Who will taste the cherries? • Doubleshot
What are you measuring? How does your measurement influence how you think about the thing being measured?
Archive
Who will taste the cherries?
In my new essay on Aeon: The computist has one dream: to debug the subjectivity out of all of human knowledge, creating a pure, frictionless world
There Is No Neutral Design: Megan Kasselberg, Senior UX Writer and Content Designer, Material Design
The storytelling and strategy that goes into a design system as vast as Material Design.
New Plugin: Ratio Rulers 📐
Recently, I've been playing around with different ratio-based grids, so I made a quick little plugin.
📺 Watch my I/O session on customizing Material Design
My colleague Bradley and I had the chance to film a quick session going over the upcoming customization features that will unlock broader expression using Material components.
📚 Check out this new Are.na channel about the interface
Follow along if you want to see the ideas influencing my work as I find them.
☕️ Interface as Environment • Doubleshot
Part of the work I’ve been doing during the hiatus centers on the role of the interface as an environmental facet of our lives.
Beyond the Text Field: Louise Macfadyen, Author of Designing AI Interfaces
Managing the conceptual distance between what AI actually does and what people imagine it can do, with Designing AI Interfaces author Louise Macfadyen
The Story of Menu_Open
How the menu_open icon got encoded in Material Components history.
The State of Buttons
The button's complexity is a result of how flexible the concept of a button really is. It's just a region of space on screen that triggers some action.
A Meditation on Gardening, Design, and Information
It’s very hard to replicate the aesthetic pleasure of a moonvine on-screen. The composition suffers from a lack of texture. There’s no wind or rain inside a smartphone.
Google Sans Flex is Now on Google Fonts
Google's brand font is now open-source on Google Fonts.
The Era of the Generalist: Rachel Been, SVP of Design for Expedia Group
How AI is breaking linear design paradigms and why, in an age of potential "design slop," deep curiosity and human-centered craft are more important than ever.
Humanity Will Always Be The Reference • Doubleshot
The “human edge” is simply humanity itself.
Other Than Expected: Fabian Bircher on Combining Art, Architecture, and Code
Fabian discusses his unique creative process, where inspiration flows from both artistic concepts and the discovery of new technological possibilities.
Subscribe to Design Notes on YouTube
Just a quick update while I prep the next episode of Design Notes: the podcast has a new presence on YouTube! If you’re not
Design Can’t Rely on Logic: Troy Leinster on Type Design and Human Perception
Why learning to make letters makes you a better designer.
Design’s Problems • Doubleshot
Does imagining our work as a set of solutions lead to a misinterpretation of the conditions of its origin?
A Reading List for Individualized and Adaptive Design
It’s (still) summer, which is the perfect time for a reading list.
The Creative Impulse • Doubleshot
The tension around what creativity is, and why generating art isn’t it.
The User Brings the Confetti: Rob Giampietro on Scaling a Human-Centered Brand
Rob details Notion Faces' journey from an internal tradition to a major public launch, including the pivotal decision to scale with human illustrators instead of AI.
Let’s Talk About Tools • Doubleshot
The assemblage of tools not only implies something about which tasks should be possible, but also how they should be carried out.
The Subtle Typographic Details in Goodreads’ New Logo
A mini design breakdown of the new logo face.
Predict the Present • Doubleshot
Is there something more behind the desire to know the future (or speak it into existence)?
🔓 True is Better Than New • Doubleshot
I’ve always been a big believer in actively cultivating the individual perspective as a part of good design rationale, and it’s even more on my mind now.
True is Better Than New: David Reinfurt, A *Co–* Program for Graphic Design
How individual perspective is the real driver of design as a practice.
Express Yourself • Doubleshot
This time, I’m focusing on the launch of the Material 3 Expressive updates from Material Design.
Designing the (New) Identity of Design Notes
A new system for the show that stays true to its roots while making it fresh, bold, and focused.
The Interface Behind (Liquid, Frosted, Tinted) Glass
The cyclical revival of “glass” as a sign of newness, technical sophistication, and innovation.
Material Design Gets Expressive: Aneesha Kommineni, Andy Stewart, and Michael Gilbert
The latest evolution of Google’s design system: Material 3 Expressive.
📚 (Don’t?) Read This: Bring Out Your Design Dead
No matter what’s happening, the design community cyclically experiences its own emotional, intellectual, or technological “death.”
📚 Read This: Fictional Computers and Their Themes
A good reminder that less about the current technological moment is as new as we sometimes think.
