Hi there, Matt here.

Just a quick note before we dive into today's essay: I'm writing something bigger, longer, more ambitious, based on my short book Copying. It might be called a proper book, though typing this sentence gives me the heebie jeebies. Based on my current pace, I'd say it'll probably be finished sometime in the middle of 2021. I'll share more as it shapes up; if you're interested, keep an eye on these emails.

For today, a song: Beat Fall, by Lithics. Funky, frenetic, fey (whatever that means). There are so many catchy moments in the tune, but gosh that floor tom is so punctual, so perfectly bouncy, like an overinflated inner tube.

On to the essay. As always, you can read it on my website if you prefer.

Hi there, Matt here.

Today I wanted to share a short meditation on feedback. It’s one of the things I write about most because it’s the engine of the creative process. Good feedback can drive a team to produce work that no individual would have on their own. Poor feedback can sap your energy, deflate your ego, doom your project to failure.

And here’s a quick song to decorate your brain: One of Suzanne Ciani’s Buchla concerts from 1975. It’s a 20-minute-long improvisational synthesizer odyssey, full of twists and turns from immersive melodic soundscapes to warbly noisy chaos.

Hi there, Matt here.

In case you've forgotten (and you'd be forgiven, it's been a while), this is an email newsletter that goes out whenever I publish a new essay on my website, matthewstrom.com. You're receiving it because you signed up at the bottom of one of my other essays.

Now that we're re-acquainted, I'm very excited to share one of the most in-depth things I've ever written. It's a little more than an essay, but not quite a book, so I'm calling it a very short book.

It's about copying.

Hi there, Matt here.

Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things is an essential piece of the product design canon. It’s remarkably relevant, even as smart phones, AI, and the mobile internet become “everyday things” — things Norman couldn’t have imagined when he first published the book in 1988.

But as I read , I felt like Norman breezed past (or buried) the concept of affordances. For something that underlines everything we design, it doesn’t get much air by way of explanation or exploration.

Hi y'all, it's me, Matt.

Collaborating on design is maybe the most anxiety-inducing thing I do on a daily basis. It's scary because design can be so personal, because stakeholders often don't know the right way to contribute, and also because I have really thin skin.

Lately I've had a lot of success in collaborating in the research phase — focusing on early collaboration lowers the stakes a bit, and sets a good tone for future collaboration. I thought I'd share my tactics and thoughts with you.

But first, a song (well, songs). This one flew under my radar: Sufjan Stevens collaborated with his stepfather Lowell Brams on a new-age/ambient album called Aporia. It's got all the hallmarks of Sufjan's orchestral work, with a little more electro fuziness. Stellar.

Hi there, Matt here.

Last year I published an essay on a new paradigm of design systems I called a Design API. The gist is this: let’s structure our design system more like software APIs, so that getting information into and out of them is fully automated and extremely flexible.

Since then, the concept has been on a constant simmer on the back burner of my brain. The longer it cooks, the more excited I get. I think this really is the future of design systems. And like any new frontier, it certainly doesn’t explore itself.

Hi there, it's me, Matt.

Since I published the last chapter of Ethics for designers, I've been pretty quiet on social media and on my own website. Leaving space for voices that matter more than mine. Trying to pay more attention to how other folks are reacting and responding to the uncertainty.

So when Snapchat released and promptly removed their Juneteenth filter, I saw it as a good time to try and understand what went wrong; to apply the lessons of Ethics for designers to a real case of ethics in design.

Today, I'm sharing that case study. I hope it makes the case for ethics in design even more concrete and immediate.

Hi there, Matt here.

Today, I’m sharing the last installment of Ethics for designers.

I wrote most of in December and January. At the time, I felt that the case for ethics in design was still pretty abstract. I hoped my arguments would find a few curious ears. I saw the series as just one step towards a more informed practice.

Hello again, Matt here.

When I started writing Ethics for Designers, I felt an elephant in the room: the majority of ethical philosophy is written by white men. The history of ethics is incomplete without the people that not only pointed out this lack of diversity, but asked and answered an important question: how can we make sure ethics works for everyone?

Hi there, it’s me, Matt.

Today’s essay is a break from Ethics for Designers — we’ll be back next week with part V, a look at a modern branch of ethics called Care Ethics.

I had a moment of synchronicity: I read about Winston Churchill’s reform of his own bureaucracy’s communication, then read the coverage of the response to COVID-19. Most of us will never be in command of an aircraft carrier, but there’s a lot we can learn from Captain Crozier’s communication style. I wrote this essay to distill some of that wisdom.

