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Michael Hanson

@michaelhanson.org
61 followers 110 following 100 posts

Designer at buildertrend.com. Formerly at hudl.com.

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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 30/04/2026
After a few years, I'm realizing that I don't actually like ultrawide displays. Surprising.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 29/04/2026
This looks neat! As long as it's more "Bluesky" and less "Mastodon"…
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 10/12/2025
I think @steve-yegge.bsky.social's `beads` project is super cool, but it's a little heavy for my typical usage (smaller, mostly solo projects). So I built an even simpler issue tracker. Issues are tracked in a simple YAML file. No daemons. Link issues to each other. Find ready work.
Screenshot of mint in use, in light mode, showing several issues.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 28/10/2025
Playing with some ideas for our client-facing proposal UI.
A screenshot of a Buildertrend interface, showing a job proposal. A left sidebar displays details on the proposal price and required signees. A right sidebar shows a chat where a user has asked some questions about the proposal.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 16/10/2025
Some Buildertrend command palette designs from a while ago.
Mockups of a Buildertrend command palette in several different states.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 06/10/2025
After 13 years with my HHKB Pro 2, I finally built a new keyboard.
A keyboard in the HHKB layout, with a silver case and white keycaps.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 30/09/2025
Playing with some ideas for my personal site.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 26/09/2025
Last week I wanted a larger, 4x4 pixel-ish font for a terminal-based timer I was building. So I designed this one out of Unicode full- and half-block characters. Maybe I'll wrap it up and release it as a Go and/or Typescript library.
The 26 characters of the alphabet rendered in the custom pixel font.A screenshot of the custom timer tool, in "working…" mode.A screenshot of the custom timer tool, in "break" mode.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 19/09/2025
TIL that JankyBorders allows gradients for the border color.
A screenshot of my terminal window, with a border (provided by Jankyborders) around the edge, going from yellow in the top left to red in the bottom right.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 17/09/2025
In Things on macOS, you just type to search. From anywhere. Just start typing stuff. Then hit enter, and you're at the thing. No hotkey required. It's one of my favorite interactions in any of the software that I use.
Screenshot of the search interface in Things.app on macOS, showing a search for "work" with several results below.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 10/09/2025
I built a simple command-line tool to grab YouTube transcripts. Handy if you use your coding agent for summarizing videos! github.com/mybuddymicha...
github.com
GitHub - mybuddymichael/yute: Fetch YouTube transcripts from the command line.
Fetch YouTube transcripts from the command line. Contribute to mybuddymichael/yute development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 10/09/2025
In the 300s and 400s AD, the ancient Christian church held a series of four councils, trying to define what the Bible taught about the person and nature of Jesus. Their creeds came to form what's now called the Chalcedonian Box, with each council forming one side.
A graphic representation of the Chalcedonian Box, showing "Nicea" and "Truly God" at the top, "Chalcedon" and "Two Natures" on the right, "Truly Man" and "Constantinople" on the bottom, and "One Person" and "Ephesus" on the left.A young man wearing a white t-shirt showing the Chalcedonian Box on the front.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 03/09/2025
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 02/09/2025
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 31/07/2025
My annotation component I'm using for designs in Figma.
A screenshot of an annotation component for Figma designs. There are four variations: NOTE, IDEA, TODO, and WARN.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 25/07/2025
Playing with ascii shaders in the terminal.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 21/07/2025
I built a terminal program that takes today's Things tasks and shows me two at a time, to help me figure out what I should do first. I use it every day.
Screenshot of the program in use, in light mode, showing several tasks prioritized, completed, or yet to be prioritized.Screenshot of the program in use, in dark mode, showing several tasks prioritized, completed, or yet to be prioritized.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 17/07/2025
The other night I couldn't sleep so I made a simple MCP server to let LLMs grab YouTube transcripts. Quickly get a summary, ask questions about it, etc. github.com/mybuddymicha...
A screenshot of a terminal interface. Showing the user asking an LLM to summarize the video at a YouTube URL.A screenshot of a terminal interface. Showing the LLM responding with details about a YouTube video.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 11/07/2025
The terminal.shop folks really know how to make a terminal UI. Opencode is just like Claude Code, but with a good UI.
terminal.shop
wip: terminal (initial commit)
Delicious Brazilian coffee, ethically sourced, and roasted to perfection • Order via your terminal • ssh terminal.shop
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 10/07/2025
I'm increasingly convinced that terminal UIs are the last remaining bastion of good, fast, reliable software.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 20/06/2025
why is coding with agents so addicting
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 16/06/2025
I'm using dictation more and more on my Mac. My first instinct was that speed is the most important quality, but I'm increasingly realizing that accuracy is way more important than speed.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 06/06/2025
About once a week, I'll remember that Mike Matas once built a neural network in Quartz Composer. www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUE...
youtube.com
The Brain: A neural network built entirely in Quartz Composer
Here's a demo of a new thing I made in my spare time called the Brain. It's an easy to use neural network built entirely in Quartz Composer. You teach it thi...
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 05/06/2025
Jujutsu (jj) feels like the Git front end for the agentic era. It's so easy to just explore directions, experiment with things, backtrack, move commits around…
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 28/05/2025
Working on a Time Timer-esque app.
A screenshot of a timer app, showing an orangish-red partial circle that is counting down minutes. 42 minutes are remaining on the timer.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 23/05/2025
I finally set things up so I can build for iOS without running Xcode. And now I'm at, approximately… 50% of the joy I feel when building for the web. 🫠
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 28/04/2025
Proposal builder idea.
