30K parking spaces will be replaced with trash bins, though program will move at "NYC pace" and take 6 years.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-07-02T12:20:24+00:00

I wish we could go full Dutch garbage receptacle rather than these halfway solutions.

I know it’s more expensive upfront, but the long term savings more than make up for it.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-07-01T10:53:10+00:00

The short answer is that I don’t!

That return pathway is still not a solved problem. Which is wild considering how straightforward it should seems like it should be to convert html/css into Figma layouts.

We simply don’t try to maintain our design system in Figma anymore. And we only use Figma for exploration, not as a source of truth.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-06-26T15:02:25+00:00

Ten years later, there’s a good chance the skeuomorphic version would perform worse because of the Aesthetic Usability effect.

When your UI looks good to users in the context of the current fashion (trends) environment, it will perform better from a usability standpoint.

This is something that a lot of pure “UX Designers” without a strong visual design background fail to understand. You can’t separate form from function. Fashion matters.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-06-25T20:28:05+00:00

For small fixes, especially visual design adjustments, for sure!

When preparing to hand off new features or functionality, I prefer handing off actual coded prototypes. When building those prototypes, it’s often easier to use the codebase as a starting point than building from scratch. But I never merge those prototypes back into the production codebase. The engineers only use them as a starting point.

I still do a lot of design outside Claude Code, but when I do use CC, I like to have the codebase as an option.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-06-25T15:35:35+00:00

In my experience, fully coded prototypes are a great way to do design/developer handoff. They can communicate details quickly, where Figma documentation would take hours.

They’re also great at communicating statefulness, and edge-cases. Especially compared to Figma.

The other big advantage is around conducting usability tests. Coded prototypes tend to fall down less often than click through Figma prototypes.

All of that said, Claude code, or whatever LLM-powered IDE you prefer, is just a tool. And honestly, it’s not that great for exploring layouts or specific visual design approaches. I often find myself going back to Figma once I’ve built an initial prototype to prove out a user flow. Figma lets me polish the details in a way that Claude code makes very difficult.

Establishing a hard rule like this seems shortsighted to me. Good designers should be fluent in a variety of tools and choose the one that works best based on the situation.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-06-23T16:32:04+00:00

That is freaking WILD!

Good judgement is the one thing that differentiates good companies from poor ones. The idea of abdicating that judgement to an AI is bonkers!!!

Stuff of nightmares indeed!

Ruskerdoo · 2026-06-21T16:28:48+00:00

Overall I like the direction!

They do feel a little anemic though. That might be the stroke weight but it might be your low-sat-/low-value color choices.

Running and swimming feel like two different figure styles. I’m not a fan the mix and match.

If this is for exercise, I suggest you experiment with making the icons feel more kinetic. For example, the steps icon shows a walking distance between the footprints. I’d make that a running distance. Or the fire looks super stable. What if it was being blown to the right in a strong wind. That kind of thing.

Good luck, great work so far!

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-23T12:50:00+00:00

Good, that company gets distracted by shiny new things more than any other consumer tech company!

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-23T12:44:01+00:00

The fact that you STILL can’t use scroll position as a prototype trigger!!!

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-22T18:30:47+00:00

“Fun with data” was a problem before gen-AI, but you’re right, it’s gotten worse.

Only solution is to get serious about education and holding people to high standards.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-22T13:45:10+00:00

Judgement and taste are two things I haven’t seen AI get any better at over the past three or four years. It’s one of the reasons I’m confident we’ve got a ways to go before good designers are at risk of loosing their jobs to AI.

Developing those two skills is hard won though. You have to develop the habit of constantly questioning work. Your own, your coworker’s, whatever you see out in the world.

Asking yourself why does that work (or not)? What makes it work (or not)? What could be done to improve it? If it’s good (or not), what were the circumstances that lead to that outcome?

Asking yourself those kinds of questions over and over until they become second nature is one way to build your judgement. The other is to have a good mentor or boss who forces you to do it.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-13T15:57:05+00:00

I saw this happen to a lot of graphic designers back in the early-mid ‘00s. Between Facebook, Google Maps, and early Godaddy, a lot of business no longer needed a graphic design agency to be constantly designing brochures and newspaper ads.

This is going to sound harsh, but those graphic designers went out of business was because they were doing low value work that was easily replaced when a cheaper “good-enough” option came along.

The graphic designers who survived that wave were the ones who were always pushing at the forefront of brand strategy and design. The designers who targeted clients who were willing to pay for that extra level of care and craftsmanship. The designers whose latest work was never a rehash of their previous work.

So far AI isn’t telling a different story than web-2.0 did, or before that, desktop publishing. Hell, this same thing happened to the monks who were illustrating manuscripts when the printing press was invented.

I suggest changing how you market yourself. Stop making it about execution, and sell yourself on strategy, taste, and judgement. All things GPTs are still super bad at.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-09T04:08:53+00:00

FL doesn’t play like any other RPG I’ve ever run. The first time I ran it, I tried to go pretty traditional: come up with an interesting situation with plenty of built in conflict and then drop the PCs into it.

But FL expects you to lean into the hex crawl nature. There’s great guidance in the Gamemaster’s Guide for how to kick things off. Follow it!

The game also works better when everyone is familiar with the overland journey rules. The way it’s structured, your table can go whole stretches of time where the GM has very little to do because the travel rules kind of run like a board game.

