The usual approach to a brand design system involves compiling a list of font families, typography guidelines, color palettes and patterns. However, this is falling short. We're missing a crucial piece in the jigsaw puzzle — brand treatments.
When it comes to building a product, everything is a prioritisation problem. We might be building things right, but are we building the right thing? The journey of prioritisation begins way before the actual process of prioritisation starts. I would start by asking these key questions to the product leadership...
Recently, a relative sought my help to tweak a badly designed poster on Microsoft Paint. This was meant to be circulated on Whatsapp as an advertisement for the handyman services his friend was offering in his locale. He wanted to ‘jazz’ it up and asked if I could help. I...
What's the hardest conflict you've ever encountered at your work? It's hard to avoid conflicts, but there are various ways in which we could mitigate conflict as much as possible. As a product person, apart from keeping the team running, working with stakeholders, shipping...
Take Marc Lou, a familiar figure within the Twitter Indiehacking circle. He's garnered attention for openly sharing his journey as a product builder. This transparency has piqued interest in his projects well before their launch, as followers have grown to appreciate his distinctive approach. A notable instance of...
From the place I come from, in Kerala, a baby is not given a name until he/she is 28 days old. And for marginalised castes/communities, the naming ceremony is delayed to 90 days. I never really questioned as to why this was the case. I let it become...
When you build a SaaS app, how do you price it? The first option which comes to everyone's mind is a monthly/yearly subscription model While building Clarity notes, I was stuck with a usual question when it comes to building a SaaS—How should I price the...
Putting the user first has always been the golden rule in design. It’s so common that nobody really questions it anymore. We’re told, ‘The user knows best. Listen to them.’ I’ve had my skepticism about the framing of the term — user-centered design. I’ve kept myself from...
Transitioning from Adobe to Figma was a big change for me in my design journey. At that time, the whole design ecosystem was revolving around Adobe. For image manipulation, you had Photoshop, Illustrator for vector graphics, Indesign for reports, XD for website or app prototypes and so on. When Figma...
A 'strategic' wrapper can turn a $100 work into a $10,000 work. Thinking 10,000 ft. above sea level pays more. It’s a win-win for both sides. If we take a look at the field of writing, the standard rates in this profession, as well as...
What is an insight? An insight for Elon was: “The most entertaining outcome was the most likely’. His tweet suggests that he believes in taking risks and embracing the unknown, rather than playing it safe. For Maya Angelou, the renowned poet and civil rights activist, it was: “People will forget...
We might have to rethink on the definition of the ‘Minimum Viable Prototype’. Especially since the bar for what’s viable keeps rising up, with the likes of Gumroad, etc being built in a weekend. Notion, Figma, Airtable, Superhuman and Discord with their extremly high quality user experience has led...
Tobias Van Schneider in his blog talks about a new way to think about building modern software— The advancements of our modern world mean there’s generally more of everything. The streaming age has led to a proliferation of low-quality content, churned out to satisfy the binge-watching masses. The ever-scrolling...
While creating a brand, one of the hardest things to do is to arrive at the right set of colors. Colors are a tricky subject—when done incorrectly, the emotions get mismatched, and in the worst of situations, the brand might just seem all over the place. Think of the...
The greatest consumer software tools that exist out there are built by hobbyists and indie makers. I prefer to write my notes on Obsidian. For scheduling tweets, I use Zlappo and Typefully. For creating AI interior renders, I use interior.ai. One thing which is common among all these examples...
It is that simple. I can assume that there might be counters, attacks and pushpacks to this heavy statement. Bear with me on this. Before we address the house on fire, let me take you on a quick detour. This was my first day of a new semester while doing...
As designers, we’re always asked to vouch for the user’s needs above anything else. But if the company takes a hit, all of our efforts might end in vain. To solve this dilemma, this note from Dan Winer comes in handy— Designers, don’t forget: You were hired...
