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🤿 for the love of the game

🤿 for the love of the game

+ how to think like a builder 👀

Ridd
January 03, 2025

Hope your new year is off to an excellent start! ✨ This is the last time I’m combining the Thursday/Saturday emails into one so this is another jam-packed issue👇

We’re kicking off the new year with one of the most entertaining episodes I’ve ever filmed…

This week we get to hear from Mike and Chara from Smith & Diction.

You might recognize that name from the episodes with Henry Modisett and Phi Hoang because they’re the ones who designed the Perplexity brand identity.

So this conversation is a deep dive into brand strategy and what it takes to stand out in 2025 and beyond. We get into:

Their hacks for nailing down positioning
Why the best brands have lots of “moves”
Mike’s #1 piece of advice for younger designers
What people really mean when they say “timeless”
Their experience using Visual Electric in brand design
Positioning Smith & Diction in today’s agency landscape
+ a lot more

Listen on YouTube, Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts 👇

🤝 WITH GENWAY

So this new product called Genway has totally changed the way I do research.

It uses AI-powered interviewers to help you get rich, qualitative data at basically an infinite scale.

You can even interview people while they use your Figma prototypes! Just tell their AI what you’re hoping to test and it will have a dynamic conversation with each person (it asks some pretty killer follow-up questions too).

The best part is they’re offering 2 months free for Dive Club listeners 💙 and their new self-serve onboarding means you can get started right away

Check it out👇

🔦 HIGHLIGHT

Thinking like a builder is a super power

Being able to think like an engineer helps you collaborate with developers more effectively, design UIs that make sense, and empowers you to build your ideas with AI tools like v0, Claude, etc.

So this video is going to break down a few traits of designers who I believe are already doing this at a high level.

It includes insights from:

Mariana Castilho (designer at Vercel/Pierre)
Julius Tarng (prev engineering at Linear)
Meng To (Founder of Design+Code)

🔗 FEATURED RESOURCE

Studios doing cool stuff

So I came across a website that is “a directory of brand, motion and digital product design studios doing cool stuff.”

It is indeed full of cool stuff 😅

If you’re looking for new design inspiration this is a deep rabbit hole so beware…

🤝 RAYCAST

If you’ve been listening to this show for a bit then you’ve heard me profess my love for Raycast multiple times by now…

So I want to highlight someone else instead 👀

Greg went on to say Raycast is a life-changing product and I couldn’t agree more. Do yourself a favor and check it out 👇

🔗 FEATURED RESOURCE

Introducing the “intelligent systems designer”

Remember GKIII?

Well he recently posted a thread detailing a new design role that Humane is hiring for and I thought it was an interesting glimpse into the future.

“new materials and canvases historically create opportunities for new types of designers”

GKIII

Here’s a snippet of what Humane is looking for in an “intelligent systems designer”

“an intelligent systems designer immerses themselves in this new AI material, constantly experimenting and tinkering — building real, functional prototypes as they attempt to solve big problems like approachable memory systems, generative user interfaces, and agent orchestration”

GKIII

Sounds like the role is a return to the foundations of HCI… pretty exciting stuff :)

🧃 INSPIRATION JUICE

3 designs I saved this week

1️⃣ Statamic website

How could I not share a Toucan perched on a mockup? Seriously though… there are a lot of interesting patterns on this site. It’s a fun scroll.

Check it out →

2️⃣ Knowledge base interaction

I’m pretty obsessed with this hover state from Yash. He really sweat the details on the timing and animation curves.

Check it out →

3️⃣ Mobile mockup composition

This is a great example of a pattern I feel empowered to mimic using tools like Visual Electric. It’s so easy to compliment my mockups with custom imagery that I find myself saving a lot more designs like this nowadays.

Check it out →