# Design Bytes
> A website that explores the threads of creativity in digital product design and looks at sustainable ways to incorporate AI into a human centered design practice.
Public Ghost content for AI and LLM tooling. This file includes a bounded export of public pages first, then recent public posts.
Append `.md` to any post or page URL to get the content in Markdown (for example, `/example-post.md`).
## Pages
### About this site
URL: https://design-bytes.com/about/
Last updated: 2025-01-28T11:21:51.000Z
Design Bytes is an independent publication launched in 2024 by Peter Kaizer. I examine the various threads of creativity that contribute to great design, mainly digital design. Much of the content is "bytes," where I will share an interesting piece I have come across. I will also write a longer article monthly.

I also plan to write a bi-monthly email newsletter - ***Design Bytes Edition*** \- highlighting recent content added to the site.

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### Recent Bytes
URL: https://design-bytes.com/recent-bytes/
Last updated: 2025-03-11T01:12:42.000Z
Bytes are **interesting pieces** about design that I have **curated** from the web. I will highlight a particularly interesting quote or bit from the pieces.

[Thinking About ThinkingDesigning AI for the Human Mind![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-18.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/design-AI-1.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/thinking-about-thinking/)

[The Design Tools Disruption Is ComingGreat design comes from designers, not tools![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-15.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_0405-1.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/the-design-tools-disruption-is-coming/)

[Designing design systems: How to lay the groundwork that drives decision-makingA collaboration framework for building or evolving a design system.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-12.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/spectum.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/designing-design-systems-how-to-lay-the-groundwork-that-drives-decision-making-2/)

[Figma Branching Best PracticesHappy Figma Friday. Designers often don’t use file branching as part of their version control process. Here are some good branching best practices in Figma.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-11.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_0403.png)](https://design-bytes.com/figma-branching-best-practices/)

[Content Design PatternsWhen information feels intuitive and the layout makes sense on a website or web application, it’s probably because of the effective use of content design patterns.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-10.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/Frame-331-1536x895-f3ff6fc6cca67768.png)](https://design-bytes.com/content-design-patterns/)

[Aesthetic Longevity“Timeless design isn’t just about beauty — it’s rooted in psychology, neuroscience, and cultural perception.”![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-9.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/0-lpBbxwoQHZ52ZsCH.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/aesthetic-longevity/)

[It’s time we expand our definition of designExpanding the circle of folks involved in the design process benefits the design and usability of a product.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-8.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/ff-01-31-25.png)](https://design-bytes.com/figma-friday-01-31-2025/)

[Marie Kondo your designsStreamlining a design to eliminate any “noise” in a user flow is increasing important.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-7.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/declutterUI.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/marie-kondo-your-designs/)

[Psychology principles every UX researcher and designer should knowThis week’s design inspiration is a Medium post highlighting essential principles Designers should focus on to “create intuitive and impactful user experiences.”![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-2.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/1-H32oRQQdMuLLJH91nRqObw.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/psychology-principles-every-ux-researcher-and-designer-should-know/)

[Figma Friday - May 17, 2024Having recenntly switched from Sketch to an all Figma based design workflow I am always on the lookout for good, effecient tip and trick articles. This one is excellent. Learning how to use Figma can be challenging, but it’s definitely rewarding. Especially if you are a professional freelancer, developer, or![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-3.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/IMG_0300.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/figma-friday-may-17-2024/)

[Figma Friday, May 11, 2024I am beginning a new weekly feature here called Figma Fridays. This is the first one.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-4.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/1-PgqQcpMZ0OwSKQs0MM7nMA.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/figma-friday-may-11-2024/)

[Visual HierarchyVisual hierarchy is a much overlooked element of good interface design. This piece does a good job laying out the fundamentals. This quote sums up the reason well: “With the correct use of hierarchy, the mind can group and prioritize elements to give them a specific order, which facilitates the![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/visual-hierarchy.png)](https://design-bytes.com/visual-hierarchy/)

[Lessons learned from building a design systemDesign systems have become a focus of mine over the past several years. Lots has been written but this Medium post about 5 lessons learned struck a note with me. Particularly this bit: Set the right balance between discipline and freedom As designers and developers, it can be appealing to![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-5.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/ds-lessons.jpg)](https://design-bytes.com/lessons-learned-from-building-a-design-system-2/)

[CSS Grid layout best practicesThere comes a time when it’s time to jump in with both feet on a new technology. For me now is the time with CSS Grid. I this article Rachel Andrew - editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine - describes best practices, and some things that you probably don’t need to![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-6.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/art-direction-fig-3.jpg)](https://design-bytes.com/css-grid-layout-best-practices/)
### Articles
URL: https://design-bytes.com/articles/
Last updated: 2026-07-23T23:47:26.000Z
Longer articles, written by me.

[Why Product Designers Need Markdown NowMarkdown’s constraint has quietly become strategically more important, because it’s the format AI models read and write natively.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-efc71df2-3d65-402d-9f56-3409993e7709.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/Designer-markdown-1-0cca40ad-2beb-4f8e-9479-afe41994bb9a.png)](https://design-bytes.com/why-product-designers-need-markdown-now/)

[Beyond Craft: The case for craftsmanshipWhy craftsmanship matters more than ever in digital product design![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-de2aebe7ccc8182fa5cf24e9d30f1455e9c14bad0678b0646c5c7e166842964a.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/Craftsmanship-2-76b2b8a314d4a51d73ea80fad53bfc91571188db12df0fb56ad497c4bcd2435b.png)](https://design-bytes.com/beyond-craft-the-case-for-craftsmanship/)

[From Morris to Material DesignHow the Arts and Crafts Movement Shaped Digital Product Design![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-19.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/32ED36F2-D957-4BF9-99CD-DCD27C0014F7.png)](https://design-bytes.com/from-morris-to-material-design/)

[The Art of Craft in Digital Product DesignCraft is more than a nice to have, it’s the foundation of exceptional design.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-13.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/8B1FBF66-84AF-4220-AF57-A1C1BE3DBB0F.png)](https://design-bytes.com/the-art-of-craft-in-digital-product-design/)

[The Politics of a Presidential Campaign LogoThat loud noise you hear in the background is the collective whining of many critics carping about her campaign logo.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/icon/db-icon-1.png)Design BytesPeter Kaizer![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/thumbnail/politics-header.webp)](https://design-bytes.com/the-politics-of-a-presidential-campaign-logo/)
## Posts
### Why Product Designers Need  Markdown Now
URL: https://design-bytes.com/why-product-designers-need-markdown-now/
Last updated: 2026-07-23T23:33:56.000Z
> **Fluent in plain text**

I still remember the first time I opened a .md file and felt the same small satisfaction I used to get after finished forming a piece of pottery on my wheel — nothing decorative, nothing wasted, just the form of the vessel. That’s an odd sensation to have about a file format. But Markdown has a way of rewarding you for thinking clearly, and in a design practice increasingly mediated by AI, that reward is becoming a professional advantage.

