iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 15/09/2026

Can't wait to run the Silo-themed team "building" game I planned for a work meetup in Chicago next week. My kids and I play-tested it over the weekend, and I printed red-level relic trophies for the winning team.

My daughters putting the finishing touches on a DIY marble run built on a table from cardstock, straws, popsicle sticks, and tape.

A set of six 3D-printed duck Pez dispenser trophies with Sprout Social branding.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 14/05/2026

One thing I noticed while building SkilletSched is that Claude tends to reinvent components. I spent a few sessions standardizing UI, killing off unnecessary variants, and converting skilletsched.com/design from a page of approximations used to troubleshoot theme colors to a legit pattern library.

Screenshot of the pattern library at skilletsched.com/design

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 05/03/2026

I can quit anytime I want…

eBay purchase screenshot showing $31.95 paid for a lot of two gen2 Nest thermostats.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 21/02/2026

Claude Code changes the question from “should designers code?” to “should designers modify firmware?” Here’s the story about how I upcycled a deprecated Nest thermostat into a photo gallery. jasongraphix.com/journal/nest...

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 12/02/2026

I’m converting my deprecated Gen2 Nest into a mini digital photo frame and just got a test image loading. I would have abandoned this project already if it weren’t for Claude Code, which is making the trial and error of it fun.

A Gen2 Nest Thermostat in my hand with a family photo on the display and a couple terminal windows on the MacBook in the background.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 30/01/2026

Completed the first step of my side quest to do something fun with this little hunk of e-waste.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 13/12/2025

The bulk of our winter break DIY project just arrived. Not pictured: vintage 10ft library ladder and butcher block countertops. 📚

Large stack of IKEA cabinet and bookshelf boxes.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 06/12/2025

Symmetrical internet is much better than fast download speeds alone. At our old house, a 300mb fiber plan worked great. We moved in September and the upload on our “gig” cable internet capped out at about 50mb. Just got fiber run with only a 500mb plan, and this chart makes me smile.

Speed test history chart showing symmetrical ~400mb speeds in June & July, a date in September with 610mb download and almost 0 upload, then a new test this week with ~550mb up and down.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 04/12/2025

One of my product design colleagues shared this from their granola.ai 2025 "crunched" report, and I've never felt more seen.

What would 2025 have been without the people you work with?
Celebrating...
Jason Beaird
Most Likely to Remind You That We Actually Have to Build This Thing Eventually

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 01/12/2025

Time to let the kids shave off my November beard again. Unsurprisingly, they attempted a 6️⃣7️⃣ this year.

Selfie with a full, graying, November beard.

Photo of my daughter shaving off part of my beard.

A six shaved into the left side of my beard.

Selfie with the beard completely shaved off.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 08/11/2025

The weather was perfect for this year’s Falcon 5k. Adelyn didn’t train at all, so we took it slow and had fun.

Adelyn and I in our 5k shirts with our race medals.

Strava post export with a photo of the starting line and our 35:03 finish time.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 31/10/2025

Creative Mornings Orlando is always inspiring, but it was especially refreshing to hear stories from students and recent grads at today’s “Rising Creatives” event. creativemornings.com/cities/orl/b...

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 28/10/2025

Tonight’s random vibe coding project success, presented without context.

A 4x9 grid with labels overlayed showing the color of the dot inside each cell.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 23/10/2025

Experimenting with agent mode in ChatGPT Atlas is a good reminder that designing web experiences that are intuitive and accessible for all humans makes them more usable for everyone, including the robots. Watching Atlas work is like facilitating a user research session.

Screenshot of Atlas recognizing that it chose the wrong date from a date picker component.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 23/10/2025

Just put a fresh set of caster wheels on my old standing desk. After about 5y, the tread wore off one from my original set. Still love being able to roll my desk around.

Old set of 4 caster wheels. One is is missing tread and the looking pretty worn and gross too.

New set of 4 locking caster wheels that are similar to the old set but blueish and with shorter stems.

Photo of desk with new caster wheels installed.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 10/10/2025

I Installed a closer on the door of our new home office today. I was a bit nervous as it was my first time having to drill and tap machine screw holes, but it turned out great!

An aluminum storefront style glass door with a top jamb mounted door closer installed.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 06/10/2025

I took my youngest daughter to see Alex Warren perform at UCF last night. A few weeks ago, my oldest and I went to Benson Boone at Kia Center. Middle school girl dad life is out of the ordinary, but mystical and magical.

