Christopher Butler
object – Yoto
This is the best media player for children.
In the month before the pandemic shut everything...
2 weeks ago
This is the best media player for children.
In the month before the pandemic shut everything down, I was in the midst of some research on how designers — and other kinds of creative experts and consultants — can best communicate results. I was looking at a variety of case...
Christopher Butler
How to Turn Good Design Direction into a Good System
The discipline of design is the commitment to structuring and systematizing good ideas.
Ideas...
3 weeks ago
The discipline of design is the commitment to structuring and systematizing good ideas.
Ideas don’t stand on their own. When a good idea turns into a good thing, it’s because structure and systems — ones that existed before the idea — made it happen.
There’s this myth in...
Christopher Butler
The Rhythm of Your Screen
Length is not the problem; lack of rhythm is.
It’s 2023 and I’m still frequently asked by...
2 weeks ago
Length is not the problem; lack of rhythm is.
It’s 2023 and I’m still frequently asked by clients about scrolling. I understand why.
Every design comes with assumptions about how much content will be seen by people because the space in which people access our designs is...
Christopher Butler
object – The Present Clock
This hand of this clock makes one rotation every 365 days.
Something like eight or nine years...
2 weeks ago
This hand of this clock makes one rotation every 365 days.
Something like eight or nine years ago, I funded a Kickstarter campaign for a clock that Scott Thrift was making with a neat idea behind it — its single hand would make one full rotation every 365 days. It was called...
Christopher Butler
4 Levels of Grids for Web Designers
Grids are very, very useful.
I just published an essay on how anchoring the most important...
6 days ago
Grids are very, very useful.
I just published an essay on how anchoring the most important information on a web page to the Y-axis will help viewer’s focus on it and pay closer attention. It’s a pretty basic idea, really, but somehow I found myself writing over 1,000 words to...
Christopher Butler
object – Cylinder Lamp
Twenty years ago, I needed a lamp. So I made this one.
In the spring of 2003, I graduated from...
a month ago
Twenty years ago, I needed a lamp. So I made this one.
In the spring of 2003, I graduated from college and moved in to my first apartment. After my housemate and I had moved all our things in, I made a list of the things I needed.
a bed
a desk
a lamp
I had lived in...
Christopher Butler
object – OMNI Magazine, Issue 1
This is a publication very much of its time and ahead of its time.
I briefly subscribed to OMNI...
a month ago
This is a publication very much of its time and ahead of its time.
I briefly subscribed to OMNI magazine in the late ’80s and early ’90s. It was the sort of magazine that thoroughly suited my interests but was often a bit over my head and clearly not meant for a kid to read....
Christopher Butler
What Eyes Want
South of the Border. These signs are impossible to miss.
Today, over 175 South of the Border signs...
a year ago
South of the Border. These signs are impossible to miss.
Today, over 175 South of the Border signs remain along the interstate; when I was a child making a two-day road trip from Boston to Florida, there were more than 250. Spotting them, reading them, and counting them made...
Christopher Butler
There Is No Digital World
Everything digital costs something physical. It’s time for a digital conservation...
a year ago
Everything digital costs something physical. It’s time for a digital conservation movement.
inverse terms — has created a profound civilizational threat that masquerades as an opportunity.
The truth is that there is no such thing as the “digital world.” It is not a realm...
Christopher Butler
Designing for (Realistic) Attention
The average person is capable of reading 250 words per minute.
When I advise that a...
4 weeks ago
The average person is capable of reading 250 words per minute.
When I advise that a webpage — like a service detail page — have a maximum main body word-count of 150 words, I’m really recommending that it ask a reader to commit to 30 seconds. To put that in perspective, a...
Christopher Butler
Blogging Is Not Publishing It's Therapy
I keep a NOTES.txt document as a catch-all for any ideas I jot down that don’t have an immediate...
3 weeks ago
I keep a NOTES.txt document as a catch-all for any ideas I jot down that don’t have an immediate place elsewhere. It is a digital container that is at least 15 years old at this point. I’ve carried it from machine to machine. Every now and then I go back through it to see if...
Christopher Butler
object – A 20 Year-Old Sketchbook
This sketchbook just turned twenty years old.
I began keeping it in the final months of my...
a month ago
This sketchbook just turned twenty years old.
I began keeping it in the final months of my senior year at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). A few friends and I had managed to register for the same elective art history course that spring, and in anticipation of all...
Christopher Butler
Persuasion
Good design requires persuasion.
might be persuasive on its own; the notion that a thing “just...
a month ago
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...
