May  8,  2024


Although my Oreo Dipper 9000 may seem like a silly use of GPT image generators, in product design, particularly during the initial stages, the utility of these tools cannot be overstated. They rapidly create preliminary visualizations of your concepts, enabling faster and more effective communication of your ideas. This tool also helps identify gaps in your thought process, as it fills in details you may not have considered, prompting a reevaluation of your approach.

April  21,  2024

Via The Register:

The advisor said that “it is a known issue in the Cybertruck that when you do a screen reset, instead of resetting in the standard two minutes, it takes five hours.”

I will never tire of hearing about this appliance-on-wheels’s woes.

April  17,  2024

As far as I’ve seen, most of these smart assistant devices that have been coming out can’t answer a pretty obvious question– why can’t this just be an app?

Seriously, I don’t know anyone who is going to want to carry another device around to capture this functionality, and the tradeoffs in functionality you lose from not having your phone (as fancy and sleek as some of these devices look) make you worse off. All of these demoes rely heavily on everything working out correctly, and you going along with what the assistant is saying it’s doing. You know what you’re going to want when something isn’t working? A large screen with direct input on the algo / AI that’s running the task (oh hey, like a phone!).

Paradoxically, the form factor is also the limiting factor for using a phone as one of these smart devices (size, weight, portability). So instead of an entirely new device, why not an accessary that takes all the strengths of a assistant-focused device and pair it to the phone as the processor?

The capture device (probably a combination camera, microphone, and minimal interactive interface) can be much lighter since they don’t need to handle processing on-device, and can probably be even more minimalistic since you you can offload secondary interactions to the phone.

Basically what I’m imagining is a revamp of the old iSight: a camera, microphone, and (now) interaction interface that is paired to your phone and serves as your assistant’s eyes into your context. Something like this:

April  17,  2024

The irony is not lost on The Atlantic, I suppose.

April  15,  2024

Looks like the reviews are coming out for the Human Ai Pin, and the on-hand projection is as terrible as I would have expected when it was first announced.

I wonder if in all their design ideation they considered this Captain Disillusion video from seven years ago explaining exactly why this would be such a terrible idea?

April  11,  2024

Another fun application of AI-generated content: Udio lets you create music just from prompts. This basically completely removes the need for all that terrible stock music you have to use if you don’t feel like licensing the good stuff.

My favorites so far?

March  31,  2024

It would be nice if the Crossfade feature in Apple Music worked when you manually change songs as well rather than just abruptly starting and stopping the music.

That’d also be an elegant solution to implement some AI-powered stem blending for that authentic DJ experience.

March  29,  2024

There’s an inexplicable satisfaction that comes with filling the pages of a design notebook and adding it to the stack of predecessors.

While I may never find the time to thoroughly read through each page, these notebooks serve as tangible reminders of the daily dedication poured into design work. In a world where digital products often fade into the ether, there’s a comforting permanence in holding something physical.

March  22,  2024

Figma please just make it so I can organize my Pages like every file structure system since the 90’s.

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