Selfie with my youngest daughter. She's wearing an Alex Warren shirt at the concert last night.

Photo of my oldest daughter wearing a red Benson Boone hoodie at a concert in September.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 29/08/2025

It’s inspiring to see new signs of pride and allyship popping up around Orlando. You can paint over (and pressure wash) a crosswalk, but The City Beautiful will keep shining through.

A residential driveway in Orlando with rainbow stripes painted on it to match the Pulse memorial crosswalk.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 11/08/2025

The school year begins! We officially have two middle schoolers.

Two smiling girls with backpacks on, ready for their first day of school.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 22/07/2025

Ames and I celebrated our anniversary with a long weekend in Tampa. It’s been great to slow down, connect, and dream about our next 22 years together.

Selfie of Amy and I from the outdoor deck at Tampa Museum of Art with the Tampa riverwalk in the background.

Photo of a sunrise over Tampa bay from our hotel room window.

Photo of Estero Segura’s “Goodby My Love” in the Tampa Museum. Three red hearts with airplane wings, hanging from the museum ceiling.

Photo of our feet standing on a rock together at the beach.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 15/07/2025

This portable speaker we use for mics at the UX meetup has been out of commission for a couple months. Patched in a $13 replacement battery and it’s good as new. Gotta love an easy repair.

The top of a portable speaker is removed to show the battery compartment. My hand is holding both the dead battery and the new one already wired in.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 05/07/2025

Changing solid tires on an electric scooter is not a fun DIY job. Our girls know not to drift on them now, but I ended up changing both of their rear tires early after they got out of round and very bumpy to ride.

Photo of a removed solid rubber tire next to the rear of an electric scooter with a new tire installed.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 01/07/2025

PSA: Slack has an option in Advanced preferences to use your latest sort selection instead of forcing "relevant" every time.

Slack screenshot from settings with the text:
“Always sort search results by:
• Most relevant
• Latest sort selection
If you sort results by something other than Most Relevant (e.g. Newest) this will stay selected the next time you search.”

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 08/06/2025

Here’s what it looks like for don’t walk.

Photo of the crosswalk signal with the same red bar still present but next to the red, don’t walk hand.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 08/06/2025

It’s a sithwalk! (Virginia Dr & N Fern Creek Ave in Orlando)

Photo of a crosswalk signal displaying a red bar in front of the walk signal that looks like a light saber.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 07/06/2025

Not intentionally. I'm always looking for teams to add. Know of any gov design team blogs I should include?

Screenshot of text from teamdesign.team:
What is this site?
The lists here include posts from active design team blogs that meet the following criteria:
Only in-house design or UX teams – Company blogs are included if there’s a design or UX-specific category to follow. No guest contributor posts.
At least one post in the last year – There are many dormant team sites with great articles, but only active blogs are included.
Must have an RSS feed (or be scrapable) – If anyone knows of a feed for design.google, let me know.
Know of a design team blog we missed? If it meets the above criteria and isn’t listed, please let us know!

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 02/06/2025

It’s been cooler and quieter in the office shed since I installed this Midea Duo portable AC. Our through-the-wall unit has struggled to keep up every summer. Still kicking myself for not going with a mini-split when we built the shed.

Photo of a Midea Duo portable AC unit connected to a sliding window.

Photo of an unplugged through-the-wall AV unit.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 24/05/2025

Family beach mode activated for the long weekend. 🏖️

Selfie with my family at sunset in Indian Shores, FL.

Silhouettes of my 2 kids playing in the surf just after sunset.

Silhouettes of palm trees with the beach just after sunset.

One of my kids digging a hole while the other plays in the surf at the beach this morning.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 22/05/2025

Traveling home from this week’s team meetup in Chicago. It was great catching up with friends in-person and the silly catapult game I planned was a success.

Event photo with a couple of my team members.

The winning team of 4 from the catapult building game with their Ewok trophies.

A Skittle catapult built with popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and a water bottle cap.

One of the catapult competitors lamenting as his team’s catapult falls apart on first firing.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 15/05/2025

Headed to Chicago next week for a product org meetup, so of course I planned another game and made more weird trophies.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 09/05/2025

It was great to make some new friends and catch up with folks at last night’s Downtown Orlando UX Meetup.

Group photo of ~20 of the attendees from the meetup.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 08/05/2025

Inventing a new punctuation mark to fight AI is either brilliant satire or the most Luddite possible response—either way, I love it. www.theamdash.com

Animated gif showing several screenshots of the Am Dash mark in use from theamdash.com. It's essentially an Em Dash with a downward finial in the front and an upward one at the end.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 30/04/2025

LukeW breaks down several years of AI product evolution into a quick read and this helpful 6-panel illustration. lukew.com/ff/entry.asp...

