Increasing the size of everything in this display of Journals to see how it feels

Adding support for editing and deleting entries in this expanded menu.

A menu is trigged with the expand icon is clicked. This is something we can build on and improve but could be useful to design this way for now as we are learning.

Adjusted the sidebar icons to be in the top header of the entry which seems to be more intuitive and cleaner on the screen. There's two icons now. One for comments and another to trigger and expanded set of actions. This is helpful because we can put new interactions in that little menu as we learn more about how people want to interact with each entry. I think we can make that little icon that triggers the expanded menu kind of fun to use!

Adjusted the date and project component on the entry header to adopt our existing style which is simpler and cleaner.

Needs work! Trying to figure out how to best represent this Journals on the screen. I can use no icon, an icon or the media from its contents. the current version shows media and I think it's cool

Adding a spot to search through someone's Journals. It is text that simply states search and the user's name. When you click it, it will highlight white and blink with a cursor to signal it is ready for input.

Changing the word Projects to Journals

Just starting to think about how to organize a person's projects (or Journals) on Futureland. It's a bit of a tough thing to figure out because we're moving in a direction with the volume of someone's creative output is expanding exponentially. What is the right way to organize all of that. How do we use projects to express our identity? Why do we use projects to express our identity? What is a project? I'll need to write about this a bunch tonight before I can start some more squares on this thing!

Adding a simple little highlight on whatever section of a Profile is selected. 'Stream' or 'Projects'.

Adding a profile photo to the top, I thought I could get away without it but doesn't feel right for some reason.

Added three icons to the right of the entry now. Increased the width of every line of the comment icon.

Adding a link button below the reply button. So now there's kind of a tray of little icons beside each one of the entries. Could work.

Experimenting with variants to the comment button. Chatting with @pugson for ideas.

Adding comment buttons. Not sure how I feel about this yet.

Just starting to sketch out ideas for updated Profiles on Futureland desktop… need to get my thoughts down first

I really enjoy the design of https://reading.supply and I'm a huge fan of Jim's (@wwwjim) work in general. I often find myself GEEKING on whatever he's making!

I enjoy this interface a bunch. I like how it uses the entire screen and it feels a bit like a desktop application or a creative tool. It's something I'd love to see us do more on FL.

Getting some thoughts down on removing projects from the Log.

Made improvements to the spacing and text size of this interface. Events should be more independent and readable now in this variant. I need to make a comment badge for these little reply / comment icons.

Just a subtle to the text when you make a new output / entry to a project. Reverting to shorter text.

Making some more simplifications to this interface. Adding some descriptive text back in and adjusting the placement of everything. Also a new comment icon. I will try and make another variant that highlights how many comments there might already be in a discussion.

Another variant. Trying to reduce focus on ‘self’ by removing profile images. Maybe this puts more focus on the content and less focus on the presentation of identity.

Trying to integrate a reply / comment button. This seems like it might be working.

An output / entry takes a large part of the interface. I might be fine with that for now. I like the increased focus on conversations here. Telegram was a useful reference.

Feels like improvement

Still working on this Public Activity interface. I’ll need to get this top bar right and perhaps everything else will fit into place from there. I’m trying to value conversations over outputs / entries in these variants to see what I learn.

Just starting to experiment with putting more focus on comments / conversations in Public Activity on Futureland.

- Maybe if you drop a single emoji on something, it displays the output in context. Usually when we use a single emoji like this, it's because we simply dig something!

- Maybe when you write a comment with more text, the text is given primary emphasis since you are now sharing thoughts and ideas which is its own contribution.

A couple of things I need to finish on the Mobile interfaces so we can get that out to users, but I need a bit more time to think about it. So I'm just starting to little file and sketch together in preparation for desktop improvements. In a bit of a rush tonight! See ya in the morning on this stuff!

Hm. Maybe I can left align everything in a way and see what happens.

Working on an update interface to start new projects on mobile screen. Been struggling with this one this morning, but maybe kind of getting somewhere now. Apple's files app is a continual reference.

Working on a new project component for mobile that's triggered from the Log and other places. Pretty obvious there's still a lot to do!

Making some adjustments to the colours of this stats view. Just trying to make this interface simpler, while amplifying interesting high points.

Started reading about Zen specifically, 'Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind' by Shunryu Suzuki. I have been thinking a lot about how I can integrate some of these ideas into the way that I design interfaces. Many of the ideas are similar to what I experienced in my own learning experiments. But of course here they are much more refined and clear.

