Pinboard (coldbrain)

The 49MB Web Page

coldbrain — 2026-03-19T06:00:31+00:00

“Viewability and time-on-page are very important metrics these days. Every hostile UX decision originates from this single fact. The longer you're trapped on the page, the higher the CPM the publisher can charge. Your frustration is the product. No wonder engineers and designers make every UX decision that optimizes for that. And you, the reader, are forced to interact, wait, click, scroll multiple times because of this optimization. Not only is it a step in the wrong direction, it is adversarial by design.”

My perfect Music app doesn’t exist - Hicks.design

coldbrain — 2026-03-04T12:17:29+00:00

The age of average

coldbrain — 2026-02-03T17:42:25+00:00

In the early 1990s, two Russian artists named Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid hired a market research firm to survey the public on what they wanted in a work of art. Across 11 countries they then set about painting a piece that reflected the results. Each piece was intended to be a unique a colla

Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo

coldbrain — 2026-01-01T11:41:27+00:00

A brief typographic history of the influential Japanese comic.

Vector Icons and Stickers - PNG, SVG, EPS, PSD and CSS

coldbrain — 2025-03-10T10:57:04+00:00

Prince of Persia's Accessibility Is Inaccessible to Some

coldbrain — 2025-01-02T22:20:25+00:00

When accessibility becomes commoditized

The Endless Possibilities Of Open-Source Urban Design

coldbrain — 2025-01-01T15:52:17+00:00

When architects relinquish their dreams of total control, they unlock the power of organic, iterative development that is sensitive to the needs of people and nature.

Homepage Swipe File

coldbrain — 2024-10-09T09:33:10+00:00

Should I Use A Carousel?

coldbrain — 2024-09-08T14:54:42+00:00

Kayinworks - Metroid: Dread - How Metroid Lost its Way

coldbrain — 2024-05-31T12:20:02+00:00

This will not be a Feel Good story about Metroid: Dread finally correcting course. I am here today to be a hater. Not a hater out of spite, or to be a contrarian, or even to shame people for liking the popular thing. Metroid: Dread is many people's(Even John Cena's) favorite Metroid g...

Vikram's redesign: From negative stereotypes to authentic representation

coldbrain — 2024-05-31T06:10:35+00:00

You might have noticed Vikram’s new look 👀 Here’s the story behind the redesign!

Why Are Controller Buttons Like That?

coldbrain — 2024-05-27T13:03:41+00:00

Wii Was a Celebration of TV’s Visual Culture

coldbrain — 2024-04-14T17:37:52+00:00

Nintendo’s mid-2000s motion control sensation was inspired by television in more ways than it might have seemed.

Make better documents.

coldbrain — 2024-03-31T11:18:03+00:00

A blog about making culture. Since 1999.

Should Churches Be Beautiful?

coldbrain — 2023-12-19T11:51:56+00:00

Raised in storefront churches, Sharon Rose Christner is uncomfortable in Rome’s glittering basilicas – until she starts to see them as God might.

Scroll-driven Animations

coldbrain — 2023-11-29T13:36:53+00:00

Fantasy Meets Reality

coldbrain — 2023-08-05T11:26:48+00:00

Here’s a Thought: What if Letterforms Had More Serifs? – Eye on Design

coldbrain — 2023-04-12T19:01:10+00:00

On the one hand, it’s almost like asking: why can’t people have an extra set of arms at waist level? On the other, the question challenges a venerable assumption about letterform design and leads to some fascinating explorations.

How to bring a language to the future

coldbrain — 2023-04-03T20:55:48+00:00

How the Sainsbury's Design Studio Packaged a Nation’s Dreams

coldbrain — 2023-03-08T22:27:40+00:00

The Invisible Hand of Super Metroid

coldbrain — 2023-02-18T07:06:55+00:00

tunic is a video game's video game

coldbrain — 2023-02-11T12:45:25+00:00

I complained in my last essay about CONTROL's unwillingness to lean into being a video game. I'd been hoping it would violate its own spa...

