Category: Design
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Make a mess, then clean it up.
When I encounter any new design problem, I always start the same way: I make a mess. I grab whatever assets I have, hastily sketch out ideas, and scribble down notes as I study the problem. It’s messy and disorganized, an explosion of creativity where speed is the priority. My output will appear nonsensical to…
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Consider the composition
It’s easy to get lost in the details; Obsessing over pixel-perfect screens and clever micro-interactions. But the result of our work does not exist in isolation. It’s a woven tapestry of threads across screens, flows, products, and environments. The details are incredibly important, but we must also consider the composition of the whole. For all…
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Start with the ending
Designers are storytellers. We have the power to define and shape a person’s experience. But when we’re caught up in the immediacy of a new project — it can be easy to forget the importance of the ending. Any good storyteller can attest; Its the ending that leave’s your audience with a lasting impression. Since…
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Communication is Oxygen, But Too Much Will Kill You
In the hyperconnected world of Automattic, where Slack channels buzz like beehives and p2 threads stack up like digital paperwork, communication is a double-edged sword. It keeps us linked, breathes life into our distributed existence. It’s our oxygen. But too much oxygen will kill you. Navigating the river of constant chatter and updates as a…
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AI as a Creative Tool: Personas Who Talk Back
The future is here; Artificial Intelligence (A.I. or simply, AI) has hit the mainstream. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has surprised everyone (apparently, even OpenAI themselves) with just how useful it actually can be. As a designer, I’m always looking for fun, new, and innovative ways to bring my ideas to life. Until recently, this has mostly been…
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Learning App Design
A few days ago I switched teams at Automattic to work on the mobile apps team until the end of this year. So, for most of the summer I’ll be flexing some long-forgotten muscles and designing the WordPress and Jetpack mobile apps. Its been a (really, really) long time since I’ve done any iOS or…
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Thinking Through: Plugin Dependencies, A.K.A. Required Plugins
Its been well over 10 years since this Trac ticket was created discussing plugin dependencies. There’s a few tickets around the same subject that are even older. More recently, there’s been renewed interest in adding support for plugin dependencies with a Make P2 post and a Github repository. This post takes a look at this…
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What if… you could see relevant patterns and previews when adding a block?
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Thinking Through: WordPress Border Controls
The WordPress block editor is starting to look more and more like a design tool for creating Patterns and web pages. We’re seeing new controls every release for basic design tools like line-height, color, padding, and block spacing. The WordPress editor offers some simple controls for setting a block’s border. Controls for a block borders…
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Thinking Through: Document Status and Visibility
If you’ve ever used WordPress to create a blog post, web page, or any other type of document, then you are likely familiar with the Inspector Sidebar. The sidebar shows you information and controls related to the either the selected block, or the document itself. The sidebar hasn’t changed very much over the years, and…