Posts Tagged ‘process’

When design system users run into issues designing and developing with the system, they often have a hard time distinguishing between a bug, a missing feature, an intentional design deviation, a new pattern they need to create, or something else. […]

I came across this great post by my friend Cameron Moll on LinkedIn. He says: Telling designers they shouldn’t use high-fidelity designs early in the exploration process can be the equivalent of telling an artist they shouldn’t use paint and […]

That one weird trick? TALK. What do you do when someone doesn’t see what component they’re looking for in the design system? TALK. What do you do when someone has questions about what a component does, if it meets their […]

One of my favorite Josh lines that’s really stood the test of time and cuts through a lot of noise in a conversation: Don’t put crap in the design system. Josh Clark What is crap? Crap is rushed work, low-quality […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

I love this initiative from Shamsi Brinn: No Handoff: close the gap between product and engineering. Imagine a project where teams work together at each stage, progressively improving the end result based on qualitative and quantitative data. Project handoff is […]

I love Dan’s Artificial Intelligence & Humanity as it mirrors a lot of my own thinking about how best to wield AI. If I embrace the role of AI as an accident generator, then I’d gladly give it all the […]

I really enjoyed this post from Dave about the different kinds of work folks can encounter. I also want to acknowledge that sometimes the job is an assembly line. Times exist when you need to slow down, think, explore, and use the […]

I’ve spent the last two years thinking about doing these two projects, and the actual effort to bring them into existence only took two weekends. I arrived at an important insight: if you find yourself frequently revisiting an idea you […]

This is a great read about the creative process behind my new favorite movie, Everything Everywhere All At Once. Similar to my breakdown of The Beatles’ Get Back documentary, this post analyzes the lessons learned from the creative process that wielded SUCH […]

I’m always amazed by the level of effort involved in web design/development. Adding a simple button to a UI can translate to weeks or even months of work. Behind every little bit of UI is a giant iceberg of technology […]

I’ve been spending a lot of time getting things right. Like, really right. One thing about working on giant design systems is that every minor shortcut, every assumption, every “that should probably do it” gets blown to smithereens in the […]

Quick fixes usually get prioritized higher than bigger issues because they promise accomplishment, satisfaction, and the idea of incremental progress. But once you factor in the communication and collaboration tax–which varies across organizations–tackling the big stuff might not end up […]

You can have a comprehensive design system that contains a slew of well-structured components, thorough documentation, thoughtful guidelines, and a well-considered design language. But if a design system user can’t get done what they’re trying to get done, the whole […]

My design partner in crime Dan Mall and I were interviewed on the Design Better podcast about breaking down barriers between designers and developers. Give ‘er a listen here.

As part of Dan and my designer+developer collaboration series, I recorded another video building upon the work we’ve done so far. If you’re not caught up, feel free to watch the other videos: Video 1: Designer+Developer pair session Video 2: […]

I had a great time talking with Chantastic on the React Podcast. Chantastic asks him about his recent experience learning React and the difficulty he found entering the realm of React. They talk about team communication, developing portable solutions, organizational therapy […]

The original spirit of wireframes, journey maps, comps, and the like was for exploration and to communicate ideas efficiently. They began as devices for conversation and experimentation, and in that loose context they remain as useful as ever. Over time, […]

Following up on the video Dan and I recorded that shows how we collaborate as designer and developer, I recorded a video of me doing a bit of head-down development work. Dan and I mention in our first video that […]

I’ve had the extreme privilege of collaborating on a bunch of projects with my friend Dan Mall (@danmall) over the last five and a half years. Dan is a designer. I’m a developer. And together, we’ve been refining our process to […]

This post lays out a lot of the first steps of creating a design system in short order. I enjoy how the author reflected on some of the initial tool and process churn as the team found their bearings. This […]

You can write words explaining how to properly use a toaster, draw pictures of toasters, and even create more efficient ways to draw pictures of toasters. But at the end of the day, if you don’t have a functioning toaster, […]

I have the extreme privilege of working with Jamie on client projects, and I absolutely love his approach to development. Rather than deliberating over lengthy conversations about what can and can’t be done, Jamie dives in, plays, and prototypes. As […]

I wrote and self-published a book called Atomic Design, and I’m really pleased with how the whole thing turned out. I want to share my experience largely because I think the process has a lot to offer other authors who […]

There are some fantastic insights contained in Mina Markham’s post about their rebuilding Slack.com. I especially loved her describing some of the thorny aspects of enhancing to CSS Grid layout, as well as seeing a before-and-after histogram of CSS specificity. […]

Making that card pattern more accessible Making that card pattern more responsive Making that card pattern more performant Making that card pattern more agnostic so it can handle different content patterns Making that card pattern more resilient to extreme content […]

Ian wrote about our experience launching a site for Brian Forde’s congressional campaign. One of the reasons we took the project on was that I thought it would be good for Ian to get a dose of how fast-paced the […]

I had the opportunity to make a website for Brian Forde, who is running for Congress in Orange County, California. Brian got in touch after reading my Designing an Effective Donation Form blog post, and wanted to bring that thinking to […]