🚀 Issue 718 is out! This week: → True design is better than new design → Japanese letterforms → The fundamentals problem → Six key components of UX strategy → Slots in design systems → Designing Perplexity and more. Read it here 👉 heydesigner.com/newsletter/t...

Product People Actually Want 📗 @antonsten.com Learn how to focus on what users actually need, communicate design decisions effectively, and build products that solve real problems. Added to the library links.1984.design/books — #designsky

Products People Actually Want just went live on Amazon. Started as frustrated notes about watching teams build things nobody wanted. Now it's something you can leave on your desk or give to that colleague who keeps adding features instead of talking to users. www.antonsten.com/books/produc...

En jävla pangtext av @karinp.bsky.social! www.aftonbladet.se/kultur/a/QMd...

"If I'd asked people what they wanted, they'd have said faster horses." This quote gets used to justify skipping user research. But the real problem is the question itself. "What do you want?" is terrible research.

One of my readers asked me something I hadn't put into words yet: "How has design changed from showing what technology can do to actually serving individual needs?" Short answer: We've moved from "look what this can do" to "here's what this can do for you."

AI will confidently fill in all the blanks in your thinking. The problem? Those blanks are where the real design work happens. If you don't know what your customers want, AI will happily make it up for you. That doesn't mean it's right. www.antonsten.com/articles/ai-...

It’s never been easier to launch a product. AI, no-code, tools everywhere. But the hard part hasn’t changed: Building something people actually want. That’s what my new book is about. Products People Actually Want — out now www.antonsten.com/books/produc...

I can't wait for Bluesky to acquire Ueno 2.0 #designsky

How to stand out, when anyone can use AI to build anything? For @antonsten.comSten, most people go for “how do we build this”, instead of asking “what should be built that people actually want?”. This leads to a situation, where, most new apps and products, solve, fake problems.

Anyone can build an app in an afternoon now. But people changed the question from "how do we build this?" to "what do we build next?", without asking if people actually want it. The result? An explosion of products that work fine but solve problems that don't exist. www.antonsten.com/articles/how...

While getting feedback on my new book, Maureen asked a question that got me thinking: "You mentioned you see yourself as an introvert - what does leading a team look like for you? How do you manage your energy levels?"

I'm using Claude to edit an old e-book and update some references. But why do I feel like I'm cheating on ChatGPT?

Three years ago, I got a cold email from Matthew Woo and thought, “Maybe a 6-month project.” Fast forward—I’m still here. I wrote about what’s made this the longest I’ve ever stayed with one company (on purpose): www.antonsten.com/articles/fro...

We've been growing fast lately, and we're growing the Ghost team to keep up! Still looking for more staff-level product engineers to come and work with us full-time on open source:

One design across all devices is great, but what I'd really want is for Apple Music on my Mac to pick up where I left off on Apple Music on my phone (like Spotify does). #wwdc25

Slowing down doesn’t always mean falling behind. Sometimes it’s the only way to see what you’d otherwise miss. I wrote about designing outdoors, friction, and the value of working differently. → www.antonsten.com/articles/tin...

I keep thinking about something @henryy.bsky.social said in this interview (www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhJ3...) about different types of designers. Out of the three he mentions, I’ve lived through two.

Is anyone still using Dot? Are they still working on it? new.computer/dot

What’s the best app for sleep tracking on Apple Watch?

I haven't seen this feature work this well in @figma.com before 👏

@bryanmanio.com linked out to your latest blog post in my last newsletter! Love the idea of public bookmarks

Too many designers get pushed into management before they’ve gone deep in the work. But the best leaders? They still know how to move things around on the canvas. Wrote some thoughts on why craft comes first → www.antonsten.com/articles/gre...

We ran a design sprint — without the sprint. Instead of cramming everything into 5 days, we talked to users before building anything. Prototypes were scrappy. Turns out, ugly prototypes = better feedback. And slowing down = faster progress. www.antonsten.com/articles/des...

One. More. Point. #liverpool

The Pitt 🥰💔🥹😭🥺❤️‍🩹

Why is prompting so hard? Because it’s the same muscle as writing and design — figuring out what you really mean. Prompting is a design skill. It’s just one we haven’t practiced enough yet. www.antonsten.com/articles/why...

Just launched a new site. First time I (mostly) built one myself since my Geocities (IYKYK) days. Wrote about why prompting might be the next big skill for designers. → www.antonsten.com/articles/des... Would love to hear if you’re thinking about this too.

If you see this, post a beach photo from your phone

Free business idea: Help European tech startups build strong, standout brands. I was browsing european-alternatives.eu/alternative-... and noticed how so many startups still look… dated at best, and downright unprofessional at worst.

I really want to get into journaling in a notebook but then there’s this other part of my brain that kicks in: ” but you won’t be able to get any data out of it if it’s on paper”. Please send help.

🔥✨🔥✨

I'm too late to brag about it, but I finally did it, I deleted my twitter account ✌️

@avanza.se planer på att låta kunder lägga order direkt i appen på brittiska aktier inom snar framtid?

Heading to London next weekend together with an 8-year old. What should we do?

Might need some PTO to process Severance season finale

@bjornfiner.bsky.social stark igenkänning i din beskrivning av Mandelmans! 🤝🏼

I've played around with Lovable, Bolt, V0 - but also Cursor. It'll be interesting to see when these come closer to one another. Right now the first group is great for OK results starting from a visual, Cursor seems to write better code but isn't able to interpret visuals as good.

We need more dancing Pedro Pascal. 10/10 ad www.youtube.com/watch?v=urTf...

How it started / How it's going

Guess you can’t do polls yet on Bluesky so just asking: Is RSS important to you? Why, why not?

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of speaking again at Ivey Business School. Want to learn about my approach to product design? I've turned that talk into a blog post! www.antonsten.com/articles/the...

Niche question but if you have the Apple Studio Display and cheaped out (like me) and not got the adjustable height stand, what do you use to get it at a good height? (Or do you just keep it on your table)

44 🎉

I love seeing this

Giving talks to business students is a lot of fun until you arrive at the day when you're speaking and because you're in Sweden and they're on the West Coast US, you give the talk at midnight 😴 Coming up in 9 minutes!

Gentle reminder of how to get rich. (Hint: *slowly*)