What happens when an acoustic engineer stops following guitar-making convention and starts asking why?
Offset soundhole. Adjustable mass tuning slot. 13-fret neck join. Every decision justified by physics, not tradition.
Brilliant design thinking from Giuliano Nicoletti.
youtu.be/7SQ_K8xiu3s
Chase Bliss made a mini-doc on how they built Clean, their new compressor pedal.
It started as a question: can clean be as fun as dirty? You see them work through it. The dead ends, the pivots, what it actually took.
A lovely watch, if you care about how things get made.
youtu.be/8BZrJdIQa1w?...
Messin with some Davy Graham.
Trans Atlantic Sessions last night in Manchester at Factory international. I wanted to see John Doyle play for a while now. Great session.
“Try doing this project without UX. let see what happens?” I say this a bit but follow with:
Most businesses compete on experience. Unless they truly compete on price (eg. Ryanair). Its introducing way to much risk to not be designing the experience around the customer or user.
If the bar to building software is as low as it ever is. Will we start to see independent builder create a suit of app around a concept. The same way that musicians create great albums. Using their unique take on what they are solving and how or why.
I think this is a really interesting idea.
#HMW
My new year resolution is to “build”. Excited to see where the journey end ups. So far I’ve started to looks at apps that help me play guitar better. Tuners, metronome and fretboard visualiser.
Love that I can build these things the way that I want them. Very rewarding.
#HMW
This is about 90% of my day.
Been diving into the motion work on motionlog.xyz
such good craft on display. effective transitions, purposeful movement, everything feels designed not moved about. Perfect reference for anyone layering motion into product design. #MotionDesign #UX #HMW
A simple, elegant diagram showing a continuous loop between Design Iteration, Customer Feedback, and Business Feedback. A single pink note, quietly marked “Feedback Cycle” rests beside it. The image captures the purity of an iterative process: a rhythm of testing, learning, and refining, where every cycle brings greater clarity and purpose.
Test. Learn. Decide.
Getting back into the tools this week has reminded me how important feedback cycle are. When we design in isolation eg, testing heavily with customers but not keeping the business looped in, we create more alignment work and rework later.
#HMW #ProductDesign #DesignSky #UXsky
My Cupra had an update about a year ago which meant you could see the maps in the dash display. Guess it's all the same system between VW and Cupra.
I agree. I think it's about doing the stuff you've been asked to do well. Credibility will come, then you can focus on to autonomy. The team or stakeholders will start to ask you for your opinion and ideas.
IC leadership isn’t about job titles it’s about behaviours.
3 ways ICs lead:
Build the right team around the work by aligning with outside teams.
Own the craft, raise standards across your team and make the outcome brilliant.
Share the vision upwards, bring leaders with you to win trust.
#HMW
But when companies compete at a similar price point to their competitors, they can’t rely on that.
They have to compete on experiences: the quality, the service, the small touches, the details that makes people feel good and come back.
#HMW #ProductDesign #UXsky
Companies like Ryanair or Aldi win on price, not experience.
They’ve can craft an intentionally frustrating customer journeys for business profits because their prices are so low, customers accept the hoops.
#HMW #ProductDesign #UXsky
Love Andrew's playing of Pierre Bensusan. The bassy stomp is recorded so well. Like a simple Bodhrán rhythm. www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuUn...
It’s important to be able to reject feedback. But stay humble and try it out first. Using our judgement to keep it, reject it, or build on it otherwise we risk missing out on something valuable.
Some of the best experience I've ever helped design on have been massively lead or influenced by some incredible developers. Collaboration and alignment is the way.
Love a hand crafted feel to font. Really nice.
My favourite is reading user stories that have nothing to do with a user.
Did the floaty menu disappear in Figma. I was starting to like them.
We're competing on experience all the time.
It’s adding up the little moments.
Trust signals, feedback, timing, tone, reliability.
Get them right, layer them up, and you create more than usability. You create confidence.
That’s how products win today.
#HMW #ProductDesign
If you are up around swords Ardgillan castle/house is also nice. Great play ground if you have kids with you and brilliant views over Dublin and the Irish sea. Malahide is a nice spot also.
Typical day I'm mostly managing the teams and meeting. But when I need to I would say 1-3hr blocks. Maybe and hour of being really focused. You can probably design anything in 1-3 hours. But need to then spend a week aligning everyone around it.
Winning! A designer on the team had taken on a project to create a better handovers with our tech teams. This has been a side of desk project for her over the last couple of months. She has just delivered her first phase. Now the team are helping with her on the others.
It's only when you try to assemble a flat packed piece of furniture that's not IKEA. Do I realise how good the IKEA manuals are. Clarity in instructions should never be underestimated.
Having a tonne of fun with builder.io. Just built my first guitar tuner. It's crude but works. Lovin this. (Fender app used on iPad to test tuner is work) #productdesign #Ai #HMW
Just picked up this beauty from Hatch ☕
Washed Ethiopian by Tagel Alemayehu – tasting notes of floral, kumquat, and honey 🍯🍊 Excited to brew this one!
#Coffee #SpecialtyCoffee #Ethiopia #HatchRoast
Writing User Stories and a definition of done when prompting in Figma Make makes a massive difference to its output. It gets it much quicker. #HMW #AiDesign #FigmaMake
![Slide titled “Problem Statements” on a blue gradient background. Left panel reads “Write the Problem Statement with your team,” and explains that this aligns everyone on a single purpose: focus on understanding the problem first, solution later. Right panel shows a dark blue box with a template:
“Due to [specific issue or challenge], our product is experiencing [negative business outcome], which affects [broader business impact or stakeholder experience].”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:s7lkmkkoinvctjosiplxavsw/bafkreierlzylko5wpd4nluqa7piwjkwtzfqhnyo2dibmliqpxi3rb2rzom)
Slide titled “Problem Statements” on a blue gradient background. Left panel reads “Write the Problem Statement with your team,” and explains that this aligns everyone on a single purpose: focus on understanding the problem first, solution later. Right panel shows a dark blue box with a template: “Due to [specific issue or challenge], our product is experiencing [negative business outcome], which affects [broader business impact or stakeholder experience].”
Begin every sprint or design exercise with a problem statement or “How might we…? and revisit it before creating any UI. Use that question to judge whether you need research, sketches or a prototype. #HMW #ProductDesign