Slight adjustment to the spacing of the day, date and total outputs to try and create more symmetry. Something @pugson caught while looking at these interfaces. I think it looks a lot better!

In the Log, I am trying to increase focus on the present day and on your own creative process.

Focus on the present day

You will notice a large heading at the top which tells you what day of the week it is. Your total outputs for the day have also increased in size so you can quickly glance at it and see where you are at.

Focus on your own creative process

I've tried to make it easier for the user to focus on her own creative process by bringing images of recent outputs into this Interface. As the user is publishing through the day this interface will fill up with recent images from the user's creative process.

Also I found this green on @tmm's website: https://meagher.co. I like it a bunch.

Wondering how Futureland’s log might look if it was more focused on the present moment. It would be great if it also helped keep your attention on your own creative process and nothing else.

Haven't looked at this interface in awhile. It's cool and I think there's a lot we can learn from it. I'm super stoked to get back to designing for desktop once some more of this mobile web stuff is done. There's a bunch of ideas I want to try that might be interesting!

Also @tmm you had a huge jump in contributions from 2016 to 2017. What happened? lol

Putting stats on the bottom now opens this interface a bunch. I haven’t added a line that separates the bottom menu from the primary content yet. I wonder if it can work without it?

Cleaning up this bottom menu a lot. Adding a section for just Stats.

Experimenting with putting Stats in its own space to make the interface simpler.

Something I need to study a bunch more.

I'm enjoying a bunch of things about this interface. I like the sizing and layout of things a lot here.

hm.

Removing the top bar and adding labels to the bottom menu + adding a persistent floating publish button opens up the space on the screen a lot. I’ll play with this across the other interfaces. Seems like a big improvement!

A variant of that button, this feels better.

Experimenting with a new top bar. The hope is a more delightful visual as well as a clean integration of a back button. I don’t like using this purple highlight too much, I feel it’s a bit of an overdone kind of thing but it obviously works.

This is a simple take on a project specific stats view. It’s not the best variant yet but it might do the trick just to start. I’ll need to adjust how we think about the top bar a bit to make it easier to go ‘back’ on Mobile.

I find that documenting my progression through an interface like this is really helpful. Each time I try something new in any part of the interface I create a new variant. Every now and then I will zoom out and look at all of the variants. Sometimes I will take something from a previous one and integrate it into a new one. Or by looking at each of the variants I can see if what I am working on now is truly an improvement over what I did in the past.

Working on interfaces that show you more data on your specific projects on Futureland.

Adjusted the header here again and adjusted the icon placement of comments and share. I’ll probably play with this icon placement more. The heading seems like a bit of an improvement.

A more minimal header which I think might look better. Perhaps things fade as you scroll. Perhaps that’s a dumb idea for web mobile! Not sure. There's big spacing here from the content to the header. I'll need to play with that too. Sometimes looking at other stuff and then looking at these interfaces again helps.

Playing with a stronger separation of the top heading. Not sure how I feel about it yet! I’ll try variants with this for sure.

Experimenting with making spacing more clear in the activity view.

Starting to sketch out a few improvements to the Activity view on Futureland

Playing with the spacing of these two little lists. I’m not happy with this yet but it seems to work for now. Maybe they can both be converted into visuals similar to above. It might be more immediately useful that way.

In the Daily Active Projects section, I could probably move the outputs over by another 8px - 16px.

Starting to experiment with showing Daily Active Projects in the Stats view so you can get a sense of which projects you are focusing the most at any point in time.

Added a little moon to the Average Publish Time. Alternatively would be a little sun if the average was an AM. Not sure how I feel about it yet. It might be helpful to become more aware of whether your work is happening at night or during the day.

Some quick sketches on integrating a 'New Project' button into this Interface. Not happy with any of this yet!

I don’t mind how clean this screen is. I like the narrower selection buttons at the top. Also like how the top line is longer than the others. It’s a pattern I’m noticing in iOS lists. Maybe it’s everywhere but it makes sense.

Added average publish times to this Stats view of Futureland’s Log. This is something I’ve always wanted to know because I want to know when I’m working I. The night and when I’m working in the morning. I wonder if there’s any patterns here. The average time is useful to me because it serves as an overall indicator of when I’m doing my creative work. For a long time I’ve wanted to shift my creative time to very early in the morning like 3am - 9am to see what happens. I haven’t been able to do it yet but it’s something I think about a lot.

