @ sketch
hi everyone 〜 ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )
we just launched a new version of sketch including awaited features...
28th May 2025
hi everyone 〜 ദ്ദി ( ᵔ ᗜ ᵔ )
we just launched a new version of sketch including awaited features such as stacks, frames, and graphics, along with a lot of other new features.
while we prepared the inspector on the web app to display the new properties that come with these...
Koos Looijesteijn
Learnings from years of technological progress wasted
26th Mar 2024
The Pudding
The Greatest Game You’ve Never Heard of
Welcome to Crokinole, the greatest game you’ve never heard of.
16th Oct 2024
Welcome to Crokinole, the greatest game you’ve never heard of.
Koos Looijesteijn
How I design ‘mobile first’
10th Feb 2014
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 personal website...
Responsive roadmaps
Shane Parrish’s essay The Map is Not the Territory begins:
The map of reality is not reality. Even...
8th May 2019
Shane Parrish’s essay The Map is Not the Territory begins:
The map of reality is not reality. Even the best maps are imperfect. That’s because they are reductions of what they represent.
The same is true for product roadmaps. Understanding and applying Parrish’s mental model is...
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
Koos Looijesteijn
What I learned from my second Astro-Jekyll migration
10th May 2026
Melissa Penfold
ISABELLA’S INCREDIBLE CHRISTMAS COLLECTION
It’s a bargain hunter’s paradise at Isabella Walker-Smith’s bumper Christmas Collection which has...
29th Nov 2024
It’s a bargain hunter’s paradise at Isabella Walker-Smith’s bumper Christmas Collection which has stacks of table lamps in the style of Christian Liaigre, Kelly Wearstler, Ralph Lauren, and Aerin, from $80. There are quality travertine lamps, $280 a pair, and adorable rattan...
Product Identity
Growth pains
On scale: against the pursuit of unicorns
12th May 2026
On scale: against the pursuit of unicorns
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...
The DESK Magazine
Why we built an anti-social tool
This article was originally intended for the upcoming mymind.com blog, but it feels so personal to...
7th Jul 2022
This article was originally intended for the upcoming mymind.com blog, but it feels so personal to me, I found it fitting to share here with you.
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
Retail Design Blog
Amouage Zhang Yuan
In the heart of Shanghai’s historic Zhang Yuan district, Paris-based agency Héroïne has redefined...
1st Aug 2025
In the heart of Shanghai’s historic Zhang Yuan district, Paris-based agency Héroïne has redefined luxury retail with The Sillage, a...
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...
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...
julian.digital
Media Consumption (Jan 2021)
>_ Summary Read 11 books (2456 min, +111% MoM) and 26 articles (-46%) Listened to 263 songs (-59%)...
1st Feb 2021
>_ Summary Read 11 books (2456 min, +111% MoM) and 26 articles (-46%) Listened to 263 songs (-59%) and 15 podcasts (749 min, -43%) Watched 1 movie (107 min, -54%), 7 soccer games (835 min, -.6%) and 21 TV episodes (1079 min, +40%) Played 0 board games (0 min, -100%) and 1 video...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
Oykun Yilmaz
Designers, charge more $$$ to help yourself and your clients.
Many designers shy away from increasing their rates, fearing it will scare clients away and put them...
27th Apr 2024
Many designers shy away from increasing their rates, fearing it will scare clients away and put them under pressure to deliver higher-quality work.
Understandable concerns with the common fixed mindset.
However, if you want to grow as a Designer, you must be comfortable with...
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...
A Guide to Prototyping Automotive Interfaces
First, it's important to clarify that this article is about the first stages of the design process....
1st Sep 2023
First, it's important to clarify that this article is about the first stages of the design process. There are many processes for…
The personal website...
Decentralizing quality
Everyone agrees quality matters, but we can’t agree on what it is — or who gets to decide.
I’ve...
30th Sep 2025
Everyone agrees quality matters, but we can’t agree on what it is — or who gets to decide.
I’ve experienced the drive for quality in every design leadership role I’ve had. When it comes to software, we like to pretend that quality is a number. Dashboards stand in for judgment,...
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
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...
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....
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!
"
Christopher Butler
Fifteen Clocks
On clocks as interfaces to time, and a decade measured in rotations of a single hand.
For our...
31st Jan 2026
On clocks as interfaces to time, and a decade measured in rotations of a single hand.
