joshpuckett
@joshpuckett
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I help startups with design. Co-founder @IterationDesign, @Upperstudy. Previously led teams at Dropbox, Wealthfront, Groupon & more.
Joined January 2008
I'm shocked that no one has clocked that the portrait in the top right background of this photo is of President Franklin Pierce. Famous, in part, for being the first sitting president not to be nominated by his party for a second term.
As Vice President, I see @JoeBiden when the cameras are on and when the cameras are off—in the Oval Office, in the Situation Room, and on the campaign trail. Joe Biden is a leader who fights for the American people.
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A while ago I learned the 'don't do it two days in a row' rule:. Ate poorly? That's ok, don't do it two days in a row. Didn't exercise? That's ok, don't do it two days in a row. Unproductive at work? That's ok, don't do it two days in a row.
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@buccocapital One time at Dropbox, our chef flew a fresh, 500lb bluefin tuna overnight from Tokyo to make sushi for dinner during a hack week. Good times.
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I'm turning 30, and have been working now for over a decade. I've been lucky to have managers and mentors more patient than I deserve. Here's what I learned from them that I'd tell to my 20 year old self 👇.
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@Thehullboy1 you've been the best and brightest account on this platform in years. Keep up the hard work!.
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Things of tremendous value that cost you nothing:. - Speaking well of others .- Expressing gratitude.- Offering encouragement . These are all investments, and you can have them for free.
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@bnj On the one hand; insane. On the other hand, good understanding of current cycles and virality/marketing. Go big, go fast, or go home.
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Here's a quick visual tip to improve borders in your interfaces: use opacity instead of a solid color, and default to outside borders. Solid strokes look great on neutral backgrounds, but appear muddy or blurry if used on top of colors.
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More designers and PMs should audit their new user experiences more often. This work of art is Gmail for iOS, July 2021.
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Now that’s how you do onboarding 👏. Congrats @gentry, @belindapreno, @colin_dunn et al on launching @navigator
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🧵 Improving the visual design of an interface often feels subjective and mysterious. Here's a basic framework to help you refine your designs:. 📐 Layout.🔤 Typography.🎨 Color.✨ Effects.
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Most designers overcomplicate 'user empathy' or 'user centered designer' by trying to use personas or other UX-y tools. Just imagine someone in a realistic scenario using your product to accomplish their goal. That's it. Here's an example with @linear:.
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@pronounced_kyle going to exclusively refer to the Southwest terminal as DEN's "2nd arrondissement" from now on.
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Apple Human Interface Guidelines: "Consider using a symbol to represent your menu bar extra.". @Zoom Designers:
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My favorite example of this recently is the new 'send later' in iMessage on Mac. A delightful little clock animation, paired with the most random layout I've seen for datetime.
A central feature of recent Apple software is wild inconsistency in attention to detail. Invest a ton of effort in a novel subpixel rendering technique only to break the entire animation in the next OS release
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Not sure if I’m doing this NFT thing right, but I finished minting this credenza for a friend’s record collection last weekend out of white oak.
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I wanted to help make it easier to #CallYourRep and find contact information for district offices, so I made this:
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We started designing Carousel at Dropbox 9 years ago. This morning I imagined what it'd look like if we designed it for iOS16, with visual language themes like chromeless layouts and progressive blurs. Here's a deeper look at some of our decisions back then.
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Weekend distraction: furniture making. Designed and built this nightstand for our guest bedroom out of some leftover poplar I had.
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Hard truth for designers:. If you’re not getting responses from applying to a bunch of open roles, it’s because your work is bad 🚩🚩🚩. Hiring managers/recruiters make split second decisions, so if your work isn’t serviceable at first glance they’ve already moved on.
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Either Harris has no one on her staff who is detail oriented, or she is an absolute savage 😂.
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I think most designers don't understand or appreciate Inter enough. I made this quick playground to show how expressive and customizable it can be, thanks to a rich use of OpenType features and craft from @rsms.
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@flyosity According to my wife, it is “literally the best gift I’ve ever given her.” . That things gets as much use as anything in our house.
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Tonight's 10-minute tool: Pixelator. Render and animate pixelated versions of logos.
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I make. a lot of little spreadsheets 🤓 They are typically tools or calculators, some of which are very generalized; I've shared many with friends. Is there a Dribbble for Sheets?
