Thinking, in public
Field notes on design, engineering and growth — written by the people who ship the work. No thought leadership, just lessons with receipts.
Wizards that don't feel like tax forms
Multi-step flows get a bad name from bad implementations. Step economics, honest progress, save-and-resume, and the test for when one long page beats five short ones.
How to write a project brief that gets better proposals
A buyer-side playbook for briefing agencies: problem over solution, useful constraints, budget honesty, evaluation criteria, and a template you can steal.
Designing forms people actually finish
Forms are where products lose users and revenue quietly. The field-economics, label copy, error writing and autofill respect we use to keep completion high.
Cost engineering for LLM features
Unit economics for AI features: model routing, caching layers, context trimming, batch APIs, and dashboards that translate tokens into dollars per user.
Design logo systems, not logos
A logo is judged at 16 pixels and on an invoice footer, not the presentation wall. How we build tiered identity systems — marks, motion, rules — that survive.
Location pages that earn their rankings
Location pages fail when they're doorway-page spam: same template, swapped suburb. What makes a local page genuinely useful, and when fewer pages win.
Running an accessibility audit that leads to fixes
Most accessibility audits produce a PDF and no change. Our format — automated sweeps, manual journeys, a severity taxonomy, and fix-forward roadmaps.
Settings screens grow up: running the product surface nobody loves
Settings rot quietly — accreted toggles, orphaned features, dangerous defaults. A rubric for what earns a setting, and the quarterly audit that keeps it honest.
Generating PDFs from web tech without tears
Invoices, statements and reports generated from web tech: print CSS vs headless Chrome vs canvas composition, scored honestly — plus when PDF is the wrong answer.
Testimonials beyond the card carousel
Testimonials don't need a grey card carousel. How to present client quotes as editorial evidence — typography, attribution, deep links, and honest context.
Mascot systems: when the character earns its keep
Most mascots are clip-art wallpaper. Here's how to tell if a character will earn its keep — and the construction, expression, motion and usage rules that keep it sharp.
Pilot projects: proving fit before the retainer
How to structure a paid two-to-four-week pilot with an agency: what a pilot can actually prove, honest pricing, exit criteria, and converting a pilot into an engagement.