Words that would otherwise be coming out of my mouth

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 […]

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

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

I found this to be incredibly captivating.

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 […]

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.

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 […]

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

There is so much beautiful wisdom in this: 17 Life-Learnings from 17 Years of The Marginalian. I’ve been following Maria Popova for years, and have always love the way she’s used hyperlinks to weave through lines across many voices, perspectives, […]

If all the company’s plastic from 2021 were converted into plastic air pillows — the inflated pouches inserted in some Amazon packages to reduce shifting during transit — and laid side by side, Miller said it would circle the globe more […]

OUT: Pattern Police IN: Empathic Sherpas OUT: An overstuffed design system libraryIN: A thoughtful, layer-cake design system ecosystem  OUT: Unnecessarily verbose documentationIN: Just enough, just-in-time documentation  OUT: Single discipline-focused design systemsIN: Cross-disciplinary design systems that serve the entire org OUT: Rushing […]

There’s no doubt about it; 2023 was objectively way better than 2022. And 2021. And 2020. Our family has been through a lot over the last 5-ish years, and I’m happy to report that 2023 contained no major medical emergencies, […]