Hey Daniel, I just want to thank you for writing these pieces. I'm signed up for your newsletter and always enjoy them (although often horrified at what I'm reading).

Good. And an interesting case where business value and user experience compete.

Challenging topic to write about, Kate. One thing that stood out to me is that you list pretty arbitrary things when you talk about the purpose of design. Yet in the preceding paragraph you say:

things speak through design

And that, at least in my eyes is the function of design. It communicates. It tells us the purpose of a product. It tells us what to expect of a product because it's similar in design to something we know (your; Your design doesn’t have to be original). It tells us which values a brand has. It tells us in a language the user understands (your; Designers are not like their users). It tells us how to use a product by guiding our eyes and using patterns, colours, icons of which users know the meaning.

Value Sensitive Design: Shaping Technology with Moral Imagination — Batya Friedman and David G. Hendry

A bit meh. Actually, the content is really interesting, but the way it was written is very academic, citing multiple studies in every paragraph.

Ruined by Design — Mike Monteiro

Interesting perspective on the responsibilities of a designer. Highly recommended, and if you don't want to read; he covers a lot of the same topics in his podcast: Voice of Design.

Just Enough Research — Erika Hall

A good read on how user research shouldn't be hard but is oh so essential.

1. Post something every now and then
2. Comment on why you are/aren’t upvoting

In short: post more. Although I fully agree, I think there is a bit of a catch 22 we need to break through though.

I agree that there is a lack of engagement among the users here. This is probably the result of high-quality posts being drowned out by spam, and a lack of moderation has led to a sense of apathy. The up (and downvotes, for as long as they lasted) were a way to self-moderate, but they were gamed by the spammers, leading to further disengagement by actual users. So, I don't think just telling people to post more will take away this feeling.

Beautiful photos and interesting places @Wimer. You make me want to visit Japan even more than I already did.

I fully agree with 99% Invisible

I listen to a lot of podcasts that deal with the responsibilities of a designer (design ethics): Voice of Design (By Mule Design's Mike Monteiro and Erika Hall) and Your Undivided Attention (with Tristan Harris, former (now anti) Facebook ethicist)

And I also like to understand the cultural, technological and financial context in which designs live. For that, I recommend: Hidden Forces (by Demitri Kofinas)

I think it's unfair to judge the amount of work that went into this redesign on just the one visual that has come out. These large organisations often have a lot of stakeholders, and a big part of the design process in managing and aligning them.

Also, I'm sure we'll see other visuals based on this logo soon.. for example:

Looks at article — looks at date — Gives a nod of approval

Taking this idea a step further; as a designer I think it would be awesome (and scary) to be able to construct an stock image based on my input. "Hey computer I need; a landscape, with a couple on the right of the image, under a tree, with mountains in the background... generate!"