No, design systems will not replace design jobs — DesignSystems.com
No longer focused on recreating the wheel (or icon), designers can turn their attention to different types of challenges.
Tags: design
1252
Daily CSS Design
There are some lovely animations in this year-long challenge.
The idea behind Daily CSS Design is to create one responsive design every day for a whole year. All shapes, patterns and colors are made by coding.
Google Duplex and the canny rise: a UX pattern – UX Collective
Chris weighs up the ethical implications of Google Duplex:
The social hacking that could be accomplished is mind-boggling. For this reason, I expect that having human-sounding narrow AI will be illegal someday. The Duplex demo is a moment of cultural clarity, where it first dawned on us that we can do it, but with only a few exceptions, we shouldn’t.
But he also offers alternatives for designing systems like this:
- Provide disclosure, and
- Design a hot signal:
…design the interface so that it is unmistakeable that it is synthetic. This way, even if the listener missed or misunderstood the disclosure, there is an ongoing signal that reinforces the idea. As designer Ben Sauer puts it, make it “Humane, not human.”
Designing for Inclusion with Media Queries
The slides and notes from a great presentation by Eric Bailey that takes a really thoughtful deep dive into media types, media queries, and inclusive design.
Design systems and technological disruption – The Man in Blue
Almost every technological innovation over the last 300 years has had side effects which actually increase the number of opportunities for employment. The general trend is that the easier something is to do, the more demand there is for it.
Cameron looks at the historical effects of automation and applies that to design systems. The future he sees is one of increased design democratisation and participation.
This is actually something that designers have been championing for decades – inclusive design at all levels of the company, and an increase in design thinking at all stages of product development. Now that we finally have a chance of achieving that it’s not a time to be scared. It’s a time to be celebrated.
Building and maintaining a design system | susan jean robertson
Susan writes about the challenges when trying to get widespread adoption of a design system. Spoiler: the challenges aren’t technical.
Change is hard. Communication and collaboration are absolutely necessary to make a system work. And the more people you can get involved from various disciplines the better chance you have of maintaining your system.
Colour Wheels, Charts, and Tables Through History – The Public Domain Review
These are beautiful!
Featured below is a chronology of various attempts through the last four centuries to visually organise and make sense of colour.
Segmented type appreciation corner
Marcin built this lovely little in-browser tool to demonstrate how segmented type displays work at different sizes.
The Secret to Writing (Is Writing) + Subtraction.com
In a world full of talented designers, the ability to express oneself in written form is a key advantage.
What’s in a pattern name? — Ethan Marcotte
Ethan emphasises the importance of making a shared language the heart of any design system. I heartily agree!
This isn’t new thinking, mind: folks like Alla Kholmatova and Charlotte Jackson have been talking about this for ages. (And in doing so, they’ve massively influenced how I think about modular, pattern-driven design.)
CSS Grid: More flexibility with minmax() by Michelle Barker on CodePen
A good use case for using minmax with CSS grid to dispense with a media query.
Leaving Clearleft – Jon Aizlewood
Following on from Ben’s post, this is also giving me the warm fuzzies.
I, in no uncertain terms, have become a better designer thanks to the people I’ve had the pleasure of working alongside at Clearleft. I’ll forever be thankful of my time there, and to the people who helped me become better.
“The Only-ness Statement,” an article by Dan Mall
A useful design strategy exercise from Marty Neumeier.
So long, and thanks for all the beer. – Ben Sauer
Ben is moving on from Clearleft. I’m going to miss him. I found this summation of his time here very moving.
Working at Clearleft was one of the best decisions I ever made. 6 years of some work that I’m most proud of, amongst some of the finest thinkers I’ve ever met.
He also outlines the lessons he learned here:
- Writing and speaking will make you a better thinker and designer.
- Autonomy rules.
- Own stuff.
- Aim high.
Should you ever choose to work with, or work for Clearleft, I hope these words will give you some encouragement — it is an exceptional place to be.
A Guide To The State Of Print Stylesheets In 2018 — Smashing Magazine
Good advice on print styles from Rachel. The browser support situation is frustrating; I suspect it’s because the people working on browsers would rather get stuck in on shinier stuff.
From Purpose to Patterns // Speaker Deck
A great slide deck from Alla, all about design principles. From purpose to principles to patterns.
Upcoming changes to the CSS you need for variable fonts | Clagnut
Rich enumerates some changes in how you set up variable fonts. So if you’re pulling in a font that has weight as an axis, you can now add this to your @font-face rule:
font-weight: 1 999;
I’m already very excited about variable fonts—I’m going to be positively giddy by the time Ampersand rolls around (which, by the way, you should totally go to—it’s going to be sooo good!).
The Illusion of Control in Web Design · An A List Apart Article
Aaron gives a timely run-down of all the parts of a web experience that are out of our control. But don’t despair…
Recognizing all of the ways our carefully-crafted experiences can be rendered unusable can be more than a little disheartening. No one likes to spend their time thinking about failure. So don’t. Don’t focus on all of the bad things you can’t control. Focus on what you can control.
Start simply. Code defensively. User-test the heck out of it. Recognize the chaos. Embrace it. And build resilient web experiences that will work no matter what the internet throws at them.
Spinning jenny. — Ethan Marcotte
During the Industrial Revolution, as new machines were invented to increase output, business owners often dreamed of an entirely automated workforce—of a factory without workers. I assume their workers had different dreams.
Ethan thinks through the ethical implications of increasing automation and efficiency über alles:
I can’t stop thinking about how much automation has changed our industry already. And I know the rate of automation is only going to accelerate from here.
At the very least, maybe it’s worth asking ourselves what might happen next.
The Woman Who Gave the Macintosh a Smile | The New Yorker
A profile of Susan Kare, icon designer extraordinaire.
I loved the puzzle-like nature of working in sixteen-by-sixteen and thirty-two-by-thirty-two pixel icon grids, and the marriage of craft and metaphor.