iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Folius would detect scene change asterisks and ensure you have table of contents metadata correct too etc. But honestly, it’s missing chapter title images today which it looks like you need… going to add soon!

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

What software did you format in? usefolius.com might help you with the final leg and PDF and epub conversion. (Disclaimer, It’s my tool, happy to give you full access to test)

usefolius.com

Folius — Book formatting software for print and ebook

Format a manuscript in the browser. Word import, live print preview, EPUB free, no account. Print PDF for KDP when you need it.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This is my first attempt to explore what AI can bring to those often neglected deeper layers. Fork it, improve it, and most importantly -- tell me what you'd do differently! layers.jamiemill.com

layers.jamiemill.com

Layers — AI skills for product designers

AI skills for product designers — guidance through the seven layers of product design.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

This is not about automating away the designer's job - it's about creating a thinking partner that knows how I like to approach design and speaks the same language.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

From there, for each layer, it knows what's in scope, and a range of techniques to help, such as: Structure & Flow: Breadboards Concept model: OOUX & State Transitions Product Strategy: Opportunity Solution Tree User needs: Job Stories Research: Contextual inquiry

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

With this pack of skills I've made you can say: "I've been asked to redesign onboarding — use the Layers skills to help me think it through properly." It will start with an "Orient" skill, to understand the quality of the decisions so far, and where you need to go next.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

A lot of talk about AI for design is all about the *surface*. But how would AI behave if it was trained to navigate the deeper layers of design, so that it could help you, or help itself, when asked to work on a design project? Made a skill pack for that: layers.jamiemill.com

layers.jamiemill.com

Layers — AI skills for product designers

AI skills for product designers — guidance through the seven layers of product design.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

But there are others who will make such statements and seem to be perceived as decisive and leader-ish because at least they are forwarding some agenda that can align people.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

Sometimes I think I really lose by being a nuanced person. I rarely make strong statements like “we need to prioritise X for the good of the company” or “designers should have those responsibilities”. I see how absurd those absolutes are in complex situations that depend on individuals, contexts.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 14/01/2025

Arguments I heard at work that don’t hold much water: “We have to build this because we already spent $XXX designing it.” (Sunk cost fallacy) “We have to build this in one big batch because in small batches we’ll move on to other things and there will be no incentive to finish it.”

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

I haven't tried Excalidraw, but it looks pretty similar. I slightly prefer the visual style the TL;Draw outputs though.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

I haven't had real problems with that. If you hold CMD while you drag a selection, it avoids moving objects, and only selects fully-enclosed things. That allows me to deal with most overlapping things easily.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

I’m enjoying @tldraw.com as a low-fi design tool. It’s fast, ergonomic, and just enough tools to express ideas without distracting myself with visual design details too soon.

A photo of my computer screen showing A sketch of a user interface in TL;Draw with some sticky notes placed around it

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

Both times I’ve set up a test framework to use TDD to drive the answer. It also helps me refactor to clean up confidently.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 08/12/2024

adventofcode.com is a cool way to learn a new language. This is my first time trying Python, consulting ChatGPT for advice, and ways to make it more idiomatic, but not asking it to solve the actual puzzle. Here's my first few days: github.com/jamiemill/ad...

adventofcode.com

Advent of Code 2024

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

I still like React for more complicated stuff, so I’m not sure if I would have hit a limit with plain JS and ended up frustrated for a different reason. I definitely feel the pull of nextJS which keeps everything react top-to-bottom.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 04/12/2024

I used Astro to build www.yorkshirewoldsheritage.org.uk. Most complicated was the Places section with interactivity between map and listings (on desktop). Initially I had a react island which led to two sets of state and styles and so I ripped it out. With plain JS and it all clicked much better.

yorkshirewoldsheritage.org.uk

Yorkshire Wolds Heritage Trust

Dedicated to the promotion, protection and enhancement of The Yorkshire Wolds.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

This question really got me thinking! Current feeling: No person or role is excluded, but it’s usually contrasted with Delivery - the short moments where we put the blinkers on and execute on a bet, intentionally ignoring alternatives. But that delivery is still in service of a bigger discovery. 🙃

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

You can learn all this by being really tightly integrated with a high-performing engineering team. Instead it's quite common to see designers leaving all the stuff above to the engineers... And then wonder why their precious design is twisted and compromised by that other team.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

I would also love to be added, posting about IA, designer<>dev collaboration, concept modelling and rants about Figma

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

It's also just... hard for designers to engage with some of this stuff if they focus their energy on Figma only

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

I think the reason is that developers are forced to think about all this stuff in the process of making it REAL. But these are all design decisions and ideally a product/UX designer should engage just as much with them as an engineer.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

13. Conceptual/data models - the relationship and cardinality of objects which has a massive effect on the interactions and layout

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

9. Moving forward without breaking changes; migrating information from old features to new 10. The discipline to stress test a design with edge cases 11. Thinking how a design will respond to screen sizes, text sizes, translations, accessibility 12. Modularisation and reusability of UI

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

7. Consistency boundaries - where data should agree with itself and where it can become eventually consistent instead 8. Capturing intent (eg commands) instead of mutating state 9. Strategies to slice a design thin and release incrementally

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

3. The power of pairing on a problem 4. The power of example-driven design - working with real scenarios and data 5. The feedback and ideas you get from testing in the real medium (real code in browser not Figma) 6. Considering how to make tools safe to use

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

Many designers are 10 steps behind engineers in the discipline of shaping and shipping software. Here are some things many designers are yet to internalise, that would multiply their impact: 1. Small batch size to reduce risk and speed feedback 2. Walking skeletons to flush out obstacles

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 27/11/2024

When advocating for a faster UI it’s helpful to have a semi objective measure in mind. Ask “which of these limits do we need to hit?” Instead of just complaining it’s too slow. www.nngroup.com/articles/res...

nngroup.com

Response Time Limits: Article by Jakob Nielsen

How users react to delays in a user interface, whether website or application. The 3 main response time limits are determined by human perceptual abilities.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

Be careful marketing yourself as “self-taught”. Firstly, it’s never true: we all learn from outside sources — peers, books, conferences, videos, short courses. Secondly, it doesn’t sound like a selling point — it implies you’ve missed valuable external perspective.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Yes it’s pretty cool! I found it useful for querying an export of research insights, eg “what did people say about feature X?” or “why might people feel our tool is hard to use?”

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

Here’s a resource I created that many have found useful. It’s a riff on JJG’s Elements of UX, updated for how I think about navigating product design decisions and skill sets. jamiemill.com/blog/element...

jamiemill.com

The elements of product design

Explaining product design as a stack of decisions built on top of a stack of knowledge. With apologies to Jesse James Garrett.

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Jamie Mill @jamiemill.bsky.social · 24/11/2024

UX and Product Design folks! I’m here for IA, conceptual modelling, product strategy, hybrid designers/builders, and improving design<>dev collaboration. So far I found the UX Sky starter pack from @spavel.bsky.social. Any other ways to find relevant people and conversations?

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