6 panels with interface illustrations that demonstrate the phases of AI product development:
Product makes use of Al models behind the scenes, Product is direct interaction (chat) with Al model, Product augments Al model interactions with retrieval, Product enables Al model to make use of tools, Product runs Al models with tools concurrently, Product connects collaborative Al systems

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 18/04/2025

All of the projects at last night’s UCF Digital Media student showcase were so impressive—unlike this rolling desk camera rig we made up to capture roving demos from each group for the Zoom. 😂

Collage of photos from the student showcase event.

Photo from the collage of me recording a student group’s product demo with a webcam on an arm, attached to the table of a rolling desk with the laptop we use to stream our meetups.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 10/04/2025

Thanks for the inspiration! Claude nailed it on the first pass with this prompt and I just spent ~15min tweaking copy and testing before uploading the page.

Screenshot of the prompt I gave Claude:
Alright Claude, let's vibe code. I need an HTML page that contains a bookmarklet link and a textarea. When that bookmarklet is dragged into the browser's bookmarks bar, it should create an array from the textarea contents by splitting each line of text into a separate string. When the bookmarklet is activated by the user, it should do the following:
If I am on any subpage of https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/ and an H1 tag with the class "wp-block-whitehouse-topper__headline" is present, it should choose a random string from the stored array and replace the content of the H1 with it.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 04/04/2025

Wondering whether that peculiar acquaintance of yours with the long smile is actually a vampire? My 11yo created this helpful guide.

Pencil drawing pointing out the differences between humans and vampires.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 03/04/2025

Jammin' with FigPals while we still can.

Screenshot from Figma showing the toolbar with 9 different custom "FigPals" icons sitting on top during a team design meeting.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 02/04/2025

This is your regular reminder to check out local tech community events and build some human connections. I had a blast at last night's ProductTank Orlando meetup and even found a few familiar faces from @douxmeetup.com.

Photo of myself and 3 others from the Downtown Orlando UX community who were at the ProductTank meetup.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 29/03/2025

Fun times as always at this year’s Park Life Falcon 5k! 👟 strava.app.link/mfUGhBdp8Rb

Selfie at the finish line after finishing the 5k at 25:30. Distance says 3.0mi, but should be 3.1. I stopped my app when I crossed the line at 3.09.

My youngest daughter with face paint of a flower and a bounce house in the background.

Selfie with my daughters and a Falcon mascot.

My daughters posing together at the run, one with a race bib.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 14/03/2025

What a fun evening! Thanks to Germán for an insightful dive into unmoderated user testing, to Bigeye for hosting this month’s event and to everyone who came out in-person and online. meetu.ps/e/NVCw9/1HQT/i

Germán at the podium, talking about Unmoderated User Testing.

Swag bags from Condens lined up next to a small sign for DOUX.

People chatting after the meetup. One of the swag bags is visible, which says “I didn’t design this; nothing you say will hurt my feelings.”

One of the event organizers taking a selfie group photo with our in-person audience.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 13/03/2025

Praise Kier! This Lumon Board Speaker print is a perfect enclosure for the first-gen Echo Dot I keep on my desk. makerworld.com/en/models/10...

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 24/02/2025

New week, fresh sheet. Last month, @cameronmoll.bsky.social was kind enough to send me some of his do-its sticky task pads to try out. They've completely replaced the assorted post-its that usually litter my desk. Check them out at: shop.cameronmoll.com/product/do-its

A pen sitting on a blank top sheet of Cameron Moll's Do-Its sticky task pad.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 22/02/2025

*taps the sign* (At Pizza Bruno in Orlando)

Penant hanging in front of an American flag that says, “Nobody wins unless everybody wins”

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 19/02/2025

your outie works from a coffee shop on focus days

Photo of a laptop on a table at Starbucks with Zoom open and Ms. Casey from Severance Photoshopped in.

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Jason Beaird @jasongraphix.com · 16/02/2025

For as well-camouflaged as male Eastern Fence Lizards are on top, the bright blue (or sometimes turquoise) patches on their ventral side are always a surprise. From our hike this morning at Oakland Nature Preserve.

A male Eastern Fence Lizard blending in with a weathered wood board.

My daughter’s hand holding up the belly of the same lizard which is light-colored with black and blue patches.

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