Dive Club �‪�‬ Ridd

This week’s episode is with Dan LaCivita who is a co-founder of Play—a new way to design mobile apps using native iOS materials. As soon as I saw this app clip I knew it was a big deal and that I had to interview him to learn more.
So in this conversation we go deep into:
How to unlock the skill of interaction designWhat Apple’s sandbox unlocks for designersWhy they decided to launch Play as a mobile appThe importance of keeping your hands in the clayHow AI might impact the future of interaction designa lot more
Dan mentions his cofounder JoonYong ParkThe App Clip that first blew my mind

Gavin Nelson is currently designing the Linear mobile app in addition to the best app icons on the internet. So this episode is a deep dive into prototyping and interaction design:
Gavin’s journey learning SwiftUIHow Gavin got into designing app iconsHow to design physics-based interactionsWhat it’s like designing for power users at LinearWhy interaction design is so important for mobile appsWhy Gavin uses code almost exclusively for prototyping nowWhen it makes sense to prototype at the beginning of your processThe interplay between custom and stock components in mobile design
Things by Cultured CodeJanum shows interactions in the Netflix mobile appEpisode with Brian Lovin (who Gavin worked with at Github)Episode with Alex Cornell (who started the design of the Linear mobile app)Parallax effect from the Linear onboarding screen

If you watched last week’s episode, then you heard Jordan Singer say how visual search was actually the “killer feature” (not generative AI). What’s interesting is that this feature was actually a mid-project pivot.
So in this episode we get the full behind-the-scenes of visual search from design engineer Vincent van der Meulen:
Why they decided to pivotHow Vincent went cowboy modeA look at the future of design engineeringWhat good design looks like in an AI worldWhy visual search is a big deal for future AI toolsHow Vincent used video to get Figmates excited about his ideaa lot more
Marco and Jordan from the old Diagram teamMatt Dailey was the engineer that proved designs can be represented as images2024 Config Keynote showing Vincent’s Uber example for visual search

Live from Config, this episode with Jordan Singer follows his journey from the Diagram acquisition all the way to Figma’s 2024 AI release. We go deep into:
What didn’t ship at Config and whyHow they navigated the early idea mazeHow the role of designer will be impacted by AIWhat it will be like designing dynamic interfacesWhat makes Jordan’s new role at Figma so uniqueWhy renaming layers was such a big internal debateWhy the sparkle icon will become the new floppy diskThe surprising pivot that led to Jordan’s favorite AI featureHow Jordan prototypes by hacking on top of the Figma code base
The old Diagram websiteFigma’s new AI landing pageFigma’s blog post introducing AIFigma’s 2024 Config Keynote

This week’s episode is with Kathy Zheng who is currently the Head of design at a Web3 protocol called Optimism. But before that she was the first designer at Patreon and went on to spend over 6 years at Github.
So the goal of this conversation is to look at how Kathy grew as a designer while at Github and identify the specific milestones on her journey to reaching senior and eventually staff designer.
We get into the weeds about:
How the role of staff and senior designers differThe traits shared by the best designers at GithubHow to give your ideas a chance to become memesHow to avoid conversational spinout on your projectHow to identify opportunities using systems thinkingHow Kathy is growing as a design leader at OptimismSpecific techniques for storytelling and presenting ideas
Some of the people mentioned in this episode:
Max Schoening (former Head of design at Github)Brian Lovin (bookmarking repo project)Kat Fikui (coworker at Github whose .readme we mentioned)Connor Sears (old manager at Github)Jack Conte (Cofounder of Patreon)

When you think about storytelling in design... Alex Cornell is often the person that comes to mind. And that's a big reason why he's one of the most requested guests on the show. So this episode is a deep dive into the finer details of communication. We talk about:
The story behind his startup CocoonHow Alex leverages his background in videoAlex’s precision and obsession with languageWhy Alex left linear to work on generative AI at MetaWhy getting buy-in for your ideas is kind of like a math proofBehind-the-scenes of the wild videos Alex made at FacebookLessons learned designing the Substack and Linear mobile appsThe mental models Alex uses to construct compelling narrativesa lot moreAlex’s startup CocoonAlex’s famous Chevron vs. 3 Dot video from FacebookAlex’s favorite monospace font is Jet Brains and his favorite serif font is TiemposKlim is Alex’s favorite type foundryWe discussed the dual-panel approach in the Amie mobile app