Journal tags:clearleft

I went along to this year’sState Of The Browserconference on Saturday. It was great!

Technically I wasn’t just an attendee. I was on the substitution bench.Daveasked if I’d be able to jump in and give my talk ondeclarative designshould any of the speakers have to drop out. “No problem!”, I said. If everything went according to plan, I wouldn’t have to do anything. And if someone did have to pull out, I’d be the hero that sweeps in to save the day. Win-win.

As it turned out, everything went smoothly. All the speakers delivered their talks impeccably and the vibes were good.

Dave very kindly gave shout-outs to lots of other web conferences. Quite a few of the organisers were in the audience too. That offered me a nice opportunity to catch up with some of them, swap notes, and commiserate on how tough it is running an event these days.

Believe me, it’s tough.

Something that I confirmed that other conference organisers are also experiencing is last-minute ticket sales. This is something that happened with UX London this year. For most of the year, ticket sales were trickling along. Then in the last few weeks before the event we sold more tickets than we had sold in the six months previously.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m very happy we sold those tickets. But it was a very stressful few months before that. It felt like playing poker, holding on in the belief that those ticket sales would materialise.

Lots of other conferences are experiencing this.Front Conferencehad to cancel this year’s event because of the lack of ticket sales in advance. I know for a fact that some upcoming events are feeling the same squeeze.

When I was in Ireland I had a chat with a friend of mine who works at the Everyman Theatre in Cork. They’re experiencing something similar. So maybe it’s not related to the tech industry specifically.

Anyway, all that is to say that I echo Sophie’s entreaty:you should go to conferences.Andbuy your tickets early.

Soon I’ll be gearing up to start curating the line up for next year’s UX London (I’m very proud ofthis year’s eventand it’s going to be tough to top it). I hope I won’t have to deal with the stress of late ticket sales, but I’m mentally preparing for it.

I went tocodebar Brightonyesterday evening. I hadn’t been in quite a while, but this was a special occasion:a celebration of codebar Brighton’s tenth anniversary!

The Brighton chapter of codebar was the second one ever, founded six months after the initial London chapter. There are now33 chapters all around the world.

Clearleftplayed host to that first ever codebar in Brighton. We had already been hosting local meetups likeAsyncin our downstairs event space, so we were up for it when Rosa, Dot, and Ryan asked about having codebar happen there.

In fact, the first three Brighton codebars were all at 68 Middle Street. Then other places agreed to play host and it moved to a rota system, with the Clearleft HQ as just one of the many Brighton venues.

With ten years of perspective, it’s quite amazing to see how many people went from learning to code in the evenings, to getting jobs in web development, and becoming codebar coaches themselves. It’s a really wonderful community.

Over the years the baton of organising codebar has been passed on to a succession of fantastic people. These people are my heroes.

It worked out well for Clearleft too. Thanks to codebar, we hiredCharlotte.Later we hiredCassie.And it was thanks to codebar that I first metAmber.

Codebar Brighton has been very, very good to me. Here’s to the next ten years!

UX London 2024is done…and it was magnificent!

It’s always weird when an event like this moves from being something in the future to something in the past. I’ve spent the year so far fixated on getting the right line-up, getting the word out, and nervously watching the ticket sales (for some reason a lot of people left it to pretty late in the day to secure their spots—not good for my heart!). For months, then weeks, then days, this thing was coming towards me. Then it was done. Now it’s behind me. It feels strange.

I’ve spent the past few days decompressing and thinking back on the event. My initial impression of it has solidified with the addition of some rumination—it was really, really good! The best yet.

I wish I could take the credit for that, but it was all down to the fantastic speakers and my wonderful colleagues who kept things moving flawlessly. All I had to do was get up and stage and introduce the speakers. Easy peasy.

I will say that I am very proud ofthe line-upI put together. I had a nice mix of well-known voices alongside newcomers.

