Writing
Thoughts on technology, design, and building products.
> Imagined systems aren't a substitute for real ones.
Ideal failures> 80% of the people only need 20% of the features.
Free software scares normal people> You don’t want to have a conversation with your computer, you want to build.
Chat is a bad UI pattern for development tools> Atomic design was in use more than a decade before Brad Frost popularized the method.
Atomic design in 1998> Rebuttal to a widely-read article on visual design titled There is no grid.
There is definitely a grid> A lighthearted response to a popular series of articles critiquing trends in visual design.
The Eli Schiff problem> Shaming confusing and deceptive e-mail unsubscribe practices.
The right way to unsubscribe> The important thing is how well your design works, not what people think of it.
The fear of being right> A future of touch interaction in which screens are as big as our bodies want them to be.
We need a bigger touch screen> A call to do better than thoughtlessly reuse default browser dialogs.
Never use the confirm dialog> Reviewing the basics of interaction design as they relate to forms on the Web.
Checkboxes are never round