Design Details

This week, we discuss the future of designing on Macs. Are we moving to a PC-dominated future in the field? In The Sidebar we nit pick through the latest changes in Figma's Auto Layout v3.Latest VIP Patrons:Maxime DaraizeJamie RhodesVitaly OdemchukYuyang LuoYu ZhaoJaynish ShahShanbergAndy SantanaErica LesterChristopherMark GuillJørgen EidemThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we dig into everything new with Figma's Auto Layout v3: what we love, what we're hoping for, and other minor complaints about Figma's interface design.Main topic:Tamara Didenko asks: Is the Apple era going to be over eventually?MKBHD: Tiem to RecalibrateCool Things:Brian shared Design Theory, a YouTube channel that focuses on teaching the principles of great industrial design.Marshall shared the specs for his new gaming PC. Here's the key parts in case you're in the market to drop some stacks:Ryzen 9 Zen 3 5950XROG Strix 3090 OCROG Strix X570-E32GB 3600 DDR4 (8GBx4)Lian Li O-11 Dynamic case360mm Water-cooled CPURGB EverythingDesign Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesByyyee!

This week, we discuss the career paths and tradeoffs for someone who wants to do both design and development. In The Sidebar, we recap the Mac event and share our first impressions of the new iPhones.Latest VIP Patrons:Jordan IsipMatej HrescakFabiano SouzaDarren SoulsbyPriscillaOscar LingerGreg CorbyTamara DidenkoThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we recap the One More Thing Apple event, talking all about the new Macs and M1 chip. We also give an updated review on the iPhone 12s, now that ours have arrived.Follow up:Last week's episode has been turned into a blog post: Design to Save People from ThemselvesMain topic:dluft asks: I’m a Graphic Designer who wants to grow in his career. I want to change my job to either Product Design or Development (unsure if front or back end.) How should I decide which path to go down?Designer FundForm CapitalCombineCool Things:Brian shared Raycast. It's like Alfred, but designed for developers.Marshall shared Indie Game Devlog, a YouTube series following Robert Thomson's design process for a new computer game. The art styled is inspired by Mobile Frame Zero.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesByyyee!

This week, we brainstorm design patterns that help save people from themselves. From stopping the spread of misinformation, to saving eardrums, to screening spoilers, these design ideas are often clever and non-obvious. In the Sidebar, we discuss why radio and checkbox inputs are the way they are, and how to use them well in your designs.Latest VIP Patrons:JakeRichard SaseunHenningMelissa OhRichie PlanekJay SowellErin MayerThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we discuss why radio and checkbox inputs are different, and how to think about designing patterns to make form fields obvious to your users.Follow up:Jesse Box tweeted about a process that works for building a culture of excellence at their company:Include design quality tickets in each sprintQA lots of small tasks rather than one huge taskMichel van Heest tweeted: Also, @brian_lovin should write a book or something, or they should just transcript @designdetailsfmSurprise! We recently started transcribing episodes. They're rough, and pull requests are appreciated. Browse the transcripts hereMain topic:Divya Tak asked on Twitter: Not sure if this has already been tackled, but what are things that you do to "save the users from themselves" along the lines of @gamemakerstk's video for same thing for game design.Cool Things:Brian shared a person, Patrick McKenzie aka patio11 on Twitter and HNKey blog posts to start with: Salary Negotiation: Make More Money, Be More Valued and Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names.Otherwise dig into Patrick's greatest hits.Marshall shared Control, a third person action-adventure mystery-paranatural type game, and it is stunning. Be sure to watch the trailer or head to YouTube for some gameplay; this game is compelling.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesAnd that's the way it is!

This week, we dig into practical steps for creating a culture of design excellence. In The Sidebar, we share strategies for designing adaptive interfaces that work well on any screen size.Golden Ratio Patrons:Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know where you're working from with Float's scheduled status. Working from the lake house next week? Add it in Float to let your team know, ahead of time! Learn more at float.com/designdetails.Latest VIP Patrons:Ivaylo HadzhievEsteban GarcíaAli DashtiMaddy PascoDanny ThunderMordechai HammerThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we share strategies and workflows for designing consistent interfaces across all screen sizes.Follow up:Last week we talked about designing for one handAction sheets specPopovers specFitt's lawWhy are left-handers called southpaws?Shoutout to Geetha Kardahally for another week of transcript edits!Tweets:Connelly Rader says: One of my favorite thumb-able interfaces is Pocketcast’s customizable action bar at the bottom of the player. Allows the user to prioritize features and keeps them reachable 👏🏻Tweetbot has customizable tabs.Main topic:Andrew C. Asks: ...What steps can we take to make sure that not only is the work done properly after handoff, but try to establish a more widespread culture about caring about the work everyone is doing?Cool Things:Brian shared Halide Mark II, a fantastic camera app that unlocks the power of your iPhone's camera. Major design inspiration here.Marshall shared a posture corrector for men and women that has helped him to stay structurally sound in the age of COVID.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesSayonara marinara!

