Jonathan Ive, the long-time Chief Design Officer at Apple, is among the most prominent creatives who have been influenced by Dieter Rams and his design principles. Here, in one of his rare interviews in recent years, Ive speaks openly about his admiration—pointing out one important achievement of Rams that is often overlooked.
rams-foundation.org
Want to see how we used Figma’s latest features to audit and refresh our web system? Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how we streamlined our components, improved our workflows, and built for the future.
figma.com
People get annoyed about hearing about craft as they know being a good designer requires other skills to succeed: strong communication skills, a growth mindset, and ability to collaborate. However, I must share the hard truth. Craft is an unavoidable foundation as a designer.
proofofconcept.pub
Smith & Diction showcases their project for Anterior. […] After Perplexity dropped we got a lot of inquiries from other AI companies. Like, a lot a lot. Most of them were very early in their journey and didn’t really know what they were building or who they building for.
medium.com
Polished interfaces and seamless experiences dominate the design landscape. UX design has, in many ways, become too safe. We prize consistency, accessibility, and user-friendliness — values that are crucial to creating good products. But is “good” enough? Have we, in the quest for perfection, lost the soul of UX? Don’t we need more punk?
uxdesign.cc
One of the ways I like to do development is to build something, click around a ton, make tweaks, click around more, more tweaks, more clicks, etc., until I finally consider it done. With software, the fact is that sometimes there are just too many variables to know and test and smooth out. So I click around, using the UI over and over, until I finally cannot give myself any more splinters. It’s a small thing, but lots of small splinters lead to an agonizing experience.
blog.jim-nielsen.com
Next time you reach for your smartphone, pause and consider what else you could reach for that offers not just a function, but some feeling. And if you are someone who creates, in any medium, challenge yourself to elevate touch to the level of other senses. […] Otherwise the default path we’re on will lead us into an empty room with just walls and screens — and not much else.
workingtheorys.com
A petri dish bursting with vibrant bacteria – Crucible’s identity is as intriguing, unconventional and experimental as the creative hub itself. Housing a drinks, bar and restaurant consultancy, flavour lab and a collaborative workspace, the London-based company is designed for bartenders to unleash their creativity – working with equipment such as a centrifuge, a freeze dryer and a rotovap!
the-brandidentity.com
Modern CSS keeps giving us a lot of new, easier ways to solve old problems, but often the new features we’re getting don’t only solve old problems, they open up new possibilities as well. Container queries are one of those things that open up new possibilities, but because they look a lot like the old way of doing things with media queries, our first instinct is to use them in the same way, or at least a very similar way.
css-tricks.com
Everyone can agree that design by committee usually fails. But it’s not because there are multiple people involved, it’s because (most) committees are not made up of skilled collaborators with a shared vision and process. Shared vision and collaborative process don’t just happen when good developers sit around a table. Like anything else, collaborative art and design are skills that people learn and practice […]
miriamsuzanne.com
This is a good thing. Because when you realise that being challenged and ignored is part of the job it takes the pressure off and you do better. But how do you actually take this realisation and apply it in the workplace. Follow these 3 simple steps.
adamsilver.io
Design is defined by its utility. Unlike art, we expect design to provide us with some useful function in order to accept it into our lives. At least, that’s the story our rational brain tells us. Appealing to this unimpeachably logical side of us we find every product description practically humming with gigabytes, megapixels, thread counts and earnest lists of useful ‘features’.
designlobster.substack.com
With the recent announcement of Figma’s AI feature-set at the corporate vibe-fest that is Config, there’s been something of a clamour to opine, positively and negatively, on the impact these features will have on designers and the industry as a whole. Now, a lot of these are actually half decent, minor features that might save us a few minutes here and there. As a serial ‘Group 24098’ layer-name-forgetter, the ‘rename layers’ functionality is sound. The enriched search even veers on actually useful.