Mockup of a home renovation proposal builder. Left sidebar offers style choices (Standard, Classic, Technical) and content additions (Text, Image, Scope, etc.). Main panel previews page 1 of a 'Riverbend Custom Homebuilders' proposal with a house image, logo, and contract details. Right panel shows thumbnail previews of the document pages.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 02/04/2025
A constant problem for me with @figma.com: I have repetitive elements (like list items), so I make a component. But then I duplicate the top-level frame and want to edit the repetitive elements on this new frame without changing the old one. How?
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Reposted by Michael Hanson
Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 15/11/2024
Working on some tables and row highlighting.
A mockup of a table UI containing line items for a home remodel estimate.A close-up view of a table containing line items for a home remodel estimate. In the center of the view is a color picker for changing the color of the line item group.
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Reposted by Michael Hanson
Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 19/11/2024
Project proposal UI details.
A screenshot of part of a user interface for a proposal document builder. It shows a column with options for style settings, adding objects to the proposal such as text, images, videos, tables, PDFs, and maps. An additional section lets the user choose which clients to send the proposal two. On the right, a preview of the document is partially displayed.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 17/03/2025
Playing with ideas for estimates using Monte Carlo simulations.
A mobile interface for a project estimating tool. It shows several line items, each having a minimum cost and a maximum cost. At the bottom of the primary view is a range for the likely cost. A second screen shows the UI for adding a new line item. A line item can have a title, a price range, and a likely price that can either be on the low end, in the middle, or on the high end.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 15/03/2025
I keep looking, but WhisperType for macOS is the best dictation app I've found yet. It's almost exactly what I would build if I built something myself. I don't understand how it's so fast and accurate.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 13/03/2025
Hey @figma.com! Help me out by letting me jump to whatever file and page a teammate is currently looking at (across all of Figma!). Pasting Figma links in chat is getting old! 😅
A mockup of Figma's "quick action" UI, showing a hypothetical action to jump to a teammate's location across all of Figma.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 13/03/2025
In my experience, LLMs are amazing at the first 90% of a software project, and really bad at the second 90%.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 04/03/2025
Recent sidebar explorations.
Three variations of an estimate worksheet sidebar design. The sidebar includes various actions: Unlock, Send to Budget, Download, Group, Sort, Filter, Add item, Add group, Open takeoff, and Import. The bottom shows a price and cost breakdown.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 21/02/2025
vibe coding vibe designing vibe reading vibe eating vibe sleeping
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 12/02/2025
I feel like I've yet to find a use case where I prefer reasoning models to Sonnet 3.5. But maybe I'm just holding it wrong?
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 12/02/2025
I love this visualization of working memory by @wattenberger.com. Also, "As a new parent, I have a smaller window than most." 😂 Amen!
A screenshot of a section of an essay by Amelia Wattenberger, describing working memory and visualizing thoughts becoming fuzzy as they get farther out from our focus.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 02/01/2025
It's hard to overstate how useful Raycast is. Every day I find something delightfully helpful. Today I created a new AI command that writes shell commands for me.
A screenshot of Raycast showing a "Create a shell command" action in-use.An image of the prompt for the AI quick action, explaining the expected behaviors and desired output.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 06/12/2024
I love making Quicklinks for key Figma files. And they open right in Figma! No browser tab necessary!
A screenshot of Raycast, showing the details of a quicklink to a Figma file called "Design review Figma".
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 05/12/2024
Making some diagrams today.
Two diagrams indicating how options within proposals might flow back into a homebuilder's estimate.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 05/12/2024
There’s no greater optimism than creating yet another GitHub repo.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 03/12/2024
I love a good quality-of-life update!
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 02/12/2024
Where's the notes app that understands my voice ramblings and automatically connects my scattered ideas?
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 02/12/2024
One of my favorite practices at Buildertrend is requiring designers to share an end-of-the-week update. I often get to the end of each day and think, "I hardly got anything done!" But when I reflect on a whole week, I often think, "I sure got a lot done!" Feels so good.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 26/11/2024
I love this. And it reminds me of @danmorenooo.bsky.social’s three questions he asks himself: 1. Does it work? 2. Is it as simple as it can be? 3. Am I proud to put it out in the world? Similar to #3: Could I put this on my wall? (I think I heard these on his Dive Club interview?)
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 22/11/2024
My current personal checklist for every design.
An image of the items in my current personal checklist for every design. Each item is paired with an icon: Entry and exit points, Possible interactions, Sub-views, Creating and removing entities, Editing entities, Components and design system, Smaller viewports, Success states, Errors and failure states, Empty states, Performance impact, In-product feedback, Accessibility, and Onboarding.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 21/11/2024
Practice today was redrawing @adamwhitcroft.bsky.social's beautiful Multi icon in Figma.
Adam Whitcroft's original app icon for Multi. It shows a 3D cursor shape, with a multi-colored glow underneath, hovering over a transparent paper and a blueprint document.A Figma redrawing of the app icon for Multi. It shows a 3D cursor shape, with a multi-colored glow underneath, hovering over a transparent paper and a blueprint document.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 20/11/2024
I love Lucide. And try this: 1. Grab the Lucide Raycast extension. 2. Search for an icon (hit ⌘F to search with AI, if needed). 3. ⌘⏎ (copy SVG). 4. Paste it into your Figma docs for a little spice!
The Raycast macOS app, showing the user searching for "lucide". The top option, "Search Icons" is highlighted.The Raycast Lucide extension in use, showing a grid of various icons.A screenshot of some documentation in Figma, labeled "State change triggers" with a Lucide lightning bolt icon adjacent to the header text.
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Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 20/11/2024
Some recent diagrams.
A screenshot of several diagrams, each showing a way of handling a problem in the product.
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