📝 Issue #446: The UX of Lego Interface Panels, RevKit, 3 Essential Design Trends, Google’s Top Search Result, and more…

Success can come calling around the most unexpected corners. Adam Wathan gives us the inspiring inside story of Tailwind CSS and Tailwind UI, byproducts of his Digest side-project, that have just reached 10 million installs, and $2million revenue.

If you use Google fonts you can’t have failed to notice that it now offers an increasing number of variable fonts. But how do you use the latest font technology on your sites? Stephen Nixon breaks down the how’s, why’s, and wherefores, in this practical post.

If you’re looking for a design system UI kit to kickstart your design process then you need to check out RevKit. It’s a set of UI elements for Sketch, Figma, and Xd. There are 50+ components, 200+ symbols, 60+ icons, and ten type styles, all free forever.

For years, Google has perpetuated the myth that its algorithm, the secret sauce in its search, is sacrosanct. Adrianne Jeffries and Leon Yin examined 15,000 queries and discovered that 41% of first page results point to Google’s own products and “direct answers”.

With the widespread support for CSS Flexbox and CSS Grid, building component-based websites that respond to available space without media queries is possible. Stephanie Walter digs into the subject in this in-depth, must-read post for coders.

Most of us have been working remotely for some time now, with daily catch-ups by video call. But when we’re working from home, the same time isn’t always convenient. Grapevine is a fantastic new SaaS that allows you to record asynchronous video updates for your team, that they can watch back any time.

Each month we publish a roundup of the trends we’ve seen picking up pace across the web in the previous four weeks. In August’s edition you’ll find lots of acute angles, a trend inspired by printing techniques, and 1920s-inspired typography. Dip in and see if one of these concepts sparks an idea for you.

There’s no single way to becoming a designer. Some professionals have a strong grounding in academia, others fall into it as a side-hustle. Renee Flack talks to five different designers about their paths into the design world, and shares invaluable experiences and advice for anyone hoping to build a design career.

Considering the number of different operations they need to “control”, the UI panels printed onto Lego bricks better be well designed. In this tongue-in-cheek article, George Cave looks at the design of Lego UIs, from differentiating inputs, to the best user interfaces offered by Lego.