Hey friends,

Just a reminder to wake me up when September ends... in two days. (But boy, did it go by quickly!)

Thinking Too Hard 🤔

This last week has seen a lot of early-phase design/development collaboration, which has got me thinking about what goes into creating the right energy for great collaboration.

1. Let them know you're there and available

Sometimes it's as simple as letting the designers know you're willing (and even excited) to be a partner in their design process. Some folks don't like to 'be a bother', so short-circuit that mentality by proactively offering to meet up and bounce ideas around.

2. Understand the problem

To be helpful, you need to understand the problem the designer is trying to tackle. Read the brief, check the timeline, and look at all the visual materials and branding. If you have an understanding of the constraints, you'll be better able to suggest things that fit the project and won't rely on the designer (who's already trying to do their job) to bring you up to speed.

3. Seed ideas you know could work

A good way to help prime idea sharing is to have a collection of techniques and tricks you've saved along the way. For a UI Developer, CodePen is great for this. Having a live example to point to is a very quick way to communicate a concept.

The goal here is to be a catalyst, expanding ideas with phrases like "Wouldn't it be cool if..." or "What if...". You can also steer away from approaches that might be problematic, but try to find the seed of what their idea is trying to solve and propose an alternate solution.

4. Be OK if they go in a different direction

Even after all that, your suggestions are just that: suggestions. Remember, we're catalysts and enablers rather than constrictors or the "No Squad". Save your "no" for things that really matter.

There's a lot more that goes into collaboration than just these four things, but these are four things YOU can do, regardless of project and team factors.

Interesting Web Bits 🍜

Web Stuff

• A rough week over in Ruby-land as the RubyGems takeover drama continues... 😬
• Simon Willison comments on the Economist piece, "Why AI Systems Might Never Be Secure".
• Bramus has some tips for us on how to avoid clipping issues in view transitions.
• A nice explainer of what happens when you hit the 'back' button on browsers and the role of bfcache.
• Adam Argyle shows us how to make a squircle with CSS only.
• The wind, the pole, and the dragon... just... wow... 😂
• A neat 3D OKLCH color palette generator and visualizer. 🎨

Other Stuff

• Another call for more folks to own their voice and self-publish like ye olde days.
• They've put together a Star Wars galaxy map. Can you find Tatooine?
• Speaking of Star Wars, now I can take my vibroblade to a blaster fight as the Mandalorians intended.
• Some interesting insights on gaming metrics. Hardware no longer drives growth, and in fact, we seem to have reached generational gaming saturation!
• I remember devouring a few of these choose your own adventure books. Interesting to hear how it all came about.
• I've seen this star pattern happen in discussion groups too — a good reminder to try to not fill every silence!
• 800 years of English handwriting and ... yep, some handwriting has always been illegible.