scott.is
I am a perfectionist, and I admit that. Is this my best or worst quality? Maybe it’s both. It’s a trait that defines a lot of who I am, not only professionally, but also personally. There’s a sense of validation that comes when you get something done to perfection that everyone enjoys. However, how far can you or should you go to get something done perfectly? Also, what defines perfect? It can be extremely subjective.
raffdimeo.com
clip-path is often used for trimming a DOM node into specific shapes, like triangles. But what if I told you that it's also great for animations? In this article, we'll dive into clip-path and explore some of the cool things you can do with it. Once you read it, you'll start seeing this CSS property being used everywhere.
emilkowal.ski
The process of focusing our attention only to a subset of the stimuli in the environment — usually those related to our goals.
lawsofux.com
I was thinking back to the old days of a time where I spent a great deal of time creating a design and building it with so much love and care, thinking of every detail and not being scared to try out new ideas. Everything was unique, it felt personal and was a labour of love. We were daring and had no fear.
dan-davies.co.uk
A predictable and delightful experience is what makes a product stand out from a crowded market. That's why companies invest in design engineers for example. Animations can play a big role in creating such experiences. Great animations are hard, as there are many aspects to consider. From easing and timing to accessibility and performance. This post is a collection of principles that, in my opinion, make animations great.
emilkowal.ski
We’ve made so many changes to Figma since we launched nearly a decade ago, but even amidst new functionality, features, and products, the core Figma layout has remained remarkably consistent over the years. This isn’t by accident. With so many of you spending hours a day in Figma, we know how important it is to expand functionality while also preserving and respecting the workflows you’ve perfected to date. But as those updates compound over time, what once felt simple can become unnecessarily complex. To tackle this complexity and lay the foundation for the next decade of Figma, we’re rolling out UI3 […]
figma.com
Colour contrast makes a big part of the user experience for all users. Accessibility guidelines however, are not always easy to follow. In this article we will see how to meet the requirements with practical examples.
goodpractices.design
We constantly tell young designers and illustrators to develop their own unique style. But what happens when that style becomes widely adopted and even copied? Our US editor-at-large considers the impact on both individual creatives and the industry as a whole.
itsnicethat.com
Figma finally supports typography variables after teasing us since last June. During the ‘Framework by Figma’ in April, they announced multiple features that made it feel like a mini Config.
uxdesign.cc
As someone who has their best ideas when falling asleep, I’ve always been interested in the power of sleep for creative problem-solving. Recently, I’ve been exploring the different ways in which we can harness the power of sleep for creative work.
uxdesign.cc
There are a plethora of money questions a creative freelancer asks themselves at least once a quarter. Am I asking for enough money? How high is too high? Can I ask for more or less from my regular clients? Is it embarrassing if I accidentally ask for too little?!
wepresent.wetransfer.com
Eating is a multi-sensory experience, and the design surrounding food – from restaurant interiors to menu typefaces – can have a tangible impact on that. But with gentrification tearing out eateries with an ounce of individuality, is this distinctive visual experience now being forfeited?
itsnicethat.com
Design systems are a set of standards (like Google’s Material Design or IBM’s Carbon Design System) needed to manage design at scale. Style guides (like content or visual style guides) are just one piece in a design system.
nngroup.com
TLDR: We weren’t always so close-minded to new designers entering the field. We started out as more open. We weren’t always over-focused on visuals. We used to see people’s strengths in other areas…
uxdesign.cc
Twen was a magazine for the first generation of postwar teens and young adults. It was a wild conglomeration of the controversial ideas and blooming freedoms of the 1950s. A big part of the impact came from Willy Fleckhaus’ design: a 12-column modular grid with already familiar blown-up headlines set in Schmalfette Grotesk; psychedelic illustrations; extremely tightly cropped or enlarged black-and-white photos, and, of course, a lot of white space perfectly arranged on the page. Twen was stunning, groundbreaking, sometimes shocking and definitely something that had never been seen before.
readymag.com
He's been doing a lot of interviews for designers lately so here’s a list of all the questions he’s asking along the way. Maybe this helps someone out there looking for a design gig.
