Ideas and Discoveries
Personal and professional notes about our craft, technique, and the role of design in the world.
ai
AI and Design Systems
The new crop of AI tools are already supercharging design system efforts across many categories, and we’re helping our clients use AI to do exactly that. Big Medium’s Brad Frost, Kevin Coyle, and Ian Frost show how.
leadership
Do More with Less: Digital Leadership in Lean Times
Josh Clark shares nine principles to guide high-performing teams to deliver faster/better/cheaper in an era of shrinking budgets.
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What we’re reading
AI + Design: Figma Users Tell Us What’s Coming Next
A survey of Figma users indicates that AI is making its way into most companies’ product pipelines, but the solutions they’re shipping are… uninspired.
This is the Moment to Reinvent Your Product
Will you use AI to get better/faster at things you already do, or will you invent new ways to do things that weren’t previously possible?
The 3 Capabilities Designers Need To Build for the AI Era
Designers have an opportunity to expand their roles and perspective in AI strategy, interaction design, and model design. How will we respond to the new problems and emerging interaction models that AI invites us to address and explore?
A Coder Considers the Waning Days of the Craft
Writer and programmer James Somers shares his personal journey discovering just how good AI is at writing code—and what this might mean both individually and for the industry.
Thoughts on a Global Design System
Chris Coyier shares some tough-love critique on Brad Frost’s call to action for a global design system—a great framing for the conversation to come.
How Machines Are Taking Over the World’s Stock Markets
Use machine learning “to identify new theories, and once you identify a new theory, you throw the machine away, you don’t want the machine.”
Recent Writing
design system
What's Next for a Global Design System
Since proposing a Global Design System, Big Medium’s Brad Frost has received a flood of responses—from positive to skeptical to scathing. Here’s a rundown and what’s next.
design system
A Global Design System
Big Medium’s Brad Frost issues a call to action to create a Global Design System of common UI components. What would this look like, and what would it mean for you?
process
Ship Faster by Building Design Systems Slower
Successful design systems can and should move more slowly than the products they support—but a deliberate pace doesn’t have to create bottlenecks. Josh Clark shows how to reconcile the needs and speeds of product versus design system.
design system
The Design System Ecosystem
Brad Frost explores the landscape of a mature, end-to-end design system for big, complex organizations. Discover all the moving pieces and how they hang together.
process
Only One Deliverable Matters
Too much design effort goes into artifacts that are not part of the working software. There’s a better way to work.
design system
The Most Exciting Design Systems Are Boring
Design systems should solve problems that designers confront over and over again, so that they can turn to more interesting challenges.
sentient design
You’re Not Late to Machine Learning
If you’re worried that you’re behind in getting in on machine learning, never fear: AI has not so much come of age as reached an awkward adolescence. You’re right on time.
sentient design
Why Machine Learning and AI Matter for Design Teams
There’s a critical role for design in the era of the algorithm—and your organization almost certainly has what it needs to jump in today.
video
Design Systems: Mastering Design at Scale
In this InVision video series, Brad Frost, Dan Mall, and Josh Clark share their know-how to help you build and use a design system.
podcast
Designing with Artificial Intelligence: The Dinosaur on a Surfboard
On the Presentable podcast, Josh Clark joins Jeff Veen to consider the role for designers in a world of algorithms and machine learning.
podcast
The Design System and Your Future Self
On the Style Guide podcast, Josh Clark shares how design systems are a kindness to your future self—and can make sense of emerging interactions, too.
c25k
How Josh Clark Invented “Couch to 5K” and Helped Millions Start Running
Big Medium’s Josh Clark created the exercise schedule that got the world running. The BBC tells the story.