Brevity was always a discipline. Now it’s a statement.

The post The Courage to Stop appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

What Carter did in his speech was something rare in the annals of democratic government: he confronted the people with the truth—about his own failings, about the reality of the world around them, and most importantly about themselves. Even as Americans grow, for the second time, disillusioned with a Trump presidency, we have put drapes […]

The post Jimmy Carter was right appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

The best project management tool is still a pen, plus the discipline to notice what the machine cannot. Wisdom from Lucas Radke.

The post Handwritten notes in the time of AI note takers appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

The best defense is to write humanly.

The post Dine ’n em-dash appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Bluesky can't abandon the developers who made a bet on AT Proto, so they should give the protocol to a standards body while catching up on UX.—Dave Winer

The post RSS creator on Bluesky & AT Proto appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Lately, in work conversations, I find myself fighting a lifelong tendency to provide way more context than is absolutely required. If you ask me to okay your work, for example, I may respond with an essay on what delighted me about it. The teaching gene, plus the exuberance of writing and thinking clearly, compel me […]

The post Too Many Notes appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Cover art for the 1971 prog-rock LP “Fearless,” by British band Family features a distinctive, die-cut cover design depicting the five band members gradually morphing into a single entity combining features of them all. Tom Brigham, a high school student and friend of mine the year the LP was released, had not yet invented morphing […]

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Remembrance of beats passed.

The post My brother, the rhythmic conceptualist appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Know your web design history.

The post What a year that was. appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Pitching isn’t bragging.

The post Advice for job seekers appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Cooling my heels at the drugstore.

The post American healthcare appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Less, but better? Not this week.

The post The salad bar theory of UX professionalism appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

New tunes from an old maker.

The post Works in Progress appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

FIRST, the disclaimers: Some of my favorite writers—folks who are as anti-fascist and pro-democracy as they come—publish on Substack, but I read and recommend their work less and less frequently, because Substack has a Nazi problem. To wit: Awkward: Substack’s Nazi Problem Substack call themselves a platform rather than a publication, a classic web conundrum. […]

The post Claude Code for Designers appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Posted today for no particular reason.

The post “A streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era” appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

It’s no secret that newspapers across the country exist in a fragile ecosystem. Automattic has long supported journalism and local media with investments in publications and platforms like Longreads, The Atavist, and Newspack. We believe that local news still matters—and now more than ever. That’s why we’re sponsoring Local News Day on April 9, 2026. — Support Journalism with […]

The post Mark your calendar: Local News Day is 9 April appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

“The word ‘computer’ only really slid over to mean ‘a machine’ in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, once we started building mechanical and then electronic devices to do that work instead [of people]. We did not name the machines after some abstract idea. We named them after the humans they were replacing.”

The post We named them after the humans they were replacing. appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Good UX is what companies do when they have to. A company that has your stuff locked away doesn’t have to.

The post Cold Storage appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Once more for the folks in the back. Calibri is easier than Times New Roman for folks with certain visual disabilities to read. That’s why the Biden Administration chose Calibri for their digital communications: to include more people and make life just a wee bit easier for the disabled. And who in their right mind could […]

The post Accessibility is a human right, cruelty a human wrong. appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Or, the ins and outs of building and losing a large social media follower account. First, the data: Follower counts are accurate as of 7 December, 2025. My Twitter audience wasn’t a pop or movie star following count. But for a web designer and occasional writer of books, a Twitter base of 350K people was a […]

The post Fame & Misfortune appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

They say AI will replace the web as we know it, and this time they mean it. Here follows a short list of previous times they also meant it, starting way back in 1997. Wired: March 1, 1997: “You can kiss your web browser goodbye” – Kevin Kelly and Gary Wolf, The Big Story. Inspired by […]

The post Receipts: a brief list of prominent articles proclaiming the death of the web. appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Fam and I are visiting my 96-year-old Uncle George tonight. We love him. His complicated and somewhat meandering stories have been music to my daughter’s ears since she fell asleep in a cab at age six listening to him lament his wife’s death. George is my late mother’s only sibling, and the only survivor of […]

The post My Glamorous Life: Entertaining Uncle George appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

My father was an engineer who designed robots. When I first learned what he did, I imagined the Robot from “Lost in Space,” and asked him to make me one. When I turned 13, I realized that the pick-and-place robots he designed replaced assembly-line workers, and asked how he, who’d been a socialist in his impoverished […]

The post My Glamorous Life: Bots, Books, and Betrayal appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Working in tech means being comfortable with change and uncertainty. Successfully working in tech means not letting change and uncertainty paralyze you. Forge ahead on the best information you have, and be prepared to change direction as needed.

The post How do you spell success? appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

We must stop thinking of failure as an end of something, and learn to see it as a natural part of progress. The first incarnation of a new idea may die, but the best ideas will find new lives. Behind every successful launch, there are 100 interesting failures. 

The post Behind every successful launch, there are 100 interesting failures.  appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

My beloved veterinarian’s office apparently moved to a new office location without informing customers. They also changed phone systems. The new phone system doesn’t work, and they didn’t leave a forwarding message on the old phone system. You call, leave a message, never hear back, and never learn what’s become of the business. Our oldest […]

The post Everybody’s lost it, Part I appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

At Automattic, we know our time is finite and precious. Here are the questions we ask ourselves before agreeing to any meeting:

The post Too many meetings? appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

“And in their place came acceptance.” Staying relevant in your profession as you age and technology changes.

The post Staying relevant appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

Starting today, file suits to prevent biased gerrymandering. Fight harder for the right to vote than the GOP has fought to suppress the votes of Americans MAGA dislikes. Craft a Democratic party platform focused on equal rights, equal justice, fair wages, and affordable housing. Win the Midterms, shifting the balance of power in congress. Upon […]

The post Project 2026 appeared first on Jeffrey Zeldman Presents.

My doctor sends me to Brooklyn for an abdominal aortic aneurysm screening. As instructed, I fast for six hours beforehand. I don’t even brush my teeth, for fear of swallowing toothpaste and screwing up the test. I wear a Covid-era face mask to avoid breathing on anyone. The journey takes me to Boro Hall, a […]

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