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Christopher Butler

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...
22 hours ago
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22 hours ago
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...
Christopher Butler
From Pages to Scenes The Evolution of Digital Space The metaphors we use to describe digital spaces shape how we...
2 days ago
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2 days ago
The Evolution of Digital Space The metaphors we use to describe digital spaces shape how we design them. When we moved from “pages” to “screens,” we were acknowledging a shift from static information to dynamic display. But even “screen” feels increasingly inadequate for...
Christopher Butler
The Empty Hours AI promises to automate both work and leisure. What will we do then? In 2005, I lived high up...
4 days ago
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4 days ago
AI promises to automate both work and leisure. What will we do then? In 2005, I lived high up on a hill in Penang, from where I could literally watch the tech industry reshape the island and the nearby mainland. The common wisdom then was that automation would soon empty the...
Christopher Butler
The Testing Trap Meaningful design decisions flow from clear intent, not from data. “We don’t know what people...
6 days ago
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6 days ago
Meaningful design decisions flow from clear intent, not from data. “We don’t know what people want. We don’t even know what they do.” This confession — which so many clients never truly say but should — drives an almost compulsive need for testing and validation. Heat...
Christopher Butler
Digital Reality Digital Shock Growing Up at the Dawn of Cyberspace For those of us born around 1980, William Gibson’s...
a week ago
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a week ago
Growing Up at the Dawn of Cyberspace For those of us born around 1980, William Gibson’s Neuromancer might be the most prophetic novel we never read as teenagers. Published in 1984, it predicted the digital world we would inherit: a reality where human consciousness extends...
Christopher Butler
The Exodus A product marketing consultant with over a decade of experience is leaving to pursue art,...
a week ago
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a week ago
A product marketing consultant with over a decade of experience is leaving to pursue art, illustration, and poetry. Another designer, burned out on growing her business, is pivoting to focus on fitness instead. These aren’t just isolated anecdotes — they’re part of an emerging...
Christopher Butler
Dreams in the Machine When AI meets the unconscious… I have had dreams I will never forget. Long, vivid experiences...
a week ago
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a week ago
When AI meets the unconscious… I have had dreams I will never forget. Long, vivid experiences with plot twists and turns that confound the notion that dreaming is simply the reorganization of day residue. I have discovered and created new things, written essays, stories, and...
Christopher Butler
Who is the internet for? SEO, Clickless Search, and the AInternet Imagine designing and building a home while its...
a week ago
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a week ago
SEO, Clickless Search, and the AInternet Imagine designing and building a home while its residents continued living in it. What you create is highly customized to them because you observe them living in real time and make what they need. One day, while you’re still working,...
Christopher Butler
The Value of Friction What technology’s drive for seamlessness gets wrong. I’ve been thinking lately about...
a week ago
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a week ago
What technology’s drive for seamlessness gets wrong. I’ve been thinking lately about friction — not the physical force, but the small resistances we encounter in daily life. The tech industry has made eliminating friction its north star, pursuing ever more seamless...
Christopher Butler
The Unpublishable On self-censorship in a connected world. On my computer is a file named “unpublishable.txt”....
a week ago
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a week ago
On self-censorship in a connected world. On my computer is a file named “unpublishable.txt”. Its content is right there on the label: Fragments of unworthy ideas have accumulated there for years, along with bits of things I’ve held back for other reasons — fear not least...
Christopher Butler
Windows, Frames, and Other Realities Through the lens of a child’s camera, decades of interface design, and thousands of years of...
a week ago
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a week ago
Through the lens of a child’s camera, decades of interface design, and thousands of years of wondering. My daughter has discovered the joy of photography through a clever little child’s digital camera. She’s particularly fascinated by its ability to overlay different frames...
Christopher Butler
100 Image Moodboard My aesthetic sensibilities represented in 100 images. These images are subject to change without...
2 weeks ago
Christopher Butler
The Pigeonhole Principle Why perfect organization is not possible. I stare at the blank index pages of my new...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Why perfect organization is not possible. I stare at the blank index pages of my new commonplace book, my pen hovering uncertainly. More than two decades of digital design work, and I’m stumped by the simple task of organizing an analog notebook. Come on, I thought to...
Christopher Butler
Persuasion is Plural Earn attention before you use it. Persuasion is never one thing. It’s at least two: first,...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Earn attention before you use it. Persuasion is never one thing. It’s at least two: first, persuading someone to pay attention, and second, persuading them that your thing is worth their time, money, or effort. Most marketers and designers focus their energy on the second...
Christopher Butler
The Geography of Interface Is there a pattern language for digital spaces? We navigate digital spaces as if they were...
