Ideas and Discoveries
Personal and professional notes about our craft, technique, and the role of design in the world.
ai
AI and Design Systems
The new crop of AI tools are already supercharging design system efforts across many categories, and we’re helping our clients use AI to do exactly that. Big Medium’s Brad Frost, Kevin Coyle, and Ian Frost show how.
design system
Don't Put Crap in the Design System
Crap is rushed work, shortcuts, experiments, and other unvetted/unverified work. While crap is an unavoidable part of product design & development, it has no place in a design system. In this post, Brad Frost introduces tactics to prevent crap from infiltrating your design system.
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What we’re reading
We Need To Talk About Our AI Fetish
In a powerful and historically grounded essay, Jeremy Wagstaff asks that we not abdicate the vision for AI solely to the companies who stand to gain from it.
Nobody Wants To Work with Our Best Engineer
Jacob Bennett on kindness as competitive advantage.
John Maeda: Josh Clark's 2019 talk on Design and AI
Design legend John Maeda discovers some old gold from Big Medium’s Josh Clark.
US Air Force Confirms First Successful AI Dogfight
This is fine.
Looking for AI Use Cases
What do we do with this thing? Benedict Evans writes that our imaginations haven’t quite caught up with truly useful applications for LLMs.
AI + Design: Figma Users Tell Us What’s Coming Next
A survey of Figma users indicates that AI is making its way into most companies’ product pipelines, but the solutions they’re shipping are… uninspired.
Recent Writing
design system
The Art of Design System Recipes
Recipes take a design system’s components and make delicious, product-specific compositions out of them. Brad Frost breaks down the art of wielding recipes for digital UI success.
leadership
Do More with Less: Digital Leadership in Lean Times
Josh Clark shares nine principles to guide high-performing teams to deliver faster/better/cheaper in an era of shrinking budgets.
design system
What's Next for a Global Design System
Since proposing a Global Design System, Big Medium’s Brad Frost has received a flood of responses—from positive to skeptical to scathing. Here’s a rundown and what’s next.
design system
A Global Design System
Big Medium’s Brad Frost issues a call to action to create a Global Design System of common UI components. What would this look like, and what would it mean for you?
process
Ship Faster by Building Design Systems Slower
Successful design systems can and should move more slowly than the products they support—but a deliberate pace doesn’t have to create bottlenecks. Josh Clark shows how to reconcile the needs and speeds of product versus design system.
design system
The Design System Ecosystem
Brad Frost explores the landscape of a mature, end-to-end design system for big, complex organizations. Discover all the moving pieces and how they hang together.
process
Only One Deliverable Matters
Too much design effort goes into artifacts that are not part of the working software. There’s a better way to work.
design system
The Most Exciting Design Systems Are Boring
Design systems should solve problems that designers confront over and over again, so that they can turn to more interesting challenges.
sentient design
You’re Not Late to Machine Learning
If you’re worried that you’re behind in getting in on machine learning, never fear: AI has not so much come of age as reached an awkward adolescence. You’re right on time.
sentient design
Why Machine Learning and AI Matter for Design Teams
There’s a critical role for design in the era of the algorithm—and your organization almost certainly has what it needs to jump in today.
video
Design Systems: Mastering Design at Scale
In this InVision video series, Brad Frost, Dan Mall, and Josh Clark share their know-how to help you build and use a design system.
podcast
Designing with Artificial Intelligence: The Dinosaur on a Surfboard
On the Presentable podcast, Josh Clark joins Jeff Veen to consider the role for designers in a world of algorithms and machine learning.