Words that would otherwise be coming out of my mouth

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  1. 15 Mar, 2024

    Are We Watching The Internet Die?

    As we speak, the battle that platforms are fighting is against generative spam, a cartoonish and obvious threat of outright nonsense, meaningless chum that can and should (and likely will) be stopped. In the process, they’re failing to see that […]

  2. 15 Mar, 2024

    Design Systems: From Atomic Design to a Global Solution

    I was recently a guest on the CodingCatDev podcast, where we covered a lot of ground around design systems, including the design system ecosystem, the idea of a Global Design System, and many of the challenges teams face when creating […]

  3. 13 Mar, 2024

    What’s Next for a Global Design System

    I recently published an article outlining the need for a Global Design System. In my post I stated: A Global Design System would improve the quality and accessibility of the world’s web experiences, save the world’s web designers and developers […]

  4. 04 Mar, 2024

    Evolving design systems | A free Webflow resource

    As organizations race to deliver best-in-class digital experiences to their customers, the ability to innovate has become essential. Building a strong foundation is no longer the end-all-be-all to success; it’s also the ability to reimagine what’s possible tomorrow that truly […]

  5. 04 Mar, 2024

    Better Apps: Delivering Universal UI Patterns as Web Components – Microsoft Research

    Why do we see so little reuse of web UI across organizations? Web projects freely use countless open libraries from npm and elsewhere, but it’s rare to find high-quality web UI code which is flexible and reliable enough for immediate […]

  6. 03 Mar, 2024

    What is Utility-First CSS?: HeydonWorks

    What’s this? Some Heydon Pickering commentary on utility-first CSS? Allow me to fetch my popcorn.

  7. 27 Feb, 2024

    AI and Design Systems

    We’ve all watched with simultaneous fascination and trepidation as a flood of AI-powered tools continues to wash over the digital landscape. At Big Medium, we help complex organizations design at scale and pragmatically adopt new technologies, so naturally we’ve been […]

  8. 13 Feb, 2024

    Periodical 15 – Christopher Butler ☼

    And then she asked an interesting question: Is it art if it wasn’t your idea? I was glad to answer “yes,” and explain to her why — that all art is a copy of something — though I wish I’d had the presence of […]

  9. 13 Feb, 2024

    Can Apple Win Back Music | Vulf Opinion

    I love me some Vulfpeck. Especially the music. But also the aesthetic and really the whole package. This piece of commentary is great for a number of reasons, including his sensible proposed change in business model around music. But the […]

  10. 08 Feb, 2024

    Thoughts on a Global Design System – Chris Coyier

    Here’s Chris with some excellent thoughts on the idea of a Global Design System. Between this post and our ShopTalk Show conversation, there’s some great stuff to respond to! Chris spells out a lot of tough questions and challenges around […]

  11. 08 Feb, 2024

    Are Design Systems a zero-interest rate phenomenon? | daverupert.com

    I love this entire post from Dave, which matches my experience helping scores of organizations navigate their design system efforts. Design systems are a hard sell on their own, as Dave explains: There’s no particular “hair on fire” problem that […]

  12. 06 Feb, 2024

    Come to Frostapalooza!

    Woohoo! I am so incredibly excited to announce that Frostapalooza is now live! The show is on August 17th at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA, and you can see the event on Mr. Smalls’ website and get tickets at […]

  13. 06 Feb, 2024

    601: Brad Frost on A Global Design System + Frostapalooza – ShopTalk

    Hooo boy, this is great! I had a fantastic time on the ShopTalk Show talking about the need for a Global Design System. It was a great conversation with two people that I feel fundamentally get it; so it was […]

  14. 05 Feb, 2024

    Introducing the “A Little Big Medium” newsletter

    Exciting news! My Big Medium colleagues and I are launching a newsletter called “A Little Big Medium”. The website does a good job explaining what it’s all about: Love email? Neither do we! But we really, really, really love sharing […]

  15. 01 Feb, 2024

    The Gulf Between Design and Engineering / Design Systems International

    The most crucial mistake in the collaboration between designers and engineers happens when we conflate this division of tools with a need for a strong division of labor. Treating design and engineering as two completely separate processes leads to an […]

  16. 01 Feb, 2024

    What’s inside this crater in Madagascar?

    I found this to be incredibly captivating.

  17. 09 Jan, 2024

    A Global Design System

    TL;DR: This is a call to action to create a Global Design System that provides the world’s web designers & developers a library of common UI components. A Global Design System would improve the quality and accessibility of the world’s […]

  18. 06 Jan, 2024

    Retired country maths teacher Robert Martiensen created thousands of artworks in secret – ABC News

    This is freaking wild: Retired country maths teacher Robert Martiensen created thousands of artworks in secret. Dude created over 7,000 works of art without telling anybody. That blows my mind.

  19. 06 Jan, 2024

    It’s 2023, here is why your web design sucks.

    I don’t know how else to answer this, besides: the gendering of design as women’s work is why people don’t use the title “web designer” anymore. It’s been belittled and othered away. It’s why we’ve split that web design role […]

  20. 06 Jan, 2024

    The World’s Writing Systems

    This web site presents one reference glyph and basic information for each of the world’s writing systems. Source: The World’s Writing Systems