The Brand That Conquered America’s Kitchens Won a Legion of Obsessive Fans. Can They All Be Wrong?

coldbrain — 2023-01-30T21:10:57+00:00

The Radical Design of PizzaExpress

coldbrain — 2023-01-19T21:23:54+00:00

How one chain changed the way we eat. Words by Digby Warde-Aldam; Illustration by Sinjin Li

Latex, severed legs and fake erections: why is a whole new generation obsessed with DVD menus?

coldbrain — 2023-01-15T20:37:04+00:00

You Don’t Know How Bad the Pizza Box Is

coldbrain — 2023-01-14T12:04:14+00:00

Yes, I Judge Books by their Cover

coldbrain — 2023-01-13T22:53:15+00:00

A cross-cultural review of books as physical objects 📗

The Cover of George Orwell’s 1984 Becomes Less Censored with Wear and Tear

coldbrain — 2022-09-21T19:53:01+00:00

In 2013, Penguin released in the UK a series of new covers for five works by George Orwell, including a particularly bold cover design for Orwell's best-known work, 1984.

Markup.io: Easiest Way to Leave Feedback on Digital Content

coldbrain — 2022-07-28T08:49:22+00:00

FlowMapp UX tools — Sitemap, User Flow, CJM, Personas

coldbrain — 2022-07-28T08:47:54+00:00

Debating Difficulty in Video Games

coldbrain — 2022-07-20T21:22:23+00:00

Foodicons - A global visual language for food.

coldbrain — 2022-07-20T09:51:43+00:00

Secrets of the Book Designer: On Typography, Painting, and Finding That Single Visual Moment

coldbrain — 2022-07-17T20:52:32+00:00

When it came time for my novel, Planes, to get a cover, I was thrilled to learn that Linda Huang had been assigned to make it. I met Linda in the fall of 2004, when we lived on the same dorm hall. …

What defines cultural appropriation?

coldbrain — 2022-05-24T16:47:20+00:00

And why does concern about it matter? Bel Jacobs explores the cultural collaborations that work well, and why a 'spirit of equal exchange' is essential in fashion.

90s jazz design: cups, controversy, and nostalgia

coldbrain — 2022-05-13T12:30:57+00:00

From paper cups to pop culture — the surprisingly dramatic story of the 90s jazz design.

The Hidden Histories of To-Go Container Art

coldbrain — 2022-05-12T11:58:40+00:00

Typefaces Inspired by the Bauhaus

coldbrain — 2022-05-06T19:17:35+00:00

Kirby’s Fun Core: A Delicate Balance of Experimentation

coldbrain — 2022-04-25T21:16:04+00:00

A study on the history of Kirby game design

What Lies Beneath

coldbrain — 2022-04-22T21:31:57+00:00

The internet is decaying all around us

London’s lost ringways

coldbrain — 2022-04-22T21:25:38+00:00

A monstrous plan to build major motorways through some of London’s greatest neighborhoods fell apart. But the price was the birth of the NIMBY movement, and a permanent ceiling on Britain’s infrastructure ambitions.

Why guitar design is undergoing a renaissance in the wake of the pandemic

coldbrain — 2022-01-30T21:45:30+00:00

Supply chain issues and the drive for sustainable production are changing the way gear is made, but, as ever, it is ultimately the players who are steering where design is going next

Mobile Phone Museum - Catalogue

coldbrain — 2022-01-22T10:04:52+00:00

We are a not-for-profit entity created to safeguard the rich history and design diversity of mobile devices which have been launched over the last four decades.

The shock of the New Towns

coldbrain — 2022-01-05T21:48:04+00:00

The ambitious post-war planning programme was an extraordinary achievement – and one that is ripe for reassessment, writes Gillian Darley

Highway expansion, electric vehicle charging, prison dorm

coldbrain — 2021-12-28T07:03:56+00:00

Public staircases are a guilty pleasure of mine. There's one that I use often, a south-facing set of steps that links a pedestrian bridge over the river to our local greenmarket. It's a lovely, sun...