This week, we discuss the tradeoffs and challenges of designing interfaces for one-handed use. In The Sidebar, we talk about strategies for collaborating effectively with brand and product design.Golden Ratio Patrons:Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know where you're working from with Float's scheduled status. Working from the lake house next week? Add it in Float to let your team know, ahead of time! Learn more at float.com/designdetails.CuriosityStreamLearn about any topic with CuriosityStream; the first on-demand documentary streaming service. There is always something new to learn about with thousands of award-winning documentaries on Technology, History, Nature, Food, Science, Travel, and more! Can’t decide what to watch? Try CuriosityStream’s new feature, ON NOW, to watch a continuous stream of the best documentaries. Get an entire year of streaming for just $14.99 when you sign up at curiositystream.com/design.Latest VIP Patrons:Andrea MolnarAaron BurkhartDominic HolmesAltay AydemirAustin SchaferPfutzMable WongThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we talk about how to effectively collaborate between brand and product design.MKBHD discusses MagSafeRead more about Apple's breathing lightStacy Holmstead asked about how to get The Sidebar and full Patron episodes in one feed - you can! Grab the RSS feed from our Patreon home page and paste it into any podcast app (we recommend Pocket Casts).Stewart Scott-Curran wrote a Twitter thread outlining how they redesigned Loom as a unified brand and product design team.Follow up:Nectar by Joji continues to be on repeat.A reminder about our work journaling episode.Ya'll have pushed the first PRs to edit our transcripts! Check out the tweet and the code.Main topic:vinnie329 asks on our GitHub: I would love to get both your takes on the one-hand myth that a lot of designers seem to buy-in to when designing for mobile. The myth suggests that all people use one hand to interact with their phones and so interfaces should be designed accordingly. This may have been true on the early smartphones which were smaller and where apps tended to be simpler. However, with devices getting bigger and heavier it seems like people use both hands for more complex, high-stakes tasks (buying something) and one hand for simple, low-stakes tasks (scrolling through a feed). Is this what you guys have found to be true? And is there any recent research around how people use their hands to interact with their phones?Luke W. writes about designing for large screen smartphones.Read the Material spec for bottom app bars.Things and Halide have great bottom oriented UIs.Cool Things:Brian shared Loom, a fantastic little tool for quickly recording and sharing presentations to the cloud.Kap is still great.mmhmm looks neat, too.And we <3 DescriptMarshall shared Cracking the Cryptic, a YouTube channel that gets real nerdy about sudoku. But trust us, these videos are amazing. Start with this one.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesArrivederci!P.S. Gorlami

This week, we talk about the shallow parts of design culture, where superficial work tends to generate far more attention and praise. We dig into potential solutions for this, too. In The Sidebar, we recap and share our spicy takes on the iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro, and HomePod mini.Golden Ratio Patrons:Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know where you're working from with Float's scheduled status. Working from the lake house next week? Add it in Float to let your team know, ahead of time! Learn more at float.com/designdetails.CuriosityStreamLearn about any topic with CuriosityStream; the first on-demand documentary streaming service. There is always something new to learn about with thousands of award-winning documentaries on Technology, History, Nature, Food, Science, Travel, and more! Can’t decide what to watch? Try CuriosityStream’s new feature, ON NOW, to watch a continuous stream of the best documentaries. Get an entire year of streaming for just $14.99 when you sign up at curiositystream.com/design.Latest VIP Patrons:JorneJBraden SweetenAlterrique IngramThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we recap and share our spicy takes on the Apple Event, iPhone 12, and HomePod mini.EverythingAppleProBrandon ButchzollotechHomePod miniiPhone 12iPhone 12 ProFollow up:Gavin Nelson asked: "How does everyone organize their product design Figma files?"Brian's current approach is a file per release, a page per feature.Transcripts are going to live on our Design Details repository - we appreciate any and all contributions! We'll be pulling these onto the site in the future.The first transcript is here, let us know how this works for now!Tweets:Marvin Messenzehl has been work journaling, glad to hear it's working!Main topic:Daniel Burka tweeted: The current culture of design is weird:"I designed an icon with a gradient fill" ... everyone loses their shit 🎉"I wrote a book explaining a design process" ... polite clapping 👏"We spent three years designing a voting system used by millions" ... crickets 🦗We discuss what designers can do to generate more excitement about larger, more systemic projects on social media.Cool Things:Brian shared TheLazyPeon, a YouTube channel dedicated to everything MMORPG. If you're a fan of the genre, you might find something new here.Marshall shared Nectar, a new album from Joji. It's currently on repeat for both of us.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesHasta la vista!

