Every now and then, when the stars align and all the celestial brush techniques are restored, someone actually creative makes something in our industry. Thanks for the inspiration!

You can make similar thing using stream deck, it can be dynamic so for example for Figma and Sketch. https://www.elgato.com/en/gaming/stream-deck

What does "Insert Symbol" do?

Good Job!

I love this idea. I used to do something similar with the mappable buttons on my Wacom.

This sounds like it would be fun to try. I use a full size "magic" keyboard that already has a number pad. Does MacOS see the USB number pad keys as the same or do they have unique identifiers?

Sweeet!

Whoa, this is pretty dope!

That symbol manager plugin is cool, but I'd only buy it if it showed previews of the components that I could drop into a project. Kind of like InVision DSM.

This is a great write up. Thanks for sharing.

I also embarked upon a similar path using a Midi-Controller and the BetterTypeTool. I tried it for awhile, but ultimately, the heuristics of using the controller didn't make sense for me. It was easier to simply execute these commands in Runner than to lift my hands off the keyboard and try and make sure I hit the right pre-loaded button.

I do think the hardware inputs for the design process are still in the dark ages. A mere keyboard and mouse seems primitive. I wish there were more hardware inputs akin to music production. I've seen some attempts, but they look cheap, flimsy and clunky.

I want:

• Motorized dials and sliders - "tuning in and out opacity" of objects.
• Smart mouse pad - I'm addicted to the gestures on the magic mouse for design in Sketch. I'd like a "Smart Mouse Pad" touch pad - in the front of the mouse pad surface area that's respsonsive in the same way - with critical controls built in.
• A heads up properties display that is entirely out of the workspace all together.
• Dials and writing inputs similar to the Surface Pro on a separate peripheral.

Unfortunately, the hardware market, risk and demand for such a product probably doesn't align for the effort involved.

This is cool, you should look into programmable macro-pads though so you can skip the BetterTouchTool part

I think is is really impressive and well-documented. And what I'm about to say next is not meant to be critical or cynical - it's just another perspective.

Personally, I struggle to spend time optimizing my workflow to this extent. My gut-feel cost/benefit analysis says that in the time I'd spend creating a new efficiency and documenting it, I could've done a ton of actual design at 1-5% slower rate than with this new tool that will be outdated/obsolete pretty quickly.

I've also found that as soon as I'm settled in a workflow I've optimized, the market shifts and a new tool replaces the one I've invested in. For example, I haven't opened Sketch in 6 months because Figma is just better for me and where I work.

Very cool, congrats dude!

Would be awesome to think about this in a way that Pallete is doing. https://palettegear.com/photoshop