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creative_cloud

Creative Cloud for the Better

By now, you already know that Adobe is switching its flagship product line to a subscription-only model. The full Creative Suite (sans Fireworks, which is being mothballed) will now be available as a subscription-only service in the form of Creative Cloud. This massive decision has already attracted some controversy, as the subscription model's detractors are as vocal...
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fads_trends

Design Fads vs. Design Trends

The phrases "design fads" and "design trends" are often used interchangeably, but they do not mean the same thing. The distinction between them is subtle but important, and it is convoluted by the fact that something can be both a fad and a trend. Let's talk about fads and trends: Design Fads Fads are the peer pressure of design -- they happen simply because "eve...
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Peter Vidani

An Interview with Peter Vidani of Tumblr

In an industry defined by frequent pivots and trend-based design, Tumblr has remained impressively consistent throughout its seven-year history. The past four years have been particularly stable: while the product has been consistently refined, Tumblr circa 2009 bears great resemblance to Tumblr circa 2013. The man responsible for the product's design direction is ...
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literature

Becoming a Better Designer, Away from the Screen

The startup world can be a bubble. Most of my daily reading consists of articles posted on Hacker News or Designer News; I sometimes go an entire week without reading something unrelated to the startup scene. The ongoing exchange of knowledge is incredible, but it can also foster an Echo Chamber mentality. If we're all talking to each other, how do new ideas get intro...
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design-writing

Design Writing and the Self-Aware Industry

Almost every digital designer I can think of has produced an impressive amount of writing about their craft. Between personal blogs and publications such as A List Apart (and The Industry, for that matter), it seems like most designers have done at least some writing about their profession. Perhaps I only know designers who are also writers. After all, publishing b...
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phosphor-featured

Phosphor – Cross-Platform, Standards-Compliant Video

It's 2013, and animation remains a pain to implement on the web. Flash is dead (good riddance), but its absence leaves an animation-sized hole in the fabric of the web. Plugin-based solutions break the integrity of the internet by ignoring its goal of out-of-the-box universality. Animated GIFs are only viable for small, short-form graphics. Most other solutions ignore...
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featured

The Convergence of Social Design

When the redesigned Facebook news feed was announced, reactions among the technorati focused on its relationship with other products. It looks like Tumblr. It looks like Google Plus. It's hard to avoid comparing digital products to each other. Despite our constant calls for innovation, most of our output is merely iteration on the same ideas: news feeds, messaging, f...
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teuxdeux-featured

TeuxDeux Redesigned

I have trouble settling on a task management tool. Whenever I settle into one, I find myself contracting a major case of GTD wanderlust just a few months later. My reasons for switching are all variations on a theme: This one's too simple. This one's too complicated. This one's not designy enough. TeuxDeux, launched in 2009, has always stood alone. It doesn't try ...
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foundation-featured

Thoughts on Using Web Frameworks

If you're involved in web design, you're probably familiar with at least one of the popular front-end frameworks. Bootstrap is everywhere, Foundation is hot on its heels, and the HTML5 Boilerplate has become nearly ubiquitous. Smaller frameworks with a more focused niche are released almost daily. Are frameworks a crutch, or can they be a useful tool to experie...
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