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Unsung

@unsung.aresluna.org
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Links to new posts at Unsung, a blog about software craft and quality. Comments/replies are welcome! unsung.aresluna.org

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Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 8h
“Have conviction in what you want to share with the world.” Marques Brownlee published a video commenting on YouTube’s just announced A:B testing feature. In short, for some creators, it will be possible to publish a slightly different version of the…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Have conviction in what you want to share with the world.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 23h
The left hand should know what the right hand is doing One day, as I was reading an essay on Medium, I saw an automatically inserted subscribe block…
unsung.aresluna.org
The left hand should know what the right hand is doing – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 30/09/2026
A hacker’s guide to bending the universe Continuing the theme of software fixes for hardware problems, here’s an essay I wrote in 2016 about a broken computer display that I “fixed” as a teenager, just because I…
unsung.aresluna.org
A hacker’s guide to bending the universe – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 30/09/2026
Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards In my recent visits to German and Polish museums, I noticed a recurring theme: modular industrial dashboards, which I imagine have by now been all replaced by software…
unsung.aresluna.org
Before pixels: Modular industrial dashboards – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
001
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 29/09/2026
Book review: What Can A Body Do? ★★★★☆
unsung.aresluna.org
Book review: What Can A Body Do? – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 28/09/2026
Arc’s good keyboard shortcuts As someone who’s been a keyboard shortcut tzar at a few companies, I developed a certain kinship with the unknown and unnamed others who have the same job elsewhere. It’s…
unsung.aresluna.org
Arc’s good keyboard shortcuts – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 28/09/2026
A loading state within a loading state One of the classic parables about loading goes as follows…
unsung.aresluna.org
A loading state within a loading state – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
001
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 27/09/2026
“I’m especially proud of the 1e+9 duration.” I liked this post by Roel Nieskens, about
unsung.aresluna.org
“I’m especially proud of the 1e+9 duration.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 27/09/2026
“First, don’t interfere with user input.” In response to a previous post, one of the readers wrote this…
unsung.aresluna.org
“First, don’t interfere with user input.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
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Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 26/09/2026
“But it looks like a lot less work than we had to do.” I wrote recently, about macOS, “it’s hard when the operating system cedes its responsibilities to provide good design patterns,” and Mac developer Brent Simmons in a recent essay shares a…
unsung.aresluna.org
“But it looks like a lot less work than we had to do.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 26/09/2026
“I didn’t know about this shortcut until recently.” On his fascinating and long-running Windows dev blog The Old New Thing, Raymond Chen writes about the story of scrollbar right-click menus…
unsung.aresluna.org
“I didn’t know about this shortcut until recently.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 25/09/2026
“Hey, this isn’t your father’s 737.” À propos the previous post, wanted to share a 2019 article by Gregory Travis about the two Boeing 737 Max disasters that shook the world in late 2018 and early…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Hey, this isn’t your father’s 737.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 24/09/2026
“Apple has developed an unexpected workaround.” From The Verge…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Apple has developed an unexpected workaround.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 24/09/2026
“I want to release it, even if the quality would be a little lower.” In 1996, Street Fighter Alpha 2 was ported onto Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a 1990 machine on its way out and not really up to the task of running such…
unsung.aresluna.org
“I want to release it, even if the quality would be a little lower.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 22/09/2026
Interesting web design moments Here are a few nice and interesting design decisions I spotted on various websites in the last months…
unsung.aresluna.org
Interesting web design moments – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
010
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 22/09/2026
“This also introduces new questions.” Designer Reimar Servas goes further than the usual Border Radius Discourse and thinks about the deeper but often ignored questions of border radii as a system, and about the consequences…
unsung.aresluna.org
“This also introduces new questions.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 22/09/2026
YNAB’s pocket change A fun lil convention from the financial app YNAB’s release notes page – there is always a headlining feature with a hero shot and a long description, but the smaller…
