The hottest Product Design Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Technology Topics

The simple button that makes data easier to use

CommandBlogue • 0 implied HN points • 28 May 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Adding a reset button in dashboards helps users easily undo multiple customizations with one click. It saves time and makes exploring data more efficient.
  2. This feature allows users to quickly return to the default view, which is helpful when working with multiple users in an app.
  3. Just like pressing delete to start over, users prefer easy solutions that let them change their paths without wasting time.

Get rid of user confusion with better empty states

CommandBlogue • 0 implied HN points • 10 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Empty states in apps can confuse users when there's no data to show. It's important to fill that space with meaningful actions.
  2. Instead of just saying 'no events found,' apps can encourage users to create new content, making the experience more engaging.
  3. Sometimes users want to see empty spaces as they indicate they've reached their goals, like finishing a to-do list. Celebrating that can enhance satisfaction.

Get your users into the habit of upgrading

CommandBlogue • 0 implied HN points • 21 Mar 24
💼 Business Product Design
  1. Make it easy for users to take actions like signing up or upgrading. The simpler it is, the more likely they are to do it.
  2. Using a consistent button for similar actions helps users form good habits. They will associate that button with success and keep using it.
  3. Be careful with what you make easy to do. Some actions, like deleting data, should have extra steps to prevent mistakes.

The easiest way to fix navigation

CommandBlogue • 0 implied HN points • 20 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Always have back and forward buttons in apps to help users navigate easily. This small change can make a big difference.
  2. Users should not need to understand the whole site layout to find their way around. It’s key for new users to feel confident while using the app.
  3. Making users feel smart and comfortable boosts their overall experience. If they don’t feel lost, they’re more likely to stick around.

How to make settings less frustrating

CommandBlogue • 0 implied HN points • 20 Mar 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Users often struggle to find the right settings because the organization of options can be confusing. Labels need to be clear so users know exactly where to look.
  2. A good solution is to show users what settings are already active. This helps them understand their current options without clicking through multiple menus.
  3. Reducing the number of choices and distractions can help users feel less overwhelmed. A simple display of enabled settings can lead to a smoother experience.
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Welcome and thank you!

Elizabeth Laraki • 0 implied HN points • 22 Nov 23
🪑 Design Product Design
  1. The newsletter will include design insights and practical tips from the author's experience in major tech companies.
  2. Content will touch on various topics, including stories and advice about design, crypto, and AI.
  3. The author plans to send newsletters periodically, focusing on quality over frequency, and welcomes feedback for future topics.

Getting LaunchFast on the hands of devs ♥️

André Casal's Substack • 0 implied HN points • 09 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Getting user feedback is really important. Talking to developers showed what needs to be improved in the product.
  2. The homepage of the app now has clear instructions for users. This makes it easier for new customers to understand how to use the product right away.
  3. Next steps include improving the landing page and preparing for a launch on Product Hunt. There’s a lot to work on to make the product better!

A beautiful CLI experience ♥️

André Casal's Substack • 0 implied HN points • 02 Aug 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. The landing page for LaunchFast has been improved with more info on benefits and a new design. This will help visitors understand why they should use the product.
  2. An update to the CLI makes it easier to use by adding a flag that skips a step for users. This change makes starting the app even simpler for customers.
  3. The developer plans to keep building on customer feedback and is focused on refining the product to create better experiences for users in the future.

Design is Love

Design is Love • 0 implied HN points • 29 Aug 22
🪑 Design Product Design
  1. Design is a form of love and expression. It allows us to show how we feel and what we care about.
  2. We have the ability to redesign everything around us. This power to create unique things comes from within us.
  3. It's important to follow our own vision and not let society dictate our choices. We should focus on doing what we truly love.

What the Humane AI Pin Launch Can Teach Product Builders

Talking to Computers: The Email • 0 implied HN points • 30 Apr 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. When creating a new product, focus on doing one thing really well. This way, you can set realistic expectations and deliver a better experience.
  2. Natural language products come with unique challenges, like errors in speech recognition and resource demands. It's best to narrow your focus to avoid these problems.
  3. Building a small, specialized product can be more effective than trying to make something for everyone. Starting small allows for improvement and expansion later.

