I was fortunate enough to go to Tokyo for work this past week. The design, cleanliness, and attention to detail at scale was unlike anything I’ve experienced. Very inspiring.
kelly.blog
life, work, etc.
-
The Tumblr team at Automattic shipped Communities today. Check it out:
-
New work from our Studio 51 team, the design team that creates amazing sites for people with the goal to get 51% of the internet running on WordPress. (At the time of writing this, we are just over 43%.) The Studio 51 team works closely with the Special Projects group at Automattic and have a really cool site to learn more about the work they do.
-
One of the first things Claude asks you to do is to upload a writing sample so it can determine your writing style. I was skeptical but uploaded a recent blog post. It categorized my style as Design Philosopher.
Woah. Have to admit I was a bit flattered. The summary was pretty cool too:
Explore design concepts through contemplative, analytical, and deeply insightful reflection.
I do carefully consider each piece of writing, no matter if its a text message or an essay. I really want my voice to come through. I also think all the AI chatbots output horrible writing, so I’m intrigued by what I can do with these styles that are trained on my writing. I uploaded a bunch of blog posts and will be testing each to see how much time I can save on the initial drafts.
Small moments of wins, positive feedback, and delight add up. Time To First Win should be a metric for everything we build.
-
WordPress 6.7 was released today. Lots of great details throughout and a brand new theme for Twenty Twenty Five. Really proud of the team for continuing to advance WordPress. Check out the release site, which is a lovely design as well.
-
We launched the open source WordPress Design System today! Really excited about this. This will allow more sharing of components across WordPress and all its products, creating a much better experience. It’s also speed up the time it takes create and ship designs. Available on both Github and as a Figma Library. Try it out and let us know what you think!
- Figma library. Join 1.3k others who have started using it.
- Github repo. If you’d like to contribute or have a suggestion.
-
I love the work of Charles and Ray Eames. I recently re-watched The Architect & The Painter and paused it to jot some notes on their design process:
The Eames design process, is a process of learning by doing. When designing something, it is often this connection that provides the key to the solution.
“Never delegate understanding.”
This is the hallmark of Eames design, their secret ingredient. “First you have an idea, then you discard the idea, then you have 50 other ideas and you discard them, and then you do several models, and they don’t work, and you throw them out. And the secret is work and work and work and work and work.”
‘Never delegating understanding’ is such a great principle. Both when leading others and when designing. I often need to delegate or assign work to others. Whenever I’ve also delegated understanding— of the problem, the greater context, status of the work, or the final product shipped— usually something goes off track. When I am doing the work myself, my best work happens when I fully understanding the problem, the greater context, and the best outcome by working through as many ideas as possible.
-
Photos from my first time in Windthrop, WA biking around the Methow Valley. What a special place. Thanks to Rapha Seattle and OMTM for organizing another great trip.
