Posts

2023

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Add a Chapter

The story’s always being written.

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Config 2023 Recap

What’s really special about in-person conferences.

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Mastering Manual and Mundane Work

Is manual work worth doing? Skip it or face head on?

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How to Pitch Anything to Anyone

Get more of what you want.

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Pre-Launch Jitters

Noticing the feelings before putting something new into the world.

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Artificial Intelligence & Humanity

What I rely on AI for—and what I don’t.

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What is a Design System?

6 different types of design systems.

2022

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2022 Year in Review

The ups and downs of 2022.

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Yes, Under These Conditions

Accountability between “yes” and “no.”

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Whoever Wants It More Does the Work

Exposing and flattening power dynamics in any relationship.

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Ask

You shall receive.

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Three Times is a Pattern

A starting point for design system contribution.

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Resist criticizing tools for what they are bad at. Resist designing tools that are well-rounded.

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A cognitive bias in which there’s a tendency to notice something more often, leading someone to believe that it has an increased frequency of occurrence.

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A digital nomad is defined as someone who uses technology, especially a laptop and a wireless network, to work remotely from anywhere in the world.

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superfriEnd

I’m shutting SuperFriendly down.

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A surprisoligist explains why it feels good when the unexpected is sprung on us, and why surprise is actually good for us.

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Beautiful, affordable Wordpress templates.

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A reflection on art created by artificial intelligence.

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Details on how Charli’s income streams increased and decreased over the past year

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A CSS approach that’s blowing my mind.

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Now what do I do?

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Helping people guess right.

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The Folly of Design System “Foundations”

The idea of “foundations” is one of the biggest threats to creating a design system people use.

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Measuring Quality with Design Systems

Part 2 of a conversation between Amy Hupe, Nathan Curtis, and Dan Mall.

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Identifying Useful Design System Patterns

Avoid design system graveyards by capitalizing on patterns that are already in use.

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Measuring Speed with Design Systems

A conversation between Amy Hupe, Nathan Curtis, and Dan Mall.

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Design System Coverage

How much of a page should be made up of design system components?

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10 Years of SuperFriendly

A decade in business!

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2021 Year in Review

The ups and downs of 2021.

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SuperFriendly 2021 Wrap-Up

SuperFriendly’s worst year to date and one of my biggest professional failures. Time for a big change.

2021

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Design Systems Prepare You for Change

The moment where a design system proves its value most.

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Design Systems & Magic

Lessons about design systems from Harry Potter.

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Design Tokens Resources

Beginner-level guidance on design tokens.

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It’s Easier to Revise than Create

How to hack starting from scratch to make something great.

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May 30 – June 5, 2021

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May 23 – May 29, 2021

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Building Momentum

What should you do when you feel like your projects are going slower than you’d like?

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May 16 – May 22, 2021

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May 09 – May 15, 2021

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May 02 – May 08, 2021

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Play with Arcade

Our new design token manager is now officially open to the public.

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Support Systems for Learning

Defining and examining 10 different ways people learn.

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My Typical Day

Wake up to bedtime.

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    2020 Year in Review

    The ups and downs of 2020.

    2020

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    SuperFriendly 2020 Wrap-Up

    A look back at SuperFriendly in 2020.

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    Design Systems for Email

    Bringing modular design practices to email.

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    A Syllabus for Web Design & Web Development Apprenticeships

    An intentional way to teach web design and web development from scratch.

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    A CEO’s COVID-19 Calendar

    A daily routine for a COVID-19 world.

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    Useful Sections for a Design System Reference Site

    More people will use your design system if it’s easy to browse.

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    Making Design Systems Public

    Is making your design system public worth the effort? In short: yes, it is.

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    Better Webcam Video

    Stepping up quality for video calls.

    2019

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    2019 Year in Review

    The ups and downs of 2019

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    SuperFriendly in 2020

    Looking forward to a new kind of year for SuperFriendly by looking back at the past few years.

