Is creativity really dead?
The industry needs clear leadership on AI, not vague provocations about 'making stuff'.
creativebloq.com
Article
Archive
If creativity is a delicate ecosystem, how do we keep things in balance?
The designers radical model for creativity shifts the focus from output to input – focusing on all the things that feed into our creative process: “Connection, wonder, pause, movement, and joy.”
itsnicethat.com
Article
The Myth of a Perfect Design
Perfection in design is not possible. You can never simultaneously satisfy all of the possible objectives for any creation. For example, a ballpoint pen is an excellent tool for writing, until you need to erase. Yet a pencil fails you when you need to sign a legal contract. Every design choice trades one idea of perfection against another.
whydesignishard.substack.com
Article
Craft, not fame, makes your story worth telling
Why are so many celebrity memoirs surprisingly dull? This eye-opening take dives into what’s missing and what truly makes a story worth telling. Your own story might be closer to inspiring than you think.
herbertlui.net
Article
The Last Days Of Social Media
Social media promised connection, but it has delivered exhaustion.
noemamag.com
Article
Welcome to the entry-level void: what happens when junior design jobs disappear?
Entry-level jobs are disappearing. In their place: unpaid gigs, cold DMs and self-starters scrambling for a foothold. The ladder’s gone – what’s replacing it, and who’s being left behind?
itsnicethat.com
Article
React Won by Default – And It's Killing Frontend Innovation
Exploring how React's dominance by default stifles frontend innovation, and why deliberate framework choices lead to better tools for performance, developer experience, and ecosystem diversity.
lorenstew.art
Article
Typography in Motion: A Breathing Digital System
Have you ever thought about digital systems feeling us? What if letters could do more than just share words? What if typography could react, listen, and remember? Shuxuan Yang, also known as Eleanor Yang, is a gifted designer. She tackles these ideas in "Synthetic Nature." This interactive project shows motion design as a live system. It changes with the user.
abduzeedo.com
Article
The Myth of Good Taste: Product Management in the Age of Enshittification.
Product management has borrowed the concept of “taste” from European aesthetic philosophy, but this borrowing creates a fundamental problem: it traps us in subjective discussions that distract from what actually matters. When PMs debate whether something has “good taste,” they’re engaging in discussions rooted in personal preference and cultural signaling rather than objective measures of user value and business outcomes.
medium.productcoalition.com
Article
In Good Company: How Agencies Are Transforming Client Collaboration
To take creativity to new heights, agencies and freelancers are breaking down traditional boundaries and using tools like Figma to partner with their clients every step of the way.
figma.com
Article
Design Beyond Barriers
What makes an interface accessible? And how can designers create experiences that work for all users? This guide answers all your burning questions about accessibility—like how to design for everyone, even those juggling a hot coffee and a pet hamster.
designbeyondbarriers.com
Article
Why is quality so rare?
The modern world has made huge advances in knowledge, technology, and skill. We can build faster than ever. We know more than ever. Yet quality still feels so rare. So many things feel unfinished, broken, or forgettable – why?
linear.app
Article
Good vs Great Animations
We all want our UIs to feel great and animations can definitely help with that. But how do you actually create a great animation? This article is a collection of practical tips to help you go from good to great animations.
emilkowal.ski
Article
Design or Disappear
In an era defined by accelerating AI, ecological urgency, and cultural division, design is no longer optional—it is essential for survival. For centuries, design and craft have shaped our tools, our systems, and our sense of self. From the meticulous detail of the Arts & Crafts movement to the functional…
maeda.pm
Article
Design in the age of vibes
How the new wave of design and dev tools are changing who builds it, how decisions get made, and what the role of a designer even is.
uxdesign.cc
Article
The history of album art
Album art didn’t always exist. In the early 1900s, recorded music was still a novelty, overshadowed by sales of sheet music. Early vinyl records were vastly different from what we think of today: discs were sold individually and could only hold up to four minutes of music per side. Sometimes, only one side of the record was used.
matthewstrom.com
Article
The creative power of constraints
Constraints act not as limitations but as catalysts for creativity. Examples from architecture, design, and art reveal the paradoxical relationship between boundaries and innovation.
arun.is
Article
You Can Be a Great Designer and Be Completely Unknown
I often find myself contemplating the greatest creators in history — those rare artists, designers, and thinkers whose work transformed how we see the world. What constellation of circumstances made them who they were? Where did their ideas originate? Who mentored them? Would history remember them had they lived in a different time or place?
chrbutler.com
Article
The Post-Developer Era
When OpenAI released GPT-4 back in March 2023, they kickstarted the AI revolution. The consensus online was that front-end development jobs would be totally eliminated within a year or two. Well, it’s been more than two years since then, and I thought it was worth revisiting some of those early predictions, and seeing if we can glean any insights about where things are headed.
