Motion Without Theater.
Motion is a contract about causality. When it’s unprincipled, it reads as insecurity: the interface jingling keys.
UI/UX
Interface craft, information architecture, and the quiet mechanics of usable software.
Microcopy That Prevents Error.
Interfaces fail in the gray moments. Great microcopy identifies the error, suggests the fix, and preserves trust—without bloat.
Typography Prompts: Rhythm as a Constraint.
Premium isn’t decoration. It’s restraint you can feel with your eyes: cadence, hierarchy, and the small humiliations you remove.
Information Architecture Before Interface.
Bad IA makes users feel stupid. Prompting is most useful before pixels: naming, grouping, pruning, and stress-testing meaning.
Make Critique Spatial.
Generic feedback is a narcotic. Real critique has coordinates: where, what standard, what smallest fix.
The Brief Is the Design.
Most AI-generated design is not ugly. It’s worse: it’s plausible. Craft begins when the brief stops describing and starts constraining.
Intelligent Restraint: The Return of Less
Restraint is not austerity. It is the discipline of knowing what to leave out—and having the nerve to do it.
The Spec Is the Artifact
Most design deliverables are screenshots. The real artifact is the specification: the rules, the edge cases, the failure modes. Pixels lie; specs commit.