unsung.aresluna.org
YNAB’s pocket change – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
020
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 21/09/2026
Who undoes the undoers Just as there is a ticking bomb built into cut/⌘X – if you cut something, and then cut something else again without a paste in between, you overwrite the clipboard…
unsung.aresluna.org
Who undoes the undoers – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
010
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 19/09/2026
“I love it because it’s a bit messy, and not everything lines up perfectly.” Completely unrelated to software, but sometimes stepping outside is what’s needed to develop perspective and find creative solutions – this is Practical Engineering’s video about the many electrical plugs and…
unsung.aresluna.org
“I love it because it’s a bit messy, and not everything lines up perfectly.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
001
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 19/09/2026
CleanShot’s bulldozed settings In a recent post, Jim Nielsen used the term “bulldozing of an interface”…
unsung.aresluna.org
CleanShot’s bulldozed settings – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
001
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 18/09/2026
Key symbols we lost to time, pt. 2: The Mac side The relationship between keyboard manufacturers and standards bodies in various countries is so complex I barely understand a snippet of it…
unsung.aresluna.org
Key symbols we lost to time, pt. 2: The Mac side – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 18/09/2026
My design bookshelves Inspired by a conversation with a friend, I made a mini site that’s an interactive representation of my design bookshelves…
unsung.aresluna.org
My design bookshelves – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 17/09/2026
“Insert your favorite nursery rhyme.” Make Some Noise is one of many fantastic improv comedy shows on Dropout. I noticed one of the ongoing themes is “tech gone bad,” so I compiled a short list…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Insert your favorite nursery rhyme.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 16/09/2026
“59.94Hz is standard on televisions in North America.” A big screen carries with it different UI expectations, and how that manifests itself in Apple TV’s Settings app, is that there’s always room for an additional hint about the…
unsung.aresluna.org
“59.94Hz is standard on televisions in North America.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 15/09/2026
Not everything needs to be a round rect For the many early years of its existence, Chrome sported a pretty distinctive – perhaps even iconic? – look to its tabs…
unsung.aresluna.org
Not everything needs to be a round rect – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 15/09/2026
“But, as we all know, the individual light bulbs are not moving.” I linked to palette cycling before, and I was just reminded of palette cycling art by Mark Ferrari, who back in the 1990s made 30+ landscapes that looked like this…
unsung.aresluna.org
“But, as we all know, the individual light bulbs are not moving.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
001
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 15/09/2026
“Tuned to the particular typing mistakes to which Teitelman was prone” Recently, I asked on social media, “Is there a UX design equivalent to this?”, and attached this photo…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Tuned to the particular typing mistakes to which Teitelman was prone” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 14/09/2026
“Redesigned callouts to be less visually chaotic.” Three nice moments in Buttondown’s (pretty comprehensive) release notes…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Redesigned callouts to be less visually chaotic.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
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Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 13/09/2026
“Act now, apologize later” Fighting games require rather precise timing: the action is frenetic, the inputs rapid, and the outcomes can be determined by what players do down to – sometimes – individual one-sixtieth-of-a-second…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Act now, apologize later” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 12/09/2026
Nova’s menu wayfinding From its earliest days, Macs established an interesting convention – whenever you press a keyboard shortcut to an action that’s somewhere in the app menu, the matching top menu label…
unsung.aresluna.org
Nova’s menu wayfinding – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 12/09/2026
“Sweet, a whole website of video game menus” The Game UI Database is a website that covers the interfaces of almost 2,000 via over 75,000 screenshots…
unsung.aresluna.org
“Sweet, a whole website of video game menus” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
021
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 11/09/2026
Key symbols we lost to time, pt. 1: The PC side Various old computers had their keyboards adorned with unique symbols. Companies like Commodore, Atari, Amiga, or even – in its previous life – Apple chose to put their company logos…
unsung.aresluna.org
Key symbols we lost to time, pt. 1: The PC side – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
010
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 11/09/2026