With some of the speakers, I knew that they’d deliver the goods. I didn’t spend any time fretting over whether people likeEmma Boulton,Tom KerwinorBen Sauerwould be great. I never asked myself whetherBrad Frostwould have valuable insights into design systems. I mean, does the pope shit in the woods?

But what really blew me away were the people I didn’t know. I hadn’t even metClarissa GardnerorBenaz Iranibefore UX London. They’re not exactly fixtures on the conference circuit…yet. They should be. Seriously, I go to a lot of events, and I see a lot of talks, so I don’t offer my praise lightly. Their talks weregreat!

There were numerous times during UX London 2024 when I thought “More people need to see this!” More people need to see Benaz’s superb talk on the designer alter-ego. More people need to seeJohn’s superb presentation—he put atonof work into it and it really paid off.

Andeveryoneneeds to hearHarry’s blistering call-to-arms. His presentation was brilliant and much-needed. Oh, captain, my captain!

Oh, and needless to say, the closing keynotes on each day were just perfect.Rama,Matt,andMaggiebestowed so much great brain food, it was almost like a mini dConstruct.

I’m so grateful to all the speakers for really bringing their A game. I’m grateful to all my colleagues, especiallyLouise,who did all the hard work behind the scenes. And I’m really grateful to everyone who came and enjoyed UX London 2024.

Thank you.

There was a discussion atClearleftrecently about browser support.Rich has more detailsbut the gist of it is that, even though we were confident that we had a good approach to browser support, we hadn’t written it down anywhere. Time to fix that.

This is something I had been thinking about recently anyway—see my post aboutBaseline and progressive enhancement—so it didn’t take too long to put together a document explaining our approach.

You can find it atbrowsersupport.clearleft

We’re not just making it public. We’re releasing it under aCreative Commons attribution license.You can copy this browser-support policy verbatim, you can tweak it, you can change it, you can do what you like. As long you include a credit to Clearleft, you’re all set.

I think this browser-support policy makes a lot of sense. It certainly beats trying to browser support to specific browsers or version numbers:

We don’t base our browser support on specific browser names and numbers. Instead, our support policy is based on the capabilities of those browsers.

The more organisations adopt this approach, the better it is for everyone. Hence the liberal licensing.

So next time your Boss or your client is asking what your official browser-support policy is, feel free to usebrowsersupport.clearleft

UX Londonis just three weeks away! If you haven’t got your ticket yet,dally not.

There’s a last-minute addition to the line-up:Peter Boersma.

Peter is kindly stepping into the slot that Kara Kane was going to be occupying. Alas, since a snap general election was recently announced, Kara isn’t able to give her talk. There’s an abundance of caution in the comms from gov.uk in this pre-election period.

It’s a shame that Kara won’t be able to speak this time around, but it’s great that we’ve got Peter!

Peter’s talkis perfect forday three.Remember, that’sthe day focused on design ops and design systems.Well, Peter lives and breathes design ops. He’ll show you why you should maintain a roadmap for design ops, and work with others to get the initiatives on it done.

You canget a ticketfor an individual day of talks and workshops, or go for the best-value option and come for all three days. See you there!

Alright, so last week I gave you the low-down on each day of this year’sUX London:

1. Tuesday, June 18th focuses on UX research,
2. Wednesday, June 19th focuses on product design,and
3. Thursday, June 20th focuses on design ops and design systems

But the line-up for each day wasn’t quite complete. There was a mystery slot at the end of each day for a closing keynote.

Well, I’m very happy to unveil the trio of fantastic speakers who will be closing out each day…

Rama Gheerawois the closing speaker on day one. Rama will show you how to frame inclusive design in the context of UX.

I’ve been trying to get Rama for UX London for the past few years but the timings never worked out. I’m absolutely delighted that I’ve finally managed to nab him! His talk is guaranteed to be the perfect inspirational ending for day one.

Matt Webbis giving the closing keynote on day two. Matt will show what it’s like to live and work with AI. You know my scepticism on this topic but even I have to hand it to Matt; he’s finding ways to use these tools to create true delight.

