Thinking that
sharpens practice.
Essays on design, craft, and the discipline of putting the human first. Published when there's something worth saying.
Essays
On Restraint
The hardest thing in design is not adding. It's stopping. And most of us never learn when to stop.
Read →When Design Lies
Honesty in design is not about aesthetics. It's about whether the thing tells the truth about what it is, what it does, and what it costs. Most products lie — and most designers don't notice.
Read →The Knob Problem
There is something a physical knob does that a slider on a screen cannot. It isn't nostalgia. It's something much simpler: a knob tells you where you are without you having to look. That matters.
Read →Notes
Short observations from studio and practice.
"The packaging of a new product is the first conversation it has with you. Most products open that conversation with a lie."
"A product that requires a manual has already failed at one of its most important jobs."
"Affordance is the word designers use for what ordinary people call intuition. If it needs a label, the affordance failed."
"The best chair you've ever sat in probably didn't make you think about the chair."
"Every notification your product sends uninvited is a small act of disrespect. Multiply by daily active users."
"Longevity is a design choice. Designing something to last is a political act."
Ready to put this into practice?
Reading sharpens the eye.
Studio work sharpens the hand.
The programme does both.