2 weeks ago
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2 weeks ago
Is there a pattern language for digital spaces? We navigate digital spaces as if they were physical ones. We “visit” websites, “go to” pages, get “lost” in apps, and find our way “back” to where we started. These spatial metaphors are so deeply embedded in how we think about...
Christopher Butler
Human-First Interaction (in a Machine-Driven World) As artificial intelligence (AI) agents increasingly mediate our digital experiences, the role of...
3 weeks ago
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3 weeks ago
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...
Christopher Butler
Year in Review – 2024 The highs and lows of the year in exhaustive detail. This is going to be a long post. I’ve...
a month ago
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a month ago
The highs and lows of the year in exhaustive detail. This is going to be a long post. I’ve broken it up into a few sections, so if one is of greater interest, just hop to it. Overview At Work Magnolia Art Reading Music DIY Projects Overview What a year!...
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...
a month ago
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a month ago
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...
Christopher Butler
The Books that Have Shaped My Technological Worldview This is a personal collection, subject to change at any time. A Pattern Language, by Christopher...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
This is a personal collection, subject to change at any time. A Pattern Language, by Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein, and Sara Ishikawa A classic on architecture and urban design that you’ll find on many lists like this. What keeps it here for me — as a text that has...
Christopher Butler
The Two Most Important Skills for Interaction Designers They are almost certainly not what you think they are. Good interaction design depends upon a...
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2 months ago
They are almost certainly not what you think they are. Good interaction design depends upon a very long list of skills, from a practical understanding of formal design concepts to the speed and efficiency with which you wield digital design tools and navigate a variety of...
Christopher Butler
The Top Five Hitchcock Films This is my personal ranking, subject to change at any time. Rear Window North by...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
This is my personal ranking, subject to change at any time. Rear Window North by Northwest Vertigo Rebecca Rope The Man Who Knew Too Much Spellbound Notorious To Catch a Thief Strangers on a Train
Christopher Butler
The Top Ten Hitchcock Films This is my personal ranking, subject to change at any time. Rear Window North by...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
This is my personal ranking, subject to change at any time. Rear Window North by Northwest Vertigo Rebecca Rope The Man Who Knew Too Much Spellbound Notorious To Catch a Thief Strangers on a Train
Christopher Butler
The Top Ten Design Books This is my personal ranking, subject to change at any time. Design as Art, by Bruno...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
This is my personal ranking, subject to change at any time. Design as Art, by Bruno Munari Massive Change, by Bruce Mau Grid systems in graphic design, by Josef Müller-Brockmann A New Program for Graphic Design, by David Reinfurt Editing by Design, by Jan V. White A...
Christopher Butler
Know What You Need Knowing what you need makes knowing what you want much easier. It is often said about successful...
2 months ago
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2 months ago
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...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 21 – Working Spaces Working Spaces dezeen recently featured Nineteen Taiwanese architecture studios photographed by...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
Working Spaces dezeen recently featured Nineteen Taiwanese architecture studios photographed by Marc Goodwin. My favorite images are the ones that highlight the working nature of the spaces. And the spaces I am most interested in being in are those which embrace the...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 20 – Localized Computing At a time of ubiquitous computing, there is still something to be gained from its...
3 months ago
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3 months ago
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...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 July 05 - September 30 Relative Dormancy Star Trek: TNG will always be my measure of a tablet. We’re still not...
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4 months ago
Relative Dormancy Star Trek: TNG will always be my measure of a tablet. We’re still not there yet. Paid a visit to the Field Museum in Chicago. Vibe.
Christopher Butler
Understanding the Eye-Mind Connection A deeper understanding of the eye-mind connection will help us transcend simply harnessing...
6 months ago
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6 months ago
A deeper understanding of the eye-mind connection will help us transcend simply harnessing distraction to sustaining attention in our design. The connection between the eye and the mind is mysterious. It’s not that it is completely opaque to us; we understand many aspects of...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 19 – Creative Miscellany Design texts, maker stories, Figma complaints, and more. Hello from a very steamy Durham. It was...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Design texts, maker stories, Figma complaints, and more. Hello from a very steamy Durham. It was 99° as I wrote some of this yesterday with the felt temperature well exceeding 100. And then it started to rain. The temperature dropped a few degrees and the air was filled with...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 June 17 - July 05 Make it bigger. portals birthday eve exploring...
7 months ago
Christopher Butler
The Internet Isn't for Humans Anymore Bots use the internet more than we do; use shapes design. As of last year, half of the...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
Bots use the internet more than we do; use shapes design. As of last year, half of the internet’s traffic came from bots. This is a headline that has been repeated many times because it sounds important, but without much in the way of helpful context, it doesn’t carry much...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 June 1 - June 16 An End I made two small collages side-by-side, simultaneously, then glued them in to the...
