iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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.

100

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.

000

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.

000

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.

010

Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 30/09/2025

Playing with some ideas for my personal site.

000

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.

100

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.

100

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.

000

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.

000

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.

010

Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 25/07/2025

Playing with ascii shaders in the terminal.

100

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.

100

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.

000

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.

000

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.

010

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.

010

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.

110

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.

1131

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.

020

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".

040

Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 22/11/2024

My current personal checklist for every design.

020

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.

020

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.

040

Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 19/11/2024

Because this tweet has lived rent-free in my head since you posted it.

A Tweet by Aleks that says, "My designs in figma vs my designs in production". With it is an image of a cool and casual Mark Zuckerberg adjacent to an image of a terrifying, robot-looking Zuckerberg wearing a suit.

110

Michael Hanson @michaelhanson.org · 19/11/2024

An icon I designed for Alacritty (alacritty.org).

A screenshot of three app icons in a row, with the left and right icons cut off at the edges of the screenshot. The middle icon depicts and orange and yellow caret shape, on a dark background, with a white and blue diamond shape in the lower-center part of the icon.

010

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.

011