Design Details

By Brian Lovin, Marshall BockTechnology Arts Design

Design Details episodes

April 29, 2020344: Knowing When to Give Up a Fight
This week, we try to figure out the right time to give up on a fight when collaborating with stakeholders who have different opinions and priorities. We also cover a lot of feedback this week, discuss new design resources in The Sidebar, and share our cool things of the week.
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Udoka Chima
Achal Srinivasan
Priyanka Kodikal
Sean Kennedy
Lucas Morales
Sam Bazalo
Luciano Infanti
Pavel Fomchenkov
The Sidebar:
The Sidebar is an exclusive weekly segment for our Patreon supporters. You can subscribe for just $1 per month for access to full episodes going forward! https://patreon.com/designdetails.
In this week's Sidebar we share a neat CSS library and a pro tip for customizing your personal websites.
Follow-up:
Some of ya'll finally shared your shameful early work - thank you! We love it.
Patrick Marx shared some relatively new work from 2014.
Katarina Blind shared an early stage mock for a "pirate Uber" to request a ride from her brother. Smart.
Zain Khoja shared his first Medium case study.
Keaton Taylor shared a live URL for some early work and, boy oh boy, is it fun.
Lucas Morales also shared a live URL for some earlier work, complete with a splash page!
Kevin Bennett agreed with our thoughts on paper prototypes - there's a time and a place, and for this type of work, it's exceedingly rare.
Keaton Taylor also agreed with our thoughts on the overvalue placed on pixel perfection and originality - glad to hear it resonated!
Listener Question:
Karl asks:
Sometimes, and we’ve all been there, you know what you’re doing is right. Let’s say, fighting for a darker blue to pass accessibility requirements or visualising data in a simplified graphic rather than a complex multi-dimensional graph, to appeal to a wider audience. You’ve presented this with justification and examples or clear guideline recommendations (say a design system) but it’s ignored. How do you guys generally know when to back down and stop fighting for what you know to be right based your design experience, and bow to the Product Manager/Owner’s opinion even if it’s not steeped in fact?
Cap Watkins' Sliding Scale of Giving a Fuck is a wonderful framework for picking battles.
Cool Things:
Brian shared a very fun 12-minute "single cut" action sequence from the latest Netflix movie, Extraction.
You can read more about how this scene was created here.
This reminded Marshall of the [crazy mirror sequence](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZD0_5HFMPIg from Contact.
Marshall shared his ongoing journey to beat the Juul addiction. Quarantine as a forcing function for positive habit development - win!
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
BYEEEEE!
30 min
April 22, 2020343: Over and Undervalued Design Skills
This week, we introduce a new supporter-only show segment, The Sidebar. Each week we'll be sharing a story, pro-tip, shortcut, or design-related cool thing. Supporters on Patreon will hear the first story today!
We also discuss the most over and undervalued design skills, including feedback from folks on Twitter.
And, of course, we share our cool finds of the week!
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Ritu Maghera
Jacob Lindström
Dave Epstein
Dan
Omar Hassan
Marco
Lars Anttila
The Sidebar:
We've been behind on Bonusland, and it's been a challenge for us to catch up. Additionally, we felt like bonus episodes were too infrequent and not compelling enough as a Patreon reward.
This week we're starting a new experiment to make the patron rewards much better. It's a new segment of every episode called The Sidebar. In The Sidebar we will be sharing a story, pro-tip, shortcut, or design-related tidbit.
In today's Sidebar, we talk about Marshall's 8-year anniversary at Google, and what it means to play the long game.
Read more about how we ended up here + the inspiration by way of Michael Knepprath.
Follow-up:
Elvin was the only listener who shared screenshots of early work with us - and it was good work!
Second call to action: send us your early portfolio work that you're ashamed of!
Listener Question:
Paweł Sysiak asks a hat-trick listener question:
"What are the most valuable (and overlooked) skills for the entry-level designer and senior designer? The flip side of this question is also interesting. What skills are overvalued for junior and senior designers?"
The Mom Test is a great primer on how to ask better research questions.
