Words that would otherwise be coming out of my mouth

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, […]

Footer — The only footer gallery on earth. This gives me all the web design gallery nostalgic feels.

This is so cool; I found this image on Facebook that shows the Moog Rogue Tina Weymouth used on Talking Heads’ incredible Stop Making Sense concert film. It’s fascinating to see the song presets laid out using tape and shapes […]

Well I’ll be, I’ve now been running my own business for over a decade! In January 2013 I left agency life and set out into the world of self employment. When I announced I was going to start my own company, here’s […]

Here’s my partner Josh Clark with an absolute barn-burner of an article: Ship Faster by Building Design Systems Slower. In our work at Big Medium, we’ve guided dozens of design system teams who have felt the stress of being perceived as […]

I’ve discovered — or rather rediscovered — that playing music is one of the biggest sources of joy and fulfillment in my life. I play music — usually by myself — every day, but it’s the connection with other musicians […]

I’m definitely not trying to single this particular article, but it’s a common misconception about atomic design that’s persisted over the years: Starting Point: The initial stage of Atomic design begins with the smallest design elements, such as buttons, labels, […]

What does a mature, end-to-end design system look like in a big, complex organization? What are all the moving pieces, and how do they hang together as a well-considered architecture? What’s required and what’s optional? Hold onto your butts, because […]

Getting support for accessibility efforts isn’t easy. There are many accessibility myths, wrong assumptions and expectations that make accessibility look like a complex, expensive and time-consuming project. Let’s fix that! Below are some practical techniques that has been working well […]

YouTube’s recommendation algorithm led me to this interview I did about design systems with Google Chrome Developers: While it was published in Feb 2020 (😱), I think it still holds up pretty dang well!

Absolutely honored to have atomic design included in this roundup of Educational Sensational Inspirational Foundational posts.

It’s an honor to be referenced at Figma’s Config keynote and follow-up article AI: The Next Chapter in Design.  I like how Figma used the atomic design methodology to articulate where AI might prove to be most useful. Lower-level atoms […]