joshwcomeau.com
Article
The Best Programmers I Know
"I have met a lot of developers in my life. Lately, I asked myself: “What does it take to be one of the best? What do they all have in common?” In the hope that this will be an inspiration to someone out there, I wrote down the traits I observed in the most exceptional people in our craft. I wish I had that list when I was starting out. Had I followed this path, it would have saved me a lot of time."
endler.dev
Article
Design by Decision Fatigue
An essay on how the decisions we make writing software shape our enjoyment of the craft
questdb.com
Article
A fluid CSS methodology
Fluid CSS methodologies have completely transformed my approach to web integration by improving the responsive aspect and simplifying maintenance. I find this topic deceptively simple yet incredibly powerful and still relevant today.
willybrauner.com
Article
How I review design work. Defining what “good design” actually looks like.
Good design can be tricky. What’s obvious to one person might not make sense to someone else. Design might feel subjective, but there are things I (and the rest of design leadership) consistently…
uxdesign.cc
Article
13 lessons creatives wished they'd known earlier in their career
We've gathered essential tips from seasoned creatives to help you navigate your career with confidence, clarity and long-term success.
creativeboom.com
Article
Reimagining Fluid Typography
Are we responding to the right inputs? For many years, it has been ‘best practice’ to use relative units (especially em and rem) for sizing text. That’s great! But after playing around with my user preferences, I think we can improve on the common approaches.
oddbird.net
Article
Websites are dead (and more click bait!)
Some thoughts, experiences, opinions and unsolicited advice on the current state of websites and web design as a freelancer.
perozzi.blog
Article
Rethinking Rebranding
Rebranding isn't just a logo swap—it's a deep introspective journey. By questioning fundamental purpose and making thoughtful, incremental changes, even centuries-old institutions can breathe new life into their core identity and relevance.
reiinamoto.substack.com
Article
Design Principles
Set of guidelines that empower a team to make wise decisions and appropriate trade-offs when designing, building and innovating.
principles.design
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Jonathan Ive - rams foundation
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
Article
Updating Our Web System For A New Era
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
Article
The obsession over craft
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
Article
Branding Anterior. Medical Insurance? AI? Oh my!
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
Article
UX needs more punk. Disrupting the status quo in design.
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
Article
Sanding UI
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
Article
The Lost Sense
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
Article
Madalena Studio push the boundaries of branding in their look for Crucible, cultured with bacteria
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
Article
“Smart” Layouts With Container Queries
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
Article
We don't need a boss, we need a process
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
Article
Losing is part of being a designer
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
Article
Useless design
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
Article
On AI and the commoditisation of design
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
Article
Great design isn’t pixel perfect
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
Article
The Magic of Clip Path
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
Article
Selective Attention
The process of focusing our attention only to a subset of the stimuli in the environment — usually those related to our goals.
lawsofux.com
Article
Decline of web craftsmanship
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
Article
Great animations
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
Article
Inside the Redesigned Figma
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
Article
Colour contrast
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
Article
Can you ever really own an aesthetic? Creatives discuss what happens when your style becomes a trend
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
Article
Setting up typography variables in Figma
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
Article
Creativity and why we should sleep on it
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
Article
How to price your work as a creative freelancer
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
Article
Can you taste design?
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
Article
Design Systems vs. Style Guides
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
Article
Did we fail to develop the next generation of designers?
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
Article
Willy Fleckhaus & Twen
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
Article
Robin Rendle on Design interviews
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
Article
How to name design tokens?
How to organize design tokens? How to set up the design tokens architecture? Interactive guide and playground with templates.
thedesignsystem.guide
Article
How to Know When to Use AI
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
Article
Why creative labour isn’t always seen as “real work” – and what that means for artists and designers
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
Article
Typography Variables in Figma Are Here
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
Article
The evolution of teamLab: from Tokyo digital art leader to global sensation
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
Article
AI cannot and should not replace search
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
Article
Running a design meeting that doesn't waste time
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
Article
Design is a process of getting stuck
"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
Article
What designers wish they’d known before going freelance
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
Article
Getting out of meetings and into focused work
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
Article
Craft will never be replaced by AI
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
Article
Why UI designers should understand Flexbox and CSS Grid
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
Article
What’s Next for a Global Design System
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
Article
What Makes an Album the Greatest of All Time?
Examining 30 years of Rolling Stone’s “Greatest Albums of All Time” Rankings through a very well made and interactive timeline.
pudding.cool
Article
How AI will influence creative tools
Replit's VP of Marketing and Design David Hoang talks about how AI is reshaping the future of product design and development.
figma.com
Article
AI Can't Give You Good Taste
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
Article
Trust the Process
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
Article
If you want to be creative, you can’t be certain
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
Article