Designer and PM portfolios are all wrong

A Better Designed World • 0 implied HN points • 22 Oct 24
🪑 Design Product Design
  1. Portfolios should act like sales pitches, showing off your best work first. Starting with the end results captures attention, instead of leading with process details.
  2. Using the inverted pyramid approach means telling a clear story of who you worked with, what you accomplished, and why it matters. This way, people can easily understand your impact.
  3. Focus on marketing yourself effectively. It's about showing potential employers what makes you valuable, rather than getting lost in the details of your process.

Sort Product Update – December 2024

Database Engineering by Sort • 0 implied HN points • 02 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. There's a new organization dashboard that helps track important issues and change requests effectively. It makes it easier to see what needs action right away.
  2. The Sort website has been updated to showcase how their workflows operate. This should help users understand the product better.
  3. Several new blog posts detail various functionalities of Sort, including APIs and integrations, providing users with useful insights and tools.

Volkswagen Taigun / Skoda Kushaq: Performance over Comfort

Kartick’s Blog • 0 implied HN points • 12 Dec 24
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. The Volkswagen Taigun and Skoda Kushaq are great for those who prioritize speed and performance, but they sacrifice comfort and digital features. They're not ideal for everyone.
  2. While the Taigun/Kushaq can reach high speeds, many buyers will be better off with cars like the Creta or Seltos, which offer more comfort and balance.
  3. Overall, if you want a car with fun driving experiences and can overlook some comfort issues, the Taigun/Kushaq might be for you, especially if you choose the 1.5-liter engine version.

🐿️ Procrustes - The Insanely profitable Tech Newsletter

Squirrel Squadron Substack • 0 implied HN points • 07 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. When faced with too many demands, focus on solving the customer's most important problems first. It’s better to tackle what's truly necessary rather than trying to please everyone.
  2. Communication is key. A skilled account manager can help manage expectations and guide clients toward what they actually need instead of what they want.
  3. It’s important to distinguish between essential requirements and nice-to-have features. This clarity can help teams deliver projects successfully and on time.

The Nikon Aculon 7x50 Is Great

Kartick’s Blog • 0 implied HN points • 18 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. The Nikon Aculon 7x50 binoculars are a great option for their price, offering good performance for everyday use. They provide 90% of the quality of a more expensive model, the OceanPro, but at a much lower cost.
  2. While both binoculars perform well at night, the Aculon is lighter and more compact, making it easier to carry around. This makes it a good choice for people prioritizing practicality.
  3. If you're new to binoculars or on a budget, the Aculon is highly recommended. It offers a significant quality upgrade compared to cheaper models, like the Trailblazer 8x25.

How to understand deadlines (as a developer)

Bad Software Advice • 0 implied HN points • 28 Jan 25
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Deadlines can make developers feel rushed and stressed. It's common to make quick fixes that won't last, leading to more work later.
  2. Developers often don't see the bigger picture of a project. They might not understand why a 'bad' version of a product is needed to learn what works best.
  3. Not every project needs to be perfect from the start. Sometimes you need a rough version to figure things out before building something better.

The Opportunities in Consumer AI

Digital Native • 0 implied HN points • 18 Jun 25
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Consumer AI is a big opportunity right now, especially since many successful tech companies started in the consumer space. Betting on consumer ventures might yield high returns as they often see bigger IPOs compared to enterprise companies.
  2. AI is set to change shopping and travel experiences significantly. New companies are emerging to streamline how we shop and book travel, looking to make these processes more efficient and personalized.
  3. The way products are designed and monetized is evolving. There is a shift from ad-based models to subscription and paywall strategies in consumer apps, reflecting a growing willingness to pay for quality and innovative services.

When Better Feels Worse: The ChatGPT 5 Transition

Nano Thoughts • 0 implied HN points • 09 Aug 25
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. People often resist changes to familiar tools, even if the new version is actually better. It feels more like losing something they loved rather than gaining something new.
  2. Losses hit us harder than gains. Even a small loss can affect our mood significantly, while a win feels good only briefly. This is particularly true when we feel we've lost a feature or aspect we valued.
  3. When systems or tools change suddenly, it can feel overwhelming. Gradual transitions, where both old and new options are available, help people adjust better and keep them feeling comfortable.

