This week, we discuss the future of designing on Macs. Are we moving to a PC-dominated future in the field? In The Sidebar we nit pick through the latest changes in Figma's Auto Layout v3. Latest VIP Patrons: Maxime Daraize Jamie Rhodes Vitaly Odemchuk Yuyang Luo Yu Zhao Jaynish Shah Shanberg Andy Santana Erica Lester Christopher Mark Guill Jørgen Eidem The Sidebar: The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to ful...
Nov 25, 2020•27 min•Ep. 375
This week, we discuss the career paths and tradeoffs for someone who wants to do both design and development. In The Sidebar, we recap the Mac event and share our first impressions of the new iPhones. Latest VIP Patrons: Jordan Isip Matej Hrescak Fabiano Souza Darren Soulsby Priscilla Oscar Linger Greg Corby Tamara Didenko The Sidebar: The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign ...
Nov 18, 2020•22 min•Ep. 374
This week, we brainstorm design patterns that help save people from themselves. From stopping the spread of misinformation, to saving eardrums, to screening spoilers, these design ideas are often clever and non-obvious. In the Sidebar, we discuss why radio and checkbox inputs are the way they are, and how to use them well in your designs. Latest VIP Patrons: Jake Richard Saseun Henning Melissa Oh Richie Planek Jay Sowell Erin Mayer The Sidebar: The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our ...
Nov 11, 2020•29 min•Ep. 373
This week, we dig into practical steps for creating a culture of design excellence. In The Sidebar, we share strategies for designing adaptive interfaces that work well on any screen size. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know whe...
Nov 04, 2020•28 min•Ep. 372
This week, we discuss the tradeoffs and challenges of designing interfaces for one-handed use. In The Sidebar, we talk about strategies for collaborating effectively with brand and product design. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team ...
Oct 28, 2020•33 min•Ep. 371
This week, we talk about the shallow parts of design culture, where superficial work tends to generate far more attention and praise. We dig into potential solutions for this, too. In The Sidebar, we recap and share our spicy takes on the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and HomePod mini. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any ch...
Oct 21, 2020•23 min•Ep. 370
This week, we discuss strategies for teaching design fundamentals and how to make the process engaging and fun for new designers. In The Sidebar, we discuss the pain of noticing problems right before you ship. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also l...
Oct 14, 2020•28 min•Ep. 369
This week, we talk about how to have effective brainstorms: what does good prep look like, and what should be done alone or with a group? In The Sidebar, we share our spicy takes about brutalism in interface design. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can ...
Oct 07, 2020•28 min•Ep. 368
This week, we discuss options for designers to close the gap to becoming a senior. In The Sidebar we try to identify what is the duct tape of design. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know where you're working from with Float's sch...
Sep 30, 2020•22 min•Ep. 367
This week, we sat down with Danae Holmes, a UX researcher at YouTube Gaming to talk about everything UX research. We dig into research methodologies, effective collaboration with design, tips to get better at user research, the future of the field, and so much more. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. It lets you keep track of who's working on what and plan your team's time, from anywhere! Float gives you an accurate view of your team's avail...
Sep 23, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 366
This week, we deep dive into tips and strategies for building a better settings experience in your product. In The Sidebar, we discuss the efficacy of paginating onboarding screens. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. It lets you keep track of who's working on what and plan your team's time, from anywhere! Float gives you an accurate view of your team's availability and capacity., allowing you to set custom work days and hours and schedule a ...
Sep 16, 2020•36 min•Ep. 365
This week, we dive into the details of having effective user research sessions, sharing tips and strategies to get more value out of customer conversations. In The Sidebar, Marshall explains his work journaling process to capture better day-to-day notes. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float Float gives you the most accurate view of your team's availability and work schedule. You can set custom work hours, add public holidays and time off, and schedule a status to let your team know where you’re working f...
