The five best design links, every weekday

Thursday04/09

1

lukew.com

Should designers "code"?

There’s a question that never goes away in design: should designers code?

2

hii-mag.com

Hii Magazine

Hii Magazine is an online destination for sound culture and the listening-obsessed.

3

cuberule.com

The Cube Rule

Identify your food based on the location of structural starch. Is a hot dog a sandwich? No, it’s clearly a taco.

4

pawelgrzybek.com

SVG favicons that respect theme preference

A small detail that builds trust through consistent accessibility.

5

greaterwrong.com

My picture of the present in AI

A scenario forecast, but for the present (which is already uncertain) rather than the future.

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Wednesday04/08

1

siddhantkhare.com

AI fatigue is real and nobody talks about it

You’re using AI to be more productive. So why are you more exhausted than ever? The paradox every engineer needs to confront.

2

youtube.com

Bernie vs. Claude

Speaking to Anthropic’s AI agent Claude about AI collecting massive amounts of personal data and how that violates our privacy rights.

3

shotoniphone.lorenzobocchi.com

Shot on iPhone in black & white

No warmth borrowed from a golden hour, no colour to flatter or distract. Just light, and the absence of it.

4

blog.pope.tech

Making emojis and icons screen reader accessible

How emojis and icons are often not traditional images that need special considerations to be screen reader accessible.

5

chrbutler.com

Craft is untouchable

AI doesn’t threaten craft—the temptation to skip iteration does.

Tuesday04/07

1

ergosphere.blog

The machines are fine. I’m worried about us.

On AI agents, grunt work, and the part of science that isn’t replaceable.

2

shadcnthemer.com

ShadCN Themer

Browse and create stunning themes for shadcn/ui. Customize colors, fonts, and export with one click.

3

uxdesign.cc

Designers finally have a say in the product they design

AI didn’t teach designers to code. It gave them back the decisions that were always theirs.

4

ai-interaction.com

AI Interaction Atlas

Comprehensive reference for designing AI experiences. 100+ patterns, visual examples, and reusable components.

5

karlkoch.me

On velocity gating

EMA smoothing, split engage/disengage thresholds, and directional hysteresis prevent strobe effects without debounce lag.

Monday04/06

1

bit.ly

AI prototyping tools: why control matters as much as speedSponsored

Most AI tools optimize for speed. ProtoPie AI is built for validation. Here’s why that matters for design teams working at a professional level.

2

uxdesign.cc

The design engineer symptom: what a rising job title reveals

Trying to define Design Engineering today, and why the confusion around it turned out to matter.

3

30u30.fyi

30 Under 30: Fraud Watch

We track the burn, the hype, and the inevitable pivot to litigation.

4

bitsplitting.org

The beginning of programming as we’ll know it

Is the human role of “computer programmer” coming to an end? Will the AI bots one day do all the programming for us?

5

timharford.com

What if AI just makes us work harder?

More multitasking. AI introduced a new rhythm in which workers managed several active threads at once.

Friday04/03

1

uxdesign.cc

The ground is shaking: Why designers must flip the script on AI

Something has shifted in the way the design field operates, and we haven’t yet found the words or identified the exact schema for it.

2

design-tokens-visualizer.vercel.app

Design tokens visualizer

Interactive visualization tool for exploring design tokens and their relationships across design systems.

3

nngroup.com

The 3 C’s of informational microcopy

Well-written informational microcopy should be clear, concise, and have character.

4

tombh.co.uk

The longest line of sight

How massive data processing and high-performance code can solve a singular, poetic curiosity.

5

smashingmagazine.com

A practical guide to Design Principles

Design principles with references, examples, and methods for quick look-up.

Thursday04/02

1

seangoedecke.com

Working on products people hate

Why building hated tools is often more impactful than building ignored ones.

2

huegrid.app

HueGrid

Create stunning gradients with 22+ modes — noise, dither, aurora, mesh, cosmic, liquid chrome, and more. Export as 5K images or code.

3

howmuch.tax

HowMuch.Tax

Calculate, visualize, and compare taxes across countries. See how your income is taxed with interactive charts and insights.

4

lesswrong.com

A mirror test for LLMs

In which we propose a new measure of LLM self-awareness but ultimately decide they fall short.

5

bradfrost.com

The creative infinite

How value moves from execution to curation and intent.

Wednesday04/01

1

dheer.co

Your ticket is a prompt

The instinct to break work into atomic tickets was right for human teams. For agents, it reproduces the same fragmentation disease at machine speed.

2

banray.eu

Ban Ray: Your face is not inventory

Meta sold seven million pairs of camera glasses. The people being filmed never consented. Ban them.

3

report.zeroheight.com

Design Systems Report 2026

Buy-in is down. Adoption is stalling. But AI is changing the game.

4

edkf.fyi

Portfolio Tips

Tips from designer friends on what they like to see in portfolios.

5

lzon.ca

The first 40 months of the AI era

Accumulated thoughts and ideas about AI since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.

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