Design links for October 14, 2026

The moat crowd is right that judgment matters; they're wrong about where it comes from.

As design has become more deeply embedded in complex, technology-driven organizations, designers have stepped into increasingly senior positions of influence, often without a clear roadmap for what those roles require or where they might lead next.

Maybe I am too optimistic here, but there are entire industries still waiting for their first piece of software that is truly designed for the people using it.

With AI shrinking dev cycles from weeks to hours, teams can sometimes build a working prototype before they've even agreed it's a good idea.

These essays are short and simple, meant as a collection of useful ideas and tricks rather than an exhaustive resource.

I started by researching the different docks in macOS through the years and compiled them all into a single graphic.

This is how I present a proposal to a client. The whole thing is one page, but the real proposal is what I say out loud, and by the time I finish saying it, I know their answer.

What draws me to murmurations is the possibility of a large group moving together through relationships each individual can maintain.

Discover some of the interesting features that have landed in stable and beta web browsers during September 2026.

Once a product's purpose becomes clear, design can get out of the way.

Galleries, award sites, landing page collections and section libraries, picked by hand and kept short on purpose.

Anatomy is a skill for Claude Code that does this. You name an idea in one line, Claude invents a machine that does it, and draws it as a live isometric figure you can turn, press and read.

I think the useful design decision here is choosing which part of the interface stays put as everything else changes.

AI did not remove the complexity of software. It removed the interface that told you where the complexity went, and who is now paying for it.

Michelangelus is a humanist serif font inspired by one of the greatest artist and architects in human history.

The design critique is shifting as we work, its purpose being redefined. What do we pay attention to when the model has a hand in the making?

Developers and designers will always create new innovative ways to be weird and inaccessible in their UI, and spec authors will always struggle to decide how far to support the chaos.

Product leadership when software can build itself.

A design philosophy where every animation serves a functional purpose — motion is information, not decoration.

An argument can be made that Design owns coherence—how a suite of offerings, across channels of delivery, adds up for the person on the other end.

The more imperfect it got, the more it felt like mine (and like me).