We asked Twitter for ideas, too:
T says: "Most valuable for entry: Taste, attention to details, ready to listen, motivation. Senior: ready to learn, adapt, question past experience and delegate"
Nathan Lindhal says: "Learning to communicate with stakeholders, peers, etc is an extremely valuable skill. But it would be unfair to expect this from entry level position. But knowing the fundamentals (can this person do the work) and a commitment to improvement are underrated."
Ollie hit us with a thread:
- "I think foundational design skills like typography hierarchy are underrated, whilst beautiful portfolios are overrated."
- "I think it would be unfair to expect such strong communication skills from all entry-level designers, I think it is perhaps the most valuable skill."
- "Communication as a skill can be a 'buzz word-y' so i'll specify. I think an entry-level designer that can join a team and comfortably question the status quo and speak out when they are unsure is a highly valuable trait."
- "In my (limited) experience it takes the weight off of their supporting mid/senior designers. It's also an important component to entry-level designers learning on the job."
Emma Gilbert says: "Most valuable: resourcefulness. There are unknowns at some point of every project. If a person can find momentum on their own by seeking out and not waiting for answers, that’s someone I want to work with."
Jordan Koschei says: "The ability to communicate clearly verbally, through writing, and through visuals. And the ability to understand and translate between design, engineering, and business concerns. The best designers have some product management DNA too!"
Cool Things:
Brian shared The Matrix, one of those rare films that holds the fuck up. If you have somehow not seen this, now is the time. What a ride!
Can't Get Enough of Keanu is a wonderful and fun podcast to accompany your watching experience.
Marshall shared the return of Apple's Build Your Collection promo, featuring awesome films at steep discounts. If you're a movie-buyer, now's the time to strike!
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
BYEEEEE!
37 min
April 15, 2020342: Critiquing Our Early Work
This week, we dig into the dregs of our portfolios to critique some of earliest design work. We try to look for indicators of taste and fundamentals, but ultimately have a good laugh about our early mocks. We'd love to see your early work too, so share it with us on Twitter this week!
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Gediminas Saulis
Joshua Overbye
Catherine Gui
Andrew Cianci
Hao Le
Nathan Dorney
Luigi Chelli
Azmy Hanifa
Follow-up:
ipadmenu.study is a neat case study about how to add a universal menu to iPad applications. Icons abound!
Jacob Lindström recommends Cross-Cultural Design from A Book Apart.
Pawel Sysiak said thanks for answering two questions, and to that we say: thank you for asking good questions!
Tweets:
Michael Knepprath wants to see our files. Unfortunately we can't share our real-world files, but we'll try to think of something we could do...
Eric Chen is back in the past listening to episode 264. Luckily a designer is never late, they arrive exactly when they intend to.
Sharing our shame:
Last week Brian tweeted his earliest web design work, found in the dregs of pixel hell. We learn that Brian had no taste, eyes, or sense of spacing in his early years. Ouch.
Marshall digs into his portfolio on Dribbble, almost 10 years old now! And we don't hate everything here, it's clear that there was taste and an eye for the fundamentals.
Look at these switches!
We still think there's something promising about this attachments idea.
/r/ATBGE should provide you with some good laughs.
Brian's Dribbble started 5 years after the screenshots in the tweet, so they are marginally better.
Cool Things:
Brian shared Dave, a show created by Lil Dicky. Think: Curb Your Enthusiasm meets a 20-something rapper.
Marshall shared Hue Lighststrips, which when combined with motion detectors, can provide a great night-time user experience. And in general, they look awesome.
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
Otherwise, bye!
35 min
April 08, 2020341: Counterintuitive User Experiences
This week, we talk about counterintuitive user experiences that designers regularly design for in our day to day work. Let us know what we missed! As always, we catch up on feedback, tweets, and share our cool things of the week: a blog post explaining how to polish an interface, and a YouTube series about first-time reactions.
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Rodrigo Antonio DeLima
Arkadiusz Bartnik
Hello Hill
Steffie
Elvin Hu
Daniel
Mark McEwan
Follow-up:
Samuel Bernhardt shared some more Figma file organization tips – thank you!
Tweets:
Thijs Bremeesch thinks our podcast is GOLD. We like gooooold.