This week, we discuss strategies for teaching design fundamentals and how to make the process engaging and fun for new designers. In The Sidebar, we discuss the pain of noticing problems right before you ship.Golden Ratio Patrons:Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know where you're working from with Float's scheduled status. Working from the lake house next week? Add it in Float to let your team know, ahead of time! Learn more at float.com/designdetails.CuriosityStreamLearn about any topic with CuriosityStream; the first on-demand documentary streaming service. There is always something new to learn about with thousands of award-winning documentaries on Technology, History, Nature, Food, Science, Travel, and more! Can’t decide what to watch? Try CuriosityStream’s new feature, ON NOW, to watch a continuous stream of the best documentaries. Get an entire year of streaming for just $14.99 when you sign up at curiositystream.com/design.Latest VIP Patrons:FloraKamil WanzekFrank MylesDevin RajaramKathy HatchThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we discuss the pain of noticing things you want to fix right before a ship – and how to avoid this situation!Follow up:Several of you volunteered to help transcribe (or proofread our transcriptions) for future episodes. We're going to figure out a process here - it will most likely live on GitHub!Listener question:This week, Carrie Rong asks:I'm a student in Canada, where I just started my university's first design community to introduce product, UX, and web design to people who have otherwise never heard of it before. I want to make sure that I teach others to have the mindset of correct design thinking and fundamentals, but I'm self taught myself and not sure how to approach this when everyone seems to just want to jump on the software and make pretty things (especially when my personal style is try to make stuff first, and basics later). I know that being a designer is more than knowing how to use Figma, and I don't want to breed mediocrity in design.Do you have any suggestions on getting people excited about design fundamentals and how to teach them? Or are the basics more something that you learn with time and practice?Laws of UXAbstract on NetflixThe Gap by Ira GlassCool Things:Brian shared Schitt's Creek, on recommendation from listener Manny XuMarshall shared Sideways, a YouTube channel that dissects the use of music in pop culture. For film essay nerds, this one is for you.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesAu revoir!

The discussion begins with a humorous take on Bend, Oregon's 'Misery Trail' and quirky trail names. The hosts dive into effective brainstorming techniques, emphasizing the balance between group collaboration and individual prep work. They also explore the impact of tools like Mural for remote brainstorming. Brutalism in interface design sparks a lively debate, while insights on accessibility and recent design updates provide valuable knowledge. Finally, productivity tools like BetterTouchTool and reflections on pop culture keep the conversation engaging.

This week, we discuss options for designers to close the gap to becoming a senior. In The Sidebar we try to identify what is the duct tape of design.Golden Ratio Patrons:Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. With float you can send your team their work schedule (daily or weekly) via Slack or email, and keep them in the loop of any changes to their tasks and projects with live notifications. You can also let your team know where you're working from with Float's scheduled status. Working from the lake house next week? Add it in Float to let your team know, ahead of time! Learn more at float.com/designdetails.Hover You don’t have a website yet? Are you even a designer? Today is the day - go get your domain name right this second. Hover has over 300 domain name extensions to choose from when building your brand online. No matter what area of the creative space you are in, there’s a domain name waiting for it - from .DESIGN, .ART to .INK, .PHOTO and so much more. Get 10% off your first purchase when you sign up at hover.com/designdetails.Latest VIP Patrons:Rachel TruongDiogo SergioKoenJayDomenicoThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, we try to figure out what is the "duct tape of design."This week's Sidebar question comes from Matt on GitHubIf you haven't seen the Papyrus SNL skit, now is the time.Swipies are awesome for sketching - it's reusable dry erase paper. We also have a discount code for you: DESIGNDETAILS will save you 10%.Industry Talk:This week we discuss what it takes to close the gap between being a junior and senior designer. Of course, our notes are not exhaustive, but hopefully offer some ideas for people in that situation who are looking to grow!Learn more about the Principal Agent Problem and learn to think like a principal.Cool Things:Brian shared eye masks, in general. Having trouble sleeping? Traveling and not going to be in a consistently-lit room for a while? An eye mask is not just for cartoonish rich people in the movies - you too can enjoy their benefits!Marshall shared Raised by Wolves, a new series on HBO that will certainly, for sure, without a doubt, take you away from all the troubles of the modern world. No sarcasm here, nope.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesBonsoir Elliot!