Honestly it feels like a bit of a cheat getting Matt to wrap up the day—his talks are always incredibly entertaining so I feel like I’m taking the easy route. If you’ve seenhis appearances at dConstructyou’ll know what I mean.

Maggie Appletonis the final speaker on the final day of UX London. Maggie will show you how to explore designing with large language models. Again, even a sceptic like me has a lot to learn from Maggie’s level-headed humanistic approach to AI.

I’m so happy to have Maggie speaking at UX London. Not only am I a huge fan ofher website,but I also love her presentation style. She’s going to entertain and educate in equal measure, and she’s certain to leave us with some fascinating questions to ponder.

With that, the line-up forUX London 2024is complete…andwhat a stellar line-up it is!

Grab your ticketif you haven’t already, either for the full full three days or if you can’t manage that, day tickets are available too.

Use this discount code to 20% of the ticket price:JOINJEREMY.I’d love to see you there!

UX Londonruns for three days, from June 18th to 20th. If you can, you should get a ticket for all three days. But if you can’t, you can get a one-day ticket. Think of each individual day as being its own self-contained conference.

The flow of the three-day event kind of mimics the design process itself. It starts with planning and research. Then it gets into the nitty-gritty product design details. Then it gets meta…

Day three, Thursday, June 20this about design systems and design ops.

Maintenance matters, not just for the products and services you’re designing, but for the teams you’re designing with. You can expect a barrage of knowledge bombs on alignment and collaboration.

The bombardment commences with four great talks in the morning.

1. Brad Frostkicks things off with the questionis atomic design dead?Brad will show you how to imagine what a global design system might look like.
2. Alicia Calderónis going to be talking aboutunlocking collaboration .Alicia will show you how to use a framework for creating lasting aligment between developers and designers.
3. Benaz Iraniwill be speaking aboutempathy overload.Benaz will show you how to strike a balance between compassion and confidence within your team.
4. Kara Kaneis going to talk about whyUX building blocks need standards.Kara will show you how to use standards to enable adoption and contribution to design systems.

After the lunch break you’ll have your pick of four superb workshops. It’s not an easy choice.

1. Brad Frostis not only giving a talk in the morning, he’s also leading an afternoon workshop onthe design system ecosystem.Brad will show you how to unpack the many layers of the design system layer cake so you can deliver sturdy user interfaces and help teams work better together.
2. Stéphanie Walteris running a workshop ondesigning adaptive reusable components and pages .Stéphanie will show you how to plan your content and information architecture to help build more reusable components.
3. Tom Kerwinwill be giving a workshop onmultiverse mapping.Tom will show you how to pin down your product strategy and to align your team around the stuff that matters.
4. Luke Hayis running a workshop onbridging the gap between Research and Design.Luke will show you how to take practical steps to ensure that designers and researchers are working as a seamless team.

Finally we’ll finish the whole event with one last closing keynote. I’m very excited to announce who that’s going to be—I’ll only keep you on tenterhooks for a short while longer.

When step back and look at what’s on offer, day three of UX London looks pretty unmissable. If you work with a design system or heck, if you just work with other people, this is the day for you. Soget your ticket now.

But be sure to use this discount code I’ve prepared just for you to get a whopping 20% off the ticket price:JOINJEREMY.

If you can’t make it to all three days of this year’sUX London,there’s always the option to attend a single day.

Day twois focused on product design. You know, the real meat’n’potatoes of working at the design coalface (to horribly mix my metaphors).

The day begins with four back-to-back practical talks.

1. John V Willshiregets the ball rolling with a big-picture talk onthe product of design.John will show you how to think about futures rather than features.
2. Tshili Ndoufollows on with her talk aboutvalidating features.Tschili will show you how to create high value products and avoid wasting money.
3. Wioleta Majis up after the break with a talk onunderstanding the impact of design choices.Wioleta will show you how to identify who we are creating our designs for (and who we are not).
4. Harry Brignullcloses out the morning with his call to action,Do Not Pass Go.Harry will show you how to get to grips with our industry’s failure to self-regulate when it comes to harmful design patterns.