For our first wedding anniversary, I gave my wife a clock that measures years. It’s called The Present, created by Scott Thrift, a designer whose work I’d followed for some time. I’d invested...
Scott Jenson
The invisible problem
Whenever I explain my research at Google into mobile text editing, I’m usually met with blank stares...
22nd Sep 2023
Whenever I explain my research at Google into mobile text editing, I’m usually met with blank stares or a slightly hostile “Everyone can edit text on their phones, right? What’s the problem?” Text editing on mobile isn’t ok. It’s actually much worse than you think, an invisible...
Ryan Mulligan
Animating with the Flip Plugin for GSAP
What the flip is it?
Every time a new GSAP plugin is introduced, I'm close to bursting from...
7th Jan 2022
What the flip is it?
Every time a new GSAP plugin is introduced, I'm close to bursting from excitement. The simplicity of the GreenSock API makes learning and applying these tools in projects such a dream. I had the pleasure of beta testing the ScrollTrigger plugin and was blown...
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?
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,...
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...
The Pudding
Common Threads
Visualizing how musicals use motifs to tell stories.
9th Dec 2025
Visualizing how musicals use motifs to tell stories.
Melissa Penfold
5 DISCREET SIGNS YOU’RE IN A WEALTHY PERSON’S HOME
Flashy indicators of affluence are easy to spot. But these often-less-expensive decor items signal...
24th Sep 2025
Flashy indicators of affluence are easy to spot. But these often-less-expensive decor items signal true wealth in more subtle ways. The quietly ultra–rich live with subtle indicators of affluence—and most aren’t actually that expensive.
Wealthy people don’t have “stuff”
The more...
Sarah Parmenter
Blushbar is 4 this year–here’s what I’ve learned.
. The Salon Business is Hard It’s been four long years, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve...
25th Jul 2017
. The Salon Business is Hard It’s been four long years, but I wouldn’t change it for the world. I’ve learned so much about business during these last four years; I can’t even begin to start writing it all down. The salon business is a complicated business to make work. It runs on...
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...
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...
Permanent Style
Ralph Lauren cap: How great things age
There have been a few companies popping up in recent years making higher-end baseball caps. Both the...
3rd Nov 2025
There have been a few companies popping up in recent years making higher-end baseball caps. Both the plain, dull, luxury ones that became a trend in the wake of Succession, and ones that look exactly like a traditional cap, just higher quali... > Read more
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...
Identity Designed
Bát Tràng Museum
Designed by M — N Associates, Ho Chi Minh City.
4th Feb 2024
Designed by M — N Associates, Ho Chi Minh City.
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 Turn Signal RSS...
Mixed Reality: The Future of Automotive UX Prototyping
Can mixed reality make it easier to test and iterate on automotive user interfaces?
1st Mar 2024
Can mixed reality make it easier to test and iterate on automotive user interfaces?
Koos Looijesteijn
What is color?—Color theory in design
14th Apr 2017
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
The Grand Press
Designed by Dixon Baxi, London.
12th May 2023
Designed by Dixon Baxi, London.
The DESK Magazine
The case for being ignorant
I am sure you know this feeling. You find a new book that you absolutely love. A new movie, a new TV...
14th May 2024
I am sure you know this feeling. You find a new book that you absolutely love. A new movie, a new TV series or even a new hobby such as cycling or designing. It can be anything and everything.
Identity Designed
Freetree
Designed by How&How, Lisbon and London.
10th May 2022
Designed by How&How, Lisbon and London.
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...
Koos Looijesteijn -...
How to make digital business cards and share them via QR codes
A previous employer found it important that the whole team had business cards. I had to wait a few...
11th Jun 2023
A previous employer found it important that the whole team had business cards. I had to wait a few months...
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...
Joshua Smith
135 Cedar Street
1:20 Scratchbuilt miniature based off 135 Cedar Street, San Francisco. Wood, MDF, Plastruct,...
27th Mar 2017
1:20 Scratchbuilt miniature based off 135 Cedar Street, San Francisco. Wood, MDF, Plastruct, Cardboard, Paper, Plastic Card, Wire, Acrylic paint, Spraypaint, Chalk pastels. February 2016 SOLD. Photo Credit: Andrew Beveridge/ASB Creative
The post 135 Cedar Street appeared first 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.
