Instagram is removing the post button from its bottom navigation bar and replacing it with a dedicated DMs button, alongside home, Reels, search, and profile tabs. The redesign stems from Instagram reaching three billion users, with growth primarily driven by DMs, Reels, and recommendations, according to Instagram head Adam Mosseri. Users will still be able to post content by accessing the posting feature from the top-left corner of the app instead.
Suzuki has unveiled its first logo redesign in 22 years, shifting from its glossy chrome look to a cleaner, more minimalist style suited for the digital age. The updated logo keeps its iconic "S" but now features a matte silver gradient with simplified ridges for better legibility, aligns with sustainability by using silver paint instead of chrome, and comes with a new tagline, "By Your Side."
The best designers aren't necessarily the most talented, but rather those most effective at implementing good ideas in the real world. Five key habits distinguish them: maintaining open minds that embrace curiosity over perfectionism, staying grounded in current workplace realities rather than fantasizing about ideal companies, practicing pragmatic idealism by breaking grand visions into actionable steps, reframing difficult problems using design thinking to help business leaders, and showing patience when educating colleagues about design processes. These traits enable designers to have a greater positive impact than those who rely solely on raw creative talent.
2025.09.26·
whydesignishard.substack.com·4 min read·TLDR Design
Figma has announced updates to its MCP server and Code Connect, which bring design context to any development environment, including IDEs, AI agents, and prototypes. The MCP server now supports remote access and works with Figma Make files, while Code Connect introduces in-app component mapping to align design and code components more easily. These tools help teams move from design ideas to production code more quickly by making the design system context portable across different workflows.
Naming in design systems isn't just semantics — it's a hidden source of friction, mistrust, and wasted time that scales into major adoption problems. Common traps like premature precision, visual-based labels, abbreviations, and outdated names create cognitive overload, while sustainable systems require function-first naming, clear taxonomies, quarterly audits, and documented rationale to keep names accurate, consistent, and trustworthy as teams and products evolve.
AI is transforming UX design by enabling personalization at scale, accelerating user research through data analysis, and automating rapid prototyping and testing. The technology enhances accessibility features, such as voice recognition and screen readers, while reducing repetitive tasks, allowing designers to focus on creativity and strategy. Rather than replacing human designers, AI serves as a partner that amplifies their capabilities to create more innovative, data-driven user experiences.
Public feedback from X, Reddit, reviews, and other platforms provides more honest UX insights than traditional surveys, as users share unfiltered frustrations in real-world contexts. Teams should systematically collect and categorize this feedback, focusing on emotional language and recurring complaints to identify genuine usability problems rather than isolated issues. By turning these complaints into quick design experiments and testing fixes with the original complainers, companies can improve their products faster than relying solely on formal research methods.
EIGA developed a flexible brand system for Katholino kindergartens built around a cross-shaped heart logo, offering over 500 variations so each facility can express its individuality while staying within a shared framework. Supported by a custom child-friendly typeface, seasonal colour palette, and easy-to-use templates, the system empowers non-designers to create consistent, practical, and expressive communication while reinforcing the community's core value of “shaping childhood together.”
Mercedes-Benz's new “Dream Days” campaign by BBDO India showcases the power of print with a clever newspaper ad that turns a steering wheel graphic into an interactive, hands-on experience.
Rocket [4] has raised a $15M seed round co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Accel, with participation from Together Fund, to scale the world's first _vibe solutioning_ platform. Unlike first-gen “vibe coding” tools that stop at prototypes, Rocket solves for Day 0 (solutioning with context), Day 1 (rapid creation), and Day 2 (iterations, maintenance, integrations). In just 15 weeks, more than 400,000 users across 180+ countries have built over 500,000 production-ready apps. With enterprise-grade code, contextual research, and multi-agent orchestration, Rocket is redefining how founders and teams ship products at scale.
Oracle has promoted Clay Magouyrk and Mike Sicilia to co-CEO roles, signaling a leadership transition as it focuses on scaling its AI infrastructure capabilities. Former CEO Safra Catz has moved into the role of executive vice chair of the board.
Lack of belief in a payoff leads to burnout and loss of motivation, not just hard work itself. It's crucial to distinguish between a "Dip," where persistence might lead to success, and a "Cul-De-Sac," where effort yields no progress. Assess your work's potential for progress and pivot if the path forward lacks hope to avoid burnout.
A startup weighing institutional capital knows it aids growth and visibility through limitless funds, but pressures short-term decision-making. Conversely, forgoing such capital allows strategic flexibility and long-term planning but limits growth potential. Entrepreneurs must carefully weigh these options according to their goals and aspirations.
Dreadnode secured a $14M Series A from Decibel by skipping interim funding rounds, leveraging growing customer demand and strategic angel investments. Founded by former NVIDIA AI security lead Will Pearce, Dreadnode rapidly gained traction with major research labs and tech firms. The funding enables it to expand resources to meet increasing market demand.
Over 6 million tech professionals read TLDR including developers, product managers, marketers, designers and executives. Get in front of your target audience with an ad placement just like this one! Learn more [11] about running a test campaign.