Fingers don’t look around Buttondown, a newsletter publisher, has a pretty standard CSS editor in its web app. You can edit the code and whenever you make any change, you can then press the…
unsung.aresluna.org
Fingers don’t look around – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
010
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 10/09/2026
“A great look at the destructive power of an uncaught Infinity value” There are two distinct flavors of speedrunning…
unsung.aresluna.org
“A great look at the destructive power of an uncaught Infinity value” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 08/09/2026
Anthony Hobday’s design references Anthony Hobday is a product designer and I like his approach of cataloging and sharing references on his website. Here are some choice pages…
unsung.aresluna.org
Anthony Hobday’s design references – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 08/09/2026
DaisyDisk’s onboarding Any Mac app that has to ask for system permissions has its work cut out for it. In a previous post I showed “the MacCharlie method,” which looked like this…
unsung.aresluna.org
DaisyDisk’s onboarding – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 07/09/2026
Unsung Heroes: Super Sprint I know, I know. I’m supposed to say iPod’s click wheel, or the Western Electric 500 rotary dial, or maybe the first Nest…
unsung.aresluna.org
Unsung Heroes: Super Sprint – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
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Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 06/09/2026
“…and at that point it stops being a system.” A few nice moments that caught my attention in Marek Minor’s case study of designing icons for Cursor…
unsung.aresluna.org
“…and at that point it stops being a system.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 06/09/2026
Ivory’s account switching Ivory is a Mastodon client, and their account switcher has a few interesting mechanics…
unsung.aresluna.org
Ivory’s account switching – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 05/09/2026
Responsive text and code Many years ago, I put together a quick proposal of what I called “responsive text” for social proof…
unsung.aresluna.org
Responsive text and code – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
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Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 05/09/2026
Don’t show again (Taylor’s version) An interesting take from a screen annotation app ScreenBrush – instead of a standard “don’t show again” checkbox modifying a button, it shows two buttons as a fork in a…
unsung.aresluna.org
Don’t show again (Taylor’s version) – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 05/09/2026
Got your back, pt. 8 A nice moment in iOS – even if you delete an app, you might still be on the hook for its subscription, so the operating system shows this right after…
unsung.aresluna.org
Got your back, pt. 8 – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 04/09/2026
Unsung @ 500: Behind the scenes A few people recently asked about my writing and publication process, so this post is for anyone who’s interested in that…
unsung.aresluna.org
Unsung @ 500: Behind the scenes – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 04/09/2026
Unsung @ 500: Nine design details Clicking or tapping on Newsletter or About links just above reveals the options in small drawers underneath, hopefully making it easier to engage without having to deal with new page…
unsung.aresluna.org
Unsung @ 500: Nine design details – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 04/09/2026
Unsung @ 500: The new design Unless you’re reading via RSS, welcome to Unsung’s new livery!
unsung.aresluna.org
Unsung @ 500: The new design – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
001
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 03/09/2026
“I would be very happy to see all kinds of text editors adopt this.” Speaking of cut in File Explorer, Will McGugan, creator of the writing editor Ishmael, proposes doing the same thing for text editing – that is, leaving ghost text behind…
unsung.aresluna.org
“I would be very happy to see all kinds of text editors adopt this.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 03/09/2026
Windows does it better, pt. 3: Cut in File Explorer Dragging and dropping files with your mouse in the Finder is nice, but there are many moments you wanna reach for the keyboard instead. Finder supports that. You dragged the…
unsung.aresluna.org
Windows does it better, pt. 3: Cut in File Explorer – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
010
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 02/09/2026
“A tricky problem I had to be thoughtful about.” Phones grow big and their top edges inch closer and closer toward the horizon. Over time, iOS and apps moved some of the important surfaces to the bottom (for better…
unsung.aresluna.org
“A tricky problem I had to be thoughtful about.” – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 01/09/2026
The secrets of your menus I’m curious if you know of this pattern that existed for as long as I remember…
unsung.aresluna.org
The secrets of your menus – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
000
Unsung @unsung.aresluna.org · 31/08/2026
The Swiss Cheese model, pt. 3 After two more serious posts in this series, I wanted to stop somewhere a bit more lighthearted and inconsequential…
unsung.aresluna.org
The Swiss Cheese model, pt. 3 – Unsung
A blog about software craft and quality
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