Worth Your Attention

• “Designers are trained to traditionally and classically solve problems. They’re almost like engineers of sorts. Then of course, they are also taught to solve [problems] with elegance. So when an emergency happens, they jump into action.” Paola Antonelli on the defining designs of 2020.
• “When in real life are you ever looking at a grid of faces? Never. It’s not natural.” John Palmer on how spatial thinking can make for better software design. Followup: a framework for designing spatial software. (Via the Culture Clash newsletter.)
• Rahel Anne Bailie’s ”uneven history” of content strategy.
• The Design Encyclopedia, “a vast collection of meticulously documented design tokens, components, page layouts, interaction patterns, and visualizations.” (H/t Nathaniel Davis)
• A USC study on the role of context in flagging hate speech in social media.
• New machine learning models provide new insights into the role of culture in shaping language.
• On emergence and agency. (H/t Benjamin P. Taylor)
• From my blog: Reflections on the importance of keeping a beginners mind as you progress in your career.
• Bill Verplank’s Interaction Design Sketchbook. (PDF)
• Some clever folks built a web version of Winamp and a museum of (playable) Winamp skins.<p>A version of this post first appeared in my newsletter. Subscribe to receive posts like this in your inbox every other Sunday.</p>