Category: Design

Thoughts on web and app design and cool inspiration or trends from around the Web.

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Thoughts on How to Speak Machine

How to Speak MachinePicked up John Maeda’s How to Speak Machine: Computational Thinking for the Rest of Us and read through it pretty quickly, but I’m not sure it was a worthwhile read for me and I don’t think I’d recommend it for anyone already familiar with modern software design.

Maeda spends the majority of the book’s 200 pages explaining the basics and extolling the value of UX research, product design, agile delivery, and iterative development and comparatively little on the actual premise of the book.

Both Amazon and Maeda frame the book as a way for designers to understand “the complex world of AI and machine learning”, but while it hints at AI’s transformative potential these mentions are more speculative than practical. There really isn’t any actionable insights or detailed explorations of how AI can concretely impact design work today.

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A Book Apart is shutting down

A Book Apart is shutting down: abookapart.com

An Event Apart closed up shop in 2022 and now their book publishing arm is doing the same. Their short, easy to read books on responsive web design, mobile first UX, and content strategy over a decade ago were foundational texts for me as I was growing as a user experience professional.

Sadly, considering how rarely new posts are showing up A List Apart, I worry it might be next on the chopping block.

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Invision is shutting down

Pour one out for Invision: InVision design collaboration services shutdown | Inside Design Blog

Tools like Invision, Zeplin, and Abstract came about to fill in feature gaps in products like Sketch and Photoshop and as those products added similar functionality and then Figma came in and ate all their lunches. I wonder if Invision turned down acquisition by Adobe at some point or did they really thing they could build their own design tool and compete?

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I wish the future had more buttons

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Carplay Porsche High Res 2048x1152

Apple shows off more of the next generation of CarPlay with Aston Martin and Porsche. I’m still not sure if it will ever actually release in any cars anyone actually owns, but Apple’s Next Generation CarPlay does look pretty cool and also looks like it could desperately use some physical controls.

Crossposted on Mastodon

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Video: An introduction to Photoshop’s Generative Fill

Adobe’s five minute demo of their new AI-based Generative Fill feature in Photoshop is absolutely incredible. Check it out:

I think using AI for iterative creation like this could be the more interesting new capability AI gives us, at least for for a little while. Fabricating new images from thin air still has so many obvious flaws (ethically, technically, and artistically) so this type of use seems like it could be both more successful while also less ethically murky.

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The Verge Color Quiz

The Verge Color Quiz

Take The Verge’s Color Quiz to test your color recognition skills and see if you can identify the hues of the logos of various tech brands. I did pretty terrible and only got 3 out of 8 right. The most interesting bit is post quiz when they give some background of the company logos and how they changed over time.