Melissa Penfold
WHERE TO FIND EXCEPTIONAL FLOWERS IN FIVE DIFFERENT CITIES
Not only do fresh flowers bring joy and delight into a home, they’re also a symbol of important...
3rd Oct 2025
Not only do fresh flowers bring joy and delight into a home, they’re also a symbol of important moments in life: they are the decoration of choice at weddings and funerals, and also the ultimate gift of love on Valentine’s Day. Their delicate nature, however, can make it tricky...
Luke Mitchell |...
The time for designers to learn to code is now
I often use the analogy that when we design for print, what are we doing over
and over again? Doing...
12th Jul 2024
I often use the analogy that when we design for print, what are we doing over
and over again? Doing proof prints. Why then when designing websites (or
apps) are we not getting in to the browser as quickly as possible, rather
than creating interactive pictures of websites in...
The DESK Magazine
My favorite type of designers
There are many types of GREAT designers I've had the pleasure of working with over the past two...
16th Dec 2025
There are many types of GREAT designers I've had the pleasure of working with over the past two decades and what I learned is that they are all not measured equally. Below are some of my favorites for the various circumstances.
(FYI: very rarely does a designer inherit
Product Identity
What’s the future of AI hardware?
I don't have answers
17th Jun 2024
The Turn Signal RSS...
The Rise of Touch Screens in Cars Explained
Are touch screens in cars really that bad?
1st Mar 2021
Are touch screens in cars really that bad?
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.
Luke Mitchell |...
A future of design work with AI
Like a almost everyone I work with I’m thinking a lot about how all this new fangled AI stuff will...
4th Mar 2023
Like a almost everyone I work with I’m thinking a lot about how all this new fangled AI stuff will change my work. Matthew offers the most level-headed metaphor I’ve found so far:
Just as fly-by-wire systems have made pilots more efficient (not redundant), AI and automation will...
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...
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...
Identity Designed
Donut Shop
Designed by TwoPoints.Net, Hamburg, Barcelona.
11th Mar 2024
Designed by TwoPoints.Net, Hamburg, Barcelona.
Koos Looijesteijn -...
UXers and Product Managers Both Say Others Intrude on Their Work
"Summary: A survey of 372 UX and PM professionals shows that duplicative work is frequent and...
2nd Feb 2023
"Summary: A survey of 372 UX and PM professionals shows that duplicative work is frequent and generates confusion and inefficiency. The first four questions are discussed in this article. A companion article covers the last two.
"
UX Collective
The algorithmic atelier
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
3rd Aug 2026
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
Ryan Mulligan
Scrollspy Navigation Web Component
Just here for the code and demos? Check out the scrollspy-nav repository on GitHub and its...
7th Oct 2023
Just here for the code and demos? Check out the scrollspy-nav repository on GitHub and its corresponding demo page.
The backstory
A "scrollspy" is a method of tracking which link in a menu is active based on a relevant section of information being visible in the viewport....
Ryan Mulligan
Notes on handling events in Web Components
My click-spark web component was a fun, silly project at best. Yet I've seen it's had some love...
27th Jul 2024
My click-spark web component was a fun, silly project at best. Yet I've seen it's had some love since being shared. So why not publish it as an npm package? No better time than the present, some say.
I had done a major refactor before publishing, the most notable was that the...
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.
Product Identity
Looking for humanness in the world wide social
This is the first part of a series on the identity of social networks.
15th Jan 2025
This is the first part of a series on the identity of social networks.
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...
Retail Design Blog
Vedalia Salon by Nysa
On a busy street in Ampelokipoi, Vedalia Beauty Salon is conceived as a space of pause and retreat...
3rd Nov 2025
On a busy street in Ampelokipoi, Vedalia Beauty Salon is conceived as a space of pause and retreat from the...
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.
The personal website...
Expansion artifacts
The information age has been defined by bandwidth. The internet is limited by how much data we can...
20th Apr 2026
The information age has been defined by bandwidth. The internet is limited by how much data we can squeeze into the narrow pipes of transmission infrastructure. So we invented compression, ways of representing the same object — a website, a picture, a song, a movie — within ever...
The personal website...
The 1-hour design principles workshop
Design principles are a valuable tool for any team that works together towards a shared outcome....
19th Aug 2018
Design principles are a valuable tool for any team that works together towards a shared outcome. Written well, design principles can create alignment, speed up decision-making, and increase the quality of the team’s output.
