Ideas and Discoveries
Personal and professional notes about our craft, technique, and the role of design in the world.
design
The Technology We Deserve
Smart gadgets often abuse their trust or overreach their capabilities. A personal list of favorite fitness devices yields some principles for good product design.
video
Design Systems: Mastering Design at Scale
In this InVision video series, Brad Frost, Dan Mall, and Josh Clark share their know-how to help you build and use a design system.
What we’re reading
How Machines Are Taking Over the World’s Stock Markets
Use machine learning “to identify new theories, and once you identify a new theory, you throw the machine away, you don’t want the machine.”
Slack and the Decline of Bots
After customers found Slack bots hard to use, the company added traditional UI elements to bolster the bots’ simple vocabulary and hard-to-remember “slash commands.”
The Decade of Design
Figma interviewed a dozen experts, including Big Medium’s Josh Clark, to chronicle the rise of design in the past decade—and what comes next.
The Damaging Fiction of the Wellness Industrial Complex™
The unlikely pairing of capitalism and wellness has insidious effects, Liza Kindred writes. There are parallels for UX here, too.
Simple Plan Gets Millions Running
South China Morning Press tells the story of Couch to 5K, the running schedule created by Big Medium’s Josh Clark.
How Dotdash, Formerly About.com, Is Taking over the Internet
This may be the most successful design- and business-turnaround story Big Medium has been involved with. Fast Company tells the tale of Dotdash, the network formerly known as About.com.
Recent Writing
podcast
“Pair Curiosity with Generosity”
Josh Clark joins Phil Burgess on the IT Career Energizer podcast to talk about crafting a healthy and fulfilling career in the industry.
ai
You’re Not Late to Machine Learning
If you’re worried that you’re behind in getting in on machine learning, never fear: AI has not so much come of age as reached an awkward adolescence. You’re right on time.
ai
Why Machine Learning and AI Matter for Design Teams
There’s a critical role for design in the era of the algorithm—and your organization almost certainly has what it needs to jump in today.
process
Only One Deliverable Matters
Too much design effort goes into artifacts that are not part of the working software. There’s a better way to work.
c25k
How Josh Clark Invented “Couch to 5K” and Helped Millions Start Running
Big Medium’s Josh Clark created the exercise schedule that got the world running. The BBC tells the story.
productivity
The Tools I Use
Josh Clark shares his personal toolkit for making things happen, part of An Event Apart’s “The Tools We Use” series.
podcast
Designing with Artificial Intelligence: The Dinosaur on a Surfboard
On the Presentable podcast, Josh Clark joins Jeff Veen to consider the role for designers in a world of algorithms and machine learning.
sxsw
Four SXSW Panels for Your Consideration
Oh have we got SXSW proposals for you. Artificial intelligence! Mindful technology! Design systems! Atomic design!
books
Designing for Touch—in French! And Chinese!
Josh Clark’s book Designing for Touch is now available in French, Chinese, and the original English.
podcast
The Design System and Your Future Self
On the Style Guide podcast, Josh Clark shares how design systems are a kindness to your future self—and can make sense of emerging interactions, too.
iphone
How iPhone Changed Computing—and Much More
The iPhone’s arrival 10 years ago catalyzed deep changes that are still playing out today. Here’s a rundown of what happened—and what’s ahead.
interview
The Rise of Artificial Intelligence: How AI Will Affect UX Design
Adobe profiled and interviewed Big Medium’s Josh Clark about the opportunities and challenges facing UX designers in a world of machine learning and artificial intelligence.