Why Tokyo Works

coldbrain — 2021-12-08T21:36:29+00:00

Understanding what makes Tokyo so special is noticing the aspects of Tokyo’s urban design that make the city so easy to be in.

Designing Transport for Humans, Not Econs - By Pete Dyson & Rory Sutherland - Behavioral Scientist

coldbrain — 2021-11-28T17:56:42+00:00

It’s common to hear that transport providers are “simply getting people from A to B”: a low-bar ambition that misses the real purpose of much travel.

Why Does Utopian Architecture Suck?

coldbrain — 2021-09-29T19:07:32+00:00

A is for Jump

coldbrain — 2021-09-19T21:06:26+00:00

Insert Coin to Continue

coldbrain — 2021-09-12T17:55:59+00:00

The curse of Mies van der Rohe: Berlin’s six-year, £120m fight to fix his dysfunctional, puddle-strewn gallery | Architecture | The Guardian

coldbrain — 2021-09-09T14:34:34+00:00

Acrylic Afternoons on Twitter - a thread about Pulp’s typography

coldbrain — 2021-09-02T18:18:35+00:00

The Future of Wood in Electric Guitars

coldbrain — 2021-08-25T18:55:00+00:00

Earlier this year, Fender said it would stop using ash in most of its bodies. Here, experts from Fender, Gibson, PRS, and more weigh in on what's next.

Most buildings were designed for an earlier climate – here's what will happen as global warming accelerates

coldbrain — 2021-07-27T21:19:33+00:00

CARI | the Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute

coldbrain — 2021-07-20T09:13:27+00:00

Super Metroid is the Ideal Video Game Adventure

coldbrain — 2021-07-18T20:41:40+00:00

A short history of door handles

coldbrain — 2021-06-29T22:01:24+00:00

Door handles can be the first and only part of a building we touch, but their design is all too often an afterthought, writes Edwin Heathcote

Nintendo's Game Builder Garage Is Too Inaccessible and Closed Off to Be a Useful Tool

coldbrain — 2021-06-28T22:11:18+00:00

Beneath the undeniably charming exterior of Nintendo's Game Builder Garage is a conservative institution.

The Invisible Hand of Super Metroid

coldbrain — 2021-06-10T21:41:22+00:00

Long Live The Greeble

coldbrain — 2021-05-21T20:44:26+00:00

When Is the Revolution in Architecture Coming?

coldbrain — 2021-04-28T19:07:48+00:00

We need to build places we can’t stop looking at. It will involve lots of plants.

The Signs that Make a City

coldbrain — 2021-04-25T21:01:43+00:00

The signs on the street are a measure of how much authorities care about their citizens – and from stylish fonts to neon lights, Britain has a lot to learn from European cities which have used signage to enliven the urban landscape.

Why do Wes Anderson movies look like that?

coldbrain — 2021-04-23T12:26:36+00:00

The Component Gallery

coldbrain — 2021-04-03T20:51:34+00:00

The Component Gallery is a collection of components from the best Design Systems.

A New Article Page Design at ProPublica

coldbrain — 2021-04-01T12:52:25+00:00

Inside The Design: The Case For Better Watch Typography

coldbrain — 2021-03-27T23:25:56+00:00

Watchmakers are master craftspeople. Why do so few invest in lettering?

Vanishing Point: How the Light Grid Defined 1980s Futurism

coldbrain — 2021-03-22T21:58:53+00:00

Of all the visual shorthand for a particular type of outmoded futurism, one of the most immediately recognizable must be the light grid.

It’s a Beautiful City: Troll and Glitch Levels in Mario Maker as Visionary Environments

coldbrain — 2021-03-17T11:42:21+00:00

Writing Alt Text for Data Visualization

coldbrain — 2021-03-13T16:07:09+00:00

How do you write text that conveys the whole meaning of a visualization? You probably can’t. But that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try

Why I'm losing faith in UX

coldbrain — 2021-03-11T11:10:49+00:00

Are Lives Outdated Game Design?

coldbrain — 2021-02-27T08:08:57+00:00