Most product designers have brushed up against Markdown without registering it as a skill. It’s the asterisks in a Notion doc, the formatting in a GitHub README, the syntax quietly rendering your comments in Figma, the plain text you type into a chat window with an AI model. It’s everywhere, and because it’s everywhere, it’s easy to treat as invisible infrastructure — something that happens to text rather than something you deliberately practice. I want to make the case that this is a mistake, and that fluency in Markdown deserves a place next to typography and prototyping as a core literacy of the craft.

## A Short History of a Small Idea

Markdown was created in 2004 by [John Gruber](https://daringfireball.net/?ref=design-bytes.com), with help from Aaron Swartz, as a reaction to a very specific frustration: writing in HTML is tedious. Gruber wanted a way to write for the web using plain text that stayed readable on its own, before and after conversion — no tags cluttering the sentence, no angle brackets breaking the flow of thought. The syntax he settled on borrowed conventions writers already used informally: asterisks for emphasis, dashes for lists, blank lines for paragraphs. It wasn’t inventing a new language so much as formalizing the shorthand people already reached for in plain-text emails. To quote John Gruber:

> ”I often say that Markdown is a convention, not a language or format. The format is plain text. The convention is how to structure the plain text.”

What’s notable is how modest the ambition was, and how far it traveled anyway. Markdown spread through blogging platforms in the mid-2000s, then became the default documentation format on GitHub, then the backbone of tools like Ghost, Notion, Obsidian, and nearly every modern writing surface a designer or engineer touches in a given week. It succeeded not because it was powerful, but because it was small enough to disappear into the writing itself.

### Constraint as Craft, Not Limitation

That smallness is the part worth sitting with. Markdown gives you a handful of symbols — a hash for a heading, an asterisk for emphasis, a dash for a list, a bracket for a link — and very deliberately nothing else. There’s no font picker, no color palette, no seventeen heading styles to choose between. And that constraint is exactly the point.

This is the same logic behind mise en place: a good station isn’t full of options, it’s stripped down to what you actually need, arranged so you stop thinking about the tools and start thinking about the work. A cook with a cluttered station spends energy on decisions that have nothing to do with the dish. A designer fighting a bloated rich-text editor spends energy on decisions that have nothing to do with the idea. Markdown removes the clutter. You’re left with structure and words, which is usually what you meant to be thinking about in the first place.

There’s a shokunin instinct here too — the idea that mastery isn’t about accumulating more tools, but about developing total command of a small, well-chosen set. Shoji Hamada didn’t need forty glazes to make work that mattered; he needed to deeply understand the handful he used. Markdown asks something similar of a designer: not “learn more software,” but “get genuinely fluent in this one, small, durable thing.”

### The Real Reason This Matters Now

**Here’s the argument I actually want to make, though:** Markdown’s constraint has quietly become strategically more important, because it’s the format AI models read and write natively.

When you prompt an AI tool, plain text with Markdown conventions is the clearest way to specify structure. Ask for a comparison, and the model will often reach for a table. Ask for a process and it reaches for a numbered list. Ask it to distinguish a code snippet from prose, and it reaches for a fenced code block. This isn’t incidental — Markdown is the layer where intent and structured output meet. A designer who can read that structure fluently and write prompts that specify it precisely, is having a fundamentally more precise conversation with the tool than one who’s describing structure vaguely in prose and hoping the model guesses right.

This is the same instinct behind Why Before What: before adopting any tool, ask what problem it actually solves. The problem Markdown solves is that an AI workflow has translation loss. If you can write “give me this as a table with three columns” instead of “can you make it look organized,” you’ve removed a layer of interpretation between what you meant and what you got. That’s not a small thing when you’re iterating quickly with a model, and it’s a skill, not a preference — the difference between directing an AI output and simply hoping it lands somewhere useful is often just this fluency.

A quick example, because the syntax really is this small:

`### Section heading`

A paragraph of body text, with `**bold**` for emphasis and a `[link](https://example.com)` when needed.

`- A list item`  
`- Another list item`

`| Table header: Option | Table header: Tradeoff |`  
`|---|---|`  
`| Faster iteration | Less polish |`  
`| Slower iteration | More polish |`

**Transforms to:**

### Section heading

A paragraph of body text, with **bold** for emphasis and a [link](https://example.com/?ref=design-bytes.com) when needed.

- A list item
- Another list item
  
| Table header: Option | Table header: Tradeoff |
| -------------------- | ---------------------- |
| Faster iteration     | Less polish            |
| Slower iteration     | More polish            |

### Where This Already Shows Up in Your Week

If you look closely, Markdown isn’t a new tool to add to your practice — it’s already load-bearing in most of it. Product requirement docs and specs in Notion are written in it, whether or not anyone names it that way. Design system documentation, changelogs, and PR descriptions on GitHub live entirely in it. Figma’s Dev Mode annotations and comments render it. Ghost, this very publication, is built on it end to end.

None of this is an argument that designers should learn to code. It’s the same distinction I’ve made about code literacy generally: understanding a language well enough to read it, reason about it, and communicate precisely in it is different from being the one who builds with it professionally. Markdown fluency is a literacy argument, not a development argument. You don’t need to become an engineer to benefit from being able to write a clean spec that an engineer, or a model, can parse without friction.

### Fluency as Amplification

The payoff mirrors the broader case for design orchestration. As AI tools take on more of the mechanical work of design and development, the designers who get the most out of them aren’t the ones with the flashiest prompts — they’re the ones who **understand the underlying structure well enough to direct precisely and evaluate what comes back critically**. Markdown fluency is a small, unglamorous piece of that foundation. It’s the plain-text equivalent of knowing your materials before you shape them.

I think about the leather work I did in high school, and the pottery I threw for almost two decades after that. In both crafts, the tools that I reached for more than any other and mattered most were the plain, well-kept ones you understood completely. Markdown belongs in that category now. It’s not exciting. It doesn’t do anything on its own. But understood well, it removes friction between what you mean and what gets made, and in a practice increasingly mediated by AI, that friction is exactly where the difference between a good outcome and a mediocre one tends to live.

> The best tools in any craft are rarely the most powerful ones — they’re the ones you understand completely.