Lately, I’ve worked with two of my teams to write design...
The Turn Signal RSS...
Swiping vs Tapping, What is Less Distracting to Drivers?
Is it possible to make touch interaction as easy as with a physical control?
1st Feb 2022
Is it possible to make touch interaction as easy as with a physical control?
julian.digital
Media Consumption (Feb 2021)
>_ Summary Read 3 books (2202 min, -10% MoM) and 22 articles (-15%) Listened to 364 songs (+38%) and...
4th Mar 2021
>_ Summary Read 3 books (2202 min, -10% MoM) and 22 articles (-15%) Listened to 364 songs (+38%) and 15 podcasts (749 min, same) Watched 8 movies (885 min, +727%), 7 soccer games (965 min, +16%) and 7 TV episodes (405 min, -62%) Played 0 board games (0 min, same) and 1 video game...
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...
Jim Nielsen’s Blog
You Can Now Subscribe To My Blog via Email
I don’t think you should. I think you should use RSS.
But if you want posts delivered directly to...
4th Jan 2025
I don’t think you should. I think you should use RSS.
But if you want posts delivered directly to your email, you can do that now.
However, disclaimer: I don’t know if I’ll keep this feature.
It costs me money.
And I don’t monetize my blog.
So sending you an email costs me...
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.
Christopher Butler
The Road Through Your Screen
2nd Jun 2023
Christopher Butler
The View from Here
There are many reasons to make things and share them, to write and publish, to speak and record. So...
10th Sep 2023
There are many reasons to make things and share them, to write and publish, to speak and record. So many reasons, most unknown; far be it from me to make assumptions about other peoples’ motivations.
But among them, amidst even the most altruistic, is the one that is most...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Fixing the under-appreciated JavaScript Map class and using it to construct a build system
17th Nov 2025
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Making Origami expressions easier to learn and use
15th Sep 2025
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...
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...
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...
UX Collective
Designing for AI means designing like it’s 1999
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
1st Jun 2026
Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
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
The Last Time
Life has as many ends as it has beginnings. What can an end teach us about making our...
15th Oct 2021
Life has as many ends as it has beginnings. What can an end teach us about making our world?
Bye, Chris” were the last words a friend said to me. We had been talking on the phone for about an hour, catching up as we did back then, a few times each year. He said his goodbye as...
The Turn Signal RSS...
Mercedes vs Lucid: Different Views on Luxury UI Design
With each launch of a Mercedes S-Class, the whole automotive world watches. It is a prelude to the...
1st Nov 2020
With each launch of a Mercedes S-Class, the whole automotive world watches. It is a prelude to the technologies that will be the industry…
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...
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...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Your opt-innie wants to talk to your opt-outtie.
Here’s a fact: “Opt-in” is great for programs a platform controls, but meaningless when that...
15th Mar 2025
Here’s a fact: “Opt-in” is great for programs a platform controls, but meaningless when that platform has no control.
Take, for example, oh, I don’t know, let’s say AI companies scraping web content without your permission. The heart wants to make content scraping permissions...
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 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
Koos Looijesteijn -...
There are no individual contributors in design
This term, that I believe comes from software development, is taking hold in other fields too:...
3rd Jun 2021
This term, that I believe comes from software development, is taking hold in other fields too: individual contributor. I don’t...
Jeffrey Zeldman...
Required reading: “The Interracial Cuck Porn Theory of Everything”
Cameron Cummins-Smith’s grand unifying theory connects the far right’s seemingly disparate...
24th May 2026
Cameron Cummins-Smith’s grand unifying theory connects the far right’s seemingly disparate obsessions—from trans panic and great replacement theory to anti-feminism and white birth-rate anxiety—into a single ideological system fueled by pornographic narratives:
In physics there...
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...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Promoting a design and development tool through comics
8th Jan 2026
The Turn Signal RSS...
Take-Over Moments: The Hardest Design Problem of Semi-Autonomous Cars
Until cars achieve level 5 driving automation, there will be moments where drivers have to...
1st Jan 2021
Until cars achieve level 5 driving automation, there will be moments where drivers have to intervene. Designing these so-called take-over…
The personal website...
What is a brand?
A few weeks ago, I jumped into a new job as the head of a design team at a startup called...
4th Mar 2020
A few weeks ago, I jumped into a new job as the head of a design team at a startup called SimpleHealth. One of my first tasks is to kick off a big brand update. Full creative control, clear product/market fit, a long timeline — this is going to be a breeze. Right?
