- An IDEO team combined human design talent and machine learning to create Font Map, a tool for designers to compare and find similar fonts. This started with Google’s ~750 typefaces, but can scale to many more. Explore for yourself.
- More and more of my searches start and end in the Google ecosystem, including those short snippets results in Q&A format. There’s an argument to be made that these snippets are damaging small business websites — and might move upstream from there.
- The wireframe strikes me as a kind of dress rehearsal: vital foundational work being done with little fanfare. Look at this collection of wireframes from top UX designers to learn more about why they matter.
- I use my camera less for beautiful images than data capture. What hotel room am I in (anyone remember when keys had number tags)? What was that guy’s title? And, of course, where did I park my car? Google is trying to solve this last one.
- One last link: Paul Ford’s beautiful speech on 10 timeframes. Let’s always be mindful of the experiences we create for all the creators out there.
Weekend fun: We’re finally getting our flying cars. And an edible water bottle, I guess.
Consumed: This was a week of breakfasts. It’s hard to go wrong with the fancy menu at Beaubourg, but I have an enduring fondness for the good food, weak coffee, and brusque service at The Red Flame.
Planned obsolescence: This is the final edition of this Friday 5 newsletter (or at least this incarnation of it!), as I take a deep dive into a couple of projects. Thanks for all your notes this week — may be back in the fall post summer research!
