The five best design links, every weekday

Friday04/25

1

koomen.dev

AI horseless carriages

Why most AI features feel tacked-on and useless, even counter-productive.

2

notforprivategain.org

Not for private gain

Opposition to OpenAI’s proposed restructuring that would transfer control of AGI from a nonprofit charity to a for-profit enterprise.

3

character-ai.github.io

AvatarFX

Bring characters to life by simply uploading an image and selecting a voice. Characters speak, move, and emote with remarkable realism and fluidity.

4

danramsden.com

The purpose of UX Design

The faith placed in “design thinking” now seems diverted into “product thinking.”

5

terriblesoftware.org

The hidden cost of AI coding

AI coding tools boost productivity but may sacrifice the deep satisfaction developers experience when writing code by hand. What are we losing?

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Thursday04/24

1

winners.webbyawards.com

Webby awards winners

Discover the best of the Internet and uncover trends, insights and talent that define the future of Internet excellence.

2

cdn.openai.com

A practical guide to building AI agents

A guide by OpenAI distilling insights from numerous customer deployments into practical and actionable best practices.

3

cekrem.github.io

Coding as craft: going back to the old gym

Why ‘reflexive AI usage’ sounds like a diagnosis I don’t want next to my name.

4

websiteheadlines.com

Website headlines

Creative, real-world examples from SaaS, B2B, and DTC brands to inspire your website marketing copy.

5

alistapart.com

Build products that stick

Promising ideas can go from zero to hero in a few weeks, only to fizzle out within months.

Wednesday04/23

1

medium.com

Design isn’t dead; you sound dumb

Design isn’t dead. Your understanding of it is. Though, let’s be real — was it ever actually alive in your mind to begin with?

2

tv.garden

tv.garden

Watch free live TV from around the world: stream live news, sports, and entertainment—no subscription needed.

3

benkuhn.net

Impact, agency, and taste

Without taste, you’re likely to work toward the wrong thing. Without agency, even if you work toward the right thing, you’re likely to get nowhere.

4

blog.infected.systems

This blog is hosted on a Nintendo Wii

A blog post served to you by a real Nintendo Wii + details around the workflow to make that possible.

5

smashingmagazine.com

Inclusive dark mode

Dark mode isn’t just a trendy aesthetic. It’s a gateway to more inclusive digital experiences, but only if designed thoughtfully.

Tuesday04/22

1

piccalil.li

How to write error messages that actually help users

One of the most consistently neglected parts of today’s user experiences is our handling of errors.

2

figma.com

Japanese gradients for UI

Exploring the elegance and adaptability of Japan’s traditional colours within today’s digital context.

3

annievella.com

The software engineering identity crisis

Many of us became software engineers because we found our identity in building things. Not managing things. Not overseeing things. Building things.

4

the-brandidentity.com

Fight's fierce typography-led rebrand

One of Latin America’s biggest production companies realised it was time for a change.

5

uxdesign.cc

Everything’s a vibe: is it progress or just an illusion?

In a world where feeling productive replaces thinking deeply, are we innovating or just vibing our way into deceptive flow?

Monday04/21

1

html.to.design

HTML to Design becomes the fastest MCP server for FigmaSponsored

Plug in Claude or Cursor AI and create or edit your designs directly in Figma — no switching, no copy-paste.

2

system-magazine.com

System magazine

System explores with style and substance the dialogues at the heart of the global fashion industry.

3

frontendmasters.com

CSS bursts with conic gradients

Using hard color stops with repeating-conic-gradient() and the double-stop syntax, we can pretty easily create a burst background.

4

joshwcomeau.com

The post-developer era

A fresh look at the current LLM landscape, to see how things have changed, and to see if we can anticipate how things will continue to evolve.

5

smashingmagazine.com

Fostering an accessibility culture

Lessons from experience in shaping accessibility through habits—rather than mandates.

Friday04/18

1

seangoedecke.com

Engineers who won’t commit

Why remaining non-committal is cowardly (and isn't it the same with design?).

2

youtube.com

General Magic (2018) full documentary

A documentary about a business that Forbes described as the "greatest dead company in Silicon.

3

jillianhess.substack.com

Pablo Picasso’s stunning repetitions

"I picked up my sketchbooks daily, saying to myself: what will I learn of myself that I didn’t know. Je suis le cahier / I am the notebook."

4

pudding.cool

How sonic DNA connects generations of music

Songs have a far more complex and concealed musical history, spanning genres, cultures, and even centuries.

5

notations.xyz

On the impulse to notate

Composed in fragments—written and collected, designed and curated—this catalog resists linear narrative formulas to favor an open poetic syntax.

Thursday04/17

1

uxdesign.cc

Writing the onboarding experience

How to help a product introduce itself.

2

infiniteshuffle.net

Infinite shuffle

A simple deck of 52 cards can be arranged in more ways than there are atoms on Earth.

3

tempertemper.net

Skip links: what, why, and how

Ever noticed one of those “Skip to main content” links when you press the tab key? They’re important.

4

staysaasy.com

The precise language of good management

In the squishy realm of managing humans, the specific things you say have specific outcomes.

5

christianheilmann.com

The rise of model fatigue

Yet another AI model is being released by Company XYZ that will be a “game changer” and “leaves the others in the dust”.

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