7 months ago
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7 months ago
An End I made two small collages side-by-side, simultaneously, then glued them in to the book. ontological shock Another small collage I made outside of this book. I’ve been enjoying the process of making these; I’ve been thinking of them as...
Christopher Butler
Link – Johannes Klingebiel's Personal Website johannesklingebiel.de is a really nice website and digital garden. There is so much to like on...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
johannesklingebiel.de is a really nice website and digital garden. There is so much to like on Johannes’s website — from the attention he gives to details that orient you to the site’s structure to the delicate balance between the playful and the analytical in its visual...
Christopher Butler
The AI Designer The AI Designer is a powerful notion, but it is incomplete. For creative craftspeople, AI is...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
The AI Designer is a powerful notion, but it is incomplete. For creative craftspeople, AI is more of an imposed thought experiment than it is a utility. Yes, there are countless AI tools that can do parts of the job — make an image for you, create a layout, automate a...
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...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Faces The last two weeks have been unusually busy and routine-disrupting. Half the input to the book as usual, but still, something is better than nothing! I intended to make the collage on the right only black and white. Couldn’t resist a bit of color. Very...
Christopher Butler
Investing in Creativity Investing in creativity is incremental effort and cumulative reward. Investing in creativity is...
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8 months ago
Investing in creativity is incremental effort and cumulative reward. Investing in creativity is incremental effort and cumulative reward. I realized this in two ways this year. 1 — More Input > More Output I made a resolution as 2023 closed out to make more art. Rather...
Christopher Butler
Link – Rebecca Toh's Personal Website rebeccatoh.co is a really nice personal website. Something about the chunkiness of Karla at 700...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
rebeccatoh.co is a really nice personal website. Something about the chunkiness of Karla at 700 weight is just ideal, and the colors Rebecca has chosen are unique and gentle. It is all just perfectly simple and lovely to read.
Christopher Butler
Link – Eric Bailey's Personal Website ericwbailey.website is a really nice website. Come for the brightly colored stacks of gargantuan...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
ericwbailey.website is a really nice website. Come for the brightly colored stacks of gargantuan Metropolis type, stay for the beautifully practical, reverse-chronological text list of every website entry. I like it.
Christopher Butler
Link – wove Website wove.co is a really nice website. The more complex the visual language, the more difficult it is...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
wove.co is a really nice website. The more complex the visual language, the more difficult it is to interpret. wove gets this. The visual language they use is quite simple, as is their copywriting. It’s as if they took E.B. White’s advice to heart comprehensively — both in the...
Christopher Butler
Knowledge Work, AI, and Fragile Egos On the connection between time, skills, ideas, and what makes us truly human. Knowledge workers...
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8 months ago
On the connection between time, skills, ideas, and what makes us truly human. Knowledge workers advance through economies by transitioning from selling time to selling labor to selling IP. The notion here is that narrowing the funnel increases the value: everyone has time,...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 May 11 - May 19 SimPocalypse Our older kiddo has been playing SimCity — the first version. I’ve always...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
SimPocalypse Our older kiddo has been playing SimCity — the first version. I’ve always preferred the simplicity of its symbolic graphics. I remember when SimCity 2000 came out and, despite all its upgrades, I still played the old version. Same thing for Civilization, and...
Christopher Butler
Unscalable, Hand-Crafted Lists of Links Or, Technology vs. Taste The first search engine wasn’t one at all. It was a webpage with a...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Or, Technology vs. Taste The first search engine wasn’t one at all. It was a webpage with a list of links on it. There were many of these, some freely accessible, and others within the first walled-gardens of America Online, Prodigy, and so on. But the most famous one is...
Christopher Butler
Design for AI If the majority of attention your webpage gets is from AI, not humans, what does it need to look...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
If the majority of attention your webpage gets is from AI, not humans, what does it need to look like? How does it need to work? When mobile device browsers first became a design problem, some people said that the best way to solve it was with two sets of markup — one for...
Christopher Butler
Unscalable, Hand-Crafted Lists of Links Or, Technology vs. Taste The first search engine wasn’t one at all. It was a webpage with a...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
Or, Technology vs. Taste The first search engine wasn’t one at all. It was a webpage with a list of links on it. There were many of these, some freely accessible, and others within the first walled-gardens of America Online, Prodigy, and so on. But the most famous one is...
Christopher Butler
The Elements of Good Craft How details, focus, time, and taste elevate craft. Attention to Detail The number one...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
How details, focus, time, and taste elevate craft. Attention to Detail The number one distinction among designers who need a lot of direction and designers who do not is their attention to detail. This is because attention to detail is commonly misunderstood. Attention...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 May 06 - May 11 The Kali Yuga Rumor is the Kali Yuga ends in March, 2025. Thinking a lot about...
