Dan Mall
@danmall
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Showing you how to use design to live a better life. Intentionally unique. Ran @superfriendlyco for a decade. Now creating @designsystemu and @greatjobkids .
Philly
Joined February 2007
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Pinned Tweet
My biggest design system course ever—Design Systems 101—is officially open for registration through
@designsystemu
! It’s 72 modules with over 10 hours of video.
It’s available for a limited time for $101.
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My wife has wanted to feature on her phone for a while where people have to let you know WHY they’re calling you, so I decided to sketch it out for fun. 🧵
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When you hire a professional, you pay a lot now.
When you hire an amateur, you pay a lot later.
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As a lifelong basketball player AND a professional designer, I’ve never noticed this until my 11yo pointed it out this morning: are the lines on a basketball intentionally mirroring the lines on the court?
(I can’t find anything on the internet that supports or refutes this.)
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Designers! Here's an alignment challenge that's always a bit of a head-scratcher for me. Which one of these is the more correct alignment? Why?
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Designers: writing copy isn’t (usually) your responsibility, but misspellings indicate that you lack attention to detail, which IS your responsibility.
Before publishing, 1) run through a spelling/grammar checker and 2) ask a friend or colleague give your work a once-over.
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I have $1000 to hire an illustrator to do a set of stickers for me. Preferably looking to work with people of color or others from groups typically underrepresented in tech.
If that's you but the money isn't right, happy to take counteroffers.
DM me if you're interested?
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Let’s play a game called “find the racism.”
For some of you, the racism is exactly where you’d expect it to be.
For others, the racism is not at all in the place you’d expect it to be.
Ready… begin!
🧵👇🏽
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Flash Is Responsible for the Internet's Most Creative Era.
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He said, "Pay it forward… God bless," and he drove away.
What an amazing act of kindness. In light of the state of the world we live in, I'm encouraged that there are kind, Christ-like people still out there. Thank you, Jason!
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I’m tired of reading “perfect daily routines” from white men that don’t include helping kids with getting ready/homework/after-school activities, connecting time with a partner, etc.
Where can I read about productive routines from Black and brown moms? Does such a day exist?
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We just closed on a new house… and we brought our own fancy pens!
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Currently, tapping a number from a contact dials immediately, but maybe there could be a new interim screen before the call starts that prompts you to add a subject for the call.
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✏️ After 10 years, 9 months, and 6 days, it’s time for me to shut down
@superfriendlyco
. To the hundreds of clients and SuperFriends whose paths I’ve been lucky to cross in the last 10 years: thank you for everything.
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I love that my dad constantly comments on my LinkedIn posts to tell me how proud of me he is.
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Just heard from a friend that they got turned down for a job after seven interviews. SEVEN. I’m livid for them.
I know it’s sometimes out of our control, but if you’re one of the people who interviews others, please take on SOME responsibility for making sure you’re not
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Today is my birthday! Like for many others, this past year was tough, but I’m grateful to still have made many great memories with friends and family. Here’s to more in the coming year 🥂!
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Well, the cat's outta the bag: I'm writing another book, this one about design systems!
If you want to really dig into
#DesignSystems
,
@danmall
is one of the world’s best people to learn from. So we’ve signed him to write a
@RosenfeldMedia
book. Welcome aboard, Dan!
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Today I told a colleague openly in a meeting that I was triggered by something they said and I preferred not to be treated like that. They apologized and thanked me openly for the feedback about how to better work together. That, my friends, is psychological safety. ❤️ this team.
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I just received a phone call from a number I didn't recognize. I didn't pick up (as usual), but I received a text from the same number, saying, "I found your wallet."
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Working on your portfolio but can’t show some projects due to NDAs, irrelevance, etc?
Create your own.
Here are 7 different kinds of real projects you can commission for yourself:
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Congrats to my friends at
@Grammarly
for launching their new rebrand about a month ago!
Fun fact: I designed the identity with
@mattecook
back in 2014 that lasted them 10 years.
Here’s a look at that process:
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For those that really love this feature, you can require every caller to have to enter a call subject; otherwise, it’ll automatically go to voicemail.
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On the receiving end, you can preview the subject of the call the person entered as a way to decide whether or not you want to take the call right now.
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I have a more to say about design and money than fits in one tweet, thread, article, or podcast episode, but please consider this my starting point:
Salary & Income transparency.
Some details and context around how much I’ve made each of the last 19 years of my career:
🧵
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I… I just submitted my full book draft to my editor for review.
There’s still a lot to do, but holy moly I’m freaking proud of this milestone!
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I’ve worked with
#designsystem
teams at companies like Amazon, Netflix, Google, and more. The most common blocker about
#designsystems
I hear from them is, “I never really looked at it that way.”