After lunch, it’s decision time. Whereas the morning talks are sequential, the afternoon’s workshops run in parallel. You’ve got four excellent workshops to choose from.

1. Ben Sauerwill be giving a workshop onthe storytelling bridge .Ben will show you how to find your inner storyteller to turn your insights into narratives your stakeholders can understand quickly and easily.
2. Tom Kerwinwill be giving a workshop onmultiverse mapping.Tom will show you how to pin down your product strategy and to align your team around the stuff that matters.
3. Serena Verdenicciwill be giving a workshop onbehavioural intentions .Serena will show you how to apply a behavioural mindset to your work so you can create behaviour-change interventions.
4. Brad Frostwill be giving a workshop onthe design system ecosystem.Brad will show you how to unpack the many layers of the design system layer cake so you can deliver sturdy user interfaces and help teams work better together.

Finally there’s one last keynote talk at the end of the day. All will be revealed very soon, but believe me, it’s going to be a perfect finisher.

If a day of outstanding talks and workshops on product design sounds good to you,get your ticket now.

And just between you and me, here’s a discount code to get 20% of the ticket price:JOINJEREMY.

UX Londonis just two months away!

The best way to enjoy the event is to go for all three days but if that’s not doable for you, each individual day is kind of like a mini-conference with its own theme.

The theme onday one, Tuesday, June 18this design research.

In the morning there are four fantastic talks.

1. Tom Kerwinkicks things off with his talk onpitch provocations.Tom will show you how to probe for what the market really wants with his fast, counterintuitive method.
2. Clarissa Gardneris giving a talk aboutethics and safeguarding in UX research .Clarissa will show you how to uphold good practice without compromising delivery in a fast-paced environment.
3. Aleks Melnikova’s talk is all aboutdemystifying inclusive research.Aleks will show you how to conduct research for a diverse range of participants, from recruitment and planning through to moderation and analysis.
4. Emma Boultoncloses out the morning with her talk onmeeting Product where they are.Emma will show you how to define a knowledge management strategy for your organisation so that you can retake your seat at the table.

After lunch you’ll take part in one of four workshops. Choose wisely!

1. Luke Hayis running a workshop onbridging the gap between research and design.Luke will show you how to take practical steps to ensure that designers and researchers are working as a seamless team.
2. Serena Verdenicciis running a workshop onbehaviorual intentions.Serena will show you how to apply a behavioural mindset to your work so you can create behaviour-change interventions.
3. Stéphanie Walteris running a workshop ondesigning adaptive reusable components and pages.Stéphanie will show you how to plan your content and information architecture to help build more reusable components.
4. Ben Saueris running a workshop onthe storytelling bridge.Ben will show you how to find your inner storyteller to turn your insights into narratives your stakeholders can understand quickly and easily.

After your workshop there’s one final closing keynote to bring everyone back together. I’m keeping that secret for just a little longer, but trust me, it’s going to be inspiring—plenty to discuss at the drinks reception afterwards.

That’s quite a packed day. If design research is what you’re into, you won’t want to miss it.Get your ticket now.

Just to sweeten the deal and as a reward for reading all the way to the end, here’s a discount code you can use to get a whopping 20% off:JOINJEREMY.

Crash!

Did somebody drop something?

Why, yes! It’s a new episode ofThe Clearleft Podcast.The episode that just dropped is all aboutonboarding:

How do you introduce users to product features without alienating or patronising them?

It’s a tidy fifteen and a half minutes long, featuring words of wisdom from product designerJames Gilyead,content designerJo Dimbleby,and of course UX designerKrystal Higgins,who literally wrote the book onbetter onboarding.

I interviewed James and Jo, and used snippets of a talk that Krystal gave at one of ourUX eventsa little while back.Have a listen:

James and Jo talk worked on a project together for Sage where thy prototyped patterns for onboarding users to product features. You canfind out more about the project:

The folks at Sage had a hunch that an overview screen might be valuable for their customers. They asked Clearleft to help them test this hypothesis.

