Cursed UI and Beautiful Blocks

Aiming for disaster is really useful, sometimes.

Tom Ayling 🐢

Aug 13, 2024

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Hello — happy August 👋

When you’re faced with a design problem, a really useful technique for ideation is asking yourself: “What’s the worst possible solution to my problem?” Not only is it entertaining, but it quickly frees you from any pressure to succeed, allowing you to get into a creative mindset.

Which leads straight into the first cool thing of this month 👇

Satirical UI designs 👨‍💻

Soren Iverson is a designer that posts daily satirical UI designs. These are fake tweaks and features to popular apps that are often terrible ideas, but simultaneously genius. Below is a selection of my recent favourites, such as:

“A typing indicator that shows the length of the message”

© Soren Iverson | Reproduced with permission

Or what if LinkedIn had a Duolingo-style ‘unemployment streak’? 🥴

Of course, I thought it would be fitting to have a go too, so below is my vision of the Apple Books app, but with some unhelpful monetisation strategies.

This is a piece of satire. Obviously so. Please don’t hurt me, Tim Cook.

Upcycled ocean waste 🧱

‘Debris’ is a project from Japanese designers Shoma Furui and Ken Kobayashi that uses beachcombed waste to decorate resin Jenga blocks. The resulting effect is strongly reminiscent of Terrazzo floors or Jackson Pollock’s work. The best effect, of course, is the simultaneous removal of polluting plastics from the ocean in the process 💪

Life imitates art… imitates life 📸🧑‍🎨

Speaking of Jackson Pollock — here’s an article from the BBC comparing some of Paris 2024’s iconic photographs to famous artworks.

Which one’s your favourite?

Avoiding the spiral 🌀

The odds are stacked against you, when it comes to YouTube. The algorithm crunches huge amounts of data to maximise the time you spend watching content you’re served. In many ways, it’s unsurprising that people find themselves watching four-hour-long documentaries about Disney theme parks.

Which is why I love UnTrap — a free browser extension that allows you to decrapify the YouTube UI precisely to your liking, removing much of the temptation to watch ‘just another video’.

Lastly, a celebration of the life of Sir Kenneth Grange, an incredible industrial designer and Pentagram co-founder who leaves behind a legacy of iconic, treasured designs.

Thanks very much for reading, and best wishes,

Tom 🐢