My biggest tip for reframing
#designsystem
work to make it more approachable:
🧵
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Quintessential fall shot!
Apple iPhone 11 Pro
4.25mm @ 1/60, f/1.8, ISO 160
Back triple camera
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Standing in line and hearing white son tell white dad why he thinks
#BlackLivesMatter
is encompassed by
#AllLivesMatter
. Dad explains that ideally yes, but the reality is that not all people are persecuted equally.
You're doing awesome, dad. More of this in the world please.
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It’s official: my new book “Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice” is available to order!
Here are some things you’ll learn in this book:
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Two exciting announcements for people who love design systems and want to learn more about them:
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"If you exceed 3 rounds of design, it's not a design problem. It's a communication problem." —
@jaimeejaimee
#aeabos
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Your team has just been empowered to (re)start your organization’s design system.
Everyone has the requisite skills, but if you’re not sure what the steps and sequence should be, we at
@superfriendlyco
wrote “Design System in 90 Days” for you.
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✎ I wrote a new post to help you make a portfolio that lands your dream job. "A Portfolio Hiring Managers Can't Deny":
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For years, I've extoled the virtues of narrow positioning to fellow agency owners. Time to put my money where my mouth is:
@superfriendlyco
is now officially a design systems company. Work coming soon to prove it.
Just in time for
@clarity_conf
, here's our new site, announcing to the world something we've been doing silently for the last few years: a primary focus on
#designsystems
! Check out the new site:
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If I'm managing the kids' schoolwork at home, the least I can do is expose them to good typography.
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I mapped out
@superfriendlyco
's entire sales process for the first time. Anyone interested in seeing it?
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Well, the cat is officially out of the bag:
@zoink
officially announced
@figma
’s new, long-awaited Variables functionality on stage at
#Config2023
just now!
I’ve been playing around with it for the last couple of months, and here’s my initial impression:
🧵
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So so so close to launching this. I can't wait to get it out the door!
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Superfriends! Have any of you done or seen any studies or usability tests regarding underlined and outlined text fields?
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One of the biggest pain points for
#designsystem
teams is naming (components, patterns, tokens… anything).
Here are my most useful tips for naming design system things (part 1).
🧵
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Have you tried to make a design system but ended up with a library that no one uses? Our new
@superfriendlyco
“Design System in 90 Days” workbook helps you avoid design system graveyards and create a design system that lasts.
Available for purchase now!
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My daughter tried out for her school play last week, something she’s been practicing for for a while.
The cast list came out on Friday. She wasn’t on it.
We spent the afternoon crying together.
I asked her if she wanted me to go to the director’s house and fight her husband.
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Imagine you had 90 days (~12 weeks) to create a
#designsystem
from scratch.
Your team is (all senior-level individual contributors):
• Designer
• Engineer
• Writer
• DesignOps person
How would you allocate their effort over that time?
Here’s how I’d do it:
🧵
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My experience:
☎️ White man says they want to work with me.
🤝 We collab well.
💔 Eventually it breaks, cuz my ideas ≠ theirs.
✌🏽I suggest we agree to disagree; I do my thing & they do theirs.
😡As parting "advice," they say why my way will fail.
🤦🏾 Bruh, you came to me.
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I'm about to rethink
@superfriendlyco
's visual identity: typographic + color palettes, image treatments, swag etc., but only giving myself a day to do it. Thinking about live-tweeting as I go; would anybody be interested in following along with that?
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There are only 4 acceptable reasons to call a meeting:
1. Do something together
2. Decide something together
3. Learn something together
4. Bond
Politely decline everything else.
(Thank you to
@adammgrant
for this great framework.)
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Documentation isn't supposed to replace conversation.
Documentation is supposed to capture conversation.
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That kind of interaction has slightly less friction than a keyboard might, and both outgoing and incoming calls send and receive more context.
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A few more sketches, especially based on replies so far: this concept lends itself much better to voice interfaces than a tactile keyboard.
For example, you could tell a voice assistant to call with a certain subject. And if you leave it out, it could be prompted for.
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The more I delegate, the more I feel like I have to get comfortable responding, "I don't know the answer to that, but that person might."
But that's uncomfortable. I fear it makes me come off as inept and not valuable.
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Today is my 40th birthday! I’m officially over the hill.
To celebrate, I decided to look over some hills.
If you’re over 40, what would you go back and tell your 40-year self?
If you’re under 40, what are some things you’re looking forward to about getting older?
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"A
@sketchapp
UI kit isn't a design system. That'd be like going to
@IKEAUSA
and coming home with just a manual." —
@brad_frost
at
@aneventapart
#AEAORL
More info here:
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A story about a project I did earlier this year.