Another Clearleftie, Chris How,wrote a chapter for the Customer Onboarding Handbookpublished by CX Lead. You canget the bookand read his chapter calledOngoing Onboarding.

That idea of ongoing onboarding is something James talks about on the podcast, calling it “longboarding”:

We ended up coining the term longboarding to describe a transition from a new user to an established user.

He goes one better with the term “non-boarding”:

Some products you don’t realize have onboarded you. And I think that’s a huge compliment.

Listen to the whole episodeto get the full story. And while you’re at it, subscribe tothe podcast feedor subscribe onApple,Spotify,orwherever you get your podcasts.

The thirdPatterns Dayhappened yesterday. It was lovely!

The last time we had a Patterns Day wasin 2019.After five years it felt very, very good to be back in the beautiful Duke Of York’s for another full day of design systems nerdery.

I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. A lot of people told me how much they enjoyed the event, which swelled my heart with happiness. I’m genuinely grateful to everyone who came—thank you so much!

The talks were, of course, excellent. I feel pretty good about the flow of the day. I tried to mix and match between big-picture talks with broad themes and nitty-gritty talks diving into details. The contrast worked really well.

In the pub afterwards it was fascinating to hear how much the different talks resonated with people. So many people felt seen, in the best possible way. It’s quite gratifying to hear that you’re not alone, that other people are struggling with the same kinds of issues with design systems as you are.

Atthe very first Patterns Daywhen it was still early days for design systems, there was still a certain amount of cheerleading, bigging up all the benefits of design systems. In 2024 there’s a lot more real talk about how much hard work there is. The design systems struggle is real.

There was another overarching theme atthis year’s Patterns Day.Even though there was plenty of coverage of technical details like design tokens, typography and components, the big takeaway was all about people. Collaboration. Agreement. Community. These are the real foundations of a design system that works.

I’m so grateful toall the wonderful speakersyesterday for reminding us of what really matters.

Just look atwho’s speaking at UX London this year!That’s a damned fine line-up, if I do say so myself. Which I do.

If you haven’t procureda ticketyet, allow me to gently remind you that early-bird ticket sales finish on March 14th. So if you want to avail of that bargain of a price, get in there now.

The event will be three days long. You can buy a ticket for all three days, or you can buy individual day tickets (but buying a three-day ticket works out cheaper per day).

The first day,Tuesday, June 18th, focuses on UX research.

The second day,Wednesday, June 19th, focuses on product design.

The third day,Thursday, June 20th, focuses on design ops and design systems.

Each day features a morning of inspiring talks and an afternoon of brilliant workshops. I’ll be adding titles and descriptions for all of them soon, but in the meantime, don’t dilly dally—get your ticket today!

I’ve mentioned before that one of my roles atClearleftis to be acontent buddy:

If anyone is writing a talk, or a blog post, or a proposal and they want an extra pair of eyes on it, I’m there to help.

Ideally this happens in real time over video while we both have the same Google doc open:

That way, instead of just getting the suggestions, we can talk through the reasoning behind each one.

I was doing that recently withRebeccawhen she was writingan announcement blog postforthe Leading Design on-demand platform.

Talking through the structure, I suggested this narrative flow:

1. Start by describing the problem from the reader’s perspective—put yourself in their shoes and enumerate their struggles. This is the part of the story where you describe the dragon in all its horrifying detail.
2. Now show them the sword, the supernatural aid that you can hand to them. Describe the product in purely subjective terms. No need to use adjectives. Let the scale of the offering speak for itself.
3. Then step back into the reader’s shoes and describe what life will be like after they’ve signed up and they’ve slain the dragon.
4. Finish with the call to adventure.

I thinkthat blog postturned out well. And we both had good fun wrangling it into shape.

Today I was working on another great blog post, this time byLuke.Alas, the content buddying couldn’t be in real time so I had to make my suggestions asynchronously.

