OSTA/ULTA
My way of thinking about long-term habit building
Blog
Here are all my articles on design, UX, magic, art, gardening, philosophy and more.
If you’re interested in my academic writing, as part of my degrees at Oxford and the Open Universtiy, click here.
Start here
Designing complex desktop interfaces
Defining what a desktop interface is, and principles and tactics when designing one
Using voice principles and a tone map to write consistently
Good design involves thinking systematically. Here we look at two systems for writing consistently: tone maps & voice principles.
Conducting design research for startups
Here’s what you need to know about conducting design research for an early-stage startup.
Become a business-aware designer
Five things you need to know to have a bigger impact.
How I crowdfunded my book on Kickstarter
A summary of my crowdfunding campaign for VANISH.
2025
Ten Years of The Session
Reflections a decade after my first magic convention
2023
Ten Menu Bar Apps I Can’t Live Without
An update to the list for 2024
Find the design career you genuinely love
Use this free design-thinking career planning framework
My problem with variables in Figma
Sharing design files or handing them off is opaque
I'm not over my phone... yet.
Reframing my relationship with my phone
My magic gig setup
Looking at what's in my gig bag (and where it lives in my jacket pockets) when I perform at magic gigs.
2022
Creating an effective design system using the DS Canvas
A new one-page tool to help designers champion the value of using a design system.
Speaking at PUSH UX in Munich
My experience of speaking at PUSH UX's 10th anniversary conference in Munich.
2021
How to use Chrome’s new ‘Follow’ button
Update your website with the future of RSS feeds
Presenting back UX findings so that people actually care
Here’s what you need to know about presenting back your findings and insights
Build a free writer’s portfolio with Carrd
Free to do and takes less than 15 minutes
The best new features in ProtoPie 5.5
ProtoPie gets realistic scrubbing, Apple Silicon support, robust shortcuts more
Must-have Menu Bar apps
I recently got a new Macbook for work, and these are some of the first apps I installed.
Seven books to improve your UX writing
Words, when used well, are one of the most powerful design tools you have. These books will make you a better writer.
How do you define art?
Fourteen short definitions I’ve collected
Andrew Huang’s Secret to Productivity
Four takes is all you need.
How to develop your design eye
Being a good designer is different to having a good eye for design. Here's why.
How to use interactive components in Figma
Interactive components have just launched in Figma (in beta)! Here's how to use them.
How to convert an idea into a business
Using the lean startup canvas
Why you should talk to yourself
Looking at what the experts say
When’s the best time to audio journal?
Looking at what time of day is best to audio journal
Learning to write commercially
My writing used to be vague. Now it's clear, concise and commercial. Here's what I learnt.
Prototyping the iOS navigation bar in ProtoPie
A tutorial showing how to recreate the iOS navigation bar interaction in ProtoPie
How audio journaling helps my meditation
A look at how my meditation practice is improved by keeping a regular audio journal.
Audio journaling vs bullet journaling
I look at the pros and cons of these two ways of keeping a journal.
2020
More great personal websites
11 incredible personal websites and portfolios for inspiration.
Three times we dropped app features
A lookback at our focus on MVP during app development
Headspace’s multi-platform strategy
Here’s where their new direction is taking them
Audio journaling using the iOS Voice Memos app
Looking at some problems we've found when using it.
The big mistake Quibi made
Quibi's shutting down. They made one big mistake. Here's what it was.
Friction in journaling
Our way of making journaling easy again.
The Tony Hsieh challenge
What can you create that will change the world?
Auto Layout 3.0 in Figma
A look at the expected new features from Figma's latest update to Auto Layout.
Testing your startup idea
The importance of testing, and three way we tested Sound Off.
Low-fi app screens to study/relax to
An introduction to low-fidelity app design.
Get started with Variants in Figma
An introduction to the latest feature in Figma.
Reserve the name of your app on the iOS app store
A quick guide to reserving the name of your app on the app store
Start with a make-believe product
Aka, the Gospel of thinking in MVPs.
Guitar meditation
My shotcut into a meditative state.
I quit my job. Here’s what’s next...
Leaving my job at AND Digital during a global pandemic to start a startup.
Four notes on Silence
Thoughts on our relationship with silence.
Trick yourself into starting
Motivation, running, selling a book and tricking yourself into starting (which is the hardest bit.)
Visions 2020
My talk at Product Tank about nailing your product vision.
Erosion
Reflections on wearing away.
The loss of certainty
Lots of things are vanishing. Our collective idea of certainty is the latest.
These are my favourite personal websites
A quick curated roundup of my top sixteen personal / portfolio websites from developers and product designers.
What to read to get you through the pandemic
I’ve found it hard to process the lockdown. Here’s what I’ve been reading to help me with it.
Do U(X) believe in magic?
A talk by Paavan about the intersection of magic and user experience design.
2019
Seven Sick Books I Read This Year
Here's seven books I read this year that are real sick. For UX designers, product managers and anyone else!
Hills: the best framework for determining where to go
A Hill is a framework from the IBM Design Thinking Toolkit that is used to focus a product around the value that it delivers.
Openers when performing magic
Looking at opening tricks when doing magic at a close-up gig
The Neat Review
I wrote an essay for Volume 1 of The Neat Review
Facilitation Skills 101
An overview of the role of a facilitator in a workshop
Redesigning the NHS Blood Donation app
Case study of a UI Redesign of the NHS Blood Donation app
Startup Weekend 2019
Overview of what Startup Weekend is and how our team won.
Rebranding the world’s biggest ski trip
An overview of the work that went into designing Varsity Trip 2018
2018
How Kant solved one of the greatest dilemmas
An overview to Kant's theory of cognition
My master’s thesis
The introduction to my Master’s thesis on theories of representation
‘The Garden’ at Future Fest 2018
An overview of my experience at FutureFest 2018.
2017
The Third Rule of Magic
The rules of magic I made at Long Lake Camp, and a look at why magic is real
The Lottery Illusion
My take on the lottery illusion
Quotes on Magic
Building a random quote website
Earth Action Day
An overview of Earth Action Day by Advaya Initiative in May 2017