Logesh Paul > Recent Status Updates

hallmark of any compounding process: the most powerful outcomes are delayed.

The more tasks you can handle without thinking, the more your brain is free to focus on other areas.

Your outcomes are a lagging measure of your habits. Your net worth is a lagging measure of your financial habits. Your weight is a lagging measure of your eating habits. Your knowledge is a lagging measure of your learning habits. Your clutter is a lagging measure of your cleaning habits. You get what you repeat.

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement. The same way that money multiplies through compound interest, the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them.

A habit is a routine or behavior that is performed regularly—and, in many cases, automatically.

atomic - an extremely small amount of a thing; the single irreducible unit of a larger system. the source of immense energy or power.

habit - a routine or practice performed regularly; an automatic response to a specific situation.

"Finishing Touches"

- Supercharge with details: replace the default bullet, radio, checkboxes with icons
- Use accent borders.
- Use dark bg to sections to highlight it
- Add small illustrations to bg
- For user creating content create an image with CTA button
- Use fewer borders, design list, radio choices, etc.,

"Working with Images"

- Text on top of the image techniques: add an overlay(dark/light/color), add text-shadow
- Don't scale up/down icons. If you want to upscale images don't increase the size instead use bg fills
- Prevent background bleed for images (avatar corners)

"Creating Depth"

- Set a light source, raised above: light at top and shadow at the bottom, inset: top shadow, bottom light
- Create a set of shadows like colors, spatial, etc.,
- Shadows can be used for interactions also (eg. drag)
- You can use double shadows also
- Negative margin technique can give depth

"Working with color"

- Move from hex to HSL
- You can have 3 groups of colors a) Primary, b) Neutral & c) Accents and you can use 9 different shades
- flip the contrast In order to be accessible and look nice, use dark text in light background (it will go easy in the eyes)
- Don't rely on colors only to communicate some information, Add symbols/icon,
- Use diff shades of color instead of alternate colors

"Designing Text"

- Establish a spacing and sizing system
- Avoid em units
- Ignore typefaces with less than five weights
- For better reading experience 45-75 characters are the limit
- Align text with baseline, line-height of 1.5 is ideal
- Choose font designed for titles(oswald, opensans), don't increase the line height for titles
- If you use all caps include letter spacing for better readability

Layout & Spacing:
- Start with too much white space & cut down
- Dense UI have their place
- A Linear scale won't work, define system
- You don't have to fill the space
- The percentage grid system is not feasible if you scale
- Relative sizing won't work if you scale
- Connect elements/text with spacing
- Give extra space to differentiate elements/text

One of the easiest ways to clean up design is to simply give every element a little more room to breathe.

"Hierarchy is everything" takeaways

- Not all elements are equal
- Size isn't everything (use weights, de-emphasize text using color)
- Don't use grey text on colored backgrounds
- Emphasize primary content by de-emphasizing others
- Labels are the last resort: You don't need labels, combine labels and values, labels are secondary
- Balance weight and contrast (eg solid icon contrast)
- Semantics is secondary

Semantics are secondary

- Primary actions should be obvious: Solid, high contrast, background colors works.
- Secondary actions should be clear but not prominent: Outline styles or lower contrast background works
- Tertiary actions should be discoverable but unobtrusive: Styling these like links is usually the best approach.

"Starting from Scratch" takeaways

- Start with a feature, not a layout
- Details come later
- Don't design too much, Work in cycles, Be a pessimist.
- Personality, Font choice, Color, Language, Border radius matters.
- Limit the choices - Design systems in advance, Systemise everything (Font size, Font weight, Line height, Color, Spacing, Box shadows, Border, Border radius, Opacity)

My view is that people are creative animals and will figure to clever new ways to use tools that the inventor never imagined

The process followed the Japanee principle know as `kanban`, in which each machine performs its task only when the next machine is ready to receive another part.

I. M. Pei to design a grand staircase that seemed to float in the air for NeXT

Lies are the social equivalent of toxic waste — everyone is potentially harmed by their spread.

One of the greatest problems for the liar is that he must keep track of his lies.

When you tell the truth, you have nothing to keep track of. The world itself becomes your memory, and if questions arise, you can always point others back to it.

Saving our friend's disappointment and embarrassment is a great kindness. And if we have a history of being honest, our praise and encouragement will actually mean something.