I still like to provide some reasoning for my changes, so I scattered comments throughout. I was also able to refer to something I put together a little while back…

Here’sthe Clearleft tone of voice and style guide document.

I tried to keep it as short as possible. There’s always a danger that the style guide section in particular could grow and grow, so I kept to specific things that have come up in actual usage.

I hadn’t looked at it in a while so I was able to see it with somewhat fresh eyes today. Inevitably I spotted some things that could be better. But overall, I think it’s pretty good.

It’s just for internal use at Clearleft, but rather than have it live in a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, I figured it would be easier to refer to it with a URL. And we’ve always liked sharing our processes openly. So even though it’s probably of no interest to anyone outside of Clearleft, here it is:toneofvoice.clearleft

Harrypopped ’round to theClearleftstudio yesterday. It’s always nice when a Clearleft alum comes to visit.

It wasn’t just a social call though. Harry wanted to run through the ideas he’s got for hisUX Londontalk.

Wait. I buried the lede. Let me start again.

Harry Brignull is speaking at this year’s UX London!

Yes, the person who literallywrote the bookondeceptive design patternswill be on the line-up. And judging from what I heard yesterday, it’s going to be a brilliant talk.

It was fascinating listening to Harry talk about the times he’s been brought in to investigate companies accused of deliberately employing deceptive design tactics. It involves a lot of research and detective work, trawling through internal communications hoping to find a smoking gun like a memo from the Boss or an objection from a beleaguered designer.

I thought about this again today reading Nic Chan’s post,Have we forgotten how to build ethical things for the web?.It resonates with what Harry will be talking about at UX London. What can an individual ethical designer do when they’re embedded in a company that doesn’t prioritise user safety?

It’s like a walking into a jets pray of bullshit, so much so that even those with good intentions get easily overwhelmed.

Though I try, my efforts rarely bear fruit, even with the most well-meaning of clients. And look, I get it, no on wants to be the tall poppy. It’s hard enough to squeeze money from the internet-stone these days. Why take a stance on a tiny issue when your users don’t even care? Your competitors certainly don’t. I usually end up quietly acquiescing to whatever bad are made, praying no future discerning user will notice and think badly of me.

It’s pretty clear to me that we can’t rely on individual people to make a difference here.

Still, I take some encouragement from Harry’s detective work. If the very least that an ethical designer (or developer) does is to speak up, on the record, then that can end up counting for a lot when the enshittification hits the fan.

If you see something, say something. Actually, don’t just say it. Write it down. In official communication channels, like email.

I remember when Clearleft crossed an ethical line (for me) by working on a cryptobollocks project, I didn’t just voice my objections, I wrote them down in a memo. It wasn’t fun being the tall poppy, the squeeky wheel, the wet blanket. But I think it would’ve been worse (for me) if I did nothing.

It is now exactly five weeks untilPatterns Day—just another 35 sleeps!

Everthing is in place for a perfect day of deep dives into design systems. There’ll be eight snappy 30 minute talks—bam, bam, bam!

Here’sthe scheduleI’ve got planned for the day:

9:00	Registration.
9:45	Jeremyintroduces the day.
10:00	Jinadelivers the opening keynote.
10:30	Déboratalks about the outcomes, lessons and challenges from using design tokens.
11:00	Break.
11:30	Yolijntalks about the relay method for design system governance.
12:00	Geritalks about her journey navigating accessibility in design systems.
12:30	Lunch.
14:00	Richardtalks about responsive typography in design systems.
14:30	Samanthatalks about getting buy-in for a design system.
15:00	Break.
15:30	Marytalks about transitioning from a single to a multi-brand design system.
16:00	Vitalydelivers the closing keynote.
16:30	Jeremywraps up the day.
16:45	Have a drink and a geek pub quiz at the Hare And Hounds pub.

I assume you’ve got your ticket already, but if notuse the discount code JOINJEREMYto get 10% off the ticket price.

See you there!

Patterns Dayis exactly six weeks away—squee!