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@david_perell This pattern is true even at moderate levels of “success.” . I built a half dozen furniture pieces for our home before feeling good enough to build an heirloom bed frame, and that’s just a side hobby.
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Alright, here's another 10-Minute Tool tonight, featuring @DannPetty and @v0 . Realtime screen recording for those curious in the replies.
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2️⃣ Your colleagues are not your competitors. Celebrate their success more than your own. Do everything you can to empower and uplift them. (Thank you, @jasonhopeful).
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1️⃣ Ship, shipmate, self. Any success you find is because of a team. Being a great teammate is far more important than being right. (Thank you, @Soleio).
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This year, I've been trying to text/email/call any friends (past or present) whenever I'm thinking about them, no matter how out of the blue. Life is too short to hide love; I hope to make this a new normal for me.
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Quick weekend project: designing and building this console for our living room, to hide a bunch of home devices and wires. Loosely considering a furniture design side hustle 🤔
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I've spoken to a few talented and experienced designers in the past week who've all asked some version of "Am I qualified for this senior/lead role?" . They all happen to be women. Interestingly, I've never heard this question from a man. (And yes, you are 👩🎨💪).
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Friday afternoon is famously good timing for news. I’m starting a new design practice alongside @soopa. It’s called Iteration (link below 👇). We’re looking for ambitious early-stage teams who want to design further, faster.
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Any company: "Our AI/ML will automagically assist users". Me: "Computers are hard"
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I'm hiring an early-career designer to work with me. You'd be a great fit if you:. 👩🎨 Have some design experience.💪 Are eager to rapidly level up through apprenticeship.🚀 Want to work with breakout startups . 👉 Apply here:
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3️⃣ Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. You're young and eager, but will trip over yourself often by valuing action and speed over thinking and planning. (Thank you, @stevenwalker).
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I’m looking for ambitious designers eager to work with startups to join @Upperstudy’s apprenticeship program. Here’s a few things that make this the opportunity you’ve been looking for:.
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5️⃣ Be kind. You won't believe how much of an advantage this is if you can figure it out. Above all, be kind. (Thanks @lekaplan).
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Working from home? Leave the house and take a quick walk before your first video conference. This may seem small, but it really shows.
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Can verify. Make your wife the exact furniture she wants, and she'll forgive all the money spent on tools 😂
the solution to the male loneliness epidemic is learning how to craft beautiful wood furniture. i can't think of anything hotter or more thoughtful than someone taking the time to build a piece of furniture for me
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7️⃣ Kill your pride. It has no place in life, and will hamper your ability to collaborate with others. The craft, pursuit of excellence, and output is what matters. Getting credit does not. (Thank you, @gentry).
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Wondering if the hardest part of designing this was asking if anyone has an SVG of the Breitbart logo. .
📰 Introducing Facebook News - a dedicated news tab starting to roll out today in the US
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About a year ago we moved to San Diego to be closer to family. We liked it so much we decided to stay. Excited to steward this mid-century home into its next chapter! 🏡
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8️⃣ Be patient. With yourself, but especially with others. Remember how lucky you were to have someone take a chance and invest in you. (Thank you, @allanbranch).
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4️⃣ Maintain a growth mindset. Be a self-reinventor. You'll make many mistakes, but that's ok because you can learn, change, and grow. (Thank you, @jeffholden).
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Something I wish I understood earlier in my career: feedback can be frustrating to receive, but is a gift that leads only to improvement.
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Building physical things is a nice break from software that seems to never get old. We now have a proper dining room, so I made this live edge table for it out of an old growth redwood slab.
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9️⃣ Confront your biases and privilege. You work hard and have some skill, but you're as much a product of luck and environment as anything. You'll wish you started using your privilege for the benefit of others much sooner.
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This is why the idea of 'pixel-perfect designs' is a joke. Designing accessible, usable software for all kinds of users, however, is not.
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1️⃣0️⃣ Don't get over your skis. You think you're better than you are, and will take early encouragement as endorsement of expertise. (Thank you, @soopa). You're on the right track, but you're not there yet. It's ok, we were all young once, and you'll have ever more to learn at 30!.
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This new @basecamp page is a masterclass in IA, copywriting, and positioning. Doing a teardown of it would be a valuable exercise for any designer.
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A talented young woman I've been mentoring formally accepted a product design role at a large Bay Area company in November. She left her job before the holidays and prepared to start next week. Yesterday they rescinded her signed offer: "The position is no longer available.".
