Design Details

This week, we welcome Tea Chang, a UX Designer working on League of Legends at Riot Games, to talk about designing user experiences for gamers. At the end of the show, Tea sticks around for a long, spoiler-filled discussion of Avengers: Endgame. In Follow-up, we read and respond to your feedback regarding the cover art concept from last week. And as always, we share a few cool things, like a video series about movies, some state-specific branding, and a little indie film about superheroes. Spoilers spoilers spoilers. Spoilers. Sponsor: >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) This week's episode is brought to you by Abstract Abstract is design workflow management for modern design teams. With Abstract, you can bring your design workflow into a single, unified place for designers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate and keep work moving forward. Sign your team up for a free, 30-day trial today by heading over to abstract.com. And if you tweet at @goabstract and @designdetailsfm, with the phrase “improve my design workflow” you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $500 credit to their Business plan. Follow-up: Last week, we tweeted out a first draft of the new cover art Video: "The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup" Brett Yanoski likes the mask idea but thinks the execution needs work Ryan Morrison and Luca Orio gave us their seals of approval Alex Binder likes the graphic Ds Chrish Dunne would prefer a better logotype and more abstract Ds Follow us on Twitter and stay tuned for more versions of the cover art Mskellybrooks left us a very nice iTunes review You can leave one for us, too :) Interview: Check out Tea Chang on Twitter and at her personal site League of Legends is a wildly popular multiplayer online battle arena game from Riot Games Video: "Playtesting - How to Get Good Feedback on Your Game - Extra Credits" Literally unplayable is "an expression—often sarcastic—indicating that a video game is so badly broken that it prevents a player from progressing or enjoying the experience" Vivi Rosenstein's stance on assigning blame for suboptimal design has matured over the years Banner blindness is "a phenomenon in web usability where visitors to a website consciously or unconsciously ignore banner-like information" Article: "Get ready to see more ads on Google’s traffic app Waze" Adobe XD is "the fastest way to design, prototype, and share any user experience" Video: "The Magic of Making Sound" is a great peek into foley, an art which, when done well, goes unnoticed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild forces you to use a wide range of weapons by making them both easy to find and quick to break Video game design is "the process of designing the content and rules of a video game in the pre-production stage" Article: "'Mortal Kombat 11' Requires More Than $6,000 to 100%, According to Early Estimates" We talked about the interface and game design of Apex Legends on episode 283: Deadly American Idol In the gorgeous game Gris, "light puzzles, platforming sequences, and optional skill-based challenges reveal themselves as more of Gris’s world becomes accessible" Video: "Portal 2 Intro", in which a tutorial is hidden behind a funny, story-driven calibration test One Cool Thing: Brian shared Patrick H. Willems, a YouTuber who makes videos about movies Check out the Patrick Explains series, especially the one about The Fast and the Furious Gabriel Valdivia introduced Brian to the channel Tea shared the team page for Mayor Pete Buttigieg, which has some really nice branding for each US state Shepard Fairey is famous for his Obama Hope poster (and the Obey clothing brand) Marshall shared Avengers: Endgame and discussed it with Tea and Brian in a segment called... Endgame Discussion: !!! SPOILERS !!! Video: "Every Avengers: Endgame Easter Egg", in which 209 easter eggs are enumerated Video: "Rocky Training" is the prototypical montage sequence showing a protagonist's improvement over time The Dark Night of the Soul is "a moment, usually at the end of the second act of a three-act story, where all seems lost and the protagonist must confront 'a collapse of perceived meaning'" r/inthesoulstone !!! SPOILERS !!! Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin and hi@brianlovin.com Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we bring back the Fight Me segment with a debate on the usefulness of augmented reality in apps. Is it a gimmick or not? In Follow-up, we debut a proposal for our new cover art, and we shout out Linzi Berry's latest blog post. And as always, we share a couple cool things like an addictive game and a bizarre novel. Cover photo by Niantic via The Verge Follow-up: If you missed last week's episode with Linzi Berry, give it a listen Erik Bro shared the episode with his fellow designers at Reddit Here's the new cover art proposal, in case you don't see it in your podcast player of choice The current cover art is by Ryan Morrison Email us with your cover art ideas at hi@brianlovin.com Article: "A system built on parity: How to treat all of your users equally" by Linzi Berry, Kathy Ma, and Sam Soffes Read it on the newly redesigned site for DesignSystems.com from Figma Fight Me: Article: "How Does the Magic Yellow First-Down Line Work?" Site: Pokémon Go lets you "catch Pokémon in the real world" Photo: Old Man Yells at Cloud is a Simpsons reference and Marshall sometimes Photo: Old car radios have these big, spring-loaded buttons that move a physical needle App: Wanna Kicks lets you "try on and shop footwear in AR" Site: Apple - Augmented Reality for iOS is Apple's case for augmented reality App: WordLens (now a feature within Google Translate) lets you "see the world in your language" Video: "Hearthstone Animated Short: Hearth and Home" is pure joy One Cool Thing: Brian shared Factory Town, an early access simulation game that lets you "build, automate, and optimize your own village on procedurally-generated 3D terrain" It's a lot like Factorio, "a game in which you build and maintain factories" Article: "Engineering with Redstone in Minecraft" Marshall shared John Dies at the End, a novel that deftly balances Lovecraftian horror with shameless potty humor The movie version is currently available to stream on Hulu Marshall also read Children of Time, which was kinda meh Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we welcome to the show Linzi Berry, a manager on Lyft's design system. Linzi enlightens us on how to implement, maintain, enforce, evangelize, and roll out a design system, and we discuss her super informative design blog, Tap to Dismiss. In Follow-up, we debate some Episode 300 suggestions, revisit the Figma UI refresh, and shout out a quality-of-life improvement in Sketch 54. And as always, we (all three of us!) share some cool things, including a historic photo, a video to help understand that photo, and an update on the Bobiverse. Sponsor: >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) This week's episode is brought to you by Abstract Abstract is design workflow management for modern design teams. With Abstract, you can bring your design workflow into a single, unified place for designers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate and keep work moving forward. Sign your team up for a free, 30-day trial today by heading over to abstract.com. And if you tweet at @goabstract and @designdetailsfm, with the phrase “improve my design workflow” you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $500 credit to their Business plan. Follow-up: Jonathan Fisher sent us some great ideas for Episode 300, including having Bryn back on the show Send your Ep 300 ideas to us @designdetailsfm Jason Csizmadi wishes we had talked more about the Figma UI Refresh Sketch 54 has some nice quality-of-life improvements Chris Doner wants some details about tactical usage of a design system SMASH CUT TO: Interview: Linzi Berry (site) is a design manager on the Lyft Design System She worked at Odopod on stuff for SpaceX, Tesla, Fitbit, and Audemars Piguet Watch brands pop up in rap songs a lot thanks to Jay-Z and Beyoncé WalkSF is "your advocate for safe streets for all" Better Market Street is a collaboration "initiating a number of improvements to test ways to improve Market Street" Michael Wang, formerly at Lyft, is a designer at Northstar Peak2Peak is "the ultimate urban walking adventure" Walk to Work Day is SF's "annual celebration of our walking city – and of everyone who walks" Brown Bag Meetings are " informal meetings that occur in the workplace generally around lunchtime" Colorbox is a tool created by Kevyn Arnott Tap to Dismiss is Linzi's Medium blog that "sweats the details so you don't have to" Divider Lines are deceptively hard Sam Soffes coined the term "Choice Chip Bag" Linda Dong is a design manager at Lyft, too One Cool Thing: Linzi shared the first photo ever taken of a black hole Marshall shared "How to Understand the Image of a Black Hole", a video by Veratasium Brian shared For We Are Many, Book 2 of the Bobiverse Trilogy by Dennis E. Taylor Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we discuss Figma's UI redesign, the public response to it, and how to effectively communicate negative feedback to both companies and colleagues. In Follow-up, Brian has an update on a previous Cool Thing, we read some listener feedback (all positive, phew!), and Marshall shares his choice of AirPower replacement. And as always, we share a couple cool things, like a fellow designer's website and a new music album. Sponsor: >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) This week's episode is brought to you by Abstract Abstract is design workflow management for modern design teams. With Abstract, you can bring your design workflow into a single, unified place for designers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate and keep work moving forward. Sign your team up for a free, 30-day trial today by heading over to abstract.com. And if you tweet at @goabstract and @designdetailsfm, with the phrase “improve my design workflow” you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $500 credit to their Business plan. Follow-up: Pssst! What should we do for Episode 300? Let us know! Brian is reading We Are Legion (We Are Bob), the first book in the Bobiverse trilogy and Marshall's Cool Thing suggestion from last episode Chris Doner likes how Artboard Manager reorders artboards in the Layer List to reflect their positions on the Canvas Cameron Campbell thinks we should have a Patreon to support 3-hour episodes O_o Brian tweeted a poll asking how much money one would need in order to stop working for the rest of one's life Marshall purchased the SliceCharge 2 to