If you haven’t got your ticket yet,get one now.(And just between you and me,use the discount code JOINJEREMYto get a 10% discount.)

I’ve been talking tothe speakersand getting very excited about what they’re going to be covering. It’s shaping up to be the perfect mix of practical case studies and big-picture thinking. You can expect talks on design system governance, accessibility, design tokens, typography, and more.

I’m hoping to have a schedule for the day ready by next week. It’s fun trying to craft the flow of the day. It’s like putting together a set list for a concert. Or maybe I’m just overthinking it and it really doesn’t matter because all the talks are going to be great anyway.

There aresponsorsfor Patterns Day now too. Thanks toSupernovaandEtchyou’re going to have bountiful supplies of coffee, tea and pastries throughout the day. Then, when the conference talks are done, we’ll head across the road tothe Hare And Houndsfor one of Luke Murphy’s famous geek pub quizes, with a bar tab generously provided byZero Height.

Now,the venue for Patterns Dayis beautiful but it doesn’t have enough space to provide everyone with lunch, so you’re going to have an hour and a half to explore some of Brighton’s trendy lunchtime spots. I’ve put togethera list of lunch optionsfor you, ordered by proximity to the Duke of York’s. These are all places I can personally vouch for.

Then, after the conference day, and after the pub quiz, there’sVitaly’s workshopthe next day. I will most definitely be there feeding on Vitaly’s knowledge.Get a ticketif you want to join me.

But wait! That’s not all! Even after the conference, and the pub quiz, and the workshop, the nerdy fun continues on the weekend. There’s going to bean Indie Web Camp here in Brightonon the Saturday and Sunday afterPatterns Day.

If you’ve been to an Indie Web Camp before, you know how inspiring and fun it is. If you haven’t been to one yet, you should definitely come along. It’s free! If you’ve got your own website, or if you’re even just thinking about having your own website, it’s a great opportunity to meet with like-minded people.

So that’s going to be four days of non-stop good stuff here in Brighton. I’m looking forward to seeing you then!

The line-up forPatterns Dayis complete! You’ll be hearing fromeight fantastic speakerson March 7th 2024 here in Brighton.

I really like the mix of speakers we’ve got…

Half of the speakers will be sharing what they’ve learned from design systems in their organisations: Débora from LEGO, Mary from the Financial Times, Yolijn from the Dutch government, and Samantha from University College London. That’s a good spread of deep dives.

The other half of the speakers can go broad across design systems in general: Vitaly on design patterns, Rich on typography, Geri on accessibility, and Jina on…well, absolutely everything to do with design systems!

I’m so happy that I could get the line-up to have this mix. If you have any interest in design systems at all—whether it’s as a designer, a developer, a product manager, or anything else—you won’t want to miss this.Early bird tickets are £225.

But wait! That’s not all. If youreallywant to dive deep into interface design patterns, then stick around. The day after Patterns Day,Vitaly is running a one-day workshop:

In this in-person workshop with Vitaly Friedman, UX consultant and creative lead behind Smashing Magazine, we’ll dive deep into dissecting how to solve complex design problems. Whether you’re working on a complex nested multi-level navigation or creating enterprise grade tables, this workshop will give you the tools you need to excel at your work.

Places are limited. There isn’t room for everyone who’s going to be at Patterns Day, so if you—and your team—want to learn design pattern kung-fu from the master,get your workshop ticket now!Workshop tickets are £445.

Put the dates in your dairy:UX London 2024will be on June 18th, 19th, and 20th.

Better yet,grab a ticket right now.There are super early-bird tickets available until this Friday.

If you want a flavour of what to expect, check outthe speakers that are already confirmed:Brad!,Ben!,Tshili!,and more!

It’s early days but I can tell you what to expect from each day. The first day will be themed around research. The second will have a focus on product design. The third day will be themed around design systems and design ops.

As usual, there’ll be a mix of talks and workshops: a single track of inspirational talks in the morning, followed by a choice of practical workshops in the afternoon.

