Joined July 2009
- Tweets 7,188
- Following 484
- Followers 6,458
- Likes 4,945
332 Photos and videos
May 29
During Automotive Design class back in 2005, we had to design a car inspired by a celebrity.
I chose Jony Ive đ
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May 26
I've always loved designing icons and still remember @jasperhauser walking me through his technique, which changed how I thought about their construction.
Icons force you to find expression within rigid constraints. They require technical precision because every detail is exposed, but you also need to step back and take them in as a fuzzy whole.
These icons for @north_mail are defined by their high-acceleration corners and subtle bottom curve. They will forever be a work in progress. I could sit and tinker for hours.
northmail.app
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May 21
Ideally @north_mail sorts your messages correctly. But if it doesn't, we want to make that an enjoyable moment.
So we added this coin spin animation and a scrumptious sound, inspired by classic video games.
Request access: northmail.app
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May 9
It's very gratifying to hear members in our early access community recognize the attention to detail we're injecting into every moment.
Our sign-in slider, which is an expression of the larger brand, has been particularly loved âşď¸
Request an invite to North at northmail.app
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May 1
So glad you found the roll of stickers đ
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May 1
People seem to be increasingly designing for the algorithm, with vibecoding only accelerating itâmore effects, more motion, more flashes.
A community that loves to tout Dieter Rams as their design hero are creating software designed to stand out on store shelves.
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May 1
Email apps cater to people who want to be more productive. They help you triage faster and search harder so you can keep on top of it all. But what if the problem is with the underlying structure? What if we could avoid that work altogether?
Weâre building easy-going email for everyone else. For the people who donât treat life like a to-do list and arenât swiping their way to inbox-zero.
If that sounds like you, weâd love to invite to our early release. Sign up below â¤ď¸
Exactly two years ago, we formed Handheld Projects to build slow products for easy living.
Today, we are excited to announce Northâa personal email app designed for taking it easy. Now available in early release.
northmail.app
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Apr 16
I've had many people (men) provide advice for how to manage and delegate to other people. It usually comes in the form of being strong and pushing people for maximum return.
I've worked with 10 contractors over the last two years, and I've always thought about their perspective and needs first. Everyone has responded positively and overdelivered on what we agreed upon.
People want to work and join along on things that feel good. They want to know that they are being heard and care for.
Kindness â weakness.
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Apr 13
IMO too many people in our industry are focused on building a VC-backed company.
At some point, it becomes a disservice to society when so much talent is chasing after lofty ambitions that will never come to fruition.
All that time, money and effort could be spent on more humble ideas that still need to be solved after the runway runs out.
Sometimes the best progress happens in small, compounding steps, not giant leaps.
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Barton Smith retweeted
Apr 5
If there is one good thing that can come out of having my health issues exposed to the world, itâs raising awareness for complex chronic conditions like POTS, MECFS, Long Covid or EDS. đ§ľ
businessinsider.com/what-is-âŚ
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Apr 2
The last 15 years of interface design was not just a trend. It was a practice of analysis, understanding, distillation and refinement of the exploratory period that came before it.
And now, as the rate of our learning slows down, we begin another period of expression and exploration.
Exploration â accumulation â overload â distillation â clarity â stagnation â explorationâŚ
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Mar 27
Driven by Zuck-thought and VC incentives, our industry developed a doctrine that the data tells the story. If option B performed better, then it was more desirable and successful than Option A. No matter how intuitive it felt, your opinion was wrong.
Itâs very clear to me now that we were measuring âsugar intakeâ. We were measuring the addictiveness, not the value and nutrition, of our junk-food software.
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Mar 25
If youâre excited about AI-powered productivity and speed gains, thereâs a good chance youâre falling into another casino capitalism trap.
Your life doesnât change. You wonât get more time with your kids. Youâre just running the same rat race while making other people even richer.
The point of life is not to get to the next step as fast as possible. There are infinity steps with no destination.
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Barton Smith retweeted
Mar 1
Software Design is weird. It is undoubtedly the most impactful medium shaping the world today, yet even those of us working in it know very little of its history. We have no broadly-read books, no docu-series, no video essays. Most see the works of the past as obsolete rather than the rich heritage that has led us here. Every year, seminal works are lost to time accessible only in the memories of those who lived it.
We're (re)building Software Design's most seminal moments one pixel at a time and sharing the stories behind the work straight from the designers themselves. Take a peek and sign up to follow alongâŚ
historyofsoftware.org
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Feb 21
100% agree. This is one of my biggest concerns with AI (aside from societal collapse) and Silicon Valleyâs long running obsession with democratization.
The bulldozers win. The quiet, thoughtful people canât compete with the loud ones who donât stop to think what theyâre doing.
The romance that everyone can get their ideas into the world and meritocracy wins is an illusion IMO. And itâs a powerful illusion because it keeps us agreeing with the incentives that primarily support distributors (big tech).
Feb 19
c) Make a mediocre product and be the best at marketing it
Historically this hasn't worked in software because making software was so difficult that few could do it. But as barriers fall and it becomes trivial for anyone to make "good enough" software, the core challenge shifts away from execution and toward discovery.
This is already prevalent on over-saturated platforms like the App Store where many great apps sit undiscovered and mediocre ones succeed based on aggressive marketing strategies. No surprise, this is the playbook we see in other industries that have undergone similar transformations (DTC, apparel, food).
Like Rasmus, I hope to see a lot more take route (b). But if we see a massive flood of new software, don't be surprised to see a lot of people find success with option (c).
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Feb 21
And by âwinâ I mean in volume and dominance.
There will always been small pockets where people can find customers with the right product, brand and marketing, as long as it is attached to a compatible business model.
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Feb 16
I struggle to understand the argument that everyone will just create their own software.
Spending on paid services for everyday tasks continues to grow every year, and knowing what you want and how to articulate it is a difficult skill that we may be underestimating.
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