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    More on Bootstrap for Your Design System

    A counterpoint to “Should You Use Bootstrap or Material Design for Your Design System?”.

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    Should You Use Bootstrap or Material Design for Your Design System?

    Weighing the pros and cons of rolling your own design system.

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    The Hot Potato Process

    A better way for designers and developers to truly work together.

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    Communication Arts Interactive 2020

    A rundown of the kind of work I want to see awarded in this year’s competition.

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    Avengers: Endgame

    My review. Major spoilers included.

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    Typography in Design Systems

    A typographic system that optimizes for guessability.

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    My Experience with Laser Eye Surgery

    A play-by-play.

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    Break-Even Points for Value Pricing

    A play-by-play.

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    Designer + Developer Collaboration Workshop

    Recapping our Philly workshop.

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    Starting a Design System

    What are the first steps?

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    2018 Year in Review

    The ups and downs of 2018.

    2018

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    Clients by Brand Color

    Celebrating clients over the years.

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    Passing the SuperBooked Baton

    New leadership for SuperBooked.

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    Design Systems: Mastering Design at Scale

    A video series in partnership with InVision.

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    Work With Me to Redesign the Shop Talk Show Website

    An opportunity for someone who might not have it otherwise.

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    A Portfolio Hiring Managers Can’t Deny

    Tell ’em exactly what they want to hear before they even ask.

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    Designer + Developer Workflow

    A real view into at what collaborative workflow looks like.

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    Smashing Conference Toronto 2018

    Reflections from a speaker about doing a new (kind of) talk.

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    Distinct Design Systems

    What makes a design system better than any other?

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    The Only-ness Statement

    A simple brand exercise that speaks volumes.

    2017

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    How to Scope Work

    A skill that separates the amateurs from the professionals.

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    Stealing Your Way to Original Designs

    There’s nothing new under the sun.

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    Design Systems: Pilots & Scorecards

    Pilots are a great way to start a design system.

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    Bad News. Good News. So What?

    A simple framework for effective storytelling.

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    Cooking with Design Systems

    Design systems make deciding in the browser much easier if you have the right ingredients.

    2016

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    Investments

    Using an investment framework to help evaluate what’s worth doing.

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    Voting for Trump is Unbiblical

    Measuring Trump against the Bible’s criteria for leaders.

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    Accountability

    A 3-step formula for accountability between yourself and those you interact with.

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    SuperBooked

    Announcing SuperBooked, a service that helps you find work with a little help from your friends.

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    Researching Design Systems

    An inventory of the most popular design systems out there.

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    Apprenticeships

    A fantastic solution to bridge the gap between opportunity in tech and those in need of change.

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    Great writing from Mike really brings me back.

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    Selling Design Systems

    How to convince your boss that a design system is a good idea.

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    Oil Change & Pizza

    Death to “full service.”

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    To overcome your fears, you need [permission] to try something different.

    2015

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    Content & Display Patterns

    Embracing the difference in pattern types is the key to making a modular design system infinitely more scalable.

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    Titles are Important

    Don’t believe anyone that tells you otherwise.

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    I Don’t Have Time

    That magical phrase that gives you permission to brush off the things you really want to do.

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    Time for Work

    What’s the minimum amount of time we should be working per week?

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    Switch

    Dealing with creative block.

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    Finished Business(ology)

    The time has come for me to step away from Businessology.

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    Finding Clients

    Like magnets and archaelogists.

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    Pricing

    How to start charging for your work.

    2014

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    The Businessology Roadshow

    Learn about the business of design in person.

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    On Creative Direction

    A primer on creative direction as compared to art direction and design… and what they all mean in a digital context.

    2012

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    Authenticity

    Some speaking advice from Jeremy Keith.

    2010

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    FullCodePress

    An event that challenged 3 teams to build a website for a non-profit organization in 24 hours.

    2009

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    Typedia

    Wikipedia for typefaces.

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