### A place to learn

I feel so strongly about this, I have created a [little learning site](https://pdkaizer.github.io/github-for-designers/?ref=design-bytes.com) hosted on GitHub or go right to the [GitHub repo](https://github.com/pdkaizer/github-for-designers?ref=design-bytes.com).

---

This piece was developed in collaboration with AI to do research and a human editor, with full editorial direction and ownership by the author.

A special thanks to John Gruber for creating Markdown and for reviewing my description of its history.
### Beyond Craft: The case for craftsmanship
URL: https://design-bytes.com/beyond-craft-the-case-for-craftsmanship/
Last updated: 2026-05-25T19:40:14.000Z
There is a word we reach for when we want to say something was made with care. That word is craft. In design circles, it has earned genuine respect — a hard-won corrective to the “just ship it” culture that has produced so many forgettable digital experiences. I’ve written about craft before about the [mindset it requires](https://design-bytes.com/the-art-of-craft-in-digital-product-design/) and the [historical movements](https://design-bytes.com/from-morris-to-material-design/) that shaped its principles. But the more I sit with the idea, the more I find myself pressing on a distinction that rarely gets made explicit.

Craft and craftsmanship are not the same thing. Craft defines the work. Craftsmanship guides the worker.

Understanding the difference between them might be the most important question a designer can wrestle with right now — particularly as artificial intelligence begins to close the gap on what craft alone can produce.

## Right vs Done

I didn’t arrive at design through a screen. I arrived through my hands.

In high school, I made leather goods — wallets, belts, and bags finished to a standard that had nothing to do with how long they took. I learned stitch spacing because uneven stitching was unacceptable to me. I learned to skive an edge so the fold would sit flat and to burnish until the leather took on a warmth that felt inherent. I was learning craft — the techniques of a material and its honest treatment.

But I was learning something else too, something I didn’t have a name for yet. I was learning what it felt like to care whether something was right, not just done. That distinction — done versus right — has followed me through every professional pursuit.

When I began making pottery in college, the material presented new challenges. Clay punishes dishonesty. A wall that is too thin will collapse. A foot ring that is poorly trimmed will tell on itself. The craft was new. But the practitioner’s standard — the insistence on going back to the wheel — that traveled with me without effort. It had already become part of who I was.

Decades later, the material changed again. The wheel became a screen. The clay became pixels and bytes. And once again, the craft had to be relearned. The standard didn’t.

### There’s a Word For It

Western design culture has a vocabulary problem. We have craft. We have quality. We have mastery, which suggests a destination rather than a direction. None of these quite capture what I am trying to describe — the practitioner’s disposition, the daily commitment, the orientation toward the work that persists across materials and tools and decades.

There’s a word for it in Japanese: shokunin 職人.

It’s typically translated as “craftsperson” or “artisan,” but every translator notes the inadequacy of those equivalents. [Shokunin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artisan?ref=design-bytes.com#Shokunin) carries a meaning that no single Western word fully holds — not merely skill, but a life-long devotion to continuous improvement in service of the person who will receive the work. It is less a job description than a philosophy of practice.

For westerners, [Jiro Ono](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro%5FOno?ref=design-bytes.com) is probably the most familiar practitioner of Shokunin. He’s the sushi master documented in Jiro Dreams of Sushi. He has been making sushi for more than sixty years. He arrives before dawn. He still believes each piece could be better. The craft of sushi — the rice temperature, the knife angle, the particular pressure of each hand movement — is learnable. What Jiro embodies is something that cannot be transferred through instruction: the shokunin spirit is a choice made daily, renewed with each service, never declared complete.

[Shoji Hamada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dji%5FHamada?ref=design-bytes.com) — the great Japanese potter, National Living Treasure, and one of the central figures of the [mingei folk craft movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mingei?ref=design-bytes.com) — put it with characteristic economy:

> “The right way lies in plainness and naturalness.”

Not brilliance. Not innovation. Plainness and naturalness. It is a statement about orientation, not technique. The shokunin does not reach for the spectacular. They reach. consistently and without fanfare, for what is right.

In the west Aristotle drew a related line between techne — craft knowledge, the know-how of making — and arete — excellence as a practitioner virtue, a disposition toward doing things well that shapes who you are over time. You can possess techne without arete. The Western tradition gave us the vocabulary. The shokunin tradition showed us what it looks like lived across a lifetime.

### Shokunin and Design Practice

Three qualities of shokunin and have direct implications for how we think about design practice.

**Discipline over inspiration.** Mastery is built in the unglamorous repetitions, not the breakthrough moments. Jiro does not wait to feel inspired before he makes the rice. The skill lives in the daily practice, not the exceptional occasion. For designers, this is the discipline of iteration when the first solution feels good enough, the private standard that operates when no deadline is enforcing quality from the outside.

**Service as the organizing principle.** The shokunin’s work exists for the user receiving it, not the person making it. In digital product design, this maps directly to the commitment to the user’s experience over the designer’s ego or the product team’s feature list.

**Perpetual incompleteness.** A shokunin never declares arrival. There is no moment of graduation, no credential that certifies the pursuit as finished. This is what makes the concept feel alien to Western frameworks of mastery, which tend to frame skill acquisition as a ladder with a top rung. For the shokunin, the pursuit itself is the point.

### Craftsmanship in Digital Product Design

Craft in digital design is concrete and teachable. It lives in:

- Typography that guides without announcing itself
- Microinteractions that communicate state with elegance and economy
- Component architecture that holds up when the system scales
- Accessibility decisions that treat every user’s experience as equally worth designing
- Animation that serves comprehension rather than decoration

These are learnable. They can be documented, systemized, and transferred. A talented junior designer can acquire them in a few years of serious practice. They are the techne of our discipline.

Craftsmanship is something different. It lives in a practitioner's behaviors that sustain and elevate craft over time — and that are often invisible to everyone except the designers themselves:

- Pushing back on a design decision that compromises the user, even when the meeting is running long and the deadline is real
- Returning to a shipped feature you know wasn’t right and fixing it, unprompted, without announcement
- Holding your personal standard during the private iterations that happen before the design is shared with anyone
- Mentoring a junior designer with the same rigor you apply to your own work
- Treating the user’s time and dignity as constraints that are simply not negotiable, regardless of what the product brief says

### Craftsmanship in the AI Era

Two designers can produce pixel-identical screens. The difference between them only becomes visible in how they got there — and what they do when no one is watching. That invisible difference is craftsmanship.

Here is where the distinction becomes urgent rather than philosophical.

