Time

grouping content by time is one of the most likely way information is organized.
example: think about how youtube always shows you the most recent videos out from your subnoscriptions up top. grouping with seasonality and current events makes the experience feel more alive and relevant.

Progress

Grouping by progress helps users pick up where they left off
example: Think about draft emails on gmail, a course you have started on coursera or a show that you have started on netflix.
people don't finish things in one go and you should design around that.

Patterns

Grouping information by patterns is all about surfacing relationships. things that belong together should be placed close together.
example: facebook marketplace always displays related products when you scroll down inside a product page, pinterest is really good at showing you similar looking stuff when you open, like or save a pin.
it turns a quick browse into a longer exploration as it shows people connections they didn't know to look for.

all those tactics of organizing and grouping info greatly reduce choice overload, making the app feel one step ahead in understanding what we will need next.

Listening to Sade atm

And this is precisely why i am in this ecosystem

complexity first, simplicity second

people say “keep it simple,” but most approach it backwards. they start from simple, then add on complexity without seeing the whole. that’s how you end up with frankenstein products: clean-looking components awkwardly stitched together, held in place by duct tape and wishful thinking.

true simplicity emerges only after you’ve grasped the full complexity first. you can’t abstract away what you don’t fully comprehend. once you deeply understand the entire system — the edge cases, feedback loops, emergent behaviors — then the elegant patterns start to surface, creating solutions that genuinely click.

people often misunderstand complexity as the enemy of simplicity. but complexity isn’t the enemy, it’s reality. your goal isn’t to ignore complexity, but to master it. when you think holistically, you create systems whose parts reinforce each other rather than clash. the UI naturally mirrors the underlying data model. the API aligns seamlessly with how users think. the entire product feels inevitable.

real builders dive into the messy reality and embrace it. they map out the bizarre edge cases, user mental models, technical constraints, and business pressures. they sit patiently with complexity until the right patterns emerge. only then do they craft the simple, intuitive interface that makes all that complexity invisible. it’s like a swan, serene on the surface but paddling like hell beneath.

this is why Notion succeeds where most productivity apps fail. we didn’t start by saying, “let’s build a simple notes app.” we asked, “how would people organize and share information, with the fewest primitives” then we built abstractions that aligned with those conceptual models.

systems thinking is essential because it’s the only path to building products that scale — not just technically, but cognitively. users shouldn’t need to grasp your internal complexities to extract value. that’s the paradox: the more deeply you embrace complexity in your thinking, the simpler the experience becomes.
Ryo Lu, Head of design at Cursor, previously notion and stripe

Welcome to everyone who joined here recently! :D

Let me reshare some of the popular resources I have shared here in the past

Check out this awesome book written for devs about building beautiful UI

Refactoring UI

Check out this awesome quick read by Austin Kleon on taking inspiration from others’ works, like a good artist would :)

Its a read almost all design school teachers recommend to students who start out with creative works

Grid Systems in Graphic Design Raster Systeme Fur Die Visuele Gestaltung (German and English Edition)

This awesome book written back in the golden years of graphic design teaches you everything you need to know about grid systems, (for now think of them as the invisible skeleton behind your layouts)

The business and marketing side of landing pages, crafting landing pages and software that sells well

Check out this guide article by Zendesk to selling software:

https://www.zendesk.com/dk/blog/saas-sales/

140+ landing pages of the 2024 batch of Y Combinator startups

Learn by absorbing

https://www.figma.com/design/5ho5O8MuVpD4UphrONsiVy/YC24-%2B-25---Landing-Pages?node-id=0-1&t=exvG2UYzoJm5dBPy-1

And all the tools I share here and regularly use get saved to @temsharestools

So figma did an IPO today and…😮