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Weekend furniture making, social distancing edition. Made this bench for our entryway, from European White Oak.
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Gatekeeping is the worst. This is Loreto, Baja California Sur. And it really is beautiful.
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Hiring junior designer: 3-5yrs experience.
give me a horror story from your specialty in five words or less.
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6️⃣ Don't rely on your instincts; they'll be wrong more often than right. Being thoughtful and thorough, considering all of the consequences, will save you from binary thinking you are so prone to. (Thank you, @soopa).
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You're right. After the dunk, time for an assist ⛹️♂️. Tired of working at Facebook but afraid of making the leap?.DM me. I'll help you find a job that's a better fit for your values. Hundreds of startups would be thrilled to have your talents!.
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Reverse growth hacking:. Adding an item to your cart and intentionally closing the tab at checkout to get that sweet retargeting coupon ad.
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I’ve been helping dozens of startups a year with design for a while now. Early on, most teams were using Webflow for their websites. But now more and more are using @Framer. They have that same type of magical momentum as Figma, and I think will be the next design unicorn 🚀.
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What a difference a year can make. Commit, work hard, stay consistent and shock yourself at what’s possible. I’m down 70lbs and still getting stronger mentally and physically each week. And more importantly, breaking habits and beliefs that were holding me back. If you’re
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You'll remember and regret every-time you thought for you to win or be right, a colleague had to lose or be wrong.
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@dakotahermes @flyosity almost as bold as her getting me (a man who does the cooking in our house) new pots and pans that same Christmas!.
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One of my more underrated design tips is: you should *think* through your design as much as possible before operating any tool like Figma or Framer. Seems obvious, but I've seen countless designers spend hours drawing things when a few minutes of thinking would avoid all of.
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@danprimack I guess page views are a hell of a drug 🤦. Why sensationalize regular, planned business, and effectively demonize employees who just lost their jobs?
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Design is fundamentally about opportunity spotting and collaborating to create something excellent. Here's how we quickly shipped the most engaging job posting for @Upperstudy I've seen as a FigJam file:
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This is false. @firstrepublic wire messaging and experience is the same as it always has been. In unrelated news, market manipulation is illegal and punishable with up to 3 years in prison.
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@bscholl I remember thinking “well, that’s gotta be the most interesting user research question I’ve seen” here 😂
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An underappreciated value of mentorship: knowing that someone simply believes in you, by default. What a gift to both receive and give.
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Winter break is for cabinetry ❄️🔨 . Replacing our hot water heater was the perfect excuse to renovate our mudroom and make these custom built ins.
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Instead of an ✕ button in the top left to dismiss modal views in iOS, I wish swipe down to dismiss was the standard:
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You can now have @framer AI design a website for you, instantly. But 99% of people are still using it wrong. Here's 27 quick tips and best practices I put together after using it for five minutes. 🧵
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You and @dhh have benefited to the tune of tens of millions by *not* giving out Basecamp equity. It’s not zero sum; why not give out equity and simply don’t “push your employees harder and harder”? Easy, no?.
Giving out equity in startups benefits ownership way more than employees. It allows the owners to push employees harder and harder because “you’ve got skin in the game now… you’re an owner.” No you aren’t. Owning less than 1% of anything isn’t ownership.
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Founding a company, living in marriage and community, balancing health and fitness requires an unbelievable investment. I am in awe of those who are parents and do this with children 🤯.
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Lil Saturday sketch: a toolbar for the web, inspired by @bwalkin's super work on cursor for iPadOS ✨
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Checked into an @Airbnb yesterday. This was my experience when I opened the app. So many missed opportunities… 🤔
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@bscholl Invite the pilots who flew the final @British_Airways Concorde flight out to see it. BBC would def pick it up!.
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This is looks like it was designed by someone only using Cursor.
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In the past few months I've built a half-dozen little tools like this for myself. Sometimes it's 10 minutes, sometimes it's a few hours. But either way, it's the most exciting time in software design I can remember.
Tonight's 10-minute tool: Pixelator. Render and animate pixelated versions of logos.
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Interface Design: "How might we design an alert to get users to take action?". Product Design: "How might we architect a system where users don't have to take action when we switch payment processors?"
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Who's doing cutting edge iOS app design these days (designer or companies)? . Some recents for me: @rainbowdotme @onuniverse @createwithplay.
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This is the best shower temperature interface I’ve ever seen.
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