Sign in

Jonas Downey

@jonas.do
3.9K followers 628 following 405 posts

Design Director @ Superhuman // Co-creator of Hello Weather. Ex-Figma, Twitter, and some other stuff. Puns always intended. he/him 🌐 jonas.do 🌞 @helloweather.com

PostsRepliesMedia
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 28/09/2026
Has anyone done a sociological study on why corporate jargon business-speak is so pervasive? Whyyyy do we do this? Business weirdo: "I'm not aligned. Can we circle back to sync again, and assign a DRI to put more wood behind fewer arrows?" Regular human person: "I disagree. Let's make it simpler."
5232
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 10/09/2026
wow Indigo is excellent, and highly customizable too. Combining social feeds is a hard problem, but this is so well done!
070
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 10/09/2026
One upcoming feature in iOS 27 is a new "extra large" widget size, which might as well be an entire app at this point, because it's nearly the same dimensions as a full screen app. But who are we to question this? So, behold, the upcoming Super Mega widget for Hello Weather:
why is this widget so giant yep it seems overly big tbh
1130
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 02/09/2026
Designing software in 2026: - Generative AI outputs bad design slop - The bad AI designs are poor facsimiles of actually good reference designs - But, users now falsely interpret the original designs as "evidence" of careless AI usage - So, now you have to revise previously good UI patterns 🙃
1100
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 30/08/2026
Whenever something deeply stupid like this happens in software, I always wonder what went down internally. Was there a conversation in Slack about it? Was it demanded by executives? Who made the change? Did they protest? I hope the commit message was funny at least: "Rename lake (revert in 2028)"
Google Maps showing Lake America
070
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 29/08/2026
Currently considering a second career as a Pancake Plant Farmer
A pancake plant (Pilea peperomioides) with several of its baby plants in smaller separate pots
070
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 28/08/2026
Every time I think, “ok, that’s the dumbest thing that could possibly come from the President of the United States,” a new even dumber thing appears and proves me wrong again
170
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 27/08/2026
There's a new Twitter starting up, and it's worth the price of admission just for the nostalgia
Screenshot of Twitter.now
260
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 27/08/2026
all of the news this week is extremely shite. 0/10. bad stuff. would not week again.
080
Reposted by Jonas Downey
kate bush’s husband @airbagged.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
RIP TO ONE OF THE GREATEST TO EVER DO IT
89204156216
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 10/08/2026
Times when I most fantasize about quitting tech: 1. quiet sunlit mornings spent pondering the destructive effects of careless growth capitalism run amok, and mournfully reflecting on my direct personal contributions to these problems 2. trying to use Google Slides for literally anything
1201
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 01/08/2026
I've gotten really tired of reading AI writing, so I wrote a little screed about it: jonas.do/writing/2026-08-01-s...
jonas.do
Stop lending your personal credibility to AI | Jonas Downey
A small plea to literally everyone
180
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 21/07/2026
Can't decide which is weirder: 1) the endless barrage of mind-numbing AI slop posts on LinkedIn 2) the surprising amount of positive engagement on said AI slop posts
270
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 18/07/2026
If you haven't watched Phoebe Bridgers play a song with an epic band of kids, you should youtu.be/zfaVCiyyqTQ?is=J9-pn...
youtu.be
Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Boys | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Musical guest Phoebe Bridgers performs "Lost Boys" for The Tonight Show. The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Stream now on Peacock: https://bit.ly/3gZJaNy Subscribe NOW to The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: http://bit.ly/1nwT1aN Watch The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Weeknights 11:35ET/10:35c Get more The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: https://www.nbc.com/the-tonight-show JIMMY FALLON ON SOCIAL Follow Jimmy: http://Twitter.com/JimmyFallon Like Jimmy: https://Facebook.com/JimmyFallon Follow Jimmy: https://www.instagram.com/jimmyfallon/ Follow Jimmy on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@jimmyfallon Follow Jimmy on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jimmyfallon THE TONIGHT SHOW ON SOCIAL Follow The Tonight Show: http://Twitter.com/FallonTonight Like The Tonight Show: https://Facebook.com/FallonTonight Follow The Tonight Show: https://www.instagram.com/fallontonight/ Follow The Tonight Show on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@fallontonight The Tonight Show TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fallontonight The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon features hilarious highlights from the show, including comedy sketches, music parodies, celebrity interviews, ridiculous games, and, of course, Jimmy's Thank You Notes and hashtags! You'll also find behind the scenes videos and other great web exclusives. GET MORE NBC NBC YouTube: http://bit.ly/1dM1qBH Like NBC: http://Facebook.com/NBC Follow NBC: http://Twitter.com/NBC NBC Instagram: http://instagram.com/nbctv Phoebe Bridgers: Lost Boys | The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon http://www.youtube.com/fallontonight #FallonTonight #PhoebeBridgers #JimmyFallon
260
Reposted by Jonas Downey
matt sephton @gingerbeardman.com · 17/07/2026
Long time no sea: finding the seahorse emoji blog.gingerbeardman.com/2026/07/17/l... *So it wasn't a dream!* I'm really happy to have found this, and Happy World Emoji Day. 🎉
blog.gingerbeardman.com
Long time no sea: finding the seahorse emoji  ⌘I  Get Info
Happy World Emoji Day! 🎉
094
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 17/07/2026
I haven't talked much about this, but one of the gut-wrenching things about designing a weather app is thinking through various extremes and disasters. We designed these UI elements hoping that most people would never see them.
Chicago forecast with hazardous air quality and poor visibility Radar with bands of smoke
1110
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 09/07/2026
What's the most annoying software word of 2026? I'm nominating "squircle"
441
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 28/06/2026
Web friends: in 2026, what’s the best semi-friendly way to make a hand rolled website? My kid wants to get into web making, but stuff like Eleventy or Hugo feels a little advanced. Is there a beginner-level option that’s more approachable?
1042
Reposted by Jonas Downey
Hello Weather @helloweather.com · 11/06/2026
To celebrate WWDC, we’re offering 50% off one year for our iOS app! More details at @macstories.net here: www.macstories.net/sponsored/he...
macstories.net
Hello Weather: Half Off for WWDC Week, Just in Time for Summer [Sponsor]
Summer and WWDC arrive together this year, and Hello Weather is ready for both. It's one of the most beloved indie weather apps around, and right now it's half off, which makes it a great time to give...
073
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 10/06/2026
New post: a reckoning on the contradictions of working in tech, when AI is taking over everything. jonas.do/writing/2026...
jonas.do
It's hard to be good at your tech job right now | Jonas Downey
I’m writing this post because I want to say out loud what a lot of people are feeling. Working in tech during the AI transition is tough as hell.
0142
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 05/06/2026
Trying to work with Al chatbots is basically the same as being a horrible reply guy: "Actually, you're wrong" "That's a bad take" "Is this even true? What are your sources?" "This writing makes no sense" "Think harder"
0121
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 03/06/2026
I'm writing a post on what's hard about working in tech right now. (The list is long.) What are you struggling with the most?
340
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 03/06/2026
One of my favorite Internet pastimes is clicking NO on passive aggressive promotional upsells, to intentionally mess up the metrics for whatever dumb psychological conversion tricks the product team is trying to pull
Two buttons for a promotion on a wesbite:

"Yes I'm interested"
"No, I hate free stuff"
0184
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 01/05/2026
Wrote a little reflection on the current (highly chaotic) state of software design: jonas.do/writing/2026-04-22-d...
jonas.do
Designing the wrong way is finally right | Jonas Downey
Designing the wrong way is finally right
061
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 01/05/2026
words I would be ok with never hearing again agentic tokenmaxxing human in the loop generative anything involving a claw meatspace you're absolutely right —
5243
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 29/03/2026
oh hey, I'm in the New Yorker chatting about weather apps www.newyorker.com/culture/infi... (I hope you don't hate @helloweather.com though)
newyorker.com
Why You Hate Your Weather App
As the weather becomes less predictable, we need forecasts and apps that are better at telling us what we don’t know.
1170
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 14/03/2026
Green day
dyeing the Chicago river for St. Patrick’s
190
Reposted by Jonas Downey
sam henri gold @samhenri.gold · 12/03/2026
The MacBook Neo is such an interesting machine that it coaxed a thousand-word-essay out of me: samhenri.gold/blog/2026031...
samhenri.gold
“This Is Not The Computer For You” · Sam Henri Gold
Sam Henri Gold is a product design engineer building playful, useful software.
1822490
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 11/03/2026
Question for designy friends: which app or product has the most beautiful dark mode interface?
581
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 20/02/2026
Modern software needs more stuff like this. Adding a small, superfluous human touch in a few places goes such a long way. (The original Mac OS had this sort of personal character scattered all over the place, but it's been gradually squeezed out over the years.)
high fiving pals at the bottom of a very long GitHub pull request diff
1160
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 08/02/2026
I love this post about "backseat software." When software evolved into an economic engine of its own, user-centric product design got clobbered by aggressive business growth tactics. This is why so many products now feel more hostile than helpful: blog.mikeswanson.com/backseat-sof...
blog.mikeswanson.com
Backseat Software – Mike Swanson's Blog
061
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 08/02/2026
BEFORE AI: "Would it be faster to do this manual task, or to write a script to do the task for me?" AFTER AI: "Would it be faster to do this manual task, or to ask an approximation machine to solve it accurately, then proofread its inevitable messes?"
071
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 01/02/2026
Small personal news: a few weeks ago I started a new job at Superhuman, as the head of design for Superhuman Mail. Had a truly wonderful time at Figma, but have been feeling the itch to try something new. Excited to work on communication tools again (it's my happy place)
7550
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 30/01/2026
Seriously asking: what the heck happened to iOS autocorrect? I remember some point in the past when it worked properly, and now … not
280
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 30/01/2026
Catherine O’Hara is one of those few people who could turn a creative role into a higher art. Not just a comedian or actor, but someone who elevated and changed the entire idea of those things. Absolutely inspiring legend 💔
media.tenor.com
a woman in a black sequined jumpsuit is walking through a foggy forest .
ALT: a woman in a black sequined jumpsuit is walking through a foggy forest .
160
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 30/01/2026
Just tried @aeronautapp.com, a Mac app for Bluesky. It feels like being transported back to the glory days of Twitter 3rd party apps (like 2014 or so? It reminds me of Tweetie or Echofon.) Anyway, this makes Bluesky nicer. Well worth the subscription!
2210
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 24/01/2026
The brutality of all of this is absolutely horrific and unconscionable, but what really gets me is the pointlessness. None of this needs to happen for any reason whatsoever. It’s just dumb stupid brutality for the sake of it
2140
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 11/01/2026
💔
Bob Weir and Jerry Garcia together
020
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 10/01/2026
This piece is spot on. And let’s also remember that literally anyone in Musk’s orbit or anyone working at X could move to fix it, but they’re just letting this disgusting trash fester anyway
040
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 10/01/2026
I fussed around with this oddball Search tab/button pattern SO MUCH before iOS 26 came out. The new iOS design language has many different ways to accomplish similar things, and affordances are less differentiated, so it's really hard to know what's "right." ryanashcraft.com/ios-26-tab-b...
ryanashcraft.com
My Beef with the iOS 26 Tab Bar
The iOS 26 search tab looks more like an action button than a tab. That's causing problems for developers like me who want to follow Apple's guidelines.
190
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 08/01/2026
we’re here now (and we’ve been here for a while)
“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” “And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed–if all records told the same tale–then the lie passed into history and became truth.” -1984
040
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 07/01/2026
For a while I’ve felt that we’re entering the Post-Trust era of information, where skepticism becomes our default mode of consumption, since almost nothing can be believed as real at a glance.
150
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 04/01/2026
RIP feeling a tiny shred of cautious optimism about politics in the new year Jan 1, 2026 – Jan 2, 2026 it was a good run
1200
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 01/01/2026
happy canoe peer, friends
A photo of a canoe docked at a peer, also a terrible pun of “happy new year”
070
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 31/12/2025
weirdly, my resolution for 2026 is to be on social media MORE. and getting back into longform writing. (I've been on hiatus from here for a while. I needed the mental break, but I miss posting pithy bad jokes. sorry in advance)
0130
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 18/11/2025
AI assistants Politicians 🤝 unabashedly lying with false info but confidently presenting it as the truth
070
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 10/11/2025
Hello Weather is the app of the day all over the world today! Amazing to see this rolling out globally 🥹 apps.apple.com/us/story/id1...
App of the day promo art for Hello Weather
3242
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 28/10/2025
just started thinking about the film Metropolis for totally no reason at all
A screenshot from Metropolis: “The year is 2026, a Dickensian
‘best of times, worst of times,’ where total oppression and manipulation of the masses is wielded by the unquestionable power of the few.
070
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 28/10/2025
Lately I've been impressed by the volume of writing some folks are producing, and I've wondered how they're finding the time to be so prolific! Then I read the writing and remember: oh. right.
0150
Jonas Downey @jonas.do · 21/10/2025
This new option (in iOS 26.1 beta 4) is dramatically better for everything and should be the default.
Tinted glass setting
2141