robinrendle.com
How to organize design tokens? How to set up the design tokens architecture? Interactive guide and playground with templates.
thedesignsystem.guide
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 disagreed. AI is like a compass sitting between them.
chrbutler.com
Throughout history, artistic production has been framed in opposition to productive labour. Today, creatives are still feeling the aftereffects of this. Here, anthropologist and illustrator Julien Posture unpacks why this might be and offers some potential solutions.
itsnicethat.com
Just a few months ago, Figma announced updates to the gradient tool, which included the ability to flip and rotate gradients. At Framework, the updates continued, as color variables can now be bound…
medium.com
In the world of digital art, few names resonate as profoundly as teamLab, a collective that has redefined the boundaries between art, technology and nature. With the highly anticipated reopening of teamLab Borderless in Azabudai Hills, Tokyo, the collective continues to enchant and engage audiences worldwide.
timeout.com
Name a search engine and it will have integrated AI — but can you name one that's any better for it? I'm at a loss and I can't help but wince every time another announces some sort of LLM integration.
coryd.dev
Try to imagine a product design world where meetings are more than just mandatory; they drive collaboration and product innovation. Where every session presents an opportunity to bring together the team, fine-tune design and product visions, and drive projects forward with clear action items. In the end, rather than feeling like you wasted time, you leave with, “Well, it was a productive meeting. I look forward to the next one!”
blog.logrocket.com
"Whenever I’m in a room without a whiteboard I feel trapped. Perhaps this is just the way I have to think through a problem but I can’t breakdown ideas or solutions without a whiteboard or a glass window to draw on. In fact, I’d say that the most unproductive conversations I’ve had with folks is simply down to the fact that I didn’t sit them in front of a whiteboard, put a pen in their hand, and tell them to draw their argument back to me."
robinrendle.com
Starting a freelance practice is as exciting as it is daunting. You’re your own boss, but with that comes so many unknowns: How will you find clients? How much should you charge them? Can you actually go to the movies at 1 p.m. on a Wednesday?
fastcompany.com
Do you ever open up your calendar in the morning and sadly realize that you’ll spend your whole day in back-to-back meetings, with zero time to create or think? This is one of my least favorite feelings — and if I feel it a few weeks in a row, it’s time to change something.
amivora.substack.com
Instead, AI will empower us to push our execution to new, unimaginable places—removing a lot of barriers to what was technically possible. If you’re concerned about being replaced by AI, maybe you are still equating the value of your craft merely to the outputs you produce.
doc.cc
Most designers are familiar with responsive design, a column-based layout approach with fixed breakpoints to cover all screen sizes. However, we can move beyond the rigid structure with modern CSS…
uxdesign.cc
A Global Design System is less about the “what” and more about the “who” and “where”. Nearly all of the popular open-source systems out there are perfectly fine from a component/feature/architecture perspective. The goal of a Global Design System is not to create a sibling to these existing systems, but to introduce a new canonical, more formal layer that can feed into these systems and beyond.
bradfrost.com
Examining 30 years of Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Albums of All Time” Rankings through a very well made and interactive timeline.
pudding.cool
Replit's VP of Marketing and Design David Hoang talks about how AI is reshaping the future of product design and development.
figma.com
As templates, tutorials and tools become ubiquitous, technical skills are more accessible than ever. It’s no longer enough to be able to simply draw or design. Now, our US editor-at-large argues, you need to be able to select from the vast sea of possibilities.
itsnicethat.com
Discover how Smith & Diction simplifies client interactions through their design process, offering upfront insights and examples. Embracing various creative approaches, they believe in fostering better collaboration and exploration.
medium.com
When you stay in the problem longer, you give more time for seemingly unrelated dots to connect. Often, this is what creativity is all about — finding meaning in unrelated things. A phenomena referred to as apophenia. We’re connecting unrelated dots, and we’re doing it while embracing uncertainty […]
uxdesign.cc