This week, we sat down with Danae Holmes, a UX researcher at YouTube Gaming to talk about everything UX research. We dig into research methodologies, effective collaboration with design, tips to get better at user research, the future of the field, and so much more.Golden Ratio Patrons:Float Float has been a lifeline for teams working remotely in 2020. It lets you keep track of who's working on what and plan your team's time, from anywhere! Float gives you an accurate view of your team's availability and capacity., allowing you to set custom work days and hours and schedule a status to let your team know where you're working from. Learn more at float.com/designdetails.Hover Hover has over 300 domain name extensions to choose from when building your brand online. No matter what area of the creative space you are in, there’s a domain name waiting for it - from .DESIGN, .ART to .INK, .PHOTO and so much more. Get 10% off your first purchase when you sign up at hover.com/designdetails.Sponsors:This week we're supported by Webflow! Webflow gives designers the power of code in a visual interface, allowing them to directly build whatever they have in mind without engineers.Webflow helps you take that next step in your design process by bringing the power of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript into a visual interface so designers can build completely custom designs without worrying about writing code. If you already know your HTML and CSS, you can drag in unstyled HTML elements for full control of your designs. If you’re not familiar with those languages yet, you can use pre-built pieces of interface for complex elements like sliders, tabs, background videos, and more. If you’ve used Figma or Sketch in the past, you’re going to be instantly familiar with Webflow’s symbols feature, allowing you to define your own shared components so that changes propagate across all of your pages, all at once. And of course, your creation won’t be real until you have real content populating the page - Webflow has you covered here, too, allowing you to work directly with a CMS or e-commerce data to build a rich, high fidelity website.Learn more at http://wfl.io/designdetails for 10% off annual plans on any new account. Latest VIP Patrons:Andrew HongSara KinellMariana BricioMark McCulloughAndrew PomeroyHugh LeoidssonAndre RodriguesTheStevenOlmosZhuohui LiJoseph PearlmanAndreas KaparosThe Sidebar:The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe starting at $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! Sign up at https://patreon.com/designdetails.In this week's Sidebar, as with all interview episodes, we ask bonus questions! This week we ask Danae:What skill do you think researchers overvalue?What skill do they undervalued?Is your success mostly the result of luck or hard work?Follow up:@muffmasterflash aka Monica says: I am filled with nitpicky rage when I see things under Settings that aren't things you can actually set, like FAQ, Contact, About, or T&Cs. But what to call that stuff collectively? "Help"?From now on, all new Sidebars will be posted separately on Patreon to make it easier for people to catch up on the backlog.Interview:This week we sat down with Danae Holmes, a UX researcher at YouTube, to talk all about user research in software design. We discuss the function of UX research in organizations, research methods (and how to choose one), the difference between qualitative and quantitative data, the pros and cons of using scripts, collaborating with product designers, and tips for anyone interested in learning more about research.System Usability Scale (SUS) provides a “quick and dirty” but reliable tool for measuring usabilitySet Phasers on Stun: And Other True Tales of Design, Technology, and Human ErrorUX Ya'll is a conference happening later this week. Learn more about Danae's presentation. Cool Things:Brian shared GitHub CLI, a simple but powerful new way to interact with GitHub from the command line. It's beginner-friendly, too, so if you're interested in learning more about git and GitHub, check it out!Danae shared Glyph, a molecular spirit with a beautiful design, good taste, and environmentally-conscious creation.Marshall shared all the neat new features in the latest AirPods Pro firmware update, including the magical spatial audio feature.Design Details on the Web:📻 We are @designdetailsfm🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at designdetailsfm@gmail.com🙌 Support us on Patreon - your support literally makes this show possible. Thank you ❤️❓ Got a question? Ask it on our Listener Questions Hub, and we'll do our best to answer it on the show :)⭐️ Enjoying the show? Leave us a review on iTunesBye bye bye!