We’ll be ina new venuenext year too—right in the heart of London.

See you there!

Mark your calendar: Thursday, March 7th, 2024. That’s whenPatterns Daywill return for its third edition.

Patterns Dayis a one-day event focused on design systems. It’s for designers, developers, project managers, writers, and anyone else who’s working with design systems, pattern libraries, style guides, and components.Tickets are on sale now!

Once again,Patterns Daywill be in the magnificentDuke of York’s cinema in Brighton,with its historic charm and dangerously comfortable seats.

The first Patterns Daywas all the way back in 2017. Then we hadthe second Patterns Day in 2019.You can watchvideos of the talks from both years.

We all know what happened after 2019. Nothing like a global pandemic to stop an event in its tracks.

Now, finally,Patterns Dayis returning in 2024.

After all this time, is there still a need for an event focused on design systems?

In my opinion, the answer is “more than ever!”

WhenClearleftfirst ran Patterns Day, we had been doing design systems work for a while, but other organisations were only at the start of their journey. Many of the attendees were from companies that were dabbling in design systems, or planned to put a design system together.

That situation has changed. Now most organisations either have at least some experience with design systems. Many companies have got design systems up and running.

But the challenges haven’t gone away. They’ve just changed. You might no longer need to convince anyone that a design system is a good idea, but you might well be struggling to convince people to use the design system you’ve got.

It can be lonely work. That’s whyPatterns Dayis so vital. It’s a chance to get together with other people going through the same struggles. You’ll have an opportunity to learn from their successes and failures. Most of all, you’ll have the reassurance that you are not alone.

I know that makes it sound more like therapy than a conference, but honestly, that’s where the true value lies.

We’ve already got somefantastic speakerslined up, but there are just as many still to come!

Can you tell that I’m very excited about this?

It would be lovely to see there. Tickets will cost £255, but you cansecure your place nowat the super early bird price of just £195. Dither ye not!

Can’t wait to see you in Brighton on March 7th—it’s going to be a day to remember!

We do quite a bit of prototyping atClearleft.There’s no better way to reduce risk than to get something in front of users as quickly as possible to test whether you’re on the right track or not.

AsBenjaminsaid inthe podcast episode on prototyping:

It’s something to look at, something to prod. And ideally you’re trying to work out what works and what doesn’t.

Sometimes the prototype is mocked up in Figma. Preferably it’s built in code—HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Having a prototype built in the materials of the medium helps establish a plausible suspension of disbelief during testing.

Also, asTryssaid inthat same podcast episode:

Prototypical code isn’t production code. It’s quick and it’s often a little bit dirty and it’s not really fit for purpose in that final deliverable. But it’s also there to be inspiring and to gather a team and show that something is possible.

I can’t reiterate that enough:prototype code isn’t production code.

I’ve written aboutthe two different mindsetsbefore:

So these two kinds of work require very different attitudes. For production work, quality is key. For prototyping, making something quickly is what matters.

Addyrecently wrote an excellent blog post on the topic of prototyping.The value of a prototype is in the insight it imparts, not the code.

It’s crucial to remember that in a prototype,the code serves merely as a medium—a way to facilitate understanding. It’s a means to an end, not the end itself. The code of a prototype is disposable and mutable. In contrast, the lessons learned from a prototype, the insights gained from user interaction and feedback, are far more durable and impactful.

This!

It can be tempting to re-use code from a prototype. I get it. It seems like a waste to throw away code and build something from scratch. But trust me—and I speak from experience here—it will takemoretime to wrangle prototype code into something that’s production-ready.

The problem is that quality is often invisible. Think about semantics, performance, security, privacy, and accessibility. Those matter—for production code—but they’re under the surface. For someone who doesn’t understand the importance of those hidden qualities a prototype thatlookslike it works seems ready to ship. It’s understandable that they’d balk at the idea of just throwing that code away and writing new code. Sometimes the suspension of disbelief that a prototype is aiming for works too well.

As is so often the case, this isn’t a technical problem. It’s a communication issue.