Only, I asked...
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...
Stop brainstorming
“Brainstorming” — the problem-solving technique of coming up with as many ideas as possible in a...
18th Jan 2022
“Brainstorming” — the problem-solving technique of coming up with as many ideas as possible in a short period of time — has been showing up on a lot of my leadership meeting agendas lately. Many of my peers are employing brainstorming in the belief that, as thought-leading...
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
2025 Web Origami year-end report
22nd Dec 2025
Product Identity
In awe of InVision
An aftermath promo for the nerdy designer
21st Aug 2024
An aftermath promo for the nerdy designer
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...
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 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.
The Pudding
The Generational Legacy of Samples in Music
We trace musical DNA from the classical "Hall of the Mountain King" to 2pac's "Hit Em Up."
1st Apr 2025
We trace musical DNA from the classical "Hall of the Mountain King" to 2pac's "Hit Em Up."
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...
Making an audio waveform visualizer with vanilla java script
You can read this article on UX Booth.
12th Nov 2019
You can read this article on UX Booth.
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?
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...
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
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...
Christopher Butler
Link – Linsey Rendell's personal website
linseyrendell.com is a really nice website.
I just love the overall look and simplicity of what...
1st Jan 2024
linseyrendell.com is a really nice website.
I just love the overall look and simplicity of what Linsey has created!
Jan Miksovsky’s blog
Write a very concise static site generator with Origami expressions
2nd May 2025
Identity Designed
CleanO2
Designed by Ordinary Things, San Francisco.
2nd Aug 2022
Designed by Ordinary Things, San Francisco.
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...
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
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...
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
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
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...
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...
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
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
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...
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),...
Christopher Butler
The Empty Heading
For many years, I have maintained a text file called “A Rubric for Website Design Critique.” It is...
3 days ago
For many years, I have maintained a text file called “A Rubric for Website Design Critique.” It is relatively short, but used nonetheless; I’ve returned to it, off and on, for most of my career, referring back, adding things, removing things, adjusting. Its purpose is to...
Nela Dunato Art &...
Quest for the best black paint: Gouache, acrylic, india ink, pastel & more compared
I love adding black backgrounds, borders, or other large areas of black to my artwork! In the past I...
30th Dec 2022
I love adding black backgrounds, borders, or other large areas of black to my artwork! In the past I mostly used India ink because it’s affordable, easy to use, and easy to find in stores. But now I'm curious if I can find something better.
I tested and compared 14 different...
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 Pudding
What it’s like to walk across Massachusetts
A visually-aided journal of a very long walk home.
20th Oct 2025
A visually-aided journal of a very long walk home.
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 2023
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...
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…
The personal website...
Beyond 10×
In the January 1968 issue of computer science trade magazine Communications of the ACM, a paper...
1st Nov 2021
In the January 1968 issue of computer science trade magazine Communications of the ACM, a paper appeared under the unassuming title “Exploratory experimental studies comparing online and offline programming performance.” “Programming is a multibillion dollar industry,” the paper...
Oykun Yilmaz
Introvert Designer
I’m an introvert. Unfortunately, I have discovered this term and its true meaning quite late in my...
1st Sep 2020
I’m an introvert. Unfortunately, I have discovered this term and its true meaning quite late in my life. I have always been the person who talks less in a large group. I've always preferred to be either by myself or with a small number of people
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 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 from the inside
Imagine you’re an architect hired to redesign the floorplan of an office. The company hiring you has...
5th May 2026
Imagine you’re an architect hired to redesign the floorplan of an office. The company hiring you has grown from 10-100 employees and wants to make sure the space is easy to navigate and the common areas are in the optimal location.
You ask the client for the existing floorplan,...
The DESK Magazine
mymind updates you might have missed
We've released so many improvements and updates for mymind recently, these are old news by now.
1st Nov 2024
We've released so many improvements and updates for mymind recently, these are old news by now.
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 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.
Christopher Butler
The Fundamentals Problem
Anyone can make something that looks designed, but that doesn’t mean that design has happened.
A...
3rd Nov 2025
Anyone can make something that looks designed, but that doesn’t mean that design has happened.
A few months ago, a client was reviewing a landing page design with my team. They had created it themselves using a page builder tool — one of those platforms that integrate content...
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