Good design

Complexity is like energy. It cannot be created or destroyed, only moved somewhere else. When a product or service becomes simpler for users, engineers and designers have to work harder.

Be careful of doing too much work that copies the people you admire. Start out that way to see what feels right. But aim to seek what they were seeking instead of doing what they were doing.

Customers ask for features, so sales, and customer success, and customer support all want the customer to get those features. And the CMO wants all the competitors’ features. And the CFO wants more features for less money. And the investors want the customer-milking 10x features. And the designers want cool features. And the developers want... See more

The best design work rarely starts with order. It starts with questions, with play, with a lot of mess. We need tools that make room for that. Because if everything is neatly aligned from the beginning, we may never discover what lies just outside the grid.

One of the most intelligent case studies in design is the Chinese tea cup. They’re made without handles simply because if it’s too hot to touch, it’s too hot to drink.

Humans naturally want to add more. Add a cardboard sleeve, add a warning on the outside of the cup, add a handle. The result of all these things never cools down the actual contents.

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