This interface needs a bunch of work. The Average Publish Time section might be useful enough in its current state but I’d like it it was more visual. If there was an immediate way to see if on certain days you’re working when the sun is out and others if you’re working when it’s late at night.

These lines feel too harsh I’ll probably try and ditch them tomorrow. I might add some kind of graph aesthetic behind the bars. Maybe not though might be over kill for now.

I’m done designing for today.

Adding a way for you to dive into more stats on specific projects. Apple’s screen time is a heavy influence.

Starting to work on stats within the Log

Experimenting with something I am calling dots. They give you the ability to quickly track anything you want in your Log. The ideas is that you can use this for things that you want to track data on but do not want an entire project for. An example could be water intake. The more I use the Log in my work and my life, the more I want it to reflect all of the things that are currently important to me. I want all of this in one place.

Added a toggle button on this interface to switch between your finder view and your stream (all outputs). Also changed the height of the toggle button to be more narrow. I might play with this on the log as well now to see if it works.

Adjusted the folder icon size. Increase the project name text. Thanks for the advice @pugson

Adjustments to this Finder view on Futureland to make it easier to manipulate on mobile screens.

Folder layout in the iOS files app. I enjoy the spacing and sizing of things here. Very large and useable on a smaller screen. When you contrast this kind of an interface against the the Finder view on the Mac, you really get a sense of how differently we manipulate interfaces on each of those screens.

Showing the size of your digital information in gigabytes on this Interface now.

Making subtle adjustments to the size of basically everything in this Interface.

Playing with an adjusted top menu now. I don’t particularly like text on top like that but it might make sense for now.

Experimenting with adding a third button to the bottom menu here. This changes how I think about the top menu a bit in these interfaces.

Making some minor adjustments to this overlay while on the phone. I adjusted the font size to be a bit more readable. I also added a small arrow to the left of one of the folders. I'll expand on this tomorrow. I'm designing with sub projects in mind.

This is a variant that is standing out to me right now. I've made a subtle adjustment to the radius of the buttons that most won't notice, but I think it's a lot better. The publish button gets a separate color treatment than the bottom menu buttons. I also reduced the weight of the line separators on the bottom and top menus. Again subtle but important to keep your focus on the middle of the interface while still creating a feeling of separation where it matters.

I moved the publish button to the top right of the Interface which opens up a lot of flexibility in the bottom navigation. This makes a lot of sense for our current requirements. Now I am sketching variants of this top menu. When I sketch out variants, I get a stronger understanding of all of the variables of the component. What matters and what does not matter. What I know and what I do not know.

What is the ideal design of the output component on Futureland? I'm starting to sketch out variants of the component to understand what makes the most sense. It's one of the core building blocks of these interfaces.

I also adjusted the top bar to have a smaller profile picture. I added a line separator as well. I'll try adding the publish button to the top right of the mobile interfaces to see how that feels. It should open up more flexibility in the the bottom navigation.

Getting closer I think. The text is probably too small for people who aren’t me!

I'm starting to sketch out other components of this updated Activity view on Futureland. Something about it is not working yet. I'll make some variants of this comments object and see what happens.

Adjusted the menu on the bottom to be simpler. I don't see a reason to exaggerate anything right now. Probably need to adjust that down arrow on the Log to something more memorable.

I am working on Activity in our mobile interface this morning. These are straight forward variants of the output component. The same as the existing component but with subtle visual refinements. Text size has changed. Character spacing has changed and I've tweaked all greys.

I'll start thinking about how else this can be improved now.

Dig the spacing here a bunch. The search bar specifically is cool w the black bg

Mix of grey and black. Cool how the line separators don’t carry all the way through to the icons.

Nice clean list. Inspiring use of spacing and separation.

Cool little tray.

I am still creating variants of each component. The menu tool at the bottom is far from complete, but I'm digging this change from green to purple to mark projects that have you added to for the day.

Starting to generate variants of each component in this Interface as a way of thinking about what works and doesn't. Or what works best and what works just a bit.

i Like this little component a bunch. Good sizing of everything.

Added an outline around the profile image, needs work. Playing with variations of how it might look if a particular icon is selected in the bottom menu. Not sure how I feel about it right now. Maybe it needs to feel more alive or something.

Adjusted the top buttons to be text instead of icons with a slider inspired by iOS. Starting to build out the persistent bottom menu. Not sure how I feel about the size of the + button yet. The profile image should link back to the user's profile but that probably needs to be more obvious.