Sep 09, 2020•29 min•Ep. 364
This week, we try to answer one very simple question: what do designers even do all day? In The Sidebar, we discuss when and where to use system defaults versus creating a custom UI. Golden Ratio Patrons: Keep track of who's working on what and plan your team's time, from anywhere! Get an accurate view of your team's availability and capacity, set custom work days and hours, schedule a status to let your team know where you're working from, and so much more. Learn more at float.com/designdetails...
Sep 02, 2020•32 min•Ep. 363
This week, we weigh the pros and cons of working on a product that you love to use every day. Is it really so bad to be your own power user? In The Sidebar, we discuss steps to take when exploring vague problem areas. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float is a resource management software for planning your team’s time across multiple projects. Companies like Buzzfeed and MetaLab both use Float to plan and track hundreds of projects more effectively. You can learn more about how they use Float at https://w...
Aug 27, 2020•28 min•Ep. 362
This week, we answer two listener questions – bonus question in The Sidebar! In the first, we discuss text contrast, accessibility, and winning arguments. In the second, we work out what it means to measure success in interface design. Golden Ratio Patrons: We’re supported by Float.com, a resource scheduling tool that is visual, flexible, fast, and reliable. In the last two months, they’ve launched integrations with the top four project management tools: Jira, Asana, Teamwork, and Trello. The in...
Aug 19, 2020•28 min•Ep. 361
This week, we discuss a listener question about the tension between design systems and creativity. Do design systems destroy creativity, or simply get the boring parts of our work out of the way? In The Sidebar, we discuss the challenges in sharing North Star design visions across teams. Golden Ratio Patrons: Did you know that teams in more than 150 countries around the world use Float for the resource planning? Float is the #1 rated resource management software on G2. Learn more at float.com/de...
Aug 12, 2020•27 min•Ep. 360
This week, we caught up with Bobby Goodlatte and Josh Williams, two designers-turned-investors who recently announced Form Capital, an early-stage venture fund. In this episode we talk about the path to starting a fund, whether founders should live in the Bay Area, and share advice to designers who are interested in starting their own company someday. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float is a resource management tool for planning your team’s time across multiple projects. Built by creatives, for creative...
Aug 05, 2020•53 min•Ep. 359
This week, we talk about the recently-unveiled GPT-3 AI tool and the implications of AI for design. In The Sidebar, we discuss HUD design in video games, nerding out on diegesis, skeuomorphism, and more. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float is an easy to use resource management tool for planning your projects and scheduling your team's time. Access your schedule from anywhere with a mobile app for on the go. Float makes resource management fast, visual and simple. Learn more at float.com/designdetails La...
Jul 29, 2020•27 min•Ep. 358
This week, we caught up with Cemre Güngör to talk about transitioning from design to product management, the tension between the roles of PD and PM, why products fail, and so much more. In The Sidebar, we discuss the most over- and under-rated skills for PMs. Golden Ratio Patrons: More than 3,000 of the world's top design teams, including BuzzFeed, Ogilvy, MetaLab and Hulu use Float to plan their projects and schedule their team’s time. Float is the most accurate tool for planning your project r...
Jul 22, 2020•55 min•Ep. 357
This week, we attempt to answer the age-old question every designer will someday face: should I be a product manager? In this week's Sidebar, we share our first impressions of macOS Big Sur, covering our favorite changes and what we hope to see updated before public release. Golden Ratio Patrons: Are you still using spreadsheets to plan your projects? Float is a resource management software built for creative teams. Add your team’s roles, departments and work hours, schedule time-off, public hol...
Jul 15, 2020•22 min•Ep. 356
This week, we caught up with Yitong Zhang to talk about what it's like to navigate the visa process in the US. We dig into the details of different work visas, the constraints they impose on designers, and what is changing in the current processes. This, plus bonus questions and cool things as always! Golden Ratio Patrons: Float is a resource management software for planning your team’s time across multiple projects. Float saves your team time, so you can get back to doing what you love! Learn m...
