Articles · 55 articles
Articles.
Reflections on digital products, artificial intelligence and design.
Article list
- 07 · 05 · 2026 Languages Programming used to mean speaking the rigid syntax of a machine. AI has reversed the demand: machines now tolerate ambiguity, and the skill that matters is the older one — knowing what we want to say.
- 29 · 04 · 2026 The Dregs of Dead Men Cai Lun did not invent paper. He systematized something that already existed and scaled it. A reflection on craft, distributed knowledge, and the hand that knows before the mind reasons.
- 16 · 04 · 2026 Gesamtkunstwerk A reflection on how AI is changing professional knowledge, from specialized craftsmanship to fluid expertise, and where human differentiation truly lies.
- 09 · 04 · 2026 Compile A personal reflection on writing a novel and building an app simultaneously, exploring the similarities between debugging code and editing fiction.
- 16 · 03 · 2026 Objects and relationships As AI homogenizes creative outputs, the real differentiation shifts from what we build to how we build it—from objects to relationships.
- 11 · 03 · 2026 From boring notes to catchy song A designer creates TuNotes, an AI-powered app that transforms study notes into catchy songs, exploring the intersection of music and memory for better learning.
- 09 · 03 · 2026 AI and the origin of ideas A personal reflection on how AI conversations blur the boundaries of creative authorship, comparing the experience to altered states of consciousness.
- 12 · 02 · 2026 Life Without a Roadmap A reflection on product development through the lens of travel planning—exploring when to follow rigid roadmaps versus embracing flexible improvisation.
- 06 · 02 · 2026 When observing transforms the observed A reflection on how the act of observation changes behavior, from street photography to user research, and the challenge of capturing authentic truth.
- 29 · 01 · 2026 Safespeak How constant recording of our conversations is creating 'safespeak'—a calculated, ambiguous language designed to survive surveillance at the cost of authenticity.
- 17 · 12 · 2025 749 cans A designer reflects on lessons learned from preparing 749 canned goods packages, drawing parallels between physical packaging constraints and digital product development.
- 25 · 11 · 2025 The Facades of Chongqing A personal reflection on Chongqing's cyberpunk facades and the gap between spectacular surfaces and hidden realities in modern China.
- 23 · 10 · 2025 Prompts for Better Thinking Writing good prompts isn't just about getting better AI responses—it's a form of cognitive cultivation that transforms how we think and understand problems.
- 18 · 09 · 2025 When I met a Mexican photographer in the bathroom of a club in Berlin A chance encounter with a Mexican photographer working as a bathroom cleaner in a Berlin club sparks reflections on human identity and organizational potential.
- 03 · 09 · 2025 Kowloon vs Le Corbusier A comparison between Le Corbusier's rational architecture and Kowloon Walled City's organic growth, exploring how digital products can learn from emergent design.
- 06 · 08 · 2025 Individual Echo Chambers AI creates the most sophisticated echo chambers ever conceived, operating at an individual level to validate our biases and erode our capacity for critical thinking.
- 24 · 07 · 2025 When Avatars Lie A critical examination of hyperrealistic digital avatars and their impact on trust, authenticity, and human connection in our digital interactions.
- 15 · 07 · 2025 Ignorance A reflection on how ignorance and naivety can be fertile ground for innovation, especially when experimenting with AI and breaking conventional approaches.
- 02 · 06 · 2025 MAPIA: building a product in 6 weeks A 6-week journey building MAPIA, an AI-powered tool that personalizes mass emails, featuring technical challenges, user feedback, and key learnings about vibe coding.
- 26 · 05 · 2025 Unimodal and Multimodal Interfaces Exploring how conversational interfaces work through voice-only, text-only, and multimodal approaches, and why combining different communication channels creates better user experiences.
- 19 · 05 · 2025 The hyperpersonalization of digital products AI is enabling a return to craftsmanship in digital products through hyperpersonalization, making tailored applications economically viable at scale.
- 10 · 09 · 2024 Who was Jim Thompson? The fascinating story behind Jim Thompson, from his days as a CIA spy to becoming Thailand's Silk King, and his mysterious disappearance in Malaysia.
- 18 · 05 · 2024 Coworkers A photo series introducing Visual team members Laura, Verónica, Hugo and Alberto, showcasing their diverse backgrounds and personal stories.
- 03 · 01 · 2024 Carlos Gardel was French A chance encounter with a French writer in a Parisian café reveals insights about designing for real people rather than abstract user personas.
- 24 · 09 · 2023 Hanoks and door knockers Reflections on traditional Korean hanoks and how modern doorbells have replaced the nuanced expression of door knockers, losing human emotion in favor of convenience.
- 02 · 08 · 2023 Street Photography and Voice Interfaces A reflection on how device miniaturization affects privacy and user behavior, exploring whether voice interfaces will reverse the trend toward private, discrete interactions.
- 15 · 05 · 2023 Samurais and Emotional Contagion Exploring how samurai Miyamoto Musashi's 400-year-old teachings on emotional manipulation anticipated modern discoveries in psychology and neuroscience about social contagion.