8 months ago
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8 months ago
The Kali Yuga Rumor is the Kali Yuga ends in March, 2025. Thinking a lot about portals lately. Looking in, and through. This last one was fun. P.S. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 April 28 - May 06 Imaginary places, interference, the grid. My daughter brought this doodle home from school....
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Imaginary places, interference, the grid. My daughter brought this doodle home from school. I asked her if I could have it and she said “yes.” I would love to stroll by this building and it’s great green sealed windows. It’s too bad it’s not...
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...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
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...
Christopher Butler
We Have Five Years Left We must radically reduce carbon emissions by 2030 in order to avoid the most catastrophic damage of...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
We must radically reduce carbon emissions by 2030 in order to avoid the most catastrophic damage of climate change. How can you help? We have only 5 years left to do something about climate change. Depending upon how you define “do something,” we have even less time,...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 April 21 - April 28 Apocalpyse
9 months ago
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 April 13 - April 19 The faces are back, a new book, calm, beauty, civil war. The faces are back. Feels like...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
The faces are back, a new book, calm, beauty, civil war. The faces are back. Feels like something is happening here. This ^ is the start of a new book. “We need more calm companies.” — Justin Jackson What is beautiful? Another...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 18 – A Personal Web I am building a personal web. My name is Chris and I am a data hoarder personal...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
I am building a personal web. My name is Chris and I am a data hoarder personal archivist. Current status of my “_archive” volume: 741,637,054,464 bytes (741.64 GB on disk) Audio: 267,269,859,244 bytes (267.29 GB on disk) for 8,902 items Images: 24,176,297,844 bytes...
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 April 7 - April 12 Dreaming of secret worlds, minidiscs, buildings, portals. Do we all dream of a secret world — a...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
Dreaming of secret worlds, minidiscs, buildings, portals. Do we all dream of a secret world — a secret garden, a portal, Shangri La, an entrance to a heaven on earth? ^ actual sizes! ^ yours, truly
Christopher Butler
Eclipse We gathered on our street and shielded our eyes to behold a spectacle we last saw in 2017 and won’t...
9 months ago
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9 months ago
We gathered on our street and shielded our eyes to behold a spectacle we last saw in 2017 and won’t again — with this clarity, on this part of the planet — until 2045.
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 March 31 - April 7 De-digitization, get more sunlight, while you still can. What things are better...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
De-digitization, get more sunlight, while you still can. What things are better offline? Write while you can still read. Make art while you can still see. Make music while you can still hear. Make food while you can still taste.
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 March 31 - April 6 De-digitization, get more sunlight, while you still can. What things are better...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
De-digitization, get more sunlight, while you still can. What things are better offline? Write while you can still read. Make art while you can still see. Make music while you can still hear. Make food while you can still taste.
Christopher Butler
Thought Experiment I am offline. The internet went down and I had to cancel a few meetings. For the moment, I’m by...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
I am offline. The internet went down and I had to cancel a few meetings. For the moment, I’m by myself. My first thought: What if it didn’t come back? Not in an end-of-the-world kind of way — not for everyone — but just for me. What if my last meeting was actually my last...
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...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
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...
Christopher Butler
Inner Worlds Everyone’s inner world is the one they are truly living in. There are billions of these worlds, each...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Everyone’s inner world is the one they are truly living in. There are billions of these worlds, each one larger than you or I can imagine. Culture, then, is the connections between these worlds — a distributed embassy — an invisible armature of intersecting thought. Minds,...
Christopher Butler
sketchbook – 2024 March 24 - March 30 If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance much less.
10 months ago
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 March 24 - March 30 If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance much less.
10 months ago
Christopher Butler
sketchbook – 2024 March 17 - March 23 Every page is a time capsule.
10 months ago
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 March 17 - March 23 Every page is a time capsule.
10 months ago
Christopher Butler
Periodical 17 – Optimization Optimizing a home is a years-long process. Hello from the corner of our home. The sun is...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Optimizing a home is a years-long process. Hello from the corner of our home. The sun is setting on what has been a rainy but lovely day. We had a brief visit from some friends; my daughter spent a couple of hours learning pottery from our neighbor, who is a master potter;...
Christopher Butler
sketchbook – 2024 March 9 - March 16 Putting these up on my website is a new thing I am doing! Either nothing is magic or everything...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Putting these up on my website is a new thing I am doing! Either nothing is magic or everything is. We are doing solar this year! The back is better than the front.
Christopher Butler
visual journal – 2024 March 9 - March 16 Putting these up on my website is a new thing I am doing! Either nothing is magic or everything...
10 months ago
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10 months ago
Putting these up on my website is a new thing I am doing! Either nothing is magic or everything is. We are doing solar this year! The back is better than the front.