Elvin says we're contributing to ongoing sanity – glad we can help a tiny bit!
Ben Dunn is a new fan from New Zealand - welcome to the pod!
Katarina Blind says last week's episode made her day. Katarina also bumped us up to $1.28 on the Patreon – you're the best!
News:
Apple accidentally leaked AirTags, hopefully coming soon!
Listener Question:
Paweł Sysiak asks: "Could you list some examples of common mistakes when creating experiences? What are some UX mistakes that are counter-intuitive and prevalent?"
Stateful icons
Two choices on leaf pages
Primary actions placed in a navigation bar, which are harder to reach
Samsung's One UI is doing an interesting job of moving actions closer to the bottom of the screen.
The HIG recommends placing destructive actions far away from a person's fingers.
People don't read full screen interstitials
The introduction of change is as important as the change itself
Typographic hierarchy overrides structural hierarchy
You will read this first
Buttons are better than gestures
Gabriel Valdivia's tweet shows a great example.
Iconography and colors aren't universal
Watch Wired's video: Airport Expert Creates the Ideal Layout for LaGuardia Airport
Data visualization colors should vary by brightness, not hue
Read: 5 tips on designing colorblind-friendly visualizations
Uncharted 4 developers explain why they added accessibility options to the game
Throwback: Red vs. Blue
Cool Things:
Brian shared Cleaning up form UI, a blog post by @nikitonsky which describes step by step how to polish an interface using grids, spacing, typographic hierarchy, and color.
Marshall shared Holden Hardman's YouTube series, My Friend Watches. In this series of video, Holden introduces a friend to new movies and captures the reactions for the internet to enjoy.
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
WASH YA HANDS!
44 min
April 01, 2020340: Versioning and Handoff in Figma
This week, we share our tips and tricks for staying organized in Figma, simplifying the engineering handoff, and not getting bogged down in pages hell. This, plus some follow up, cool things, and a little social distancing check-in.
Sponsor:
Fathom Analytics – we love it, we use it, we can't recommend it enough. Fathom is a privacy-first analytics tool that provides all the right information about traffic to your websites. Some of our favorite features:
Fathom doesn't use cookies, which means you can skip the GDPR notice
The data it collects is simple and straightforward, meaning that it can load your analytics dashboard incredibly quickly and gets you straight to the most important information
Fathom is a small two-person team that charges money for the service. Your data is not sold or leveraged in another way. Simple, straightforward pricing makes the world go 'round.
And so much more.
Learn more at designdetails.fm/fathom and if you sign up using that URL you will save $20 off your first invoice!
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Roberto Beitia
Gavrilo
Le Franck
Paul Hanaoka
Adam Brace
Terry Bernadino
Piero
Katarina Blind
Follow-up:
Marshall is still enjoying The Good Place and the slight twist near the end of Season 1. Intrigued?
Tweets:
Nathan Lindahl wonders if there are broader applications to the iPadOS cursor, thinking about Fitt's law. Marshall agrees!
Lena Sesardic built HippoKite to help automate the process of logging your accomplishments and challenges each week.
Listener Question:
Dennis Cortés asks: "Without Abstract, how can I pass off a file to a developer and be able to work on the next iteration of something in that same file? I've run into issues where I'll give a developer a link to a file but by the time it gets on their plate we may have worked on an iteration that is out of scope for that sprint...Any ideas or experience here on how you manage your files in terms of versioning and iteration you can share that works for PMs, developers, designers, etc?"
Figma has versioning built in
You can name specific versions
For manual versioning, create a new page
Consider having a line between final, working, and exploratory
When dealing with a design system, you may want to duplicate to a different file to preserve component states
Tom Lowry from Figma made a handy plugin to add status annotations to frames.
Cool Things:
Brian shared Westworld Season 3, along with a companion YouTube channel, Alt Shift X. So far, we're digging S3!
Marshall shared Hand Mirror, a small utility app made by our pal Rafael Conde. It's a macOS app that lives in your menu bar which gives you a quick view from your computer's webcam.
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
BUUHHHYYYY!