- 24 · 04 · 2023 Johnny Silverhand and the Design of Scarcity Exploring how Cyberpunk 2077 uses time scarcity as a design element and the psychology behind how scarcity affects decision-making and creativity in both games and life.
- 15 · 01 · 2023 Language and reality A deep dive into linguistic relativism, exploring how language shapes our perception of reality through the lens of the endangered Kuuk Thaayorre language and cognitive psychology research.
- 13 · 11 · 2022 Design, emotions and beauty A reflection on the role of emotions and beauty in design, challenging the minimalist obsession with simplicity and exploring why we need more emotional connection in our products.
- 09 · 10 · 2022 Radios and distance education The story of how pedal-powered radios in 1920s Australia led to distance education and ultimately inspired the creation of Moodle.
- 15 · 08 · 2022 Electric Car Sonification A reflection on electric car sound design, exploring how different vehicle sounds could create urban acoustic chaos and advocating for context-aware sonification.
- 04 · 08 · 2022 Microinteractions in vidiv A technical deep-dive into documenting microinteractions for vidiv, exploring utilitarian vs. delightful animations and their implementation guidelines.
- 07 · 07 · 2022 A Pirate Tale A design case study exploring the sound design and mechanics of a pirate-themed mobile game that uses spatial audio and moral choices to create an immersive experience.
- 15 · 06 · 2022 Child's Play A design analysis of the OP-1 synthesizer and how its playful, child-like interface breaks away from conventional music production tools to embrace pure creativity.
- 09 · 05 · 2022 Man 474,481 The story of Albert Speer, Nazi party member #474,481, who became Hitler's architect and created the monumental Cathedral of Light.
- 05 · 04 · 2022 Designing for War A reflection on how the Israeli army appropriated postmodern theory and design thinking to revolutionize urban warfare through creative destruction.
- 16 · 03 · 2022 Task-centered design A design approach analyzing four key elements: user, context, device, and interface. Compares task-centered design with traditional user-centered design methods.
- 16 · 02 · 2022 Non-Things by Byung-Chul Han Personal reflections on Byung-Chul Han's book 'Non-Things' and its insights on possession, digital ownership, and contemporary art.
- 03 · 02 · 2022 The Algorithm Spiral and Echo Chambers A personal reflection on echo chambers and algorithms, arguing that they're not inherently evil but simply digital versions of natural human behavior and preferences.
- 20 · 01 · 2022 Huế and the Metaverse A personal reflection on masks throughout history—from ancient stone masks to modern VR headsets—contrasting real experiences with virtual promises.
- 31 · 12 · 2021 Wall-e and the Bouba/Kiki Effect Exploring the relationship between object shapes and sound waves through the Bouba/Kiki effect and how this psychological phenomenon can inform design decisions.
- 13 · 12 · 2021 Monitors A comparison between audio production's use of multiple monitor types and how digital designers might be limiting their work by exclusively using high-end Apple displays.
- 23 · 11 · 2021 Menéame and Car Thing A design exercise exploring the hybridization of Spain's Menéame platform with Spotify's Car Thing device to expand product boundaries into new territories.
- 01 · 11 · 2021 Bananas and NFTs A personal reflection comparing NFTs to Cattelan's banana artwork, questioning whether digital ownership truly revolutionizes art or just monetizes digital clutter.
- 06 · 09 · 2021 Inclusive design A personal story about how digital design can exclude people, told through the experience of a man with vision problems who lost his job when analog controls were replaced.
- 05 · 08 · 2021 Vocation vs. industry A reflection on how the systematization of design has industrialized the profession while moving away from the creative impulses that originally draw people to design.
- 16 · 07 · 2021 The Relative Perception of Color and Acoustic Tone Exploring the relationship between Josef Albers' color theory and acoustic perception through Victor Moscoso's psychedelic posters.
- 28 · 06 · 2021 Pixel and microsound, line and tone Exploring connections between design and sound, establishing basic units like pixels/points and microsounds as fundamental building blocks.
- 23 · 06 · 2021 Nostalgia A personal reflection on nostalgia and cultural connections across time and space, exploring how music from different eras creates feelings of longing for places never visited.
- 02 · 06 · 2021 The Impact of Interface on Music Creation A designer's personal exploration of how different synthesizer interfaces shape music creation, from Moog's familiar keyboards to Buchla's experimental controls.
- 12 · 05 · 2021 Fashion is danger A personal reflection on minimalism in design, contrasting Céline's controversial logo change with Virgil Abloh's approach to contemporary design and zeitgeist.
- 27 · 04 · 2021 @spiderman A philosophical exploration of how we create personal simulacra on social media, transforming reality into staged hyperreality where we become our own superheroes.
- 30 · 03 · 2021 Dieter's Spoon A reflection on Dieter Rams' functionalist design philosophy through the lens of imagining his kitchen utensils, questioning whether purely functional design ignores cultural meaning.
- 10 · 03 · 2021 Writing and design A reflection on how written language evolved from pictographs to kanjis to emojis, and whether digital communication is simplifying language in ways that may limit thought.