fill the AirPower-shaped hole in his heart Hard Cider Labs also makes the BassCanon attachment for Ear/AirPods Tool Review: Figma Blog: "We refreshed Figma's UI: An inside look at our process" by Rasmus Andersson Microsoft Office's Ribbon UI is being redesigned Spectrum v3's redesign received a lot of feedback There was a Spectrum discussion of the Figma redesign Shit sandwich (shĭt sănd′wĭch) n. - a method of softening negative feedback by prepending and appending positive feedback Just ask EA about negative customer feedback People mocked the "Wii" and "iPad" monikers for a little while until no one cared anymore One Cool Thing: Brian shared the personal website for his Ryan Morrison (not Marshall's Ryan Morrison) Marshall shared Billie Eilish's new album When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? Reprise (rĭ-prēz′) n. - a repetition of a phrase or verse; a return to an original theme Lil Dicky - Molly feat. Brendon Urie Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we answer listener questions, including how to transition from engineering to product design, how to wrap up before moving to a new company, and what we think of apps that allow you to change the launch icon. In Follow-up, we read some listener feedback about last episode, and Marshall fills in a couple details on his file organization tips. In News, we lament the untimely death of AirPower (rip rip). And as always, we share a couple cool things like a sci-fi movie and a sci-fi book trilogy. Sponsor: >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) This week's episode is brought to you by Abstract Abstract is design workflow management for modern design teams. With Abstract, you can bring your design workflow into a single, unified place for designers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate and keep work moving forward. Sign your team up for a free, 30-day trial today by heading over to abstract.com. And if you tweet at @goabstract and @designdetailsfm, with the phrase “improve my design workflow” you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $500 credit to their Business plan. Follow-up: We had some good feedback from our last episode about design file hygiene: Cal Rowston noticed a few gems among all the babbling Tim Bendt could listen to layer organization tips forever (which is a totally normal thing btw) Katherine's heart was warmed by Marshall's obsessive compulsions Ryan Hayen wants to start a layer organization OCD support group Anthony Collurafici pointed us to a Medium article by Andy Detskas that explains how to organize your artboards with serialization Marshall adds a couple details to his file organization tips: Layer Tools has a couple especially useful renaming actions: "Find and Replace..." and "Prepend/Append to Selected Layer Names..." In addition to "thinking in divs," try to order the layers and groups in your Layer List just as they appear in the mock, from top-left to bottom-right Keyboard Maestro is a super-powered macro utility for Mac ICYMI, here's the Sketch file for Marshall's unsolicited NYT Crossword app redesign that he shared last episode as an example of maniacal file organizational News: AirPower has been cancelled: Video: Phil Schiller announces the AirPower charging mat Article: Apple cancels AirPower wireless charger Article: "Apple's Phil Schiller explains why the white iPhone 4 took so long" AirPower is pictured on the new AirPods packaging Video: "The Death of Airpower: Explained!" Listener Questions: >> If you'd like to ask us a question, we're @designdetailsfm on Twitter, or email us: hi@brianlovin.com or marshallbock@gmail.com Sofia F asks what we think about apps like Streaks that offer different launch icons We love it! Here are some other apps we use that do this: Bear is "a beautiful, flexible writing app for crafting notes and prose" Tweetbot is "a Twitter client with personality" Pocket Casts is "the world's most powerful podcast platform" Apollo is "a beautiful Reddit app built for power and speed" David Lanham is an illustrator with an endearing style Anonymous asks what we think about transitioning from Engineering to Product Design Do some side projects or case studies to beef up your portfolio and gain some experience Sit with your fellow product designers and offer to help wherever needed Anonymous asks about transitioning to a new company Leave your active projects in good shape, either finishing them yourself or handing them off to an informed successor If you've already gotten an offer, they're probably gonna be cool with you wrapping up your active projects before transitioning One Cool Thing: Brian shared Prospect, a sci-fi movie about "a teenage girl and her father who travel to a remote alien moon, aiming to strike it rich" Pedro Pascal Sophie Thatcher Andre Royo The Wire is a show about the Baltimore drug scene, seen through the eyes of drug dealers and law enforcement Marshall shared We Are Legion (We Are Bob), the first book in a sci-fi trilogy about a software engineer who unwittingly becomes an AI and humanity's last hope for survival Ready Player One has a similar tone but tries a little too hard Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, Marshall offers a few simple tips for tidying up your source files, and we answer a listener question about when to move on from a company. In News, we shout out a new resource from the maker of Laws of UX. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a browser for neoworkers and an article about the Omnibox. Follow-up: Last week, Marshall recommended the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9500 Electric Toothbrush Brian doesn't think it's worth the money, unless you're into Mercedes-Benz, apparently News: Humane by Design is "a resource that provides guidance for designing ethically humane digital products through patterns focused on user well-being" It's made by Jon Yablonski, who you might remember as the maker of Laws of UX referenced in 271: Principles of Design Listener Question: Anonymous has been at a startup for years and doesn't know where it's going. They ask, "Should I stay and fight the good fight? Or should I go to a bigger company and make more money?" Loss Aversion and the Sunk Cost Fallacy on Wikipedia Kristy Tillman is the Head of Global Experience Design at Slack Do you have a question you'd like to hear us answer on the show? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com Industry Talk: A few simple rules: Rename and structure your layers as you create them If you find yourself duplicating an element frequently, make it a symbol Use "Bounds" layers to define a group's area, then snap groups together like Lego Sketch Plugins: Layer Tools Automate Artboard Manager Symbol Organizer Runner Here the Sketch Cloud source file for Marshall's unsolicited redesign of the New York Times Crossword app on iOS Importing the file into Figma resulted in some unexpected insanity, but hopefully you can see through the mistranslations and grok the structure. Sorry :( One Cool Thing: Brian shared NOVA, a web browser "designed for the way we interact with the web today, made for the neoworkers" (whatever those are) Moom is a simple Mac utility that "makes window management as easy as clicking a mouse button" Nova's app icon isn't nearly as bold as its marketing page Marshall shared Unboxing Chrome, a Medium article by Hannah Lee about the monumental task of redesigning Chrome's Omnibox Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we answer a listener question about articulating design rationale during presentations. We also shared some exciting news from the Sketch team and recapped feedback from last week's episode where we pulled back the curtain on Design Details. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a fancy toothbrush and a web app to make your own generative art. Sponsor: This week's episode is brought to you by Abstract Abstract is design workflow management for modern design teams. With Abstract, you can bring your design workflow into a single, unified place for designers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate and keep work moving forward. Sign your team up for a free, 30-day trial today by heading over to abstract.com. And if you tweet at @goabstract and @designdetailsfm, with the phrase “improve my design workflow” you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $500 credit to their Business plan. >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) Follow-up: Last week we pulled back the curtain on Design Details and asked for your feedback. You replied! Some key takeaways: Our titles need to be more straightforward and clear. We need to bring back interviews, at a non-regular frequency, to balance our opinions and provide new insight . We should try new ways of engaging with designers outside of the podcast - thank you to Kevin Gutowksi for the notes! Our Twitter poll about the proper pronunciation of "favicon" had a lot of votes, and some interesting results. News: Sketch announced a $20m fundraising round to help them build new collaboration tools and a web version coming in 2019. In the past we've interviewed Chris Downer and Pieter Omvlee from the Sketch team - listen to those to learn more about Sketch and how they thought about fundraising at the time. Our good friends on the Layout podcast also discussed the Sketch news on this week's episode. Listener Questions: Silvia asks: "I'd love to get advice on how to present my design rationale to others, and ways I can improve rationale overall. I find that I do have reasons for the design choices I made but when presenting I can't seem to put into words." Jobs to be done is a useful framework for understanding critical user journeys and validating rationale. One Cool Thing: Marshall shared the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9500, a toothbrush that can do everything except take out your trash. Brian shared Tinkersynth, a web app created by Josh Comeau that lets you playfully create generative art. Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we pull back the curtain on Design Details itself and share how we think about iterating toward a better podcast. In Follow-up, we hear back about our Spectre critique from last episode, and we discover listeners do listen until the end. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a fancy toilet seat and a design interview FAQ. Sponsor: This week's episode is brought to you by Abstract Abstract is design workflow management for modern design teams. With Abstract, you can bring your design workflow into a single, unified place for designers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate and keep work moving forward. Sign your team up for a free, 30-day trial today by heading over to abstract.com. And if you tweet at @goabstract and @designdetailsfm, with the phrase “improve my design workflow” you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $500 credit to their Business plan. >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) Follow-up: Sebastiaan de With replied to our Spectre review There's a favicon (and Apple icon) on spectre.cam now Grace Lee enjoyed the stinger from last episode Jak McCormack always listens to the end One Cool Thing: Marshall shared the Toto s550e Washlet, a bidet seat that makes life worth living Brian shared Design Interviewing: Ask Me Anything, some advice on design interviews from Kurt Varner based on his time as a hiring manager at Dropbox Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we kindly critique the design details of Spectre, a new app from the folks behind Halide. In Follow-up, we discuss knowing when to shut up in a negotiation, and in Industry Talk, we debate when it's okay to break the rules of affordances. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a new home and some wild music videos. Sponsor: This week's episode is brought to you by Abstract Abstract is design workflow management for modern design teams. With Abstract, you can bring your design workflow into a single, unified place for designers, developers, and stakeholders to collaborate and keep work moving forward. Sign your team up for a free, 30-day trial today by heading over to goabstract.com. And if you tweet at @goabstract and @designdetailsfm, with the phrase “improve my design workflow” you’ll be entered for a chance to win a $500 credit to their Business plan. >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) Follow-up: Mahmoud Bachir says "Something I've heard in regards to salary negotiation is to state your number concisely, then stop talking." Pssst! Sometimes, it pays to listen until after the outro music (43:39) Industry Talk: affordance - n. the quality or property of an object that defines its possible uses or makes clear how it can or should be used The Design of Everyday Things uses Norman doors (video) as an example of a good affordance Reddit: Faucet at a restaurant Here's a link to the Twitter composer modal "More wood, fewer arrows" Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - Chilled Monkey Brains App Launch: Sebastiaan de With and Ben Sandofsky, the duo behind Halide, have released Spectre, an AI-powered shutter for your iPhone, letting you create amazing long exposures Spectre (2015) Spectre's launch icon resembles both an "S" and a camera lens, and it echoes the app interface One Cool Thing: Brian shared that he found a place to call his own in NYC \o/ Marshall shared the work of Billie Eilish, a singer-songwriter and maker of amazingly bizarre music videos Recommended: you should see me in a crown, when the party's over, bury a friend, hostage Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!

This week, we discuss spoken accents, answer a listener question about salary negotiations, and Marshall dives deep into the design of Apex Legends. And as always, we share a couple cool things, like a hip hop musical and a way to bring joy back to your Twitter timeline. Intro: Jak McCormack wants us to attempt English accents. No thank you, Jak 😜 "That's bait" Follow-up: Anton Osipov shared a helpful visual for using a unit-based vertical baseline. Zain Khoja shared studentswho.design, a podcast bridging the gap between students and the design industry - by students, for students. Listener Questions: An anonymous listener asks: "I’m about to change jobs and soon I’ll have initial call with someone from one of the companies I could potentially work for. I don’t want to invest too much of my time in multiple calls and meetings with them before being sure the offer meets my expectations, especially in terms of salary. But I also don’t want to be considered as one of those guys who care only about money. So my question is: what’s the right moment to talk about this? Should that be something to talk about during the very first call? Or maybe later? For context: it was the company who reached out to me whether I’d be interested in the role." HBR wrote about what people want from their jobs. Explain Like I'm Five: Marshall goes deep into the world of Apex Legends. Charlie Deets explains the magic of communication in Apex Legends Battle Royale, based on the novel by Koushun Takami, is a film from 2000 in which the Japanese government captures a class of ninth-grade students and forces them to kill each other under the revolutionary "Battle Royale" act PUBG, Fortnite, and Call of Duty: Blackout are popular games in the battle royale genre Respawn Entertainment is the company behind Apex Legends, who are well known for the Titanfall series Watch Apex Legends to get a better feel for how the game works One Cool Thing: Marshall shared Hamilton (Original Broadway Cast Recording), an album from the musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda Brian shared Tokimeki Unfollow by Julius Tarng, a tool to help you bring joy back to your Twitter timeline, based on Marie Kondo's KonMari method Design Details on the Web: We are @designdetailsfm Brian is @brian_lovin Marshall is @marshallbock @Sarahberus and @Luperdev make us sound smarter than we are Join the conversation on Spectrum or leave us a review on iTunes BYEEEEE!