Pulling Inspiration from John Maeda's Design by Numbers

John Maeda's "Design by Numbers" offers a foundational framework for designers, demonstrating how computational thinking and minimalist aesthetics can inspire modern digital design practices.

Figma (YT)

In this edition

Stories from Monday, 14 September 2026

UX & Thinking

UX Collective

Thinking

The real reason everyone hates the viral AI food slop images

AI-generated food imagery, often perceived as unappetizing "slop," highlights a fundamental discomfort with artificial perfection that deviates from human culinary expectations.

One floor up

AI agents are increasingly reaching real systems during evaluations, prompting labs like OpenAI and Anthropic to implement stronger safeguards and tighter controls to contain their advanced capabilities.

GridScout’s brand identity

GridScout's brand identity effectively uses an industrial visual language to establish credibility with both field crews and corporate boards, fostering trust across different stakeholders.

Naming the middle

A design system's semantic layer requires careful naming to avoid common pitfalls, with effective token names describing a designer's decision about an interface element's purpose, not its specific form.

DialKit

DialKit offers a suite of UI controls, including sliders, toggles, text inputs, and color pickers, to enable real-time tuning of animations, layouts, and component properties within design frameworks.

Anatomy of AI input

An AI input field has evolved beyond a simple text box, now incorporating elements like context bars, tool triggers, and attachment zones to enhance user interaction and functionality.

5 days ago5 min read

Curator's picks

Must read today

The pieces worth pausing on, hand-selected from today's edition.

Podcasts

a16z Podcast

Podcasts

Greg Brockman on Why OpenAI Says We’re Entering the AGI Era

OpenAI's president believes AI has entered a new phase, with models capable of 24-hour coherent work and human-like software interaction, potentially leading to artificial general intelligence.

9 hours ago51 min listen/watch

Building Depth: Designing and Developing a 3D Renderer Inside Figma

Aleksei Kipin developed Depth, a Figma plugin, to create a 3D renderer within Figma, allowing designers to quickly test 3D models and renders directly in their design workflow.