When I was a kid, my dad gave me a piece of paper with a grid printed on it.

The musings of a designer on why he designs the way he does and what he’s learned along the journey.

An approach that promised to democratize design may have done the opposite.

Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers.

Unlock your own creative taste, and splatter your experiences into a sea of blank canvases

Thoughts on elevating product quality.

Why design isn’t always creative, and why that isn’t always a bad thing

The ultimate goal of product design has to be well-being — not delight.

Are we cut off from the outer world, trapped alone in our personal experience?

Is there a need for designers to up their skills and knowledge in the new industrial revolution?

Visual symbols are powerful ways to make social constructs —from fashion to government— feel legitimate, trustworthy, and familiar.

On design systems and this idea of “a source of truth.” Whose sources, and whose truths?

Some software interfaces are windows into collections of features.

Design has become intertwined with the most harmful dynamics of the social web.

I remember the first time I opened Microsoft Paint and created something on a computer.

Who are the humans and who are the bots? Human authentication, while preserving privacy, and removing anonymity is the answer.

It is tempting to build abstractions so developers have to do less and build more.

How returning to the craft taught me to be a better leader.

In 1995, I got my first PC with Windows 95 and my first web browser, unbeknownst to me at the time, was Internet Explorer 1.0.

I haven’t signed to any major web labels.