Digging the way this outline pops or something. There’s a subtle shadow around the bottom that is nice. A cool mix of greys.

Experimenting with an adjusted menu button. And a tray of buttons at the top of the interface depending on what you are viewing. I'll need to see this on my phone to see how it feels. Might be a dumb idea but I'm kind of digging it for now.

Really dig the spacing and sizing here. I wonder if that little line separation has to be there. Button size is neat. I like how compact this whole component feels.

Starting to dig really round corners. Not sure why yet

Really dig the way this looks especially the shadow under the album cover. It hangs a bit lower than my brain expected. Makes me happy

Starting to work on reproducing the interface for Logic Pro X. This is going to take me a bit. On Mac applications the buttons follow the same pattern. There's a slight adjustment in Logic Pro X, the buttons are a bit lighter and larger than in other applications. The shape remains relatively the same.

There's subtle details on the buttons that I can't figure out how to reproduce. I can't exactly match the grey right now. And there's a flatness to the button that is hard for me to replicate for some reason. It's bothering me a lot. I'll keep messing around.

Just got a bit of time tonight. Adding visuals to 'Activity'.

Finishing up this reproduction of Safari. The difficult part for me here was the icons which I repurposed from other places. The most learning was in how you can use greys and gradients to create a metal like feel where the controls of the browser are. I'm just starting to see the parallels between industrial design and the interfaces of Software. Still have a lot to learn.

I was chatting with @pugson and he suggested adding a component to the top of the Profile stream that allows for composition and inputs. This seems to make sense. I am not happy with this interpretation yet. The right one will take some time.

A component like this might be useful on all of your projects as well.

I was talking to friends who use FL yesterday about the Log. A common note that came up was, "Why is my Log always empty?". It is not currently clear how to add Projects to the Log. Currently you click an arrow that points left and it reveals a drop down menu. I thought maybe using an equalizer icon might be more fitting. Maybe it should be on the right side of the interface instead of in the center. I have always seen the Log as something that allows you to bring your projects in and out of focus.

The Log works well for me and I use it every day. I think there's value in starting to slowly tighten it up. I would love to one day see a visual of the times I usually publish on Futureland. It might create a heightened awareness of my behaviours.

Starting to think through basic sketches of a grid that displays recent outputs from projects and people you follow on Futureland. I don't have much time today, so just getting something down for reference really.

A thing to think about is what might be most important. Highlighting a project that has been updated and letting it oscillate through outputs or displaying the latest output it self. The text currently displays a preview of the output's notes which I think makes sense and provides the closest relationship to the creator who published.

Naming this open space 'Stream' instead of Outputs because the things you share here will not just be 'Outputs' but could be any artifact from your process at all. The name can obviously be changed and I figure you'll tell me if you hate it.

I also added a Follow button to someone's profile. Maybe on Futureland you can Follow a person and everything they publish or just a specific one of their Projects.

All of this is experimental.

Had a bunch of conversations today. One of them was with @emu and he talked a lot about how he wished there was a 'thinking space' on Futureland. A space to share various artifacts from your process or consciousness that might not be part of any project yet. I thought this made a lot of sense. There's a lot I want to share on Futureland, but I don't always have a place for it. I started to share this concept with others and the response was immediately positive.

So I started sketching some interfaces for a feed that shows all of your outputs including random ones. The idea is that when you visit someone's profile you can see all of the projects they are working on but then flip over to an 'outputs' view where you can see a feed of every artifact from that person's process. A place where it's fine to be messy. And when an output / artifact is associated with a project it will add a project tag that you can click.

Not a fan of calling this feed Outputs But might be a good place to start.

Continuing a train of thought from last night. When you hover over this Project object, the object illuminates since it sits on a black surface. Still not working yet, but I think the concept of illumination is directionally correct.

Another night just kind of thinking about design and looking at objects, designing random things. It's been interesting and I feel like I'm finally starting to dive into this in my own way. The main thing I was struggling with was how to break down design into something that I could relate to and process in my own way. How do you break down a feeling into components? I started to find some kind of answers by looking at physical objects more in various light conditions and asking how I feel or why it might be designed the way it is.

Still have a lot to learn.

Spent a bunch of time just studying interface design tonight. I've been thinking a lot about simple icons that fulfill multiple purposes. It might be something that we can incorporate more into Futureland.

Working on an Interface for updated project settings on Futureland. It's part of connecting Futureland projects to Twitter threads.