Distilled Intelligence gathers exceptional founders, investors, and operators for 3 days of inspired conversations, intentional fundraising, and lasting relationships. The multi-day summit at Lansdowne Resort in Virginia is free for founders and includes complimentary hotel accommodations, investor introductions, and meals during the event.
Brex's CTO built an internal AI platform that lets any employee spin up agents in minutes, turning the company's COO's operations team from people managers into agent managers. The shift is radical - disputes that took 3 hours now take 3 seconds, AI does 100% of quality assurance on all interactions, and over 50% of customer support is fully automated. Most L1 roles managing basic tasks are gone, replaced by L2s who now prompt engineers and coach AI instead of coaching humans. Brex even changed its hiring to test AI fluency with case studies where candidates must show their prompts, not just results, because it believes operations can be 5-10x more efficient when teams have their own automation.
Slack and Atlassian were worth the same $27 billion when Salesforce bought Slack, but Slack got there in 7 years while Atlassian took 17. The difference illustrates two paths to massive value - hypergrowth or steady compounding over decades. OpenAI is growing 400% at $1 billion revenue, while Atlassian grew 30% at that scale, yet Snowflake's 124% growth path built a $75 billion company versus Atlassian's $42 billion. The lesson is that reaching $1 billion revenue faster creates significantly more value due to time value of money - hypergrowth beats slow and steady even if you eventually hit the same revenue, though most companies can't optimize growth, margin, and retention simultaneously.
Georgian invested in Replit's $250 million Series C round as Replit launched its AI-driven Agent 3, enhancing cloud-based software development. Replit democratizes coding by enabling users to create applications via natural language prompts, supporting over 50 languages and featuring AI assistance, real-time collaboration, and one-click deployment. With rapid revenue growth, strategic partnerships, and a versatile platform, Replit is poised to disrupt traditional SaaS markets and expand the AI-powered app creation landscape.
Tech founders are pushing 996 - working 9 am to 9 pm, six days a week - claiming it's the only way to build billion-dollar companies, but there's a catch they don't mention.
Don't let quotas limit your creativity. Self-host n8n on Hostinger VPS (61% off!) [4] and get unlimited workflows, unlimited executions, and 500+ app integrations starting at just $4.99/month. Build your AI-powered workflows, connect any tool, and scale without hitting
Previously banned YouTube creators are being allowed back, giving them access to ads again and creating more inventory while also introducing brand-safety concerns. Alphabet says it will prioritize free expression and replace some fact-checking with context notes. The change could expand ad reach and intensify competition for views, but advertisers will need to monitor placements closely to avoid controversial adjacency.
Fall marketing trends center on building rituals and adaptive campaigns rather than one-off stunts. Major shifts include nostalgic comfort foods, local community events, sensory storytelling, and creator-led discovery. Sustainability and micro-season timing will also shape how brands connect with consumers this season.
Adding nine words of risk-reversal text to Custody X Change's SaaS checkout page increased conversions by 14% and revenue by 30%. The sentence “You can change or cancel your plan any time” reduced customer anxiety about making the wrong choice. Research showed that new co-parents often struggled to pick the right tier and defaulted to lower-cost options due to uncertainty. By clearly communicating flexibility at checkout, the company removed doubt and encouraged more confident decisions that drove measurable growth.
Clay shows how to build trust by tying every product claim directly to a customer result. Instead of generic logos or testimonials, its homepage highlights examples like OpenAI doubling enrichment coverage, Verkada saving 15 hours a week with automation, and Anthropic keeping CRM data synced automatically. Match each feature with specific proof of how it was used and what it delivered. This makes claims credible and helps buyers see real impact.
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Custom AI agents can streamline marketing tasks and improve personalization. Use cases include lead scoring and qualification, lifecycle email automation, competitor tracking, content research, and LinkedIn coaching. Lead scoring combines form data, third-party data, and judgment with human escalation when needed. The other use cases focus on drafting personalized emails, monitoring competitors in real time, summarizing top-performing content themes, and providing coaching to improve LinkedIn performance.
Linktree rolled out new design-focused updates to make profiles more customizable. Key features include Enhance, an AI tool that suggests tailored design updates, deeper Canva integration with free access for all users and Canva Pro for Premium subscribers, and Restyle with AI to transform profile photos into artistic styles. The platform also introduced a smarter profile editor with live previews and Suggested Titles, giving brands easier ways to stand out.
Rounded prices attract more offers and increase the likelihood of negotiations compared to precise prices. Across 6 experiments and analysis of 11,203 real estate listings, people were 77.5% less likely to negotiate when given precise prices, and renters using precise offers were seen as 26.8% less flexible and 12.5% less likely to be engaged. The effect grows stronger as precision increases, with only 46.9% of people willing to negotiate a 4-digit precise offer versus over half for less precise ones. Researchers recommend starting with rounded prices to encourage offers, then switching to precise numbers during negotiations to achieve higher final prices.
After multiple pivots and a failed shopping app, Candle's founders successfully launched a viral social app. The app focuses on small, repeatable interactions where users receive a daily question or prompt, share quick photo updates, compare answers with partners or friends, and keep a visible “streak” that rewards consistency. Its lightweight design and points system called “sparks” turn relationship check-ins into a game, while TikTok-driven discovery and word-of-mouth helped it go viral early, especially among Gen Z and young millennials.