Anthony Hobday

I think and write about interface design more than most. Email or find me on X.

14 side projects

  1. Visual design rules you can safely follow
  2. Complementary, an interface design podcast I co-host
  3. A YouTube channel where I review website designs
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  1. Quick start guides to interface design topics
  2. A collection of visual design techniques
  3. A list of every visual design concept
  4. A list of every interaction design concept
  5. Interviews about visual design
  6. Anonymous interviews with designers
  7. Background/container colour combinations you can use
  8. Quotes about design
  9. Notes on design books
  10. Breakdowns of well-designed interfaces
  11. Sample copy you can practice visual design with

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68 blog posts

  1. Practical design resources
  2. Companies with dedicated quality efforts
  3. Beliefs about quality I want to disprove
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  1. Defensible visual design
  2. Universal creative techniques
  3. Bold visual styles are hard to use
  4. A designer group interview
  5. What I’d put in an interface design museum
  6. A practical career approach for generalist designers
  7. Cynical advice for designers
  8. What defines a visual style
  9. Style choices that make visual design harder
  10. How to choose between design options
  11. When it’s safe to copy something
  12. Factors of good animation
  13. Interface quality of life improvements
  14. How I think about novelty
  15. Levels of complexity in website design
  16. How I think about quality
  17. Non-interface factors that affect interface design
  18. Uncommon but useful design terms
  19. A critique of the Linear website
  20. Short design books I recommend
  21. A list of every interaction design book
  22. How I define “interface design”
  23. How interfaces change with frequency of use
  24. Why designers don’t talk about interface design
  25. The website visual design hall of fame
  26. Evidence that designers don’t talk about visual design
  27. Others’ classification of software design
  28. Ways that software design is different
  29. My definitions of “beauty” and “taste”
  30. The four universal signals of quality
  31. Classical and expressive aesthetics
  32. Foundations of the visual design skillset
  33. Types of elements in visual design
  34. Visual design exercises
  35. The six layers of interaction design
  36. Evidence that quality is impossible at scale
  37. The five purposes of elements in visual design
  38. The ways software competes
  39. Things I learned about visual design
  40. Levels of visual design inspiration
  41. Why quality is impossible at scale
  42. The twelve interaction design spectrums
  43. Where novel visual styles come from
  44. The benefits of software quality
  45. Tensions in interface design
  46. A critique of the Stripe website
  47. Factors of a good interface designer
  48. How to look impressive without impressive projects or past jobs
  49. The seventeen spectrums that define software “type”
  50. The best WWDC videos about interface design
  51. Common problems with design career advice
  52. Signs that an organisation values interface design
  53. Types of pattern in design
  54. The building blocks of visual design
  55. The twelve types of contrast in visual design
  56. The six signals of quality in software
  57. A list of every visual design book
  58. The five purposes of visual design
  59. The thirteen visual design spectrums
  60. The eight purposes of colour in visual design
  61. All possible parts of the design interview process
  62. The five minute design curriculum
  63. My design principles
  64. What outsiders look for in a good designer
  65. The six layers of visual design

6 books

  1. How to improve your visual design
  2. What is good interaction and visual design?
  3. What is simple web design?
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  1. What is good craftspersonship?
  2. Come up with design ideas alone
  3. Design interesting one-column websites

3 case studies

  1. Here are some examples of my visual design practice.
  2. I designed a collaboration feature for the Beauhurst platform (2022).
  3. I designed an app to encourage people to eat in a planet-friendly way (2021).

5 appearances

  1. I was interviewed by Dive Club.
  2. I taught a class on interface design principles for Hyper Island.
  3. I wrote a guest post for the Learn UI Design blog.
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  1. I did a Q&A with UX Talks.
  2. I was interviewed on Design Discipline.

2 other interests

  1. I run Before I Play, a video game tip wiki.
  2. I design solo tabletop RPGs.