Christopher Butler
What I Want From The Internet
Connection and intimacy are still possible on the internet today.
I’m sitting in a small room...
3 weeks ago
Connection and intimacy are still possible on the internet today.
I’m sitting in a small room in an old house in Durham, North Carolina, USA. When I look out the window, I can see the edges of homes nearby, peeking out through the even older trees between us. I’m far enough...
Christopher Butler
object – Carved Nupe Door
This door was made as a gift for my grandparents, who worked with a variety African artisans during...
a month ago
This door was made as a gift for my grandparents, who worked with a variety African artisans during the mid-twentieth century to preserve indigenous art forms and support modern artisan businesses.
Some days, if the temperature and humidity are just right, this door opens...
Christopher Butler
Outlines are IA
When you create an outline, you are arranging ideas in relation to one another: a heading is a big...
2 months ago
When you create an outline, you are arranging ideas in relation to one another: a heading is a big idea, a sub-heading is a smaller one related to it, a bulleted list is a group of even smaller ideas, and so on. Every indent suggests a sense of zooming in — of getting more...
Christopher Butler
Sub-Second Orientation
When a visitor encounters a web-page for the first time, they will ask and answer three questions...
2 months ago
When a visitor encounters a web-page for the first time, they will ask and answer three questions within about one second:
What is this content?
Is it relevant to me?
What should I do next?
Realistically, for a human to ask and answer three questions about...
Christopher Butler
What happens when the computers disappear?
The computer has become a primary dependency of civilization without being nearly as enmeshed in...
4 weeks ago
The computer has become a primary dependency of civilization without being nearly as enmeshed in daily life as it will be.
What happens when the computers disappear? Not, of course, when there are no more computers, but when they are so ubiquitous and omnipresent that we can...
Christopher Butler
object – Coffee Cup
The perfect coffee cup is about half the size of your average American mug.
I bought a pair of...
a month ago
The perfect coffee cup is about half the size of your average American mug.
I bought a pair of used small porcelain mugs at a thrift shop for about $1 back in 2009. I have used one of them nearly every day since. I believe them to be the perfect cup for coffee.
This mug...
Christopher Butler
Christmas Day – Multiple UFO Sighting
My wife, children, and I witnessed a cluster of high-flying, unidentified objects at 6pm on...
a year ago
My wife, children, and I witnessed a cluster of high-flying, unidentified objects at 6pm on Christmas Day.
At 6pm on the evening of Christmas Day, 2021, in Durham, NC, my wife and I were preparing to walk our children down the street to their grandparents’ house for...
Christopher Butler
From the Desk Of
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could actually peer over another designer’s shoulder once in a while and...
a year ago
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could actually peer over another designer’s shoulder once in a while and see what they actually do?
design means different things to different people, as does the title Designer. As much as I prefer the simplicity of Designer to, say, Interaction...
Christopher Butler
My Reverse Time Capsule
While rummaging in the WIRED magazine archives, I found this entry from 1995. In it, Douglas...
2 months ago
While rummaging in the WIRED magazine archives, I found this entry from 1995. In it, Douglas Copeland imagines a “reverse time capsule,” sent back to 1975 and wonders what in it would be most surprising to those on the receiving end, twenty years prior. Well, now we’re just shy...
Christopher Butler
Friction Can Be Good
Something I have noticed as content, software, and product design have attempted to eradicate...
2 months ago
Something I have noticed as content, software, and product design have attempted to eradicate friction is that friction is not necessarily a bad thing.
Friction is a part of everyday life. It comes from the difference between one thing and another — the encounter of two things....
Christopher Butler
Are We Ready?
Inventions that were ahead of their time can help us to understand whether we are truly ready to...
a year ago
Inventions that were ahead of their time can help us to understand whether we are truly ready to live in the world we are making.
every detail — but hinting at them by highlighting mere facets that represent a coherent reality beneath them. If that reality is convincing, then...
Christopher Butler
What If Phones Were Actually Designed for Hands?
Phones no longer fit in the hands they were made to be held and used by. How did that...
a year ago
Phones no longer fit in the hands they were made to be held and used by. How did that happen?
can make is determined by the range of the hand’s capabilities (and in the modern era, of course, extended by technology), and what we make and use serves as something of an...
Christopher Butler
object – 1999 Qualcomm QCP-860
This is the phone I carried in my pocket when I went to see The Matrix.
My first cellphone was...
a month ago
This is the phone I carried in my pocket when I went to see The Matrix.
