Weekly curated resources for designers — thinkers and makers.
“We have a big choice to make: we’re about to jump into a new era of technology — meaning different values, expectations, and powers — and we need to choose what it looks like.*1 The transition itself is unavoidable, but the details are up to us.
Today we must choose between a) a future where our software environment has a thought-shaped interface on top of all the old kludge, or b) a future where software is built from the ground up to represent our thoughts, not twist or control them.”
We are entering the era of thought-shaped software →
By Oliver Meredith Cox
Scale without chaos: Penpot’s native token workflow →
[Sponsored] Penpot is the only design tool with fully native design tokens — no plugins, no workarounds — plus real interoperability for design systems. Scale with confidence, and speed up design-to-code workflows across every product in your organization.
Editor picks
- Unfit for uncertainty →
Rethinking decision-making for missions.
By Jack Strachan - Designing for signals →
How intent & instrumentation shape AI experiences.
By Bradly Zavakos - Sigma (Σ) shaped designers →
Why the AI era requires a different type of skillset.
By Darren Yeo
The UX Collective is an independent design publication that elevates unheard design voices and helps designers think more critically about their work.
Make me think
- We should all be Luddites →
“For the past two centuries, invoking the term “Luddites” was shorthand for technological backwardness or fear of innovation — a sneer aimed at anyone who dared question the march of progress. But the real Luddites weren’t afraid of machines; they were afraid of the social and economic impacts of the new technology on people — and of who controlled the terms of technological change.” - Own a graph →
“One of the quickest ways to get better at your job is to own a graph. There are many ways to do work that don’t matter and there are many ways to do work that matters but fail to articulate that value well. Owning a graph solves both of these problems.” - Systems, stables and stars →
“You know how large organizations with very mature systems and talent distribution still end up pulling in the same top 5 or 10 people to work on their most pressing problems?”
Little gems this week
Biophilic design is the wellness revolution happening all around us →
By Tim Daniels
The UX behind screen time guilt →
By Fabrizia Ausiello
The product designer’s lens →
By Daleen Rabe
Tools and resources
- Figma’s new DS features →
What do Figma’s updates mean for Design Systems?
By Allie Paschal - Design maturity →
Why you need it and how to get it.
By danramsden - Designing decisions →
Behavioral psychology that moves users.
By Maxim Kich
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Thought-shaped UI, sigma (Σ) shaped designers, Figma’s new DS features was originally published in UX Collective on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.