Artificial intelligence can replicate craft outputs with increasing fidelity. It can generate components, write interaction specifications, apply design tokens, produce layout variations at a scale and speed no human practitioner can match. The technical gap between AI-generated design and human-generated design is closing, and it will continue to close.

What AI cannot replicate is craftsmanship — because craftsmanship is not an output. It is an accountability. It is the practitioner’s willingness to stand behind the work, to care whether it is right, to go back when it isn’t. No model has a stake in the user’s experience. No model returns to a shipped feature because something was still nagging at it.

The risk for designers is not that AI replaces craft. The risk is subtler and more corrosive: designers who outsource to AI without having developed craftsmanship will produce work that is technically competent and experientially hollow, like a recipe without the cook.

The opportunity is its mirror image. Designers who bring genuine craftsmanship to AI-assisted work can direct it, evaluate it, and elevate it in ways that no prompt alone can produce. The shokunin spirit does not resist new tools — it holds them to the same standard as everything else. The question it asks of AI is the same question it asks of any material or method: does this serve the person at the other end of the experience? That question can only be asked by someone who has made the user’s dignity their organizing principle. AI cannot make that choice. The designer must.

This is where [human-centered design](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human-centered%5Fdesign?ref=design-bytes.com) finds its most durable defense — not in the argument that human hands produce better outputs than machines, but in the recognition that humans bring an irreplaceable orientation to the work. The craftsperson’s orientation. The shokunin’s orientation. A direction toward the person who will actually live inside the experience we build.

### Craftsmanship is Never Finished

This is perhaps the hardest thing to accept about craftsmanship, and also the most liberating: you do not arrive. There is no credential, no portfolio milestone, no number of years in the discipline that certifies the pursuit as complete. The shokunin never declares mastery. The pursuit itself is the point.

For designers who want to cultivate craftsmanship rather than merely practice craft, a few things matter consistently:

**Develop a design philosophy,** not just a design aesthetic. An aesthetic is a preference. A philosophy is a considered position on what design is for, who it serves, and what you will and won’t sacrifice in its pursuit. The shokunin is guided by philosophy. The aesthetic follows from it.

**Build honest critique practices.** Give rigorous feedback and actively seek it. The practitioner who only receives praise is not getting the information they need to grow. Craftsmanship requires friction — the kind that comes from someone who cares enough about the work to tell you what isn’t right.

**Revisit past work with honesty.** Not for nostalgia, but for reckoning. Look at something you made two years ago and ask what you would do differently now. If the answer is nothing, you have stopped growing.

**Find mentors and become one.** Craftsmanship is inherently relational. It lives in the shokunin’s kitchen, in the design team that holds itself to a shared standard. The practitioner who develops in isolation develops incompletely.

Craftsmanship accrues. Every project either builds it or erodes it. There is no neutral. The standards you hold on the project nobody is watching are the standards you will carry into the project that everyone is.

### The Practitioner Behind the Practice

Craft without craftsmanship is technically proficient but ultimately hollow. Craftsmanship without craft is aspiration without execution. The two must travel together, each making the other meaningful.

The leather I stitched in high school, the pottery I threw in college' and the interfaces I design today are made from entirely different materials. Each transition required learning the craft from nothing. But the practitioner’s standard — the private insistence on going back to the work, the refusal to call it done when it was merely finished, the organizing commitment to the person who would eventually hold or use or click through the thing — that did not require relearning. It had become structural. It was no longer something I applied to the work. It was something I brought to it.

That is the distinction craftsmanship makes. Not what you make, but who you become in the making of it.

The designers who will matter most in the next decade will not simply be those who produce excellent work. They will be those who have cultivated craftsmanship — the shokunin spirit, whatever material or tool or era they find themselves working in — and who bring that orientation to every decision, including the decision of what to ask of AI and what to insist on doing themselves.

**Craft defines the work. Craftsmanship guides the worker.**

We need both, but it is the worker who makes all the difference.

---

This article is the third in a series exploring craft in digital product design. Read the first, [The Art of Craft in Digital Product Design](https://design-bytes.com/the-art-of-craft-in-digital-product-design/), and the second, [From Morris to Material Design.](https://design-bytes.com/from-morris-to-material-design/)

This piece was developed in collaboration with AI and a human editor, with full editorial direction and ownership by the author
### From Morris to Material Design
URL: https://design-bytes.com/from-morris-to-material-design/
Last updated: 2025-08-14T16:37:10.000Z
### How the Arts and Crafts Movement Shaped Digital Product Design

There’s something beautifully ironic about finding 19th-century craftsmanship principles embedded in the sleek interfaces of our smartphones. When [William Morris](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William%5FMorris?ref=design-bytes.com) proclaimed “have nothing in your house that is not useful or beautiful” in 1882, he couldn’t have imagined his philosophy would one day guide the design of apps used by billions. Yet the DNA of the Arts and Crafts movement runs deep through modern digital product design, influencing everything from [Google’s Material Design](%5Bhttps://m3.material.io%5D%28https://m3.material.io/%29) to [Apple’s relentless pursuit of simplicity](https://goodmansoutonte.medium.com/simplicity-sells-how-apple-turned-minimalism-into-a-billion-dollar-religion-c3305d5f37b8?ref=design-bytes.com).

The [Arts and Crafts movement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts%5Fand%5FCrafts%5Fmovement?ref=design-bytes.com), which flourished from 1880 to 1920, emerged as a reaction to the ornate excesses of Victorian design and the dehumanizing effects of industrial mass production. Led by figures like William Morris and later, [Gustav Stickley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav%5FStickley?ref=design-bytes.com), the movement championed natural materials, functional beauty, and democratic access to good design. These principles, revolutionary in their time, have found new life in the digital age.

## The Timeless Principles

**Truth to Materials** was perhaps the movement’s most radical idea. Arts and Crafts designers celebrated the natural grain of wood instead of painting it to look like marble, and embraced the natural properties of clay rather than forcing it into unnatural forms. This honest approach to materials translates directly into digital design’s evolution from [skeuomorphism](https://blog.logrocket.com/ux-design/skeuomorphism-ux-design-examples/?ref=design-bytes.com) to [flat design](https://elementor.com/blog/flat-design/?ref=design-bytes.com).

Remember when iOS icons looked like leather-bound books and trash cans? That was digital design lying about its materials, pretending pixels were physical objects. The shift to flat design wasn’t just aesthetic—it was a return to Morris’s principle of material honesty. Google’s Material Design took this further, creating a design language that celebrates the unique properties of digital “materials” like light, motion, and layered surfaces.