My first cellphone was the Qualcomm QCP-860. It was marketed at the time as a “thin phone.” By today’s standards, that might seem silly, but at the time, phones were generally much chunkier. Like this...
Christopher Butler
object – Game Boy
It’s boxy, but it’s good.
On Christmas in 1990, I received a Game Boy! Though I was never much...
a month ago
It’s boxy, but it’s good.
On Christmas in 1990, I received a Game Boy! Though I was never much of a video game player, I was very excited about this little, handheld system. There was something about it that felt magical to me — so much more so than the Nintendo system we...
Christopher Butler
Technology and Moral Responsibility
As I’ve been cleaning up my site, I’ll occasionally read back over something I wrote many years ago....
a month ago
As I’ve been cleaning up my site, I’ll occasionally read back over something I wrote many years ago. Yesterday, I re-read a series of posts I wrote over a decade ago on ethics and technology. Here’s the first one.
What surprised me yesterday was how I could have easily written...
Christopher Butler
Can a Robot Do a Designer's Job?
Automation isn’t as much of a threat as we have been told.
The Grid, a so-called website...
a year ago
Automation isn’t as much of a threat as we have been told.
The Grid, a so-called website creation service “powered by artificial intelligence” that launched through a crowdfunding campaign in 2014. Less than five years later, after selling many memberships and releasing a...
Christopher Butler
Attention Degrowth
No one is entitled to anyone else’s attention.
Sometimes I think that may be the most important...
a week ago
No one is entitled to anyone else’s attention.
Sometimes I think that may be the most important insight beneath any design decision. Not to be combatted with manipulations, tricks, or just being a nuisance — but to be respected. The attention economy needs degrowth, too.
We...
Christopher Butler
The Smallest Details
In Minimalism in UX: the blessing of no choices, Dimitris Chatzilias covers a short list of common...
2 months ago
In Minimalism in UX: the blessing of no choices, Dimitris Chatzilias covers a short list of common details that are often overlooked in a way that has an impact on user experience out of proportion with their perceived importance. I feel like this article was written specifically...
Christopher Butler
We Live in the Uncanny Valley Now
Making virtual worlds can help us understand the real one, but they’re not places we can live...
a year ago
Making virtual worlds can help us understand the real one, but they’re not places we can live permanently.
Terebithia, the imaginary world he and his friend Leslie create in the woods would have no meaning, no power, and no purpose. Theirs is a story about real children, in...
Christopher Butler
What We Do When We See
What does it even mean to design when perception is reality? Do we all ever see the same...
a year ago
What does it even mean to design when perception is reality? Do we all ever see the same thing?
Visual Intelligence, a wonderful book about seeing and clarity, Amy Herman begins with the story of Derreck Kayongo.
Kayongo had just stepped into the shower in his hotel room...
Christopher Butler
A Pep Talk for those Who Work Bullshit Jobs
How do you know if what you do is actually meaningful?
do I work a bullshit job?
Perhaps you...
a year ago
How do you know if what you do is actually meaningful?
do I work a bullshit job?
Perhaps you have already answered this question for yourself and are satisfied with the answer. You may want to read on still. My purpose is not to convince you that your job is or isn’t...
Christopher Butler
Move Slow and Preserve Things
Haste has created waste. Someone please tell Zuckerberg to slow the hell down.
unfair. Funny,...
a year ago
Haste has created waste. Someone please tell Zuckerberg to slow the hell down.
unfair. Funny, that.
There’s another saying, much older than Zuckerberg, and, to my middle-aged ears, even more enduringly punk: “You wouldn’t bring a bull to a china shop.” Its first recorded...
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...
a year ago
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...
Christopher Butler
The Last Time
Life has as many ends as it has beginnings. What can an end teach us about making our...
a year ago
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...
Christopher Butler
Maintaining an Attention Axis
The Y-Axis is a Designer’s Best Friend
Attention is the Product of Focus
Attention is the...
a week ago
The Y-Axis is a Designer’s Best Friend
Attention is the Product of Focus
Attention is the product of focus. It is what we give information — our observation, concentration, and consideration — when we are able to maintain focus. That means that attention is not just a...
Christopher Butler
object – Bedside Lamp
It’s not smart, but it dims.
We briefly dabbled with smart-bulbs in our house. It did not go...
yesterday
It’s not smart, but it dims.
We briefly dabbled with smart-bulbs in our house. It did not go well. Why we make these things, I do not know. Why is controlling a lamp with your phone better than with your hands?
What I noticed after creating a smart light array in our house...
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