Issue 91

Strange fluid attractors

Hello, dear readers! 👋

In this issue, among other things:

• Does artistic data visual harm the perception of data? Study

• Articles about design tokens

• What is creativity and how to develop it

• A new neural network for generating 3D models from images

• Why is the traditional concept of MVP outdated and how to rethink it

• How to make a fully responsive website without anchor points

• The first full-fledged AI programmer

• Why good text is important for design

• Free photo stock with high-quality AI photos

• …and much more!

Enjoy reading!

🗞 News and articles

Let’s Chat About Design System Tokens

James Ives wrote a good basic article about design tokens. He talked about what tokens are and what they are, how to name and use them, how to visualize the hierarchy of tokens and other details. James also shared his own tool for generating token names.

Rethinking the startup MVP: Building a competitive product

Linear co-founder Tuomas Artman wrote why the traditional concept of an MVP product is outdated and explained how it can be rethought taking into account the market situation. He also gave a number of practical tips and shared the experience gained during the launch of Linear.

The main thing:

• The original concept of MVP worked many years ago, when fundamentally new products appeared and it was necessary to quickly check their viability. For example, in 2009, the idea of the Airbnb application was new, but today it is the standard, and there is no point in checking such an idea

• Today, MVP is often aimed at improving a finished idea on the market, rather than creating a new one. Such a product should be superior to its competitors from day one. There is no point in releasing a raw product in an already existing category

• The initial idea of an MVP can still work if you have managed to create an entirely new product category or you are working with a new technology. But this rarely happens

• Founders should study market reviews, combine them with their vision and, based on this, create products that will improve the experience of people in a particular industry

• To facilitate competition at the start, it is necessary to reduce ambitions, limit the first audience, and also strive to solve the problems of a specific narrow group of users

• The waiting list is a great tool to limit the audience at the very beginning and attract really interested users at the start

• Communicate with your first audience, collect ideas and feedback and develop the product based on this

Retrofitting fluid typography

Richard Rutter talked about how to apply flexible fluid typography to make a fully responsive website without anchor points. This approach allows you to automatically adapt the font size and line spacing to any screen resolution without losing the quality of the layout.

As an example, he redesigned the website of the Creative Boom publishing house and spoke in detail about the technical subtleties.

The Effects of Visual Embellishment on Comprehension and Memorability of Charts

A PDF report of a study on whether artistic data visual harms the perception of data. It was conducted on a small sample of 20 people, but tracking was also used to collect data.

Respondents were shown an ordinary or artistic graphic on the screen and asked questions about its content. The questions were repeated after five minutes and after two to three weeks to find out what the person remembered.

The results turned out to be quite interesting:

• Users easily read data in both regular and stylized graphs. At the same time, they spent the same time on both types of graphs

• There was no difference in the responses in the polls immediately and after five minutes

• When users were interviewed two to three weeks later, they remembered the data from the stylized graphs better

• Tracking showed that on a regular chart, people look at data 78% of the time, and 22% at the surrounding elements. In stylized — 40% for data and 60% for everything. If time is limited, the user may not have time to read data from a stylized graph

⚡️ Briefly

Writing is design. PJ Onori explained why good text is important for design and what text and design have in common. He rethought the design principles of Dieter Rams and showed how they can be applied in working with text.