Why YKK zippers are the brown M&Ms of product design An Article by Josh Centers theprepared.com A ‘pro tip’ for evaluating the quality of a piece of gear is to look at the small details, such as zippers and stitching. Cheap-minded manufacturers will skimp on those details because most people just don’t notice, and even a cheap component will often last past a basic warranty period, so it’s an easy way to increase profits without losing sales or returns. If a designer does bother to invest in quality components, that’s a tried-and-true sign that the overall product is better than the competition. All the way throughThe Cycle of Goodness designdetailsquality
Designing with code An Article by Matthew Ström matthewstrom.com Recently I’ve had a few opportunities to use code to create design. In two of my bigger projects at The Wall Street Journal, writing code has led to new ideas. Problems that typically plague early designs — e.g. “how does this look with real content?” — are easy to solve. By exploring visual ideas directly in code, I’ve started to see the amazing potential of code as a design tool. ColophonPainting With the WebI never have engineers that aren't designers codedesign