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2025

What Makes a Good Logo New!

A logo is a visual element that has to work both on a creative level and a technical one. I am of the opinion that once you learn about the technical part, the creative should be much easier to do.

Designing for the Eye

From con­tem­po­rary typefaces all the way back to Greek tem­ples, nothing truly beau­ti­ful was ever perfectly mea­sured. This essay reveals why that is and why you should care.

Beyond the Hype of AI

I am absolutely convinced that the thing we call arti­ficial intel­ligence today can never in a million years reach human-level intel­ligence. Not if it is based on the ma­chine learning technologies we use right now. In this piece, I will try to argue why I think that.

Dangerous Styling

I almost got run over by one of Zurich’s new trams a few weeks back, and the reason is bad industrial design.


2024

Practical Design

Why expiry dates on your food products can turn your kitchen into a place of frus­tra­tion, and how a tiny shift in design could change that completely.

The Basics of Legibility

Poor font choices sabotage legibility and thus user experience. Learn what makes a typeface truly legible and why it matters.

In Praise of Buttons – Part Two

Wherever tumble dryers, cooktops, or any other ap­pli­ances, the shift from physical knobs and buttons to touch con­trols has been an absolute usability dis­as­ter. This essay examines how this trend led to slower, less reliable, and needlessly com­pli­cat­ed products.

In Praise of Buttons – Part One

A button that doesn’t look like a button fails before it’s even pressed. On why good interface design needs to mimic physical reality, no matter what any trend says.


2023

Parochialism, Language and Usability

This piece lays out how language, geography, and clueless assumptions quietly break usability. Because when products are designed inside a cultural bubble, users else­where usually pay the price.


2020

Wheels of Fortune

When undercooked products meet overpriced ac­ces­sories, something’s gone deeply wrong. A furious critique of Apple, its fanbase, and the influencers who cheer it on.


2019

The “almost” device

Evangelists praise the iPad with religious zeal, yet nobody seems to use it for getting any kind of serious work done. What does that say about its real-world value?

Save changes before quitting?

What looks like a small mistake in the humble “do you want to save?” prompt reveals a broader loss of design literacy.


2018

Being critical

Honest observations may sting, but they’re the only path to progress.

Corporate design in motion

This case study walks through the steps of bringing a company’s static corporate design visuals into the world of video and motion graphics.