Issue 018

The September Edition

Sep 14, 20265 min read

nother “Several People Are Typing…” hang is coming up this Friday, September 18. This month, we’re talking astrophotography, demonstrating the value of design systems, and… cataloguing public restrooms.

Tune in to our next virtual hang, "Several people are typing..." this Friday, September 18th @ 2pm EST | 11am PST

A bright green see-through Tamagotchi-esque device with a metal chain on a black background. Text inside the Tamagotchi says several people are typing…

Several people are typing... is our open forum format where we discuss a burning topic in the design world and see if we can find some middle ground. Come hang out with us to yap and engage in some healthy debate, while also hearing from our community on what keeps them up at night.

stay ready

via taurean

1 — dark hours

Simply put, DarkHours is an app for astrophotographers. That may be an extremely small percentage of our readers, but I hope it nudges you to give astrophotography a shot because it’s really fun. DarkHours helps you plan shoots and catch potential problems while there’s still time to adjust. It accounts for weather, moonlight, light pollution, and even the direction of nearby light domes. It’s also free, open source, and has a red night-vision mode so checking it near your camera won’t ruin your dark adaptation. What’s not to like?

2 — building data driven design systems

A white graph on a black background with numbers on the y-axis going from 2 to 5. a line graph is showing values of 3.2, 4.3, 4.7, and 4.5.

With hindsight, some of this feels obvious now, but I wish I could have read it eight years ago. Design systems are largely about managing relationships, building shared language, and understanding what people need to work better together. Progress can be difficult to quantify when the work relies as much on soft skills as technical ones. Ky does a great job showing how to capture and communicate those contributions. Read between the lines, and you may also learn how to do design systems better.

3 — what permissions have you given AI on your machines?

An extremely dark background with stars and constellations and a terminal window on top, showing an analysis of what AI models have access to what tools.

There’s intense pressure to use more AI tools at work, regardless of your role. Designers in particular are increasingly expected to produce prototypes and sometimes even production code (yeesh). In the rush, it’s easy to overlook the security risks, especially when you're not being set up for success in understanding them. Geiger is a free tool that quickly audits what your AI tools can access and the risks those permissions create. The audit is retroactive, showing what’s already installed and whether those tools can modify files across your machine or access secrets.

stay curious

via pedro

1 — a digital, 3D archive of...public restrooms

A black background with three images of 3D scans of different bathrooms. The first one is small with a bright orange door. The second is much larger, covered with graffiti everywhere. And the third is Medium size with orange walls.

There are some projects I came across that I absolutely LOVE because it really questions the whole "well...why not?" aspect of whether you should create something. The Restroom Archive is exactly what you think it is—a collection of public restrooms that were 3D scanned by regular people, ultimately building a library of explorable bathrooms across the world. A growing library of 27 restrooms have been archived in 56 cities by 21 archivists.

There is perhaps no space in society that better captures the creativity and impertinence of humans when they know that nobody else is watching.

2 — life in cities

A five-by-four grid of photographs, including one of people lying on cardboard under newspaper blankets, a few blurry close-ups of screens, and a man with a blurred face giving the finger.

Michael Wolf was a photographer who specialized in capturing the life and interaction of cities that ranged from the human element to the architectural. Browsing through his catalogue of work was inspiring, and as someone who currently lives in a big city, at times felt a bit too personal. It's these sort of moments that he captures that drew my eye, and gives spectators a look of city life that feels industrial yet human.

3 — from notch to mini music player

A close-up screenshot of the notch UI expanded to show a music player. The song is Wildflower by Luna Ray.

It's not every day that I actually buy a macOS app, especially with the plethora of incredible open source, free tools from developers that aren't on the Mac App Store. Tuneful is an exception, and is the first macOS app I've purchased in a looonnnggg time. Its purpose? Transform your notch on your Mac into a mini music player. It's super lightweight, and feels like something Apple would've natively shipped. For $5, it's a steal.

We’ll see you in October and if you missed the presentation last week with Andrew McKee, you can now catch it on YouTube:

✌ Pedro & Taurean
bluesky ✦ lu.ma ✦ youtube

Did you enjoy this article?

Recommend it — Standard Reader surfaces well-loved writing to more readers across the network.

Three & Three @3-3.fyi