**Form Follows Function** became the battle cry of modernist design, but it originated in Arts and Crafts workshops where every decorative element had to earn its place through utility. Today’s best digital products embody this principle through progressive disclosure, showing users only what they need when they need it.

**Handcrafted Quality** might seem impossible in an age of billion-user platforms, but the principle lives on in microinteractions—those tiny animations and feedback moments that make digital products feel alive and responsive. The subtle bounce when you reach the end of a social media feed, the gentle haptic feedback of an iPhone keyboard or an Apple Watch, the smooth transitions in a well-designed app—these are the digital equivalent of a craftsman’s attention to joinery and finish.

**Democratic Design** was Morris’s vision of beautiful, functional objects accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy. This translates directly to inclusive design practices, universal accessibility standards, and the open-source movement that has democratized both design tools and knowledge.

## Digital Craftsmanship in Practice

Consider Apple’s design evolution under Jony Ive, who explicitly connected his work to Arts and Crafts principles. Ive often spoke about “honest” design—removing unnecessary elements, celebrating the essential function of each component. The original iPhone’s interface wasn’t just minimal; it was truthful about what a digital interface could be.

[37 Signal’s](%5Bhttps://37signals.com%5D%28https://37signals.com/%29) approach to software design offers another compelling example. Their “Getting Real” philosophy echoes Morris’s rejection of unnecessary ornamentation. Every feature must justify its existence through user value, not feature-list bragging rights. Their interfaces feel handcrafted in a world of bloated enterprise software, prioritizing clarity and function over impressive complexity.

Even companies outside traditional tech embrace these principles. [Patagonia’s](https://www.patagonia.com/home/?ref=design-bytes.com) digital presence reflects their environmental values through clean, purposeful design that never distracts from their mission. Their website’s honest photography, straightforward navigation, and focus on product utility over flash selling perfectly embodies Arts and Crafts values in digital form.

## The Modern Workshop

Today’s design systems function as digital craft guilds, establishing standards and sharing knowledge across teams. Companies like Airbnb, Shopify, and IBM have created comprehensive design systems that ensure quality and consistency at scale—the digital equivalent of Morris’s ideal workshop where skilled craftspeople maintained high standards while collaborating on larger projects.

The rise of the [Brad Frost’s atomic design methodology](https://atomicdesign.bradfrost.com/table-of-contents/?ref=design-bytes.com) mirrors Arts and Crafts construction principles, building complex interfaces from fundamental, well-crafted components. Just as Morris advocated understanding materials from their basic properties up, atomic design starts with the smallest interface elements and builds systematically toward complete experiences.

## Challenges in the Digital Age

The Arts and Crafts influence isn’t without complications. The movement’s emphasis on simplicity can lead to over-simplification that removes necessary complexity. When minimalism becomes dogma, designers risk creating interfaces that are beautiful but unusable, elegant but incomplete.

The tension between craft quality and business scale remains as relevant today as it was in Morris’s time. How do you maintain handcrafted attention to detail when shipping features to millions of users on aggressive timelines? How do you balance the ideal of democratic design with the reality that simpler interfaces often require more sophisticated (and expensive) development?

There’s also the risk of aesthetic elitism disguised as democratic design. When “clean” design becomes a luxury signal, when minimalism excludes users who need more explicit guidance, the movement’s egalitarian ideals get lost in pursuit of design awards.

## Looking Forward

As artificial intelligence increasingly assists in design creation, the Arts and Crafts emphasis on human craft becomes more, not less, relevant. The question isn’t whether machines can create functional interfaces—they’re already doing that. The question is whether they can create interfaces that feel genuinely crafted, that show evidence of human consideration and care.

The movement’s environmental consciousness also resonates in an age of digital sustainability. Just as Morris advocated for durable, repairable furniture over disposable fashion, modern designers are considering the environmental impact of digital products—efficient code, long-lasting design systems, and interfaces that don’t require constant updates to remain functional.

## The Craft Mindset

For today’s digital designers, embracing Arts and [Crafts principles](https://design-bytes.com/the-art-of-craft-in-digital-product-design/) means more than aesthetic choices. It’s about approaching each project with a craftsperson’s mindset: understanding your materials (code, interaction patterns, user contexts), respecting your users’ needs over your ego, and taking pride in work that will outlast current trends.

It means asking Morris’s fundamental questions: Is this useful? Is this beautiful? Does this serve human needs or merely business metrics? Does this design democratize access or create new barriers?

The Arts and Crafts movement failed in its immediate goal of reforming industrial production, but it succeeded in establishing principles that transcend specific technologies or materials. In our age of digital transformation, these principles offer a humanistic framework for creating technology that serves people rather than exploiting them.

When you next encounter a beautifully simple interface, a thoughtfully crafted interaction, or a design system that prioritizes user needs over feature bloat, you’re experiencing the digital descendants of a 19th-century movement that dared to imagine technology in service of human flourishing. William Morris would be proud—and probably amazed—to see his workshop principles scaled to touch billions of lives through the devices in our pockets.

The pixels may be new, but the principles are eternal: truth, beauty, function, and access for all. In bridging the gap between medieval craft traditions and digital futures, the Arts and Crafts movement reminds us that good design is ultimately about human values, not technological capabilities.

As we face new challenges in [AI-assisted design](https://www.figma.com/blog/config-2025-recap/?ref=design-bytes.com) and global digital platforms, these 140-year-old principles offer more than historical curiosity—they provide a moral framework for building technology that enhances rather than diminishes human dignity. In the end, that may be the movement’s greatest legacy: proving that the best innovations honor the past while embracing the future.
### The Art of Craft in Digital Product Design
URL: https://design-bytes.com/the-art-of-craft-in-digital-product-design/
Last updated: 2025-02-15T22:19:31.000Z
In the rush to launch, iterate, and scale, craft in digital product design often feels like an afterthought. But craft isn’t a romantic relic, it’s the foundation of exceptional design. It’s what separates forgettable, disposable products from those that feel truly thoughtful, purposeful, and worth using regularly.

I know a little about craft, having been a **professional studio potter** for 20 years prior to becoming a digital product designer.![pdk-pitcher.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/2025/02/pdk-pitcher.jpg)

## Craft is More than Pixel Perfection

When designers talk about craft, it’s easy to default to aesthetics: clean grids, crisp typography, and flawless alignment. But craft goes deeper. It’s about how a product works, how it feels, and, most importantly, how it respects the user’s time, attention, and needs.

As a potter, I wanted the pieces I made to be not just **beautiful but useful**. In the same way, I want the digital products I design to provide an **exceptional user experience**.

