Writing · 5 essays

Notes on systems, craft, and career.

Short essays on the patterns that compound — Figma discipline, research that actually drives decisions, and the framing senior product designers use instead of UX vs UI debates.

05: Essays
27: Min total
2026: Latest

Featured/most recent

Layers

Tokens

01·Mar 2026·4 min read

Three Figma habits that survive code review.

The Figma patterns that actually compound aren't the clever ones — they're the boring ones a year of new contributors, ten variants, and three handoffs can survive.

FigmaDesign SystemsProcess

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Friction signal · 2024 audit

38%

abandonment

70%

fatigue

60%

no help

50%

skill gap

setup time

45%

frustration

02·Feb 2026·7 min read

The hidden cost of website creation.

Building a website should be one decision, executed cleanly. For non-technical users, it routinely becomes seven. The Spicom installation redesign was driven by what the abandonment data made unmistakable.

ResearchOnboardingSaaS

U X

research / strategy

U I

visual / chrome

Outcome

03·Jan 2026·5 min read

UX vs UI is the wrong question.

Every junior designer has been asked to define the difference. Every senior designer has stopped caring about the answer — for a specific reason rooted in how the work actually divides.

Product DesignCareerTheory

−6 steps

Install→

7 → 1

04·Dec 2025·5 min read

Removing UI is harder than adding UI.

Building the wrong UI is more expensive than not building it. But the second cost is invisible — and that's why deletion is the harder discipline.

OnboardingSenior ICRestraint

elements.config.ts

{ label: "Video card",dragType: "zone",validZones: ["slide"],settings: ["aspect"],}

renders

Catalog · Video card

Video card

data → ui

05·Nov 2025·6 min read

Make the builder a function of the data.

ReelBuilder ships 24 elements across 4 widget types from a typed catalog read at boot. Adding the 25th element is a config edit, not a UI sprint — and that distinction is the difference between a builder that scales and one that doesn't.

Visual BuildersArchitectureDesign Systems

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The work is the argument. Read the case studies.

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