This week, we discuss the humble cursor and its role in affording interactivity in software design. In The Sidebar, we talk about the long term impact of the features we build, the importance of smart defaults, and the value of time well spent in our products.
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Sympli — Designers and developers working together need control over their assets. Sympli tracks every version of every design: no guessing what changed, no lost files or overwritten work, development-ready specs. Learn more at Sympli.io.
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Latest VIP Patrons:This week, we discuss the humble cursor and its role in affording interactivity in software design.
Anonymous asks: Hey Brian and Marshall, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the use of the hand pointer cursor icon for clickable elements. Windows, macOS, and HTML seem pretty clear that it is intended only for links which lack the visual affordance that buttons have while Material design and seemingly most web apps embrace the hand for all clickable elements. I haven't found what the official rationale is for using the hand everywhere and I'm also curious what users most expect at this point.
Byeee!
The Sidebar:In this week’s Sidebar, we talk about the long term impact of the features we build, the importance of smart defaults, and the value of time well spent in our products.
344: Knowing When to Give Up a Fight
343: Over and Undervalued Design Skills
342: Critiquing Our Early Work
341: Counterintuitive User Experiences
340: Versioning and Handoff in Figma
339: The New iPadOS Cursor
338: Passive Income and How To Give Advice (feat. Meg Lewis)
337: The Metagame of Design
336: Learning by Doing
335: Giving Better Upward Feedback
334: Keylines and Scannable Designs
333: Writing an Effective Self Review
332: Creating layouts: Design vs Implementation
331: The Designer-Developer Handoff
330: Twitter Tips for Designers
329: Web vs Product Design
328: Thinking About 2020
327: Organizing Component Systems
326: Design Tools Today
325: Changing Roles in a Growing Company
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