Craft is in the details that intuitively guide users. It’s in the logical flow of a checkout process that doesn’t make you want to throw your phone out the window. It’s in the considered use of animation, not as decoration but as a way to guide a user though a complex flow. A well-crafted digital product doesn’t scream for attention—it does its job without fanfare.

## Don’t Just Ship It

As design tools evolve and workflows speed up, the pressure to “just ship it” increases. We copy, paste, and remix design systems at breakneck speed, often without stopping to clearly ask what the problem is that this “design solution” is intended to solve. Craft demands pausing, asking why, and making deliberate decisions as we evolve our designs.

When craft is sacrificed to save time, the cracks show: clunky user experiences and an incoherent user flow, which makes the interactions feel generic and lifeless. Users may not have the vocabulary to articulate what’s wrong, but they know it.

## Why Craft Matters More Than Ever

In a world saturated with apps, websites, and tools, the bar for exceptional user experiences keeps rising. Mediocre design fades into noise, while products built with craft stand out. They build trust, loyalty, and even delight.

Consider the products you genuinely love—those you return to because they just work. Odds are, they didn’t get there by accident. Behind the scenes, a designer obsessed over the details most people will not notice but that contribute to the product’s excellence.

## Craft is a Mindset

Craft is not about unlimited time or budgets, it’s about a mindset of caring to ask whether this design solution will create the best user experience and even delight a user.

It’s about balancing speed with thoughtfulness. You might have a tight deadline, but it’s still crucial to understand your constraints and choose the best design solutions within them. Instead of designing on autopilot, craft forces you to engage with your work.

## Bring Craft Back

So, how do we bring craft back to the forefront of digital product design?

- **Start With Empathy:** Understand your users. Craft begins with solving the right problems.
- **Slow Down:** Take time to think creatively and critically. Push back against timelines that don’t leave room for this way of working.
- **Obsess Over Details:** The devil—and the magic—is in the details. Test your work. Question every design component. Iterate until it feels right.
- **Be Curious:** Don’t just follow existing patterns, explore why they work. Innovate when necessary, but don’t reinvent the wheel for its own sake.

## Craft is the Future

In digital product design, craft isn’t just a nice-to-have. It’s the difference between forgettable and indispensable. It’s what transforms a service into a seamless experience and a product into one that’s a delight to use.

Craft is the antidote to sameness, the cure for mediocrity, and the secret sauce for digital products that people can’t stop talking about and using. **If you’re not prioritizing it, your competitors probably are.**
### The Design Tools Disruption Is Coming
URL: https://design-bytes.com/the-design-tools-disruption-is-coming/
Last updated: 2025-02-16T02:29:31.000Z
[Muhammad Hassan](https://medium.com/@muhammadhassanmansoori94?ref=design-bytes.com) wrote an excellent piece about the evolution of design tools and their impact on design. These quotes stood out to me.

> User Experience & Accessibility: Tools may change over time, but understanding human behavior and designing for everyone is forever.

> Problem-Solving Mindset: Good designers are not just good in Figma, Sketch, or Photoshop; they are also good at solving problems faced by their users.

> Designers owe their strength to being creative, adaptable, and having well-versed design knowledge, rather than any specific platform.

> ### In short, great design comes from designers, not tools.

[Read the full piece here.](https://www.designsystemscollective.com/figma-is-not-forever-the-design-tools-disruption-is-coming-32dcbae8ea36?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Designing design systems: How to lay the groundwork that drives decision-making
URL: https://design-bytes.com/designing-design-systems-how-to-lay-the-groundwork-that-drives-decision-making-2/
Last updated: 2025-02-11T23:18:33.000Z
The fine folks at **Adobe Design** have an excellent piece about:

> Developing the future direction of a design system involves complex work to create a viable framework for its evolution — behind which are the needs of the people using it, the legacy of a prior version, and a team’s future vision for it.

WHile this piece focuses on the Adobe Spectrum design system there are many points that would apply to any large-scale design system. A few things stood out to me:

> Gathering designers, developers, product managers, content strategists, researchers, engineers — and anyone else with strong opinions about a design system — can help uncover ideas and behaviors that would make it flexible enough for anyone building products to use.

> Designing in a silo doesn’t serve anyone — and especially not the people who are using a design system to work on a company’s products.

> We organized Spectrum’s playbook into four sections according to the broad ideas gathered from working groups:  
> **1\. Introduction:** Information about the current version of Spectrum, the new version we were  
> working on, a changelog, and information for beta testers  
> **2\. Fundamentals:** Updated concepts and terms, and information about engineering collaboration  
> **3\. Designing with Spectrum:** Details about implementing things like color, typography, object styles, and iconography  
> **4\. Patterns:** Out-of-the-box templates for getting started with testing Spectrum’s new designs

[Read the full article here.](https://medium.com/@Adobe%5FDesign/designing-design-systems-how-to-lay-the-groundwork-that-drives-decision-making-1cdb365f7f95?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Figma Branching Best Practices
URL: https://design-bytes.com/figma-branching-best-practices/
Last updated: 2025-02-10T18:47:17.000Z
[Jason Occhipinti](https://medium.com/@occtopia?ref=design-bytes.com) has an excellent post about Figma file branching best practices for design teams. As a former front-end developer, I love file branching, and Figma makes this possible in their design tool. The following quotes stood out to me.

> Figma branching can be a powerful tool for your design team, but without communication or organization, you might encounter more problems than you solve. Like their counterpart in code, branches allow design teams to iterate and work in instances of the main file.

> Historically, designers have not been so lucky. With no major tools at their disposal, they have often been stuck with ever-lengthening and confusing file names on duplicating files or (if they’re lucky), file snapshots or version histories.

> Figma branches can seem straightforward, but merge issues can occur quite easily. If you’re not organized with a process in place, you might find yourself doing even more work to detangle a mess of branches.

[Read the full piece here.](https://medium.com/hp-design/figma-branches-best-practices-ca0871aa1631?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Content Design Patterns
URL: https://design-bytes.com/content-design-patterns/
Last updated: 2025-02-07T16:02:26.000Z
Yuval Keshtcher has an excellent piece on the **UX Writing Hub** website about content design patterns.

This part stood out to me:

> Think of content design patterns as the building blocks of a seamless user experience. Just like LEGO pieces can be assembled in countless ways to create intricate designs, content design patterns provide reusable solutions to common challenges in how information is presented. 

A nice characterization of content design patterns:

> Content design patterns are the unsung heroes behind seamless digital experiences. They provide the structure needed to deliver consistent, intuitive, and efficient content that keeps users engaged and businesses thriving. 