Jul 08, 2020•41 min•Ep. 355
This week, we go deep down the WWDC rabbit hole to dissect the latest design details coming from Apple HQ. We also share our spicy takes on the new macOS icons in this week's sidebar. Golden Ratio Patrons: The world’s top creative teams use Float to plan their projects and schedule their team’s time, all in one place. Schedule tasks with an easy drag-and-drop interface, make changes on the fly with a variety of editing tools, and stay up to date on the go using the mobile app. Learn more at floa...
Jul 01, 2020•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 354
This week, we caught up with Maurice Cherry to talk about design podcasting, building an agency from scratch, and the current state of diversity in design. Maurice is a designer, podcaster, creative strategist, agency founder, writer, speaker, and much more. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float is an easy to use resource management tool for planning your projects and scheduling your team's time. Get a high-level view of who’s working on what, so you can plan your team’s time based on their real availabil...
Jun 24, 2020•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 353
This week, we share some accessibility gut checks that designers should think through before moving into high fidelity mocks. We also talk about industrial design and video game hardware in this week's Sidebar, plus we share our cool things as always! Golden Ratio Patrons: More than 3,000 of the world's top design teams, including BuzzFeed, Ogilvy, MetaLab and Hulu use Float to plan their projects and schedule their team’s time. Float is the most accurate tool for planning your project resources...
Jun 17, 2020•35 min•Ep. 352
This week, we talk about weaponizing hashtags, co-opting social media movements, and solving hard problems in product design. Spoiler: hard problems are hard. This, plus The Sidebar, some follow up, and cool things as always. Golden Ratio Patrons: Visualize who’s working on what and when, and drag and drop to assign tasks in a click. With Float you can plan your projects and schedule your team’s time with confidence. Learn more at float.com/designdetails Latest VIP Patrons: Huge shoutouts to our...
Jun 10, 2020•21 min•Ep. 351
This week, we can't record a podcast talking about pixels and software design. The world is hurting, and the best thing we can do right now is direct people to the resources and organizations that are able to have the most impact in black communities. Please consider reading, learning, introspecting, and donating this week. Support: Black Lives Matter NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund Equal Justice Initiative We the Protesters Reclaim the Block George Floyd Memorial Fund Campaign Zero Sta...
Jun 03, 2020•5 min•Ep. 350
This week, we share some tips for getting unstuck when working on complicated design problems. We also share our home screen organization philosophies in The Sidebar, catch up on Tweets, and share our cool things as always. Golden Ratio Patrons: Float saves your team time, so you can get back to doing what you love! The world’s top creative teams use Float to plan their projects and schedule their team’s time, all in one place. Learn more at float.com/designdetails . Latest VIP Patrons: Huge sho...
May 27, 2020•36 min•Ep. 349
This week, we talk about how to overcome skill gaps. What should you do if you are bad at visual design? What if you can't make icons? Should you play into strengths or develop upon your weaknesses? We explore these topics, and more! Golden Ratio Patrons: Are you still using spreadsheets to plan your projects? Float is a resource management software built for creative teams. Add your team’s roles, departments and work hours, schedule time-off, public holidays and remote work days, so you always ...
May 20, 2020•29 min•Ep. 348
This week, we discuss the characteristics of high quality software. We do our best to organize and outline things to pay attention to that will help you ship better software. This, plus a Sidebar discussing how to handle negative feedback from customers, and cool things as always! Golden Ratio Patrons: More than 3,000 of the world's top design teams, including BuzzFeed, MetaLab and Hulu use Float to plan their projects and schedule their team’s time. Learn more about how to help your team plan b...
May 13, 2020•37 min•Ep. 347
This week, we discuss what it means to have and develop taste. From software to fashion, styles change, trends come and go, so what does it mean to be tasteful? In The Sidebar, we discuss the hacker mindset and building for an audience of one. This, plus cool things like a handy iPhone app and a killer new VR game! Golden Ratio Patrons: Float is an easy to use resource management tool for planning your projects and scheduling your team's time. Built by creatives, for creatives, Float makes resou...
May 06, 2020•39 min•Ep. 346