28 min
March 25, 2020339: The New iPadOS Cursor
This week, we dissect the newest iPad Pro and its new adaptive cursor, speculating on the future of cursor-touch hybrid interactions. Marshall also shares early feedback on a new prototyping tool and we find escapism in our cool things.
Sponsor:
Fathom Analytics – we love it, we use it, we can't recommend it enough. Fathom is a privacy-first analytics tool that provides all the right information about traffic to your websites. Some of our favorite features:
Fathom doesn't use cookies, which means you can skip the GDPR notice
The data it collects is simple and straightforward, meaning that it can load your analytics dashboard incredibly quickly and gets you straight to the most important information
Fathom is a small two-person team that charges money for the service. Your data is not sold or leveraged in another way. Simple, straightforward pricing makes the world go 'round.
And so much more.
Learn more at designdetails.fm/fathom and if you sign up using that URL you will save $20 off your first invoice!
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Chris Royer
Follow-up:
Marshall got into the Play beta. It's promising, so far!
Tweets:
James Brookes has been tweeting little micro-summaries of the last few episodes - thank you!
New Products:
A new iPad Pro is out, and it has cursor support!
The adaptive cursor is beautiful, here's a video showcasing some of the neat details.
Craig recorded a lovely video showing off the cursor, too.
Ryan Morrison made a web prototype to demo the cursor interaction with a mouse.
The new Magic Keyboard looks fantastic, but very expensive.
We've previously asked ourselves if AR is a gimmick.
Cool Things:
Brian shared Devs, a new thriller series on Hulu.
"A young software engineer, Lily Chan, investigates the secret development division of her employer, a cutting-edge tech company based in Silicon Valley, which she believes is behind the murder of her boyfriend."
Shoutout to @gabrielvaldivia for the recommendation.
Marshall shared The Good Place, a "comedy about what makes a good person."
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
BYEE!
32 min
March 18, 2020338: Passive Income and How To Give Advice (feat. Meg Lewis)
This week, we catch up with Meg Lewis, a designer, coach, writer, speaker, business-owner, podcaster, and all-around fun human being. We talk about building passive income streams, how to give advice, having strong opinions, and facing public criticism – among many other things. And as always, we share our cool things of the week included a very timely hygiene product, new mobile apps, and a YouTube playlist.
Sponsor:
Fathom Analytics – we love it, we use it, we can't recommend it enough. Fathom is a privacy-first analytics tool that provides all the right information about traffic to your websites. Some of our favorite features:
Fathom doesn't use cookies, which means you can skip the GDPR notice
The data it collects is simple and straightforward, meaning that it can load your analytics dashboard incredibly quickly and gets you straight to the most important information
Fathom is a small two-person team that charges money for the service. Your data is not sold or leveraged in another way. Simple, straightforward pricing makes the world go 'round.
And so much more.
Learn more at designdetails.fm/fathom and if you sign up using that URL you will save $20 off your first invoice!
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Kristian Hjelle
He Hexi
Rachel Murawski
Rafly Nurfallah
Tanveer Singh Mahendra
Follow-up:
We have a Gmail account – [email protected]. We won't check this email that much, but we're now going to start exploring cross-posting our episodes to YouTube. Check out our channel and subscribe, if that's your thing.
We're also reviving our Instagram profile – give us a follow and we'll start sharing more!
Interview:
Today we caught up with Meg Lewis, a writer, designer, podcaster, business-owner, comedian, and so much more. Seriously, Meg is prolific.
We catch up on how we're faring working from home during the corona virus pandemic and share tips for newly-remote workers.
Loom is a useful app to share your screen with a little extra personality.
We talk about managing many projects, building a stream of passive income, the tradeoffs of building an audience, the merits of giving advice, and much more.
Meg now hosts Overtime by Dribbble, where she's been able to explore the idea of having strong opinions.
Follow Meg on Twitter, Instagram, and Dribbble.
Meg's other projects are Ghostly Ferns, Full Time You, Sit There & Do Nothing, The Overtime Podcast by Dribbble, Fool Proof. She also speaks and writes.
Cool Things:
Meg shared her bidet attachment from Tushy and their delightful t-shirts about buttholes.
