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reliefkey

Design

My favorite tools

As a kid, when I watched TV shows and all the strong adult male husband characters talked about getting new power tools for their workshops, I never understood it.

….I get it now.

Here are a few of my favorite tools right now.

Learning design – balance

Here… no, here…

Hmmm, still not quite right.

Maybe here?

Small adjustments to a design, just a few pixels, can completely throw off an entire design.

bad 90's design page

The illusion of great design

Probably not, because you just experienced good design.

Well, maybe not right, right now, but within the last day there’s a good chance you have, and by not noticing it, indicates that you had the pleasure of experiencing great design.

photo of red and blue zippers

You don’t realize you need it until it’s fixed

There are some problems we don’t know we have.

Often referred to as ‘blind spots.’

Yup, just like when you’re driving. You check your mirrors, make sure you’re not going to hit anything, but sure enough, when you move…

person writing on white paper to prototype

The fun, and frustration of prototyping

I’ve got an idea!

Now, how does that idea actually become real and go together?

That’s what prototyping is for. So you can mess up a bunch, with minimal consequences, so that you can figure out how something, that doesn’t exist yet, and there’s no manual for, should function. As well as how it should be formed, and, well, while you’re at it, what color(s) it should be.

black and brown Dachshund standing in carboard box the best material

Why I love cardboard and you should too

When I was a kid I made a fort/spaceship out of cardboard and was fully armed with an arsenal of nerf guns and stocked up with snacks for my imaginary journey to some yet-to-be-explored planet or jungle. How did I travel there? In a giant scribbled upon refrigerator box, I connected to my bunk bed of course.