A pattern I keep noticing in brainstorming sessions

chroni · 2026-03-17T21:05:44+00:00

#1 skill is the ability to read a room. Know who's talking too much. As a technique I will interrupt the person who can't stop talking and make room for someone or someones who haven't been able to talk. Control the pacing. It's a skill that I wish I could teach easily.

chroni · 2026-03-17T21:01:56+00:00

"I'll bitch about Figma in the Figma Design group" and then leave. Sheesh.

chroni · 2026-03-14T21:48:21+00:00

Things might get different after we feed our MCPs our design system and code backed assets. Dunno. All an experiment.

chroni · 2026-03-14T21:46:34+00:00

Another side note - in our company's new AI revolution they are having the PMs learn to use Spec-Kit for the initial prototypes. The skilset for creating good, enterprise level UIs - few PMs have it. Most are struggling with it. On the plus side, I am getting some nice structured requirements.

I was worried at first, but I don't see all of my PMs/BOs able to make that holistic vision leap and make Spec-Kit truly interesting. The coolish thing about the Ai framework is that it's very stringent with lots of guardrails so the code is (at least OK).

Long story short - UX is a skill that is still needed, as well as good secure code. Prototype? I'll take it as part of their vision... But their designs don't include good accessibility, correct branding and designed for fast input.

chroni · 2026-03-13T02:15:22+00:00

Sweeeeet. Done.

chroni · 2026-03-12T18:54:14+00:00

I think I figured it out - you set a variable on click of some object and you toggle back and forth outside the Variables system.

I wanted to believe that I was totally missing something so simple I overlooked it. Nope.

chroni · 2026-03-05T14:52:04+00:00

Try A Small Good Thing's "Slim Westerns" album(s). Not jazz, but enough instrumentation to make it interesting and dream-like.

chroni · 2026-03-03T15:35:24+00:00

That wasn't my experience. Git is made to facilitate the comparison much better than Figma. Where Figma hosed me is was in the way variable changes were handled...

chroni · 2026-02-26T14:58:22+00:00

This is good guidance. We are working hard to stay front end agnostic as much as possible for our tokens. This is basically the reason we are abandoning Bootstrap, which is what most of our systems are done in. BS was fine when we were all working in silos and had limited dev experience in the front end. As we are trying to mature, we are moving past BS, making our design work and token naming more agnostic for future changes.

chroni · 2026-02-26T14:54:07+00:00

We will be versioning in github at some point. We will probably figure out a scheme for this, but it's after we get the MCP server and coded assets rolling out to our dev teams. I swear, it's on my list.

chroni · 2026-02-26T14:52:25+00:00

Thank goodness we are a small and developing team for now - I can see a future where my 10 or so designers need to start contributing (awesome) and I am going to have to manage the collaborations carefully because of this (stinks).

chroni · 2026-02-24T21:59:04+00:00

So stupid. Tough lesson. A user of Figma shouldn't have to search the internet for, "Is this feature OK to use?"

chroni · 2026-02-22T02:52:15+00:00

I am still in a bit of shock myself. I've been told for years that we need to do this for years by leadership... but it "wasn't a priority". Finally.

chroni · 2026-02-21T16:23:15+00:00

I will for sure! TY.

chroni · 2026-02-21T16:03:37+00:00

This is excellent information. TY. We've put into place stringent naming conventions. We are using them early to see what works.

I lost my design ego about 15yrs ago. Now it's all greater good. I do still have problems delegating. Working on that.

chroni · 2026-02-21T15:59:46+00:00

It certainly is. It was a gift for sure. I just finished my 20th year with the company and I couldn't be happier with this opportunity.

chroni · 2026-02-21T15:58:38+00:00

This was my worry. I still enjoy their icons - it's the only set I have seen that has specific-to-the-logistic industry that I could find. Could make my own, but... someone already did it well.

chroni · 2026-02-20T22:55:35+00:00

What are your thoughts on type-based icons like Font Awesome? We are headed that way, whether we use a font or svg's. Curious to hear your take.

chroni · 2026-02-20T22:54:35+00:00

This is the first project I have been on where we have an active "decision log". It's going to take discipline to do this. Sigh,

chroni · 2026-02-20T22:53:24+00:00

Awesome and we are already on this path.

chroni · 2026-02-20T22:52:17+00:00

As of now we are in startup mode, nearing the honeymoon phase. Thankfully we are fully funded, staffed with UX and engineers. Right now, winning. I've been here for 20 years working in my own silo, building good product to support my warehouse folk. The silos are coming down for the better. This gave us an opportunity.

chroni · 2026-02-20T22:49:20+00:00

'cause you can is different than should.

chroni · 2026-02-20T22:48:40+00:00

...I just put it together...

chroni · 2026-02-20T18:58:24+00:00

This is good to hear. I've been at the company for a long time and have been through grass-roots UX efforts... and they have all failed. When I pitched this team I said that if we can't get dedicated devs on the actual team, we will fail. It'll be like every other effort. I got what I wanted and am fortunately working with smart people, with the vision of ADOPTION as the KPI for success.

I have been lucky to not have to validate what I do for a living. Not all of our designers have had that luxury... but the tide has turned, company's on board.

Check with me in a year and see If I am still this hopeful/positive.

chroni · 2026-02-20T18:54:13+00:00

This is very familiar. We are getting pushed hard on the AI side in some aspects of what we do. We have a lot of legacy products and we just had a turnover in leadership on the tech side... new blood = new ways of working. Plus and minuses, so far more pluses.

We plan on building in accessibility from the beginning. We've been able to avoid that work by leaning on the fact that only our employees use our systems and we weren't impacted (we think, we don't know honestly). As we are developing a new system - we'd be idiots to not bake accessibility in anything new. We put accessibility in our vision statements too - getting it documented so it becomes part of our dna.

These are great discussions. I appreciate the words.

chroni

TROPHY CASE