Christopher Butler
object – Wooden Task Lamp I made this in just a couple of hours. We needed just a little bit more light on the desk. I...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
I made this in just a couple of hours. We needed just a little bit more light on the desk. I made a quick sketch for a lamp I could make at home that would also look fun — if I didn’t screw it up. I gave myself a budget of about $25, which was enough to pick up a utility...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 16 – Useful Lifetimes One’s moral progress is measured in unexpected moments. Good morning! The house is full of the...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
One’s moral progress is measured in unexpected moments. Good morning! The house is full of the aroma of baking muffins, which my daughter requested I make first thing this morning. I happily obliged. She and my son are munching away at them as I type this. – What’s the...
Christopher Butler
Reality Doubt AI-generated media is accelerating very, very quickly. OpenAI has announced Sora, an AI model that...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
AI-generated media is accelerating very, very quickly. OpenAI has announced Sora, an AI model that can generate up to 1 minute of video from a single text prompt. The results are impressive. As I look through them and compare what Sora is capable of with the AI-generated...
Christopher Butler
Link – Approach Studio website approach.studio is a really nice website. There’s a sensibility shared by many small,...
11 months ago
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11 months ago
approach.studio is a really nice website. There’s a sensibility shared by many small, interdisciplinary design studios — especially those who have aesthetic standards as high as their technical capabilities. They’re the sort of group that can make even the simplest working...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 15 All art is a copy of something. Hello from the art room. My older kiddo and I watched a short...
a year ago
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a year ago
All art is a copy of something. Hello from the art room. My older kiddo and I watched a short documentary about artist and engineer Peter Vogel this morning. I learned about him from flipping through an old issue of OMNI from the early 80s which reviewed a gallery showing...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 14 – v DIY While you’re here, make the world your own. Hello from the makerspace, otherwise known as...
a year ago
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a year ago
While you’re here, make the world your own. Hello from the makerspace, otherwise known as home. Home should be a makerspace! At any level — food, art, life, clothing, and on to more difficult craft like furniture and construction — everyone should have their hands in...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 13 Image ecology and my top 10 science fiction films. Hello from warm vibeland, where we are...
a year ago
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a year ago
Image ecology and my top 10 science fiction films. Hello from warm vibeland, where we are enjoying a glass of wine, a great record on the stereo, and skillet-roasting a nicely seasoned chicken surrounded by root vegetables. All is well. I’ve promised to myself to only...
Christopher Butler
Periodical 12 – Sometimes the Old Way Convenience is the enemy of memory. Today I connected a twenty-year-old minidisc player to my...
a year ago
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a year ago
Convenience is the enemy of memory. Today I connected a twenty-year-old minidisc player to my computer and used even older software that Stefano Brilli reverse-engineered and made into a web app to transfer an hour’s worth of audio files to a blank minidisc in about 15...
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...
a year ago
Christopher Butler
Year in Review – 2023 At Work Despite challenges that made time seem like a rubber band — the AI panic of Q1, inflation,...
a year ago
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a year ago
At Work Despite challenges that made time seem like a rubber band — the AI panic of Q1, inflation, economic contractions, new services and staff growing by more than 30%, all of which kept me very busy at work — the year went by quickly. This is because I’m in my forties and...
Christopher Butler
Link – Gemma Copeland's personal website gemmacope.land is a really cool digital garden. I love the simplicity of the main page — it...
a year ago
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a year ago
gemmacope.land is a really cool digital garden. I love the simplicity of the main page — it manages to fit in just about everything in one vertical pane. But the real surprise is on the right side of the page, where Gemma stacks blocks pulled in from her Are.na account. It’s...
Christopher Butler
Being Normal There’s a theory of Being Online that online isn’t merely a technological thing — access to a...
a year ago
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a year ago
There’s a theory of Being Online that online isn’t merely a technological thing — access to a signal, say, like a telephone line — but a modality. A form; a way. And being, of course, is just being. Early internet users have trouble with this theory because we remember using...
Christopher Butler
Luke Mitchell's personal website interroban.gg is a beautifully-designed personal website.
a year ago
Christopher Butler
Link – Vasantha Yogananthan's personal website vasanthayogananthan.com is a beautifully-designed artist’s website. I love the home page’s text list...
a year ago
Christopher Butler
Link – Paco Coursey's personal website paco.me is a beautifully-designed personal website. Super simple and intuitive to navigate even...
a year ago
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a year ago
paco.me is a beautifully-designed personal website. Super simple and intuitive to navigate even without a main navigation menu.
Christopher Butler
Link – David Sleight's personal website stuntbox.com is a beautifully-designed personal website. I especially love the simplicity and...
a year ago
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a year ago
stuntbox.com is a beautifully-designed personal website. I especially love the simplicity and readability of his article pages.