Brian shared the new GitHub mobile apps for Android and iOS. Download 'em!
Marshall shared War Stories, a YouTube playlist where developers tell stories of creating some of the most popular video games of all time.
Specifically, How Slay the Spire's Original Interface Almost Killed the Game.
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock
📬 Don't have Twitter? Email us at [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
SO LONG!
1 hr 15 min
March 11, 2020337: The Metagame of Design
This week, we discuss the metagame of product design, thinking out loud about the skills we do in between the craft work that help us to be more effective, have more impact, and grow faster in our careers. As always, we dig into followup, talk about some fleeting news, and share our cool things of the week!
Sponsor:
Fathom Analytics – we love it, we use it, we can't recommend it enough. Fathom is a privacy-first analytics tool that provides all the right information about traffic to your websites. Some of our favorite features:
Fathom doesn't use cookies, which means you can skip the GDPR notice
The data it collects is simple and straightforward, meaning that it can load your analytics dashboard incredibly quickly and gets you straight to the most important information
Fathom is a small two-person team that charges money for the service. Your data is not sold or leveraged in another way. Simple, straightforward pricing makes the world go 'round.
And so much more.
Learn more at designdetails.fm/fathom and if you sign up using that URL you will save $20 off your first invoice!
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Vinnie
Matthew Atkinson
Adam Fuhrer
Mathias Arlund
Keaton Taylor
Ethan
Follow-up:
Dennis Cortés rightly pointed out that design school is a great conduit for "learning the basic fundamentals" of design.
Brian ended up tweeting about the fact that he hasn't read many "core" books about design. Lots of great replies in there, if you're interested.
The Elements of Typography Style
The Elements of Graphic Design
The Elements of Color
Grid Systems in Graphic Design
The Mother of all Demos
Tweets:
Sahil Chaturvedi can't tell our voices apart. We have some tips.
Joshua Taylor's new project, Parrot is using Design Details for all their promo artwork. Thank you Josh! Check out parrot.fm.
Adam Fuhrer - a new VIP - just discovered the show. Welcome to the fam!
Gabriel Valdivia and Marshall shared their passion for Flight of the Conchords.
Think About It
Renato Dubbs says the show is fantastic and thought provoking - thank you for the kind words!
News:
Fleets have arrived: short ephemeral tweets that can't be retweeted, liked or replied to. It's Twitter's interpretation of Stories, and we are intrigued.
Listener Question:
Paweł Sysiak asks: "What are in your opinion “meta skills” and “boring fundamentals” of the product design currently?"
In reference to To Get Good, Go After the Metagame.
Cool Things:
Brian shared Jojo Rabbit, a satire by Taika Waititi. It's about a young boy in Hitler's army who finds out his mother is hiding a Jewish girl in their home.
Marshall shared Locke and Key, a new drama on Netflix, based on a comic book series of the same name by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez.
Related watching: What We Do in the Shadows.
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin and [email protected]
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock and [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
Auf wiedersehen!
56 min
March 04, 2020336: Learning by Doing
This week, we discuss practical tips to level up your visual interface design skills, including tracing and focusing on a "learning by doing" mindset. And as always, we share our cool finds of the week including a new notes application and a creative TV show.
Golden Ratio Patrons:
We're looking for partners to work with. If your team is hiring, launching a new product, or wants us to get the word out about a new initiative, please get in touch!
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
zeneosjun
Neesha
Chris Northcutt
Follow-up:
Last week Marshall shared a macOS tip to hide your menu bar. Brian tried it for 2 days but failed to keep it hidden.
New Layer just wrapped up a great two-part episode about giving feedback on a design team.
Manny says about giving upwards feedback: "Agree with talking to them after the meeting in a more private environment setting, it worked for me multiple times, also they are the people who will assign you work and decide your performance level."
Listener Question:
An anonymous listener asked: "I have been trying hard to learn UI but every time I sit in front of the screens - there are so many unknowns like what’s the best grey colour to use for disabled elements, how to even use the colours in the right way, what’s the best margin to take, why some interfaces looks so amazing while others don’t...how to do I go about learning these design details in detail?"
