There’s nothing like an epic crash to remind ourselves of the robustness of text The Blue Screen of Death Recently, multiple businesses worldwide, including banks, airlines, TV channels, and more, were forced to suspend their operations due to a faulty cybersecurity update to Windows. The update took down thousands of computers, causing them to boot loop and crash to a blue screen of death. Suddenly, our beloved “icons” were gone, and we thrashed around helplessly without them. This may be a good time to think a little about the processes by which Microsoft became such a huge monopol ..read more

An unsolicited case study on the productivity loss associated with LinkedIn Jobs Job hunting can get really monotonous very quickly. In an effort to stay productive, I started working on pet projects inspired by Built for Mars. For those of you who don’t know, Peter Ramsey’s BFM library is a must-have reference if you want to improve your design thinking and UX psychology. Having been in the job market for a while now, I use LinkedIn like it is Instagram. As my time on the platform increased, I began to notice how unintuitive and primitive LinkedIn Jobs and its subpages are. So, I decided ..read more

Exploring diverging data color scheme suggestions with Gemini, Google’s generative AI system. Color divergence with Google Gemini Exploring diverging data color scheme suggestions with Gemini, Google’s generative AI system. Here, I examine using Google Gemini, a text-based generative AI system, as a color suggestion system for diverging data color schemes. Previously, I explored using Google Gemini to create sequential color schemes that are designed for ordering numeric information where colors progress from low to high (or vice versa). A diverging color scheme fuses two sequen ..read more

Riding the cyber serpent. “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” — HAL 9000 (2001: A Space Odyssey 1968) | AI image created using prompts by the author on Midjourney, Runway.ai and Open Art. Edited in FIGMA.Living in the uncanny valley. Welcome to mid 2024, a data-soaked fever dream where digital landscapes are alive and learning. Here, the design director isn’t just a cog in the corporate machine — they’re a perceptive precog wielding the uncanny arts of AI to forge raw, unfiltered emotional connections. The mission? Not to create sterile, subservient bots, but to desig ..read more

If we are serious about social change and equity, we need to start centring the knowledge and decisions of those deeply impacted. Illustration by me. Inspired by Brian Tong. Who do we design for? Most social impact designers and socially-minded agencies will tell you what they design for: a “better” future. But when it comes to who that better future is for, that is left up to interpretation. Whether intentional or not, leaving out the ‘who’ in these mission statements creates a deceptive cover of good intentions. Where projects, no matter who the backers are, can be taken as long as ..read more

How to grow as a designer and avoid portfolio headaches Art by midjourney Designers aren’t great at doing aftercare, which often hurts them in the long run. Unlike other fields, like doctors who follow up with patients, many Designers consider their job done when they hand over their designs to clients or engineers. However, that’s not the best approach. Spending extra time reflecting and following up doesn’t just improve the project. It helps you grow and show your impact as a designer. To understand why, I often refer to one fundamental question: How do you know if a project was success ..read more

It’s your secret weapon for performance reviews and job interviews. A few jobs ago I was up for a raise. As part of the performance review process, my manager asked me to do a self-review of the past year where I rate myself in several categories and add relevant notes. Essentially my manager was asking: What have I done lately and why did it matter? I felt like I had a great year. I had shipped a bunch of projects and learned a bunch. However while I remembered the last 6 months fairly well, the 6 months before that were a little hazy. I had trouble remembering everything ..read more

An animation of the Nissan Xterra, Frontier, Pathfinder, and Titan swapping on screen, all using the same automotive frame. Credit: Trip CarrollBuilding flexible design systems just like my Nissan Xterra. The Nissan Xterra is awesome I love the Nissan Xterra. I’ve been driving an Xterra since I was in college (over 15 years ago). I’ve owned two in my lifetime, and I bought the first one twice. To me, it’s the ultimate sport utility vehicle. And before you start quoting “The Office” at me, let’s take a look at this thing… Four wheel drive, locking rear differential, sto ..read more

Accessible form validation from scratch — Styling Part 4: Focus management, offloading to CSS, hiding irrelevant elements. Photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash In this article, I’ll (finally) add styling to the form, attempting to maximize what CSS can do as opposed to using JavaScript. In the next (and perhaps final) article, I’ll add JavaScript to perform the validation. Introduction Here are the links to the articles in the series (so far): Part 1: Requirements Part 2: Markup Part 3: Preparing for validation Part 4: Styling For this article, I’ll cover the following topics ..read more

Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers. “In technology, we use metaphors to simplify and relate ideas. They serve as stepping stones to explaining high-level concepts and popularizing AI. We must be cautious about the metaphors we embrace and the narratives we construct when discussing AI’s future. They shape our perceptions, set expectations, and guide our actions. When people say ‘data is the new gold’ while comparing AI advancements to the Wild West, we must dig deeper into what they really mean.” Dangerous metaphors in AI →By Luis Berumen Castro Editor ..read more