A version of this post first appeared in my newsletter. Subscribe to receive posts like this in your inbox every Friday. We rely on road signs to navigate safely in our vehicles. When these signs are missing, obstructed, or poorly designed, it puts our safety at risk. I was driving…

This article was re-posted from my weekly newsletter. Want to read it a week early? Subscribe to Design Insight. Spoiler Warning: I will be talking about the TV Show Better Call Saul. …

This is “The Isolator”, an anti-distraction device created in 1925. It was designed to allow users to “concentrate with ease upon the subject at hand” by making it “almost impossible to see anything except a sheet of paper in front of the wearer”. Sometimes I feel like this is how…

This article was re-posted from my weekly newsletter. Want to read it a week early? Subscribe to Design Insight. Buttons in cars are helpful. They allow you to perform a specific action in the car without having to take your eyes away from the road. About 2 years ago I…

What makes a water bottle worth joining a 150,000 people waiting list for? — In a recent conversation with a friend, I discovered the world of water bottles on TikTok. In particular, my friend referenced a hashtag: #emotionalsupportwaterbottle or ESWB. This concept intrigued me so I reactivated my TikTok account to learn more (pray for me 🙏). I learned this week (I’m way behind)…

Beauty product design i.e. the design of packaging for cosmetics, beauty products, and even candles is a fascinating world I never thought to explore. So this past week, to sate my curiosity I went down the rabbit hole. But first some context: The world of the shop-with-me video I’ve recently been watching shop with me videos…

My name is Michelle and I’m a digital hoarder — I’ve been obsessively watching the TV show Hoarders over the last few weeks and it’s been pretty eye-opening to see the commonalities between the different episodes. One of the traits many hoarders share is the notion of keeping things in case they might need them. This is something that got…

Starting a brand new hobby can be tough. Here’s how I started from scratch. — Drawing is something I’ve always loved doing since I was a kid. My earliest memories from school were drawing dogs in my copybook to “decorate” my writing. As I got older, I’d obsessively sketch all the characters from Dragon Ball Z to the point where my notebooks were overflowing. But…

Today I’m going to share with you how I use embedded queries inside of Obsidian. I’ll explain what they are, how they work, and give you some examples of how I use them to retrieve lists of notes inside my personal Obsidian vault. What Is An Embedded Query? In Obsidian, an embedded query is functionality…