He goes on to say:

> But as powerful as these patterns are, they’re not magic bullets. To unlock their full potential, you need to choose them wisely, integrate them thoughtfully, and refine them continually based on user feedback and business goals. 

**[Read the full post here.](https://uxwritinghub.com/intro-to-content-design-patterns/?ref=design-bytes.com)**
### Thinking About Thinking
URL: https://design-bytes.com/thinking-about-thinking/
Last updated: 2026-05-25T19:58:00.000Z
[Tracy Leung](https://medium.com/@tracyleung%5F?ref=design-bytes.com) has a fascinating piece about Designing AI for the Human Mind.

I was intrigued by a number of her observations. Particularly

> Metacognition — it’s thinking about your own thinking.

Her description of the **“Designer’s Seesaw”** is facinating:

> - **Enhancing users’ metacognitive abilities** (helping them perform their metacognition better)
> - **Reducing AI’s metacognitive demands** (making the tool less mentally taxing)

Also this:

> “...we need more designers who understand these metacognitive challenges. It’s not just about making AI tools that work — it’s about making them work with how our brains work.”

[Read the full piece.](https://medium.com/societe-generale-design/thinking-about-thinking-designing-ai-for-the-human-mind-097082392d6e?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Aesthetic Longevity
URL: https://design-bytes.com/aesthetic-longevity/
Last updated: 2025-02-05T15:05:17.000Z
[Kshitij Kumar](https://medium.com/@infamousdino?ref=design-bytes.com) has an excellent post on Medium that looks at the fact that:

> Timeless design isn’t just about beauty — it’s rooted in psychology, neuroscience, and cultural perception.

There is a nice straightforward bit about how to do this.

> **Prioritize Simplicity** — Avoid unnecessary details that age quickly.  
> **Follow Universal Principles** — Use proportions, symmetry, and contrast wisely.  
> **Design for Humans, Not Trends** — Consider ergonomics and emotional connection. **Allow for Evolution** — Keep the essence while refining elements over time.  
> **Use High-Quality Materials** — Physical durability contributes to aesthetic longevity. 

[Read the full piece here.](https://medium.com/@infamousdino/why-do-some-designs-feel-timeless-8ad4802e290b?ref=design-bytes.com)
### It’s time we expand our definition of design
URL: https://design-bytes.com/figma-friday-01-31-2025/
Last updated: 2025-02-03T19:18:20.000Z
Kaitie Chambers, an advocate at Figma, has an excellent piece on the **Figma: Shortcut blog** about empowering everyone on a product team to be involved in design, regardless of their title.

These quotes stood out to me

> More people than ever are using design in their daily work. By making our tools and processes more inclusive, we can empower everyone to practice design with confidence—regardless of their title.

> “From both an individual and organizational standpoint, we need to recognize that regardless of official titles, we’re all involved in design.”

[Read the full piece here.](https://www.figma.com/blog/its-time-we-expand-our-definition-of-design/?mc%5Fcid=68eeda8dd6&mc%5Feid=a0ecd571ca&ref=design-bytes.com)
### Marie Kondo your designs
URL: https://design-bytes.com/marie-kondo-your-designs/
Last updated: 2025-01-31T11:18:07.000Z
This excellent piece by [Krisztina Szerovay](https://medium.com/@krisztina.szerovay?ref=design-bytes.com) highlights *"the most important balancing act"*  that is an incredibly critical component of excellent digital product design. This quote captures why:

> How to remove or hide everything that’s just noise at a given point of the user flow, and at the same time, keep or display all the content and functionality that’s needed.

[Read the full piece here.](https://uxknowledgebase.com/decluttering-in-ui-design-4d58759c37de?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Psychology principles every UX researcher and designer should know
URL: https://design-bytes.com/psychology-principles-every-ux-researcher-and-designer-should-know/
Last updated: 2025-01-29T18:06:43.000Z
This **excellent piece** by [Sophia Omarji](https://medium.com/@omarjisophia?ref=design-bytes.com) highlights essential principles that Designers should focus on to "create intuitive and impactful user experiences."

This from the final takeaways paragraph is **spot on:**

> Psychology is at the heart of designing intuitive and impactful user experiences. By understanding how users think, feel, and behave, UX researchers and designers can create solutions that resonate deeply. Together, these principles offer a blueprint for creating experiences that are both meaningful and effective.

[Read the full post here.](https://uxdesign.cc/psychology-principles-every-ux-researcher-and-designer-should-know-4787f99c13cd?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Figma Friday - May 17, 2024
URL: https://design-bytes.com/figma-friday-may-17-2024/
Last updated: 2025-01-27T16:21:58.000Z
Having recenntly switched from Sketch to an all Figma based design workflow I am always on the lookout for good, effecient tip and trick articles. [This one is excellent](https://framesxdesign.com/learn/figma-tips-to-design-faster?ref=design-bytes.com).

> *Learning how to use Figma can be challenging, but it's definitely rewarding. Especially if you are a professional freelancer, developer, or part of a design team, mastering the best practices of the tool you're working with can help you achieve results much faster.*

I particularly like it’s focus on the use of properties within components and it’s focus on the efecient use of Figma.
### Figma Friday, May 11, 2024
URL: https://design-bytes.com/figma-friday-may-11-2024/
Last updated: 2024-05-10T18:35:48.000Z
I am beginning a new weekly feature here called Figma Fridays, where I will call out a recently published piece of content focusing on Figma. We will kick this off with the piece from the **UX Collective** called [Make your Figma components work harder](https://uxdesign.cc/make-your-figma-components-work-harder-6d7e0baf96e8?ref=design-bytes.com). 

This piece does an excellent job of highlighting many of the best practices for creating Figma design system components that I agree with. Kudos to Allie Paschal who authored this excellent piece
### Visual Hierarchy
URL: https://design-bytes.com/visual-hierarchy/
Last updated: 2025-01-25T19:59:39.000Z
Visual hierarchy is a much overlooked element of good interface design. This piece does a good job laying out the fundamentals.

This quote sums up the reason well:

> "With the correct use of hierarchy, the mind can group and prioritize elements to give them a specific order, which facilitates the understanding of what you want to communicate and the sense of achievement by the user."

[Read the full post](https://medium.com/swlh/fundamentals-of-hierarchy-in-interface-design-ui-ba8e3017dceb?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Lessons learned from building a design system
URL: https://design-bytes.com/lessons-learned-from-building-a-design-system-2/
Last updated: 2025-01-25T20:17:19.000Z
Design systems have become a focus of mine over the past several years. Lots has been written but this Medium post about 5 lessons learned struck a note with me. Particularly this bit:

> **Set the right balance between discipline and freedom**  
> As designers and developers, it can be appealing to sometimes throw new solutions at old problems. 