Design Space and the Generative Spectrum • Doubleshot
Untangling some of the abstract and ambiguous possibilities of designing with AI.
How Severance Interrogates The Modern Aesthetic
There might be spoilers in here. But I need to talk about the furniture.
Beauty Across the Board: Rich Fulcher, UX Director
Rich Fulcher on game design, UX systems, and beautifying Google products
Letting Go of Geometry (Again) • Doubleshot
How type design made me see all the “fixed” logos on social media in a new, dimmer light.
Breaking Silos (and Metaphors): Adrian Secord, ‘Roving Engineer,’ Google
The complexities of large-scale design systems and how designers and engineers can find common ground.
The Family Reunion
There’s something to be said for the preservation of interaction, ideas, and execution.
📚 Read This: “How humans became microplastic” on UnHerd
Plastic promised a world in which our inventive capabilities would be unbound and infinite. It’s easy to hear an echo (or a warning voice) of those proclamations today.
Unpacking “Craft” in the Software Interface
The more I see craft mentioned as a power of design, the more I feel that a working definition is urgently needed.
Code, Creativity, Performance: Will Larche, Engineering Manager, Google
Engineering as the "study of making choices."
Fab Components: Bethany Fong, Design Director
How the heady early days of Material unfolded.
Staying Creative with Design Systems • Doubleshot
Staying creative with a design system means knowing when and how to break it.
📚 Read This: “Neural networks & the architectural imagination” on Recessed Spaces
A piece of architectural criticism focused on the role of generative AI in the imagination of architecture and the ways that the technology elides questions about whose work went into the image.
Debunking the Ketchup Bottle Once and for All 🍅
Okay. I don’t need to open this post with the ketchup bottle meme. It’s a picture that everyone’s seen—and that I’
✨ AI-generated Screens and Matters of Taste ✨
Figma has added the sparkle emoji to our design tools. What does it really mean?
The Sparkle Emojis are Here • Doubleshot
The phrase “make designs,” I would argue, does not describe what occurs when the button is pressed.
One Thing Google+ Got Right
Decentralized platforms are picking up steam, and one reason I’m excited for that comes back to Google+
📺 Watch This: The Techsploder Podcast
I recently got to sit down with my old friend and tech-world colleague Jason Howell on his new show “Techsploder.”
Tension • Doubleshot
The most interesting explorations are those that show something unexpected: a constellation of system features that creates a slight unbalance or a new focal point in the composition.
Generative AI and the Urge to Transcend “Human Error”
In some AI discourse, “error” can be anything that’s open to multiple interpretations. In other words, error can be seen as subjectivity itself.
The Chair as Interface
Continuing the exploration of how tangible objects present us with an interface of everyday life.
Skeuomorphism and the Morphology of UI
What to make of aesthetics in the interface, “neu” and old.
The History of the Froschauerbrunnen in Zürich, Switzerland
A closer look at an enduring piece of the interface of Zürich.
Facing Our Interfaces: Matías Duarte, Google
Matías Duarte on why the interface's only limitation is imagination... and battery life.
📚 Read This: What Does Your UI Say To Your Users?
New on the Material Blog: a post from Nico Thornley, Brenton Simpson, Julia Feldman, and Michael Gilbert about research the team did to determine how users perceive Material 3 against Material 2.
Metaphor and Transformation in the Interface
The way metaphor permeates the interface points to a continued struggle to live with the complexity introduced by the very media we’ve created to manage it.
Reframing Design Rationale • Doubleshot
The first doubleshot newsletter, with practical advice on reframing your design rationale and a bit about the theory of metaphor in the interface.
📚 Read This: Jarrett Fuller on Simple Tools
The irony of recommending this essay on Interface Café, which is hosted on Ghost, a CMS platform, is not lost on me.
An Updated Primer on Android Navigation
Learn how to use Material components to create the smoothest navigation for your app.
Welcome to Interface Café
A place to share thoughts, tips, and knowledge about design toward a better practice.
📚 Read This: “What Things Do” by Peter-Paul Verbeek
A quick book recommendation: What Things Do, Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design by contemporary philosopher of technology Peter-Paul Verbeek. If you'
How to Find Device Metrics and dp Resolution for Any Screen (Updated)
If Googling doesn’t give you the numbers you need, or you just want to show off your math skills, here’s a relatively easy way to determine the relevant metrics for your designs.
📺 Watch This: How Grade Impacts Readability
In this video, Material researchers unpack their findings about how grade adjustments impact readability in a variety of settings.
Reshaping our expectations for generative design
From Le Corbusier to Figma, “design is, at its core, a permanently subject-oriented discipline.”
