✏ Issue #502: Why Hyperlinks Are Blue, Google’s Jaw-Dropping Image Upscaling, Rebooting the Web With Motion, 3 Essential Design Trends, and more…

One of the most persistent design patterns on the web is that links are blue — assisted, no doubt by browser defaults. But why blue? What’s the origin of that choice? In this forensic post, Elise Blanchard dons her deerstalker and digs into the history of UI design to identify the first blue links. Spoiler alert: it wasn’t Internet Explorer.

Motion UI is the application of animation to interfaces like websites to guide, delight, and inform users. In this engaging overview, Bernie Johnson introduces us to the origins of Motion UI and discusses the potential applications of the technique, from storytelling through motion, to reinforcing brand recognition.

Have your go-to design techniques lost a bit of their shine? Is it time to find some fresh inspiration? Every month we publish this roundup of the three most exciting design trends we’ve seen on the web in the previous four weeks. In September’s edition, we look at angles, unexpected illustrations, and the use of depth. Enjoy!

Microcopy is one of the most important aspects of any website. Using the right words, unambiguous phrasing, and empathetic language can transform a good UI into a great UI. In this in-depth guide, Maria Panagiotidi walks us through seven rules for perfecting button microcopy, from task-specific language to correct capitalization.

There are numerous psychology principles that designers can leverage to influence the actions of site visitors. In this handy 101-guide, Maximiliano Cabrera breaks down the 15 most important rules, explaining Hick’s Law, cognitive load, the curiosity gap, and a dozen more tools. It’s a must-read for all aspiring designers.

Featurebase is an awesome product feedback tool that helps you build better products faster. Capture and analyze what users think about your site or product, fix broken customer relationships, and avoid costly mistakes. You can even publish a roadmap so customers can see you’re listening. There’s a free plan available.

Figma purists design everything in the SaaS, even when it doesn’t quite meet expectations — I’m looking at you pen tool. However, there are options out there for some jobs. In this reflective post, Self-confessed Figma aficionado considers ten things that Framer does better than Figma, focusing on different UI components.

Google’s latest AI photo upscaling is like something out of a sci-fi film. Highly pixelated images can be transformed into high-resolution images. It has potentially huge implications for web design, imagine serving a tiny bitmap file and the browser scaling it up! Michael Zhang investigates tech that could save raster images.