Christopher Butler
Link – Scott Boms's personal website scottboms.com is a beautifully-designed personal website.
a year ago
Christopher Butler
Link – Luke Mitchell's personal website interroban.gg is a beautifully-designed personal website.
a year ago
Christopher Butler
Your Own Personal Picture Collection Many years ago, when I was a student at RISD, one of my favorite places to visit was the Clipping...
a year ago
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a year ago
Many years ago, when I was a student at RISD, one of my favorite places to visit was the Clipping File. It was an extension of the RISD Library — a vast collection of printed images and clippings organized with a card catalogue. If you ever needed source imagery for a project...
Christopher Butler
Your Own Personal Picture Collection Many years ago, when I was a student at RISD, one of my favorite places to visit was the Clipping...
a year ago
21
a year ago
Many years ago, when I was a student at RISD, one of my favorite places to visit was the Clipping File. It was an extension of the RISD Library — a vast collection of printed images and clippings organized with a card catalogue. If you ever needed source imagery for a project...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 11 – What Could Have Been In his Substack this week, Dave Karpf concludes that the trajectory of any emerging technology bends...
a year ago
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a year ago
In his Substack this week, Dave Karpf concludes that the trajectory of any emerging technology bends toward money. Of course it does. Because, capitalism. Karpf is in the midst of a chronological reread of the entire WIRED magazine corpus — of great interest to me, of...
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...
a year ago
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a year ago
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...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 10 Interaction design is two things. managing attention persuasion Once you come to the...
a year ago
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a year ago
Interaction design is two things. managing attention persuasion Once you come to the realization/acceptance that no one – not even the interested, motivated, and committed — has the kind of focused attention available for your thing that you assume they have, you will...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 9 I’ve done something brilliant. A few years ago, we decided to sell our Sonos system and retreat...
a year ago
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a year ago
I’ve done something brilliant. A few years ago, we decided to sell our Sonos system and retreat back to an old-school, wired stereo. I liked the idea of multi-room sound. I even used that feature from time to time. But over the years, I found that the benefit of being able to...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 8 This is the first image taken from space. It was one of many images captured from 65 miles above...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is the first image taken from space. It was one of many images captured from 65 miles above Earth by a camera attached to a captured German V-2 rocket launched on October 24, 1946. You can watch a brief film about this mission here. The first orbital satellite images of...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 7 I spend a lot of time looking at websites; it’s a big part of what I do for a living. With practice,...
a year ago
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a year ago
I spend a lot of time looking at websites; it’s a big part of what I do for a living. With practice, I’ve learned to look at the products of interaction design in a variety of different ways — on the basis of formal design considerations, usability, functionality, accessibility,...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 6 Good morning. It is very early. Since daylight savings, my youngest has been awake an hour or two...
a year ago
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a year ago
Good morning. It is very early. Since daylight savings, my youngest has been awake an hour or two earlier than usual and thinks the rest of us should be as well. He’s seated next to me right now, wrapped in several blankets and watching a video about helicopters. – Some of my...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 5 Happy Thanksgiving! Here in Durham, it is close to perfect. Clear skies and heading toward 57°;...
a year ago
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a year ago
Happy Thanksgiving! Here in Durham, it is close to perfect. Clear skies and heading toward 57°; the aroma of holiday fireplaces is drifting through the neighborhood. Tonight, we’ll be enjoying a special treat — a holiday sherry cocktail, the Sherry Flip. It’s simple to...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 4 medieval marginalia” into your search engine of choice and you will quickly be confronted with a...
a year ago
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a year ago
medieval marginalia” into your search engine of choice and you will quickly be confronted with a slew of naughty images straight out of the mouth of Chaucer’s Miller. Flatulence, flesh, feasting. An astounding lot of butt stuff. As well, of course, as some surprisingly complete...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 3 Hello from a rainy and cold autumn morning in Durham. We are in the midst of the most magical time...
a year ago
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a year ago
Hello from a rainy and cold autumn morning in Durham. We are in the midst of the most magical time of the year. Our enormous old oak is covering everything in a blanket of golden leaves. The meadow is turning purple with the tall Aster that flower in November. I’m getting ready...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 2 Internet Intimacy Yesterday, I mentioned the Yoto Daily, a daily podcast for kids that loads up...
a year ago
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a year ago
Internet Intimacy Yesterday, I mentioned the Yoto Daily, a daily podcast for kids that loads up automatically on the Yoto player. I just wanted to add that what makes it special is that it feels like a voicemail from a friend. Listening to it gives me (and I presume, my...
Christopher Butler
Periodical – 1 This is a semi-daily check-in. Experimental; likely to not actually be daily. Regular and...
a year ago
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a year ago
This is a semi-daily check-in. Experimental; likely to not actually be daily. Regular and short. The kids are in the bath, listening to the Yoto Daily, which aptly describes itself as a “morsel.” The host offers stray thoughts, short learnings, words of the day, fascinating...