Designing Better Code: Connie Shi and Matvei Malkov, Google Material Design
On what makes software engineering a true creative practice.
View Counts and the Detotalization of Social Media
On an infinitely scrolling, algorithmically generated list, scrolling past something is about the least intentional thing one could do.
How Fonts Change the World: Dave Crossland, Google Fonts
Exploring the impact of digital type on our lives, on software production, and on the future of design.
Coding (and Decoding) Social Spaces: Judith Donath, Founder, MIT Sociable Media Group
Exploring potential futures for life online and the joy of learning (and sharing) something new.
Fearless Design: Aline Borges, The Florist
The power of composition, and the importance of community.
The Impact of Shared Space: Ignacio Ciocchini, Public Furniture Designer
How the built environment expands, constrains, and informs our experiences of life in a city.
Digital Anthropology: Tom Boellstorff, “Coming of Age in Second Life”
Anthropologist Tom Boellstorff on life—and the future—in virtual space.
The Future of Design is Still Personal
Connecting historic conceptions of adaptable design with contemporary visions, looking toward a truly adaptive future.
How I Turned My Pixelbook Into a Creative Writing Machine
Four easy steps to transform an old laptop into a dedicated writing tool.
AFK: The Magic of Yvette’s Bridal Formal
In this episode, Liam delves into an obscure, mysterious website, the now-defunct Yvette's Bridal Formal.
Fashion From Another Planet: Julian Zigerli, Zürich Fashion Designer [SF Design Week]
Fashion designer Julian Zigerli on un-gendering clothes, cultural influence, and adaptation.
The Surprising Poetry of AI: BJ Best, ArtyBots
Poet BJ Best on teaching computers to do what humans can’t.
The Magic Question for Creativity: Laurie Rosenwald, Illustrator and Author
Illustrator and author Laurie Rosenwald on how to make mistakes on purpose and avoiding being alone with a blank page.
Learning From Your Virtual Twin: Kerry Murphy, Co-founder, The Fabricant
Kerry Murphy on how his virtual fashion house, The Fabricant, explores ideas of embodiment through clothing that can only exist in virtual space.
A Prompt for Creative Renewal: David Reinfurt, “A *New* Program for Graphic Design”
ORG Founder David Reinfurt on how identity intersects design, and what art and design have in common.
Na Praceta Do Girassol
The time, place, and identity embedded in a typeface.
Material Design Awards, 2019
How four teams harnessed Material’s components and code to craft award-winning experiences.
The Psychedelic Spark: GMUNK
GMUNK on the psychedelic origins of his aesthetic and the importance of discomfort.
Vulnerability, Technology, and Art: Qianqian Ye, Artist & Creative Coder
Exploring our shared vulnerabilities—and shared futures—in ink and code.
How Machines Help Us See Ourselves: Harvey Moon, New Media Artist
On getting to know your tools and the art only technology can create.
Art as Survival: Conor Grebel, Bedtimes
Artist Conor Grebel unpacks the relationship between his personal experiences and creative work.
I Hate Music Videos (But I Love Making Music): Katie Garcia & Dustin Payseur, Bayonet Records
Bayonet Records founders Katie Garcia and Dustin Payseur on collaborating with musicians.
What We Can Learn From Our Work: Liam Spradlin, Host of Design Notes
Host Liam Spradlin reflects on the first 25 episodes of the podcast.
The Most Transformative Job in the World: Rob Giampietro, Design Director, MoMA
MoMA’s Rob Giampietro on how design shapes our understanding of the world around us.
What Do You See; How Do You Feel? Clinton Cargill, Visual Director, Vanity Fair
Vanity Fair’s visual director Clinton Cargill on looking at photography with intent.
Owning Your Values: Ksenya Samarskaya
Connecting type design to history and cultural identity with Ksenya Samarskaya.
You Cannot Be What You Cannot See: Bee Grandinetti & Hedvig Ahlberg, Panimation
Exploring the music and movement of motion design with Bee Grandinetti and Hedvig Ahlberg.
Material Design Awards 2018
How four teams harnessed Material’s components and code to craft award-winning experiences.
“We Should Do Something Together.” Tuuli & Kivi Sotamaa, Ateljé Sotamaa
Tuuli and Kivi Sotamaa discuss their very first collaboration and an interest in experiences that aren’t stripped of friction.
The Music of Design: Marko Ahtisaari
Taking a holistic perspective on Finnish design tradition, Marko Ahtisaari unpacks how the country’s societal values shaped its technologies.
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