[Read the full post](https://medium.com/carwow-product-engineering/five-lessons-i-learned-building-a-design-system-443f04c6b9d1?ref=design-bytes.com)
### Veerle Pieters georgeous new blog
URL: https://design-bytes.com/veerle-pieters-georgeous-new-blog/
Last updated: 2025-05-06T01:23:09.000Z
Veerle Pieters has been a favorite designer of mine for many years. In this recent post she talks about how the latest version of her georgeous blog came to life.

As a designer who is always wanting to do a design overhaul of my site this piece really hits home. Some of Veerle's quotes that really resonate with me are:

> "Instead I’ve only created the fragments or parts of pages, the rest I directly created with CSS. For me this was the most flexible and productive way to finalize the design."

> "My advice to anyone thinking about a personal brand redesign is to be patient with the process."

> "Try to enjoy the process and embrace the chaos!"

[Read the full post](https://veerle.duoh.com/design/how-the-design-of-my-new-blog-came-to-live?ref=design-bytes.com)
### CSS Grid layout best practices
URL: https://design-bytes.com/css-grid-layout-best-practices/
Last updated: 2025-01-25T20:13:12.000Z
There comes a time when it's time to jump in with both feet on a new technology. For me now is the time with CSS Grid. I this article Rachel Andrew - editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine - describes best practices, and some things that you probably don’t need to worry about. This bit from the wrap up at the end of the article is spot on:

> "Know that as an experienced front-end developer you are likely to have a whole set of preconceptions about how layout works. Try to look at these new methods anew rather than forcing them back into old patterns."

[Read the full article](https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/04/best-practices-grid-layout/?ref=design-bytes.com)
### The Politics of a Presidential Campaign Logo
URL: https://design-bytes.com/the-politics-of-a-presidential-campaign-logo/
Last updated: 2024-02-24T01:32:41.000Z
*Apr 14, 2015*

On Sunday, Apr 12, [Hillary Clinton announced her highly anticipated run for the presidency](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uY7gLZDmn4&ref=design-bytes.com). Along with the announcement came unveiling a campaign logo — and a surprising amount of design criticism.

> That [loud noise you hear](http://mashable.com/2015/04/12/hillary-clinton-logo-controversy/?ref=design-bytes.com) in the background is the collective whining of many critics carping about her campaign logo.

Since Sunday, the design community has been hurling those ultimate insults to professionalism — “It looks like it was designed with MS Paint,” and “Did she hire someone on Fiver?” at the logo. At the same time, the politicos have decided that the direction of the arrow in the design represents a move to the right for the centrist candidate.

To be fair to [all those critics](http://mashable.com/2015/04/12/hillary-clinton-logo-controversy/?ref=design-bytes.com), it’s far from a brilliant logo, but I’m not sure it needs to be. The next occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be succeeding a president whose [campaign logo](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obama%5Flogo?ref=design-bytes.com) was probably the most iconic in history.

I don’t think Hillary Clinton’s campaign wanted to compete with President Obama’s logo. What’s more, the design constraints of a presidential campaign logo are pretty significant. It has to use red, white, and blue, or it will be perceived as unpatriotic; most have either stars or stripes, although the Obama logo didn’t, and that’s one of the reasons it was so innovative. Clinton’s logo forsakes both stars and stripes for the much-criticized arrow.

Republican candidate Ted Cruz has a [logo that has been compared to a burning American flag](http://www.businessinsider.com/graphic-designers-review-ted-cruzs-logo-2015-3?ref=design-bytes.com). On top of that, the Cruz campaign had [major domain name issues](http://www.dailydot.com/politics/ted-cruz-troll-domains/?ref=design-bytes.com) when it launched several weeks ago. However, as the presumed front-runner, Clinton is getting almost as much press for her logo as she is for the early stages of her campaign.

When I look at the logo on Clinton’s [campaign website](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/?ref=design-bytes.com), I see it being used more as a mark and less as a logo (although it is, of course, a logo). It’s not the most prominent thing on [her home page](https://www.hillaryclinton.com/?ref=design-bytes.com). As [Mark Wilson of Fast Co. Design pointed out recently](http://www.fastcodesign.com/3044980/the-internet-freaks-out-over-hillarys-campaign-logo?ref=design-bytes.com), the logo does tie in with the site’s overall design language, which includes arrows pointing to prominent calls to action, such as signing up and donating. That seems like an intelligent strategy.

Another innovative aspect of her logo is that it is essentially a square format, which will serve the campaign well in its use of social media — something that no political campaign can ignore.

> *And besides, the candidate’s logo has already* [*inspired a new typeface — Hillvetica*](https://twitter.com/RickWolff/status/587944485751021568/photo/1?ref=design-bytes.com)*.*

The [3 points outlined in this excellent analysis](http://www.inc.com/edward-cox/3-reasons-Hillarys-new-logo-actually-gets-it-right.html?ref=design-bytes.com) indicate that time — and constant exposure — will tell whether or not the logo effectively communicates the candidate’s larger brand strategy. Maybe the campaign is leaving that open to interpretation on purpose.
### UX Camp DC
URL: https://design-bytes.com/ux-camp-dc/
Last updated: 2025-01-25T21:10:26.000Z
Happy New Year! To get the new year off on the right user experience foot the folks at [UX Camp DC](http://uxcampdc.com/?ref=design-bytes.com) held their annual UX Bar Camp this past Saturday January 3rd. I had attended their September Mobile UX Camp and enjoyed it so I decided to attend and do a presentation on [Design Deliverables](http://peterkaizer.com/design-deliverables/?ref=design-bytes.com) which is something I have been thinking about for a while now.

The event was well attended and my presentation drew a decent crowd. Here is the presentation:

Many thanks to [Patricia Kruep](https://twitter.com/littleberry?ref=design-bytes.com) who did this very nice sketch note of the presentation.

![UXDC-2015-presentation-sketch-note.jpg](https://storage.ghost.io/c/52/86/5286216d-e161-43b6-905c-1d315fad19a4/content/images/2025/01/UXDC-2015-presentation-sketch-note.jpg)

In addition to my presentation there were many other really great ones including my [Aquilent](http://aquilent.com/?ref=design-bytes.com) colleague [Jeff Pass](https://twitter.com/jeffpass?ref=design-bytes.com) who did a really great one titled ["Towards a continuous UX improvement model"](http://lanyrd.com/2015/uxcampdc/sdhcmt/?ref=design-bytes.com)