Niche Marketing

Today’s web is not always an amiable place. Sites greet you with a popover that demands assent to their cookie policy, and leave you with Taboola ads promising “One Weird Trick!” to cure your ailments. Social media sites are tuned for engagement, and few things are more engaging than a fight. Today it seems that people want to quarrel; I have seen flame wars among birders.   These tensions are often at odds with a site’s goals. If we are providing support and advice to customers, we […]

“Language is not merely a set of unrelated sounds, clauses, rules, and meanings; it is a totally coherent system bound to context and behavior.” — Kenneth L. Pike The web has accents. So should our design systems. Design Systems as Living Languages Design systems aren’t component libraries—they’re living languages. Tokens are phonemes, components are words, patterns are phrases, layouts are sentences. The conversations we build with users become the stories our products tell. But here’s what we’ve forgotten: the more fluently a language is spoken, the more […]

Picture this: You’re in a meeting room at your tech company, and two people are having what looks like the same conversation about the same design problem. One is talking about whether the team has the right skills to tackle it. The other is diving deep into whether the solution actually solves the user’s problem. Same room, same problem, completely different lenses. This is the beautiful, sometimes messy reality of having both a Design Manager and a Lead Designer on the same team. And if you’re wondering […]

As a product builder over too many years to mention, I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen promising ideas go from zero to hero in a few weeks, only to fizzle out within months. Financial products, which is the field I work in, are no exception. With people’s real hard-earned money on the line, user expectations running high, and a crowded market, it’s tempting to throw as many features at the wall as possible and hope something sticks. But this approach is a recipe […]

Body recomposition lets you lose body fat and gain muscle at the same time. Learn the diet and training approach MyFitnessPal’s RDs recommend for recomp. The post Body Recomposition: How to Lose Fat and Gain Muscle at the Same Time appeared first on MyFitnessPal Blog. Body recomposition is the process of reducing body fat while increasing lean muscle mass at the same time. According to MyFitnessPal registered dietitian, Joanna Gregg, a successful body recomposition plan combines adequate protein intake (typically 1.6–2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight) […]

Find out how many steps a day you need to lose weight, how walking supports calorie burn, and how to set a realistic daily step goal with MyfitnessPal. The post How Many Steps a Day to Lose Weight? Goals, Tips & More appeared first on MyFitnessPal Blog. Body recomposition is the process of reducing body fat while increasing lean muscle mass at the same time. According to MyFitnessPal registered dietitian, Joanna Gregg, a successful body recomposition plan combines adequate protein intake (typically 1.6–2.2 grams per kilogram of […]

Every language app in your pocket inherited a teaching method built for Latin. Understanding why that happened is a more useful design lesson than anything the apps themselves will teach you. In 1788, Prussia introduced the Abitur, a standardized national examination required for entry into universities and the civil service. To pass it, students needed to demonstrate measurable, gradable knowledge. The system needed to teach language to large classrooms, produce consistent outcomes, and do it with one teacher and thirty students. The educators responsible for designing this […]