design

A collection of 22 posts

1 Jan 2021 • 1 min read

Using What You’ve Learned →

A few years back I heard one of my music hero’s Jono Grant from Above & Beyond [https://www.aboveandbeyond.nu] talk about their process in the studio [https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/vZJZ4a5Go11c79DFA]. He made a comment that stuck with me. It went along the lines of “when we

13 Sep 2020 • 1 min read

Working on Fetch →

I wrote a short intro piece [https://fetch.build/hello] for our Software Engineering blog at Ideal Modular Homes. We’re building real-time, high-dependency software that assists with the design, manufacture and installation of our sustainable modular homes. We’ll be sharing more about of technology choices, lessons learned and

30 Jul 2020 • 1 min read

Old Tins →

We spent today wondering around Penzance in Cornwall, England. There was a shop called CASH FOR YOUR JUNK. It looked a lot like my old grandfather’s garage. A jumble sale of odd things. Plates, lamps, tins, statues, an old petrol forecourt spinning Jet logo etc etc. Hoarder’s heaven.

24 Jan 2020 • 1 min read

Cushy →

This was an identity idea for an eco-friendly home builder. Cushy never got to see the light of day so sharing it here with your lovely eyes.

8 Jan 2020 • 1 min read

Fetch Logo →

After a few years away from the graphics editor, I dusted off my old copy of Sketch to make a logo for a thing. Chuffed I have an excuse to use a doggo in a logo. Need @andy88jones [http://dribbble.com/andy88jones] to help me with kerning. He has a

21 Aug 2019 • 1 min read

Stakeholders. What are we optimising for? →

One of the things I’m piss poor at is stakeholder engagement—enabling everyone see tradeoffs the way I can. Sadly the problem exacerbates as your company scales. Helpful to see Chris Thewell [https://twitter.com/christhelwell] speaking at the UX Crunch last night. On the dial ask What are

20 May 2016 • 1 min read

Look around: Costs are everywhere →

It’s easy to rest on the assumption that costs are only monetary. In product design, this misses an important point — costs are everywhere: * Waiting for a webpage to load is a cost. * Typing in your card details is a cost. * Figuring out whether to trust a company you’ve

20 May 2016 • 10 min read

We used Intercom to add £100,000s of marketplace investments at Fruitful—here’s how →

Onboarding customers to your new product is tricky. Onboarding customers to a new financial product is really tricky. For a mountain of security and regulatory reasons you’re required to collect and validate a towering number of data points. Of course, for each additional data point that we had to

Keep peddling until you find the right problem

16 May 2016 • 2 min read

Keep peddling until you find the right problem →

Back in August 1972, New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced the late Massimo Vignelli’s new map of the subway system. New Yorkers were furious. Complaints came flooding in [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/06/arts/design/the-subway-map-that-rattled-new-yorkers.html?_r=1] : > “Stations seemed to be in the wrong

11 Oct 2015 • 1 min read

This is how you package consumer goods →

Yesterday I was in the market for some plughole unblocker. We’ve moved places recently and I forgot to put this useful little thing [http://www.oxo.com/products/cleaning-laundry/bathroom-cleaning/shower-stall-drain-protector] in our shower. So I head into Tesco and — eventually — I find the section for bleaches and plughole

29 Sep 2015 • 2 min read

Questions to ask your design work →

Last month I spent some time updating my portfolio [https://afroleft.com/portfolio/]. As a product / user experience / web designer, it can be quite tricky to present your work to others. The rock star visual designers of this world can get away with presenting screenshots of their stunning visual work

27 Jul 2015 • 1 min read

An Icon a Day →

Keeps the doctor away. Just found this blog [http://icon-a-day.com/] full of wonderful icons. This was one of my favourites.

26 Jul 2015 • 2 min read

Afrolive →

I’ve been planning a rebuild of my blog for a while now. If I’ve learned one thing from product development, it’s know what problem you’re trying to solve. So I sat down and actually thought about my goal: To write more frequently. I wanted to worry

1 May 2015 • 1 min read

Same Same. But Different. →

It’s Sunday, late morning, and I’m right in the middle of cleaning the bathroom. In the other room I hear a frustrated girlfriend struggling to find accommodation on - lets say - website X, for our trip to the Amalfi Coast. Complaints flying left, right and centre, vented

26 Nov 2013 • 1 min read

Our Duty →

> Firstly, think about what your pages do, not what they look like. Let your design flow from the services which they will provide to your users, rather than from some overarching idea of what you want pages to look like. Let form follow function, rather than trying to take a