Going Bananas 🍌

Digital Native • 0 implied HN points • 26 Nov 25
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Powerful new creative models sharply lower the cost and skill needed to make high-quality images, videos, and content, triggering a surge of creators and shifting value toward discovery and curation platforms.
  2. AI is evolving from assistant to executor, so most knowledge workers will become middle managers who direct suites of automated agents, reshaping hiring, pricing, and organizational structure.
  3. Models enable extreme hyper-personalization—bespoke apps, ads, and synthetic people tailored to individual tastes—which will change marketing and media while also amplifying social backlash, inequality, and regulatory pressure.

@adlrocha - Lego Farming Blocks: Letting AIs Grow our Food

@adlrocha Weekly Newsletter • 0 implied HN points • 11 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. A Lego-like modular home farming system lets people grow food indoors by snapping species-specific blocks together. Each block contains the right lights, sensors, and watering so users can plug-and-play without farming knowledge.
  2. AI plus edge controllers orchestrate plant care by turning biological needs into simple commands and running adaptive "recipes" locally or from the cloud, with offline fallback on the microcontroller. Users can optionally share data to improve those recipes across the network.
  3. The concept is prototype-ready and commercially viable: a small BOM and a hydroponic/aeroponic stack can validate the idea, and a consumables-based model (seed/nutrient pods) offers a scalable business while still allowing DIY alternatives.

Silicon Valley's 99% Blindspot

Digital Native • 0 implied HN points • 28 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Tech companies often build products for themselves and the wealthy, missing the needs of everyday people and large underserved markets.
  2. Big opportunities exist in building practical, vertical tech for non-technical users—like automating hospital discharges or early disease detection for farmers—which can be both impactful and profitable.
  3. Founders and early adopters should spend time with users outside the Valley and act as translators, turning powerful but complex technology into simple, trustworthy products people will actually use.

The Year of Invisible AI

Digital Native • 0 implied HN points • 13 Jan 26
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. AI should be invisible to users: they don’t care about model names or specs, they care that the tool fits smoothly into their existing workflows and has an intuitive UI.
  2. Build AI that meets people where they already work by plugging into familiar tools and minimizing change; integrations and playbooks can act like a junior analyst to cut busy work and speed approvals.
  3. Capture context, decisions, and approvals (a context graph) with human-in-the-loop workflows so the system learns durable precedents over time and enables safer, increasing automation.

The most important part of an AI system is the human in the loop.

Experiments with NLP and GPT-3 • 0 implied HN points • 15 Feb 26
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. LLMs naturally produce plausible-sounding outputs that can be wrong, so treat them like creative, overconfident interns who need checking.
  2. AI should augment human decision-making, not replace it — let AI suggest options while humans review sources, validate logic, and make final calls.
  3. For high-stakes use require traceability, confidence signals, and mandatory human verification (like digital sign-off); without those safeguards you build long-lasting trust debt.

QR Codes on Stickers

Pizza Party • 0 implied HN points • 11 Feb 26
💼 Business Product Design
  1. Putting a QR code on the paper backing of a sticker is a smart, practical way to share links or contact info.
  2. It's a cheap and easy marketing tactic that doubles as a fun, portable business card.
  3. Stickers already have paper backing, so using that space for a back-printed QR code makes efficient use of materials and makes connecting more convenient.

Write Your APIs Like You Write a Movie

On Engineering • 0 implied HN points • 03 Mar 26
🕹 Technology Product Design
  1. Design your API as a clear workflow for AI actors by exposing chunky, outcome-focused tools instead of only low-level endpoints the agent must orchestrate.
  2. Make schemas, names, parameter descriptions, and especially error responses self-contained and consistent so an agent knows what happened, why it happened, and exactly what to do next.
  3. Test with real agents and multiple models, measure hallucinations and wrong-order calls, and be willing to redesign APIs for agent consumption rather than just wrapping existing endpoints.