Hi there, Matt here.

In my journey through classical ethics so far, I’ve covered the ideas of people who lived in worlds very different from our own. Socrates, Aristotle, Kant, and Hume all tackled the pressing issues of their own times, so it can be hard to relate to them without the full historical context — and who has time for that?

Hello again. Matt here.

"Deontology" is an intimidating word. If you opened this email despite its appearance in the subject line, thank you.

In part III of Ethics for designers, I explore how deontology — the rules of ethical action — can be applied to design. I ask (and answer, I hope) questions like:

• Is it possible to come up with universal rules of ethical design?
• What would these rules look like?
• What happens when we break the rules?

Hi there, Matt here.

Last June, I presented a case study at a product management conference called Front. I took the opportunity to share my work on the brand update and redesign of Bitly.com; it’s a project I led, one that I feel best demonstrates the challenges of big changes.

I’m jumping into another big change project now at Simple Health. I thought it’d be a good time to revisit my presentation, and translate it into a written essay.

Hi there, it's me, Matt.

A quick personal update: In the weeks since I published Part I of Ethics for designers, I've settled into a much slower and intentional daily routine. The walk from my bedroom to my desk is maybe 20 feet (ah, Brooklyn). Each step feels important.

Likewise, I've had time to fuss over each installment of this series. As I mentioned in my last email, I finished the whole collection in February, before the world got wooly. In this moment, each word matters a lot more to me than it did a few months ago. The temptation to re-write is powerful.

But instead of worrying over the past, I've put my energy into writing new essays on a variety of design and business topics. I'll share them in between updates to Ethics for designers, stating next week.

Hi there, Matt here.

tl;dr: I’ve published the first installment of a new essay series on ethics for designers. You can read it here.

Hi there, it’s me, Matt.

“Brand” has become such a common word: That’s not my brand. It’s on brand. Build your brand. This is branded content.

But what, exactly, is a brand?

Surely there are many books on the subject. But sometimes it’s fun — and educational! — to try and construct a definition from first principles (the pervasiveness of branding today makes this task quite a challenge). If you find yourself gasping at the same straws, I hope today’s essay is helpful.

Hi again. It’s me, Matt.

Every year or so, I sit down to wrestle with the topic of design feedback. It’s the metronome that designers live by. Good feedback, delivered well, is like a steady breeze at your back. Bad feedback, delivered poorly, makes design feel like running head-first into a wind tunnel.

I’ve written a few essays on feedback. Five years ago, an attempt at a standard vocabulary for feedback. Three years ago, .

Hi there, it's me, Matt.

Before I dive into the essay, some personal news: today is my first day as director of design at Simple Health. Simple Health is a direct-to-consumer health company focused on affordable and accessible products. I'm really excited to my put time and energy into an important mission.

Designers need to take a hard look at our relationship with metrics. Are we measuring the right thing? What happens when we measure the wrong thing? In this essay, some thoughts on the latter question.

As usual, you can also read on my website.

Hi again, it’s me, Matt.

I’ve never heard the word ‘alignment’ more than I have in the last year at Bitly. As the company streamlines its strategy and mission, alignment is the holy grail, the golden fleece, the Mjölnir.

But what is alignment? Depending on who I ask, I get different answers. So I wrote this essay to clarify my own thoughts on the different kinds of alignment. Sometimes, it’s important to have complete alignment; but don’t let the pursuit of alignment create a monoculture.

Let’s start with a song. Zoot Simms is such a cool character; he was a peerless saxophonist, spanning the eras of big band, bop, and cool jazz. He paired up with German pianist Jutta Hipp for a Blue Note record in 1956; is an older Sinatra tune from that record.

Hi there, it’s me, Matt.

Doug Bowman was the first designer at Google. When he quit in 2009, he wrote a searing blog post condemning Google’s data-driven approach to design:

With every new design decision, critics cry foul. Without conviction, doubt creeps in. Instincts fail. “Is this the right move?” When a company is filled with engineers, it turns to engineering to solve problems. Reduce each decision to a simple logic problem. Remove all subjectivity and just look at the data. Data in your favor? Ok, launch it. Data shows negative effects? Back to the drawing board. And that data eventually becomes a crutch for every decision, paralyzing the company and preventing it from making any daring design decisions.