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Jeff Ong
Automating Asset Creation
The first thing a child draws looks like a circle. People spontaneously arrange themselves in a circle when they need to observe something close up, and this led to the origin of the arena, the circus, and the stock exchange trading posts. Bruno Munari, “La Scoperta del Cerchio (The Discovery of the Circle)” 1964 At…
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David A. Kennedy
Better conversations about accessibility
Great design includes accessibility. However, a delta can often form between the two, especially early on during the design process. Without accessibility, you deny equal access to someone, so you can call it a moral imperative. In many countries, the law requires it so minus it, you break the law. If you don’t incorporate it…
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John Maeda
The Four Planets of Design
Concept by Adam Becker and Brie Anne DemkiwImages by Marly GallardoText by Ian Stewart We call our design process “deep design” per a talk I gave at WordCamp Europe in 2018. It emerged from the realization that by being so technology-focused, we spent a disproportionate time on Planet Deliver. So we needed to consider the…
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Alexis Lloyd
Growing design community with the Automattic Design Awards
At the end of 2018, we launched the inaugural edition of the Automattic Design Awards, a program intended to honor the best design work in the WordPress ecosystem. There are beautiful websites built with WordPress, there are plugins and other features that extend the functionality of WordPress in elegant and thoughtful ways. The more we…
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Courtney Burton Doker
The first ATL Design Systems Meetup
Building design systems is hard. What makes it even harder is that a lot of these teams are very small, sometimes even comprising a single person. This can sometimes leave design systems practitioners feeling isolated and overwhelmed. The power of community can help to remove this feeling of isolation, making you feel connected to something…
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David A. Kennedy
Inclusive design: Whose Opportunity Is It?
Maybe you already know the answer to that question, but let me tell you a bit about the journey I’ve taken so I can answer it myself. I’m a twin. Born two-months premature with a number of health challenges early on. I was a small kid who wore thick glasses and had a visible scar…
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erikokawakami
2019 Automattic Commemorative Graphic
I’m from Japan, where New Year is particularly important. It’s a time for observing detailed rituals and customs (exchanging new year cards, eating particular food, going to the shrine or temple), quietly reflecting on the past year, as well as preparing for what is to come in the new year. It’s also the one time…
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John Maeda
2019
The end of 2018 saw our very first “all-distributed” holiday party to help us close out an exciting year working together across all-timezones and working all-remote.
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Filippo Di Trapani
Ethnography is inspiration
A couple of years ago I attended a really fun conference in Whistler, BC about the impact of technology on business and culture. One of the talks really resonated with me and is still pretty fresh in my mind even though I forget who delivered it. The speaker shared how people use ethnographic research to…
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John Maeda
2018 Automattic Design Award Winners Announced
The idea for the Automattic Design Awards was borne out of a desire to honor and grow the fantastic design community within the WordPress ecosystem. We wanted to show how design is thriving in the open-source web, from elegant front-end design to robust tools for creativity. So we’re pleased to announce the finalists and winners!…






