D&T Issue 35

Hi there!

We hope you’ve have a splendid year end and first few days of the new decade, in this time we’ve noticed that while Google worker unions seemed to be appearing, Jack Ma seems to have completely disappeared!

We’ve got some good reads for you so let’s jump right in.

Although the once hyper-famous facebook game Farmville was discontinued permanently this past Thursday, its legacy will live on in almost all digital products around us.

Did you know that a crucial portion of the lunar space mission planning included figuring out containment and prevention of human pathogens landing up on the lunar surface? A particularly pertinent read for the times.

This year, technology firms big and small stepped up to help with the Covid-19 pandemic and other thorny challenges. Here are some of the best things that can be solely attributed to tech.

A detailed look into how bad the ‘Solar Winds’ hack really is for the US and the world at large, and what it exposes with regards to the state of cyber security.

Read all about DALL·E, a neural network that creates images from text captions for a wide range of concepts expressible in natural language.

MIT review sheds light on the most high profile space missions upcoming this year, and interestingly so, adding in their personal scores for potential success for each one of these missions.

An interesting and intertwined story about the author, Ray Holt, Mr. Holt’s brothers relationship with the author’s mother, and how they all relate to the F14 supersonic jet plane.

‘without having to code’ is a selling proposition used by a large number of very successful companies that help delivery fully designed products for web without the development hassle. this is generally a good thing but not when it comes to what a designer should know or expect prior to delving into product design as a full blown professional. Rules to systems and code are a necessary element not only in creating design that works but also in producing particularly good looking design.

The newsletter service is a software company that, by mimicking some of the functions of newsrooms, has made itself difficult to categorise.

Can perception affect the quality of the product over the actual reality of the product? A UX strategist talks about the value of a products perception over the factual value it brings to a users life.

If you’ve missed the new CIA branding, then you’re in for a treat in the subject of irony. The new CIA brand guidelines follow sleek and minimal lines with bold and minimalistic fonts, akin to a world class digital agency trying to do good work only (they promise) Check out their website to get more details on the update.

Designers always have a certain set of biases in mind to have a structured and data backed approach to product building. But what do you do when these biases pan out to become universally accepted norms? This article delves into some dispositional biases and what designers can do to make informed decisions.

In product design, the one most ignored and yet crucial piece to the puzzle is the content. With dry content comes a boring and lifeless product, so much so that it can make even the most well designed products seem like a husk.

Here’s the central idea behind the Github homepage re-design and how the Github globe came about. Seems suspiciously similar to the stripe globe.