Design Details

This week, we catch up with Haraldur Thorleifsson, the founder, CEO, and social media intern at Ueno. In today's conversation, we cover everything from burnout to why designers should be thinking about solving more meaningful problems. We dig into the current and future plans for Ueno, the function of beauty in design, whether Halli wants to be famous, and finding catharsis on Twitter. And as alwa...

This week, we answer a couple listener questions—which design automation tools we use and how to efficiently look for a job—and rattle off a few things we'd like to see announced at the September Apple Event. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a 64-button mashup and a state-of-the-art mouse. Follow-up: Rafa and Kevin are back from summer vacation with a new episode of Layout ! Apple...

In today's episode, Diana Mounter, who manages the design infrastructure at GitHub, helps us dive deep into a listener question about the role and expectations of a design systems manager. And we have a big round of cool things this week, including three books, an album, and a plugin. Follow-up: Keaton Taylor lolled pretty hard at our dumb 311 references. It was all worth it. Thanks for leaving qu...

This week, we answer a few listener questions, including what constitutes a good visual design experience, when to put case studies on your site, and when to battle bureaucracy at the office. And as always, we share some cool things, like a couple interesting YouTube channels, one that reviews visual effects and one that makes gaming documentaries. Follow-up: Video: "311 - Amber" Frosted...

In today's episode we catch up with Skyler Balbus, the Director of Product Design at Postlight. We dig into what it means to build products within the agency model, the decision to move from working in-house to working with clients, and how to build a culture where designers can experiment freely. Skyler also shares her ideas for how to build a strong design culture within an agency, tips for juni...

This week, we look at how a product designer's career advances. We discuss the common themes and growth areas that companies use to measure progression, suggest questions you can ask yourself to assess your progress, read through some of your replies on the subject, and offer up several resources for diving deeper and learning more. And as always, we share a couple cool things, like a typeface des...

This week, we answer a couple listener questions, including how to get started learning design as a developer and how to reconcile icons on different platforms. In News, we discuss the launch of Figma Plugins, and as always, we share a couple cool things, like gourmet junk food and vaporwave jams. Follow-up: Pro Tip: Listen to Design Details at ~1.25x speed. It's more tolerable, we promise :) Divy...

This week, we take an early look at the fourth iOS 13 Developer Beta and discuss some of the new features, interactions, and patterns we've noticed. We also answer a few listener questions, including how big a prototype should be, when to expand your skillset, and how to intentionally grow as a designer. And as always, we a share a couple cool things, like a prolific Quora answerer and a novel ser...

In today's episode we dig into two listener questions about when to use toggles versus checkboxes, and the current state of accessibility in product design. We also share a big milestone for the podcast, get caught up on some news, and as always, share our cool finds of the week. Followup We've crossed 5 million total downloads on Design Details! Thank you all for listening along with us for all t...

This week, we welcome to the show Michie Cao, formerly of Twitter and currently the sole designer at Sisu. Michie tells us all about her experience of working at both a large corporation and a small startup, and she shares some pros and cons of each situation along with some great advice for solo designers. And as always, we end the show with a few cool things, like a pair of music videos, the new...

This week, we keep it short and answer a few listener questions, including how to align text to a grid, how to handle an interview at a company that uses dark patterns, and how to account for suboptimal company processes when assembling portfolio work. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a pair of crazy tech gloves and some award-winning coffee paraphernalia. Sponsor: >> Want t...

This week, we welcome to the show Stacy La, formerly of Clover Health and currently the product and design lead on the Prevent Epidemics Team at Resolve to Save Lives. Stacy shares with us some of the challenges and triumphs of building a large design team from scratch, and we get into the details of designing for such serious, high-stakes product areas. And as always, we end the show with a few c...

This week, inspired by a tweet from Daniel Burka, we tackle the thorny but important question of who is ultimately accountable for the implementation of a product's dark patterns. Is Design responsible? Engineering? Leadership? All of the above? In Listener Questions, we answer how to design on an iPad and how to apply an even grid to an odd screen. And as always, we share a couple cool things lik...

This week, we answer a few listener questions, including the difference between the philosophies behind the Android and iOS design systems and why we prefer an 8pt grid. In News, Brian gives a quick rundown on Figma's new Plugins Beta. And as always, we share a couple cool things like some isometric dioramas and a modular key and wallet system. Sponsor: >> Want to become a sponsor of Design...

This week we reflect on 300 episodes of Design Details. We recount the origin story, answering listener questions as we go about how we've managed to maintain the schedule for so long, the high and low points, and future plans for the podcast. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a new music discovery app and Marshall's favorite book of all time. Sponsor: >> Want to become a spo...

This week, we answer a listener question about the balance of being both a manager and an individual contributor, which leads to some more existential conversation about sharing what we think we know and the fear of being wrong loudly in public. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a Marvel movie pitch and an addictive reality show (and Marshall shares the rough skeleton of his screen...

This week, we answer a listener question about designing a design curriculum and another about where the line is between a visual redesign and an experience redesign. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a playlist of experts and an action film series. Sponsor: >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec.fm to get started :) This wee...

This week, we take a break from talking about high-level design problems and dive into the specific struggles we find ourselves running into lately, including pushing through the last ten percent, maintaining multiple realities, gaining stakeholder buy-in, and designing around moving targets. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a science-fiction page-turner and a thought-provoking vi...

This week we dig into the latest and greatest announcements from this year's Google I/O. We talk through our top highlights like new privacy controls, Android Q improvements, and a solid new budget Pixel phone. And as always, we share our cool finds of the week, like a behind-the-scenes feature film on the creation of God of War, and a news application to help you read and understand what's happen...

This week, we discuss the usefulness of public design critiques, given Brian's eventful week of tweeting stuff. Then we dive deep on the new Facebook redesign, especially the details of the desktop version. And as always, we share a couple cool things like a financial app and a sneaker channel. Sponsor: >> Want to become a sponsor of Design Details yourself? Email brian@spec.fm or sarah@spec...

This week, we welcome Tea Chang, a UX Designer working on League of Legends at Riot Games, to talk about designing user experiences for gamers. At the end of the show, Tea sticks around for a long, spoiler-filled discussion of Avengers: Endgame . In Follow-up, we read and respond to your feedback regarding the cover art concept from last week. And as always, we share a few cool things, like a vide...

This week, we bring back the Fight Me segment with a debate on the usefulness of augmented reality in apps. Is it a gimmick or not? In Follow-up, we debut a proposal for our new cover art, and we shout out Linzi Berry's latest blog post. And as always, we share a couple cool things like an addictive game and a bizarre novel. Cover photo by Niantic via The Verge Follow-up: If you missed last week's...

This week, we welcome to the show Linzi Berry, a manager on Lyft's design system. Linzi enlightens us on how to implement, maintain, enforce, evangelize, and roll out a design system, and we discuss her super informative design blog, Tap to Dismiss. In Follow-up, we debate some Episode 300 suggestions, revisit the Figma UI refresh, and shout out a quality-of-life improvement in Sketch 54. And as a...

This week, we discuss Figma's UI redesign, the public response to it, and how to effectively communicate negative feedback to both companies and colleagues. In Follow-up, Brian has an update on a previous Cool Thing, we read some listener feedback (all positive, phew!), and Marshall shares his choice of AirPower replacement. And as always, we share a couple cool things, like a fellow designer's we...

This week, we answer listener questions, including how to transition from engineering to product design, how to wrap up before moving to a new company, and what we think of apps that allow you to change the launch icon. In Follow-up, we read some listener feedback about last episode, and Marshall fills in a couple details on his file organization tips. In News, we lament the untimely death of AirP...