All Systems, All the Time
Designers have been building systems for years. Component libraries, color palettes, rules for how the product should look. Those systems got handed to engineers, who filled in the gaps when the sp…
Matt Moore — Writing
Essays on design, technology, and building products for the physical world.
Latest posts
Systems Over Goals
“Goals are for losers.” – Scott Adams I used to think the key to a great life was setting big goals. Achieve them, and you’re fulfilled, right? But here’s the thing: goals have always felt a bit ho…
Just Ask
Great careers are built on a foundation of bold asks. Asking is simple, yet it’s one of the most transformative tools we have. It’s not about entitlement or demanding—it’s about advocating for your…
The Application of Great Taste
Design is the application of great taste. Taste is a great word because it’s subjective, flexible, and deeply human. Great taste means different things to different people at different times. In an…
15 Service Design Principles
After nearly 15 years of designing services that integrate digital and physical experiences, I wanted to articulate the key principles I’ve learned and applied in my work. My goal here is to presen…
Site update: check out my work
I’ve finally got around to updating this site to include a work section and I’m adding case studies right now. It’s been fun to build and be reminded of some of the incredible projects I’ve been lu…
How anyone can bring big ideas to life
Draw to communicate powerful stories. Use these simple to learn techniques. I’ve always a mediocre drawer. Despite working in creative fields for my whole life, my freehand sketches are crude at be…
Departing Lime and what’s next
Last August I left what I’ll always look back on as a dream job: leading the design team at Lime. It was a role where I was responsible for software design and overarching experience of the global …
Perplexity’s high bar for UX in the age of AI
2023 ushered in a new age of computing. The focus of generative AI has so far been largely on the underlying tech. Meanwhile, most AI products tack closely to the chat interfaces launched by the fo…
Bringing back my blog
I’m writing again on my personal blog this year. Bear with me while I move content over from Medium and my previous site. The old site went down when my old Midphase hosting account disappeared. Th…
Hopping on at Lime
This post originally appeared on Medium Two years ago, I felt like I’d gained a superpower. I’d just taken my first e-bike ride and my commute was forever changed. Suddenly I was able to dart throu…
How we’re designing the future of hospitality at Sonder
This post originally appeared on Medium These are some of the design opportunities we’re focused on today and will be for years to come 2018 has been a year of meaningful change on the Sonder desig…
Why I left Uber to join Sonder
After 4.5 years at Uber, I just finished week one at my new home. This post originally appeared on Medium Last week my run at Uber ended. Deciding to leave a company that I’d learned so much from a…
Get Me Home More
A story on how we design the Uber Freight app to help make truck drivers work lives better. This post originally appeared on Medium When work began on Uber Freight a year and a half ago, I was exci…
Designing Through Change
Predictability and a feeling of progress towards a goal is something we all want. When something happens outside of your control and forces a change in course, it can be hard. My team experienced t…
Travis: Our Chief Problem Solver
This post originally appeared on Medium There are so many stories to reflect on from working with Travis over the last three and a half years. From my first interactions with him at our Friday Grow…
Keeping calm and caffeinated on the road
This post originally appeared on Medium Making coffee in the morning. Above all, this is the thing that grounds me (ha!) and gets me ready for the day. The Chemex pour over is my go-to method. This…
Designing the Uber Cash Experience
Designing magical experiences is a local effort. Uber was imagined as a private driver that appears at the tap of a button. And, since your private driver would never ask you to hand over money at …
The Best Career Advice, Uber Alles
Catch me now as I fall into what might be a trap: praising and linking to internet content marketing. I have to though, because the blog is so relevant for tech workers and has had a dramatic influ…
Farewell New York, Hello California!
6 years and 5 months ago I packed my life in two bags and a carry-on to go and live in a city I’d never been to. Following my girlfriend to NYC for her school, I was excited about the chance to see…
Forget Consistency Across Platforms
Designing versions of a product for web, mobile web, iOS, and Android isn’t something you should normally do at the same time. But, right now I’m doing just that for Hometalk and it was making me l…
Be a Better Designer: Code
The internet has been pushing for designers to learn how to code ever since print designers moved into user interface. Those arguments have always centered around how designers should know the limi…
What’s the Worst that Can Happen?
If you can name and visualize your fears, they’re usually not as horrifying as you’ve imagined. Here’s a trick to use whenever you’re confronted with a significant decision: Ask yourself what’s the…
Branded Interactions
One or two key functions. Well designed apps master their core interactions. The best are unique and become associated with the brand itself. You could even call them branded interactions. Clear Cl…
Write Like a Designer
How do you do your best work? This is what works for me: By the end, I should have something I’m happy with. Deviate from those steps and the work suffers. Sticking to that process is important for…
Almost Flat Design
Flat design is both hot and controversial in world of user interface. Microsoft led the charge to introduce it to the masses and many others have followed suit: LayerVault, The Next Web, and more. …
Tech in 1995: The Last Time the 49ers Were in the Super Bowl
The San Francisco 49ers are back in the Super Bowl for the first since since January 29, 1995. That’s 18 years since Steve Young and Jerry Rice smoked the Chargers 49-26 in Miami. The world was a d…
This is Coffee
Cooking Rice and Creating Happiness
I was married last summer and as a gift, a Zojirushi rice cooker came into my life. We requested it, basically because I knew it was the Cadillac of rice cookers, but I didn’t know how much I would…
Draw More Attention to Your Email with an Avatar
Sunrise is an app that emails you a daily digest of your upcoming day. The team is a couple of ex-Foursquarers and were inspired by Timehop, both of which I love for their attention to small design…
Chrome Web Store Vector Logo
I needed this today, so I put it together and am posting here for you to use. Download the Chrome Web Store logo in vector format.
The Interface that IPOed
Kayak went public on Friday and wound up raising $91m in the process. I remember looking at Kayak in 2007/2008 for inspiration since they had the best example of “AJAX filtering”. They had a slider…
Design Should Disappear
A well designed product is a bridge between technology and the user. It makes a connection that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Products serve a utility and overly designed ones, that try to draw atte…
Design For The Device and the Intent
Design has always been an exercise that happens in context: classic artists have paint and canvas limitations to consider, architects need to know the capabilities of their materials, and today’s i…
Make Mobile Design Easier With Dropbox
I’m not shy with my love for Dropbox. It makes life easier in many different ways and it’s always great to find a new, unexpected benefit. The Problem With Designing for Mobile The context of where…
Your Product Needs an Engine of Growth
So you’ve built a first release of your product and you’re ready to get it into the hands of users. The feature set seems solid for this first iteration, but is it? If you haven’t put together a so…
Walled Gardens and Ill-Informed Opinions
Diamond in the Rough is a jewelry company that recently launched a redesigned site and refreshed brand. My team and I did the design and development of the site and it features what has proved to b…
Getting Educated in the New Year
Recently I’ve been working hard to learn how to do some basic back-end programming. There are a ton of tools out there to use and the time seems right to try to build these skills. Here are two I’m…
The Best Tools for Your Company Name Search
Yesterday I wrote about picking a company name and some questions to ask yourself when you’re in that process. Whenever we have new a new product or concept we’re putting together, the two tools we…
3 Questions to Ask Yourself When Choosing a Startup Name
Choosing a name for your startup is a big decision. Once you’ve chosen a name, it’s hard to change both legally and in the minds of your users, so be sure to think it through at the start. Here are…