The five best design links, every weekday

Friday12/26

1

seangoedecke.com

Nobody knows how large software products work

Sometimes there are zero people at the organization who can answer complex questions about how the product works.

2

blog.khanacademy.org

Rebuilding graphs for accessibility

How Khan Academy rebuilt its graphing tools to be accessible for all learners—including those using screen readers, keyboards, and assistive tech.

3

medium.com

The designer’s playbook for AI products

Research, case studies, and experiments to figure out what actually works when it comes to AI.

4

wordstotime.com

Convert words to time

Quickly convert the number of words in a talk, presentation, or speech to how many minutes it will take to read.

5

laike9m.com

Avoid mini-frameworks

One pattern comes along again and again, causing endless pain for developers, that is, creating mini-frameworks.

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Thursday12/25

1

creativeboom.com

Six surprising illustration trends for 2026

Creative Boom asked a selection of artists and their representatives to cast their minds ahead and visualize what’s in store for the next 12 months.

2

wallpaper.com

Can design make you healthier?

Our built environment can have a direct impact on physical and mental wellbeing. How are architects creating spaces that support health and humanity?

3

piccalil.li

Programming principles for self taught front-end developers

The majority of us are a bunch of self taught people with rather spotty knowledge and that’s fine. What's missing?

4

medienbaecker.com

Dialog view transitions

Combining view transitions and the dialog element—possible?

5

thomwolf.substack.com

What jobs are made of

Judgment, agency, and the limits of AI benchmarks.

Wednesday12/24

1

uxdesign.cc

A product manager’s 48 reflections on 2025

The year when AI stopped feeling like just a tool and started to feel more like a mirror.

2

thecreativeindependent.com

Managing creative highs and lows

Musician Carlyn Bezic discusses the power of an alter-ego, deriving liberation from near-death experiences, and anticipating limitations.

3

lucumr.pocoo.org

A year of vibes

A personal recap of 2025 and a year of a new style of engineering.

4

vale.rocks

You can’t opt-out of accessibility

Shiny exclusion all the way down.

5

thealgorithmicbridge.com

The shape of artificial intelligence

They say the shape of things only becomes legible at a distance.

Tuesday12/23

1

linear.app

Design is more than code

Design as a search, not a pipeline. How tools carry opinions, and how those opinions shape what feels “reasonable” to attempt.

2

activisthandbook.org

Activist handbook

Learn how to become a social activist, plan a political campaign strategy, and start a grassroots movement.

3

the-brandidentity.com

Case study: Maple’s voice AI research

HEX builds a sound wave typography system for Maple’s voice AI research.

4

libraryoftime.xyz

Library of time

All of the unique ways different people chose to satisfy one of humanity's most universal curiosities.

5

epochai.substack.com

The changing drivers of LLM adoption

Public data as well as our original polling suggest LLM adoption is roughly on trend, but the underlying drivers are shifting.

Monday12/22

1

bit.ly

Big Files, Beautiful Delivery—50% Off ForeverSponsored

Stop fighting email limits. Send big files with FileSplash and showcase your brand on every delivery. Use code SIDEBAR50 for 50% off.

2

anildash.com

They have to be able to talk about us without us

Is it simply impossible to effectively tell a story at scale if you don’t have massive resources?

3

figma.com

Hard problems are still hard

Figma designer–turned–product manager Nikolas Klein worked on building prototyping tools for seven years. Then AI changed the game.

4

varchive.ai

V-archive

Varchive is a showcase of AI-assisted builds, inspiration, and how-tos. Itself assisted by AI.

5

smashingmagazine.com

How to measure the impact of features

A simple, repeatable, and meaningful UX metric designed specifically to track the performance of product features.

Friday12/19

1

ivan.codes

The art of vibe design

The distance between "I want this" and "this exists" was measured in weeks, budgets, and expertise you didn't have.

2

clarelewisillustration.co.uk

Case study: Hogwarts rebrand

What would it look like if Hogwarts were reimagined for a new generation?

3

figma.com

Prototypes are the new PRDs

Inside Figma Make, product managers are pressure-testing assumptions early, building momentum, and rallying teams around something tangible.

4

taylor.town

How to win titular metagames

Good titles permit readers to quickly estimate the relative value of articles, essays, videos, etc. Everybody wins when titles are accurate.

5

thekernel.news

A little bit uncomfortable

When I realized there was no real way to move on in that career I loved without having to present my work to audiences.

Thursday12/18

1

asteriskmag.com

Ideas aren’t getting harder to find

For half a decade we’ve been worrying that ideas are getting harder to find. In fact, they might just be harder to sell.

2

wesleystubenbord.com

Billionaire migration: an interactive map

An interactive map of city-level migration flows for 3,146 billionaires from birth to most recent residence.

3

play.studio

Case study: Figma Sites

Figma came to Play Studio to help debut one of their latest products, Figma Sites, including a highly visual template gallery.

4

nngroup.com

Explainable AI in chat interfaces

Explanation text in AI chat interfaces is intended to help users understand AI outputs, but current practices fall short of that goal.

5

msuiche.com

When machines pay machines

The internet was built with a missing piece. Three decades later, that vision is finally materializing.

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