Chris Coyier

One really positive outcome that's come from AI tools bringing designers and devs more into each others' world is the empathy it's building. Seeing so many designers realize how much more complex a seemingly small visual change can be in code and developers realize how hard it can be to design a great user experience ♥️

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Last week I posted this UI/UX tip: Use sentence case over title case. One of the 59 comments read: “Oh. My. God. We went round and round about this at a previous job. My coworker put together a 25+ page PDF about the pros and cons of each.” Here’s the thing: Tips like these are good for making quick sensible choices but if you have designers on your team who insist on talking to death about simple design decisions like these, then just leave it. Don’t make design a blocker. Move on and focus on bigger problems.

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Shopify just dropped UX Design and Content Design as job titles. Now you’re either a “Designer” or a “Writer”. Simpler, apparently. But is it better? I have a few concerns. What problem is this solving? It’s not clear to me. It feels more like a provocative statement than a meaningful fix. Is this about clarity, or just making waves? Specialisation is strength In our (much smaller) company, we have specialist designers: UX designers, UI designers, instructional designers, graphic designers. Their specialisation brings expertise. Giving them the same job title solves nothing. Expecting them all to do the same job denigrates their craft and dilutes any sense of ownership. Why is this better? “AI enables anyone to make things usable” I’d like to see proof of that. More importantly, usability is only a fraction of what UX design is about. UX is primarily about identifying problems and designing solutions. It’s frequently complex. Having a Chief Design Officer who thinks UX = usability is concerning. “Taste” over function? Taste, aesthetics and point of view? Note to Shopify: UX is not fashion design. These terms undermine decades of progress in UX. We’ve spent years showing the world that design isn’t just how something looks. It’s how it works. Users don’t want “unforgettable” software They don’t care about our software. They just want the job done as quickly and easily as possible. And the less time they spend using (or noticing) our software, the better. Forgettable is a feature, not a bug. Domain depth matters Carl Rivera has had an impressive career. But based on his profile, he has limited experience as a designer. That lack of grounding shows. It’s a bold announcement, but one that, to me, reflects a shallow understanding of the space. I’m all for challenging orthodoxy. But this feels like it’s trading clarity and craft for branding and bravado. Would love to hear other thoughts, especially from UX practitioners. What do you make of this move? #UXDesign #ProductDesign #Shopify

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Got inspired by Sil Bormüller post https://lnkd.in/gU8zVvGp about using Claude with Figma, and decided to build my own CLI version that lets Claude design directly in Figma—without relying on MCP. This journey pushed me to explore deeper automation workflows and variable architecture inside Figma, and I learned a lot along the way. In this demo, I asked Claude to: Generate option, semantic, and component-specific tokens based on a selected component Link the variables together correctly Assign the component-specific tokens directly to the relevant layers I’ll be sharing a detailed walkthrough soon covering the full setup process, how to install and use the CLI, and how to train it effectively.

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Design system friends: do you know of any good examples of guidance for brand expression in design systems documentation? Pinterest (Gestalt) has a rad page on brand expression but it's the only one I've really seen. Some other systems offer guidance around specific parts of the design system (e.g. typography) but not broad guidance on how and when to lean into brand (and when not to). Curious what you've seen! (Reposted because I didn’t realise I had my posts set to connections only!)

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The biggest unlock in my design career wasn’t a tool. It was this mindset shift... For years, I treated design like a deliverable. A screen here, a component there, an interface pushed out. The quality of my work for me looked like copying the best good looking style. Everything changed when I started looking at the business side of design, and seeing design as a whole system. - A system for clarity (think about it, not all audiences can understand heavy designs). - A system for product decision-making - A system for reducing engineering waste - A system for improving users engagement. Stop designing for features, design for the entire product. Ask yourself how it'll all meet in the end. Founders now trust my decisions better, My work has become more predictable, reliable and scalable. Results started compounding faster. Teams I work with, always win. If you don't totally know how to start, just ask yourself this question in every step you take: "What would happen if this feature doesn't get shipped? Would all the other designs break?" THANKS FOR READING...

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The best designers I know can’t draw. This messes with people’s heads. They think design is about making things pretty. It’s not. Design is about making things work. I have a designer on my team who uses stick figures in wireframes. His interfaces convert better than anyone else’s. Because he thinks about user behavior, not visual style. Pretty comes last. First you need: • Clear hierarchy • Obvious actions • Logical flow • Fast load times Then you make it beautiful. Most designers do this backwards. They start in Figma making things gorgeous. Then try to force function into their pretty layout. Ends up looking great and working terrible. I’d rather ship something ugly that works than something beautiful that confuses. Good news is you can have both. But only if you build the foundation first. Stop hiring designers who lead with aesthetics. Start hiring designers who ask about user goals. The pretty part is easy. The thinking part is what you’re actually paying for.

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