Later night than I wanted. Making some improvements to this design for how direct messages might work on mobile. Added a button to the top left that will trigger your conversations to slide out from the left. Still thinking this through the. Not sure how I feel about this icon. And need to review other elements I might be missing.

Simple improvement to mobile menu to make it easier to use. A suggestion from @lucas.

An interface to connect everyone learning a specific skill

I added icons to see if it makes this view more informative at a glance. At this point I think the most important events are when someone new starts a project, when someone creates something or when a user interacts with another project. I still think the spacing is off here but maybe it's good enough as a starting point.

Functionality for the future that I was thinking about was, what if there was automatic grouping of users learning the same skill. For example if you decided to learn how to code you would automatically be connected with 3 others in some type of group chat. Just something to think about in the future.

An interface to connect everyone learning a specific skill

Thinking through how this might look on mobile. Definitely not happy with this yet. Just feels off and like it is missing something fundamental. Within the activity portion of the Interface it's difficult to just glance at the view and quickly understand what's going on. I have some ideas and I'll play with more tomorrow.

An interface to connect everyone learning a specific skill

Adjusting the location of the Join button. Moved all primary content lower on screen. Moved key information about view including number of projects, number of outputs and number of users to the top left.

This is an interface that attempts to connect anyone learning a certain skill. I added number of users to the info in the top right corner and I added a Join button to the center of the Interface. Not sure how I feel about its position yet. I might think about this on mobile to better understand how something like this should work.

Tonight I started working on a new interface. It aspires to connect everyone who is learning a certain skill. The general idea is that once you decide to learn a new skill, you should be able to turn on any computing device and immediately be connected to everyone else in the world who is learning that skill right now. I am limited in my abilities as a designer here, but I think on a conceptual level this could be really cool. There's a lot to work through.

I am thinking maybe we start by trying to connect everyone doing #100DaysOfCode projects on Twitter and see what happens.

Slight adjustment to the project view. Integrated total project outputs with Twitter share and link copy buttons.

Adjusting project design to display the total output number at the top. Adjusted position of Edit project text.

Working on a new output block for link previews.

Making some small improvements to profiles. Adjusting spacing of key information and adding a space for a url.

Thinking through direct messages on mobile. Still a bunch of stuff to do here.

Working on the direct message interface a bit more. Pulling inspiration from IRC.

Sketching out a minimal direct message interface for Futureland

Starting to explore subtle improvements to the output component on Futureland. Specifically, trying to make who's publishing more prominent. This is still very very far off. Have to experiment with various output types and profile images. And just trying to make it better in general.

More work on a potential list view for profiles. This still needs a lot more experimentation. Obviously real world project data but also what's the best to highlight outputs or Marathon projects. The part I like about this is the simple distillation into text.

Starting to think through what a list view might look like on projects. I think this might be useful for users who have lots of projects on Futureland. This sucks right now and it needs a lot of work. I'll experiment with more.

Thinking through quote blocks on Futureland. This needs work, not sure how I feel about it yet but it's a start. It's funny I'm doing this for the first time ever in my life.

Starting to add more contextual real world data into these markdown styles to see how it feels. I ended up changing the code block, adjusted the colour of the text and made the background darker. These code blocks might not be ideal in terms of contrast on low performing displays, but I think I like them. I'll need to play with this more though and get some more perspectives.

More thoughts on markdown styles

Slow day today, just starting to define some mark up styles

Getting down my own thoughts on a little Mac app for Futureland. But definitely not working right now.

I have been using the new log concept daily and adjusting the design based on my experiences. Design now includes a quick reflection of yesterday's output when you open the log for the first time each day.

Adjusted the design of the log so that you can add new projects to it without leaving the Interface. And added text that explains the purpose of the log when a user opens it and has not added any projects to it.

Adjusted spacing and label positioning on stripped down version of Log. Starting to work on a desktop version now. I'm thinking, since there is more space - should other things be included? Should be integrated with another view. Not sure.

Stripping this down so we can implement and start playing with it. @lucas put something together already and we've started using it to see what works and doesn't work. Really stoked on this.

Still playing with this, I'll try to finish it this week.

More work on this daily log concept for Futureland

Finished a draft of this settings menu.

More thinking into how to highlight projects that have outputted across 365 consecutive days. Wondered if it made sense to call these projects 'Marathons'. I tried the word 'Skill' but it didn't quite make sense, because skills are not limited to the results of these projects. Hm, maybe the word Marathon could work in this context. What do you think?

Working on concepts for a profile that displays a user's projects.