My dad (Tan Mall) spent 40 years as an in-house CFO. After helping his company get acquired last year, he decided to start his own accounting consultancy.
I made a website + identity for him.
Here’s the story of that process:
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If I was to release this as a self-paced course of watching 4 videos and completing 4 assignments, would anyone be interested in that? (Like this tweet or reply if you're interested.)
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Design systems often start from one team, like design, UX, or IT. A difficult but crucial step is for the originating team to relinquish ownership.
The more you signal it’s YOUR team’s design system, the less it becomes everyone else’s.
To be everyone’s, it can’t be anyone’s.
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Nonsense.
If 100 people apply for one job, it is NOT a truth that 1 person’s work was good and 99 people’s work was bad.
Bad work is only ONE explanation.
It is certainly not THE truth.
Hard truth for designers:
If you’re not getting responses from applying to a bunch of open roles, it’s because your work is bad 🚩🚩🚩
Hiring managers/recruiters make split second decisions, so if your work isn’t serviceable at first glance they’ve already moved on.
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A reminder to myself (and anyone else that could use it): it's not a vacation if you have to make up the hours.
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Just hit publish on the new personal site I’ve been working on for the last few weeks!
Some behind-the-scenes details 🧵
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Now that my family and I have lived at our new house for 3 months, I'm so grateful for our old house where we were able to grow together for almost a decade.
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Here's how I deal with my grays/greys in SCSS.
I am SICK and TIRED of forgetting if I wrote my color variable as 'grey' or 'gray'.
Now introducing... groy!
From now on, all code references will be to the color groy. No more second-guessing.
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I've decided to try to avoid using abbreviations and acronyms, unless I know *for sure* that the person I'm interacting with knows what they mean.
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"There are still people who think anything that involves diversity is about charity. The idea that unrepresented means underqualified or underskilled shows how far we have yet to go." —
@ArlanWasHere
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For the last two years, I’ve been writing a book about
#designsystems
, and I’m so excited that it’s finally out in the world!
Announcing “Design That Scales: Creating a Sustainable Design System Practice,” now available for pre-order from
@rosenfeldmedia
.
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Trying out a new look. I heard summer is the best time to try to grow a beard.
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In the past few weeks, I've been invited to contribute to a few Black History Month articles as a Black designer. I'm honored, but I'm not Black. (I get confused for different races a lot.) I'm half Pakistani and half Filipino… Pakipino, if you prefer.
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that feeling when you hear that the united nations wants to feature your work
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My 9-year old daughter
@CharlotteMall
asked if I could teach her coding. (11-year old big sis
@SiddaleeMall
decided to join in too.) We’re 2 lessons in on learning HTML, and they’re CRUSHING it!
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I have an idea that I’d like to workshop in public.
I want to do a week-long “reality show” that shows an entire process of designing a simple logo, identity, and one-page website for a new business.
Would you watch? Would you participate?
Some details:
🧵
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I showed some design work to a client last week.
Within the first 10 seconds, they said, “Wow, this is so dope.”
The last comment they made was, “We feel really proud that this will be ours soon.”
Still riding that high days later.
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The secret’s out! I’ll be your guide through the wacky world of design systems alongside the amazing
@mariachrstphr
at this year’s
@figma
Config!
Who’s gonna be there? Say 👋 so we can hang out!
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I don't know for certain what the right things to do are, but I think these are some good things to try. Here's the message I posted to the
@superfriendlyco
team this morning.
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Public service announcement for companies that are hiring: for your Careers page, you can probably come up with a better call to action than "Explore Our Openings."
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I'm so super proud of the
@superfriendlyco
team for our collaboration with
@InVisionApp
on The
#DesignGenome
Project! Have a look at the DNA of the world’s most successful product design teams:
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As we at
@superfriendlyco
were finishing up some design system work with a client, we made a leave-behind doc to encourage + remind them of some lessons as they move forward on their own. Here’s a thread of what we shared, applicable to many other organizations.
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Some designers talk such a big game, until you hire them and they ghost you for a month. 🤦🏾♂️🤷🏾♂️
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At my last count,
@superfriendlyco
is 61 people working on 16 projects over 8 different accounts. 🤯🤯🤯
Ask me anything.
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This morning, I edited a CSS file that's 15 years old and was previously last updated 9 years ago.
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A small
#designsystems
reframing that has a major impact:
“Let’s CREATE a design system of foundations (i.e. best practices) for our org” → unsuccessful team.
“Let’s COLLECT our org’s existing best practices to start our design system” → successful team.
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SO excited to announce
@superbooked
, helping you find work with a little help from your friends. More details here:
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