PSDTuts (now tuts+) was early inspiration for web design, and Brian traced it to learn about visual design.
Learning by doing can be helpful for absorbing more information. Tracing is a great way to figure out how someone created an interface that you find visually pleasing.
Ira Glass has a great video about taste.
Malcolm Gladwell gave a TED talk about choice, happiness, and spaghetti sauce.
Don Norman popularized the idea of Norman doors, which when noticed, will make you frustrated for the rest of your life.
The more you learn, the more sad you will become. Welcome to our misery.
Cool Things:
Brian shared Noto, a modern note-taking app with some great design details. It's particularly interesting because it's oriented for bottom navigation and one-handed use.
Marshall primarily uses Bear for taking notes. Brian uses iA Writer.
Marshall shared LEGO Masters, a new series that puts teams of LEGO builders in a battle to build wild creations.
Will Arnett is a riot.
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin and [email protected]
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock and [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
BUHYYEEE
34 min
February 26, 2020335: Giving Better Upward Feedback
This week, we discuss strategies for giving better upward feedback to senior designers. We also share our thoughts on how to name your spacing components, list our favorite design podcasts, and as always, share this week's cool things for your eyes and computer.
Golden Ratio Patrons:
Sisu is looking for a thoughtful and data-savvy designer to help build the next generation of analytics software. You can find out more at sisu.ai. (You might recognize Sisu from our interview with Michie Cao)
Pathrise is an online mentorship program that you land a great UX job. Previous fellows have been placed at Google, IBM, Atlassian and other exciting companies. You can learn more at pathrise.com/details
Latest VIP Patrons:
Huge shoutouts to our latest Very Important Pixels!
Guarang Alat
Dennis Cortes
Grovkillen & TD-er
Connelly Rader
Follow-up:
Elias Julian floated a very compelling idea for new merch...
Erik Bro brought up a great question about how to name spacing constants in a design system.
Tweets:
We were able to read Peter Reaper-Reynolds's new surname out loud for the first time on the web!
Manny asked if we'd seen Birds of Prey. No, no we haven't, but maybe will later!
Connelly Rader confirms that the best decision of his life is supporting the podcast. Think about that, everyone 🤔
Greg Danford took our advice to see Parasite blind, and still has anxiety. You're very welcome.
Phoebe Hogeland asked about that one YouTube channel that fixes movies with one small change. It's Nando v. Movies, and everyone should subscribe.
Bhawin J asked what design podcasts we listen to. Here you go:
Layout
Design Life
They recently had a great episode about developer handoff
New Layer
99% Invisible
News:
Brian published a new Figma plugin to populate layers with data from GitHub. Check out the code!
Listener Question:
kelle-yess asks about giving upward feedback to senior designers, and how to deal with resulting pushback. Good questions abound. A tl;dl of our advice:
Consider a matrix of the following
The person giving the feedback and receiving the feedback
The type of feedback, stage of product, fidelity of feedback, location of feedback
The Socratic method is a useful way to approach a conversation with good intent and having the intention to learn along the way.
Compromise and pick your battles. Losing in public gives you social capital. Figure out where you rank on the sliding scale of giving a fuck.
It's possible that you don't know everything about the situation, or the person you're giving feedback to is shielding you from unnecessary context.
Sometimes egos get in the way. But they're worth considering. Giving feedback in private, or in a way that lets your senior save-face, might be a better strategy and strengthen your relationship.
Also, sometimes people suck. Peer feedback and manager escalation are valid paths in particularly sticky situations.
Cool Things:
Brian shared EnChroma, after seeing a tweet from Kurt Varner. EnChroma are glasses that can help people with certain types of color blindness to see colors – pretty incredible!
Marshall shared a macOS tip about how to hide your menu bar – and enumerates all of the tradeoffs for doing so. Proceed at your own risk, but let us know if it sticks!
Design Details on the Web:
📻 We are @designdetailsfm
🎙 Brian is @brian_lovin and [email protected]
🎙 Marshall is @marshallbock and [email protected]
🙌 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 iTunes
BYEEEE?
44 min