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...
a year ago
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a year ago
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...
Christopher Butler
The Internet's Greatest Potential It seems that the internet’s greatest potential is to create intimacy across distance. Which means...
a year ago
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a year ago
It seems that the internet’s greatest potential is to create intimacy across distance. Which means we still have a long way to go.
Christopher Butler
Organization – Office I am on a continual quest for organization. After the kitchen, the office is the most used room in...
a year ago
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a year ago
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,...
Christopher Butler
The Internet is Already a Social Network Make it easier for anyone to have a website. Make syndication easier and better. That’s all that...
a year ago
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a year ago
Make it easier for anyone to have a website. Make syndication easier and better. That’s all that is needed to reclaim the power we’ve ceded to the many posting places and their owners.
Christopher Butler
The Big Picture When your clients are persuaded by your point of view and expertise, they will not care what tools...
a year ago
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a year ago
When your clients are persuaded by your point of view and expertise, they will not care what tools you use or what processes you follow. They will only care that you deliver on your promise of getting them from Point (A) to Point (B). If your clients become prescriptive of...
Christopher Butler
Personal Machines and Portable Worlds A personal machine balances access to an another world with the kinds of limits and boundaries that...
a year ago
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a year ago
A personal machine balances access to an another world with the kinds of limits and boundaries that make a thing private. A lifelong fascination with technology begins with a single object. Think back to when you were a child, to when you first encountered something you...
Christopher Butler
Personal Machines and Portable Worlds A personal machine balances access to another world with the kinds of limits and boundaries that...
a year ago
47
a year ago
A personal machine balances access to another world with the kinds of limits and boundaries that make a thing private. A lifelong fascination with technology begins with a single object. Think back to when you were a child, to when you first encountered something you could...
Christopher Butler
Gestalt Principles of Design – Symmetry We tend to perceive symmetrical elements as being connected, even if they are not. The Gestalt...
a year ago
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a year ago
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,...
Christopher Butler
Gestalt Principles of Design – Continuity Elements that are arranged on a line or curve are perceived as more related than elements that are...
a year ago
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a year ago
Elements that are arranged on a line or curve are perceived as more related than elements that 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...
Christopher Butler
Gestalt Principles of Design – Similarity When objects look similar to one another, the mind perceives them as a group or pattern. The...
a year ago
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a year ago
When objects look similar to one another, the mind perceives them as a group or pattern. 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,...
Christopher Butler
Ambient Information Most of the time, we’re content to simply know that information exists; we lack the interest and...
a year ago
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a year ago
Most of the time, we’re content to simply know that information exists; we lack the interest and patience to actually know the information itself. But there’s an ambient information reality distortion field. A good example of this is the rapidly metastasizing rat king that is...
Christopher Butler
The Bond Between Attention and Information Most communication is visual. Isn’t that fascinating? Think of how much a picture, a symbol, a...
a year ago
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a year ago
Most communication is visual. Isn’t that fascinating? Think of how much a picture, a symbol, a facial expression, or a gesture can communicate on its own. As a child, I always felt a little strange that when I’d get close enough to read the small label next to a work of art in...
Christopher Butler
Gestalt Principles of Design – Closure The mind is capable of perceiving more information than what is actually visible. The Gestalt...
a year ago
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a year ago
The mind is capable of perceiving more information than what is actually visible. 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, rather...
Christopher Butler
Gestalt – Proximity When objects are placed near one another, the mind perceives them as a group. If the term is...
a year ago
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a year ago
When objects are placed near one another, the mind perceives them as a group. If the term is new to you, the German word gestalt literally means the way a thing has been placed or put together. Like many German words, there is no exact translation in English, so you may...
Christopher Butler
object – WIRED Magazine, Issue 1 The more things change, the more they stay the same. WIRED Magazine published its first issue...
a year ago
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a year ago
The more things change, the more they stay the same. WIRED Magazine published its first issue in March/April of 1993 — thirty years ago. It was almost immediately considered an index of the zeitgeist of the 1990s. In hindsight, that was a stretch of a claim to have been...
Christopher Butler
Negative Space Typography Controlling the space between text styles is as important as differentiating the styles...
a year ago
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a year ago
Controlling the space between text styles is as important as differentiating the styles themselves. Whenever I review design documentation, there are a few things I look for in the first few seconds. All of them have to do with how scannable a page or screen’s layout is. In...
Christopher Butler
Writing is a Primary Design Tool In an interview with Tracy Francis at McKinsey, Jony Ive had something profound to say about writing...
a year ago
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a year ago
In an interview with Tracy Francis at McKinsey, Jony Ive had something profound to say about writing and design: “You’ll often find creatives are obsessed with process and tools. A primary tool for me is that I write an awful lot. I write because I realized at art school that...