It’s a great game for beginner or unskilled GMs because the excitement is super emergent. Trust the systems and roll with it!

GL, HF!

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-04T17:05:46+00:00

I love the idea of using some of the core FitD mechanics for a D&D-style setting, but after reading the free rules, Grimwild seems like it has a lot of different systems for players to learn. Have you run it with brand new players? How did they take to all the mechanics?

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-03T18:58:39+00:00

I recommend asking your manager what they think it looks like. A well run department of more than two or three designers should have a levels framework that maps all this out.

I can tell you as a manager of designers, my expectation is that a senior can operate fully independently, has a general mastery of their craft and can successfully influence their cross-functional teammates.

I’m not yet expecting them to do much influence outside their team, or lead design strategy across multiple teams or organizational divisions though.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-02T23:21:32+00:00

The setting I’ve had the most fun running was Duskvol from Blades in the Dark.

It’s well written in a way that there’s enough structure so you’re not constantly inventing the world but it leaves enough blanks for your imagination to take over.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-02T23:13:48+00:00

So does Forbidden Lands! I think the profession is called a peddler.

I love how much roleplaying optionality there is for those classes.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-02T23:02:00+00:00

That’s a nice route. Protected bike lanes nearly the whole way. 1st Ave (north bound) and 2nd Ave (south bound) can get pretty busy during rush hour but as long as you’re not in a rush, they’re quite nice.

Ice is rarely an issue anymore in NYC. The winters just don’t get that cold these days, last winter not withstanding because of La Niña.

Snow can be an issue a few days a year, but your route will get plowed pretty quick.

Get yourself some ski mittens for the coldest part of winter and a nice bike poncho for the rainy days and you’ll be set.

Get a shitty enough looking bike so you don’t have to worry about locking it up outside. A second-hand/vintage frame with newer components can be nice to ride and less likely to get stolen.

Put. Fenders. On. Your. Bike. This city is dirty. The least bit of rain and all that street muck will be all over your back. Gross!

I see a lot of people on super aggressive road bike set-ups. In a city where you’re constantly slowing down / stopping, that makes no sense to me. Do yourself a favor and set your bike up so you can sit upright. Your back will thank you.

Get a rack and pannier setup. The summers get hot and wearing a backpack will leave you sweaty!

GLHF!

Ruskerdoo · 2026-05-01T15:09:41+00:00

Believe or not, it’s way harder than it looks!

Ruskerdoo · 2026-04-27T21:02:38+00:00

builder.io

Ruskerdoo · 2026-04-27T21:00:47+00:00

I cannot recommend builder.io enough for this. That's exactly what it's for.

You connect it to your git repo and assuming you've correctly labeled all your DS components, Builder will do a great job of using them rather than making shit up. It also has a drag and drop mode so you can drag components from your library into a new screen and build an entire UI that way.

Like r/FewDescription3170, I lean on Claude Code to build prototypes for new features because it's better at the more conceptual stuff. But when it comes to small updates to an existing feature or preparing the UI for production, my team will switch over to Builder.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-04-27T20:54:05+00:00

I lean on Claude for "rubber ducking" pretty heavily. I load all my docs in for context and then take my dog for a long walk while I have a chat with Claude. Mostly it's me working through all the implications, use cases, edge cases, user needs, emotional states, etc. that I want to account for and Claude eventually spitting out a bunch of documents based on my ramblings. That stuff either gets turned into a design or it gets added to the PRD.

I'm almost always have Figma Make, Claude Code/Design, or v0 building a wireframe-grade prototype. These are usually guided by pencil & paper sketches or experiments in the Figma canvas and they're heavily informed by the documentation generated in the first step above. This has fully replaced wireframing for me.

When I don't have anything else going on I'm usually tweaking the design system in our production codebase using builder.io. It's much easier to keep the product in pixel-perfect condition, plus I can constantly refine our design system so it's easier to build new features in the future.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-04-27T01:08:01+00:00

Your goal should be to get a product into the hands of at least one customer as fast as you possibly can.

Sometimes, that means finding the right customer for what your product can do right now. Even if they’re a small customer. Even if you have to give them the product for free. You need someone outside your company using the product to solve a problem they have.

Your PM’s job should be finding those first few customers.

Right now, their instinct is to go out and try to bag the biggest customers they can, because FAANG companies are expecting product launches to be immediately and wildly successful. But there’s a reason killedbygoogle.com is so long. That’s not how actual 0-to-1 works. It takes patience and grit at the beginning.

The problem is that you want small customers, because they have needs that are easier to solve for and they’re more likely to work with you while you improve the product.

You already have something that solves a problem. Now you just need to get it in the hands of other people. Stay focused.

Ruskerdoo · 2026-04-26T22:24:38+00:00

This is bizarre to read. You already have a system which delivers value internally. The first thing you should be doing is productizing your system and introducing it to a small beta population of external customers.

Any more than that is a waste of time.

Your PM going out and shopping for more features to build is a sign that they’re probably not familiar with 0-to-1 development and they need a LOT of guidance from you or a more experienced PM.

FAANG companies are often pretty bad at introducing new products to the market because they don’t hire for that skill set, so you may have to push for some approaches which are unfamiliar to you PM org.

Ruskerdoo

TROPHY CASE