Christopher Butler
Negative-Space Typography Controlling the space between text styles is as important as differentiating the styles...
a year ago
37
a year ago
Controlling the space between text styles is as important as differentiating the styles themselves. Whenever I review design documentation, there are a few things I look for in the first few seconds. All of them have to do with how scannable a page or screen’s layout...
Christopher Butler
Fascinated by Layout A working knowledge of the fundamentals of design is as important now as it ever has been. Ever...
a year ago
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a year ago
A working knowledge of the fundamentals of design is as important now as it ever has been. Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by layout. I didn’t know to call it that before I studied design; I just knew that I could look at a page and find beauty and wonder in it...
Christopher Butler
How to Adapt Long-Page Designs for Better Scanning
a year ago
Christopher Butler
The Road Through Your Screen
a year ago
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...
a year ago
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a year ago
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...
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...
a year ago
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a year 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
Maintaining an Attention Axis The Y-Axis is a Designer’s Best Friend Attention is the Product of Focus Attention is the...
a year ago
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a year 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
Attention Degrowth No one is entitled to anyone else’s attention. Sometimes I think that may be the most important...
a year ago
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a year 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 Rhythm of Your Screen Length is not the problem; lack of rhythm is. It’s 2023 and I’m still frequently asked by...
a year ago
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a year 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...
a year ago
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a year 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
object – Yoto This is the best media player for children. In the month before the pandemic shut everything...
a year ago
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a year 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...
a year ago
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a year 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
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...
a year ago
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a year 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
What I Want From The Internet Connection and intimacy are still possible on the internet today. I’m sitting in a small room...
a year ago
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a year 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
What happens when the computers disappear? The computer has become a primary dependency of civilization without being nearly as enmeshed in...
a year ago
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a year 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
Designing for (Realistic) Attention The average person is capable of reading 250 words per minute. When I advise that a...
a year ago
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a year 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
object – Coffee Cup The perfect coffee cup is about half the size of your average American mug. I bought a pair of...
a year ago
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a year 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
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 year ago
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a year 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 – OMNI Magazine, Issue 1 This is a publication very much of its time and ahead of its time. I briefly subscribed to OMNI...
a year ago
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a year 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
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 year ago
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a year 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
object – Cylinder Lamp Twenty years ago, I needed a lamp. So I made this one. In the spring of 2003, I graduated from...
a year ago
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a year 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 – Carved Nupe Door This door was made as a gift for my grandparents, who worked with a variety African artisans during...
a year ago
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a year 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
object – A 20 Year-Old Sketchbook This sketchbook just turned twenty years old. I began keeping it in the final months of my...
a year ago
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a year 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
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 year ago
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a year 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
Persuasion Good design requires persuasion. might be persuasive on its own; the notion that a thing “just...
a year ago
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a year 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
The Smallest Details In Minimalism in UX: the blessing of no choices, Dimitris Chatzilias covers a short list of common...
a year ago
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a year 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
Outlines are IA When you create an outline, you are arranging ideas in relation to one another: a heading is a big...
a year ago
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a year 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
My Reverse Time Capsule While rummaging in the WIRED magazine archives, I found this entry from 1995. In it, Douglas...
a year ago
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a year 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
Sub-Second Orientation When a visitor encounters a web-page for the first time, they will ask and answer three questions...
a year ago
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a year 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
Friction Can Be Good Something I have noticed as content, software, and product design have attempted to eradicate...
a year ago
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a year 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
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...
over a year ago
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over 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
Christmas Day – Multiple UFO Sighting My wife, children, and I witnessed a cluster of high-flying, unidentified objects at 6pm on...
over a year ago
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over 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
What Eyes Want South of the Border. These signs are impossible to miss. Today, over 175 South of the Border signs...
over a year ago
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over 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
Are We Ready? Inventions that were ahead of their time can help us to understand whether we are truly ready to...
over a year ago
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over 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
There Is No Digital World Everything digital costs something physical. It’s time for a digital conservation...
over a year ago
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over 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
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...
over a year ago
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over 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
What We Do When We See What does it even mean to design when perception is reality? Do we all ever see the same...
over a year ago
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over 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
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...
over a year ago
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over 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
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...
over a year ago
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over 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
The Last Time Life has as many ends as it has beginnings. What can an end teach us about making our...
over a year ago
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over 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
Move Slow and Preserve Things Haste has created waste. Someone please tell Zuckerberg to slow the hell down. unfair. Funny,...
over a year ago
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over 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...
over a year ago
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over 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
From the Desk Of Wouldn’t it be nice if you could actually peer over another designer’s shoulder once in a while and...
over a year ago
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over 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...