Ovi Demetrian Jr

@ovidem
46 Followers
60 Following
255 Posts
UX/UI designer and web design engineer. Writer of blog posts about these things and some stories. Founded blocksedit.com CMS and indieaisle.com tools for indie creators.
Blog on design and techhttps://distinctivequality.com/blog/
CMS for all web thingshttps://blocksedit.com
Tools for indie creatorshttps://indieaisle.com
Stories and writinghttps://ovidem.com

“You might think it counterintuitive that a movement obsessed with software would spearhead a severe decline in the design quality of software. But software brain is an obsession with software as a medium in and of itself. A means with no consideration for the end.”

https://daringfireball.net/2026/05/software_as_the_product_of_obsession_times_voice

Software as the Product of Obsession Times Voice

You might think it counterintuitive that a movement obsessed with software would be spearheading a severe decline in the design quality of software, but in Patel’s definition, there’s no concept of software as art, as a practice, as a craft. Software brain is purely an obsession with software as a medium in and of itself. A means with no consideration for the end.

Daring Fireball

📝 Been thinking about this question that used to make me so mad:

“If you don’t have time to do it right at first, how will you have time to fix it later?”

https://multiline.co/mment/2026/04/the-first-time-around/

The first time around | Multiline Comment

The online journal of Ashur Cabrera

Multiline Comment

Email address obfuscation: What works in 2026?

„Some of the best techniques for keeping email addresses hidden from spammers—along with the statistics on how likely they are to be broken.“
https://spencermortensen.com/articles/email-obfuscation/

Email address obfuscation: What works in 2026?

✍️ New post: Design and Engineering, As One

A #longread about a man with a stopwatch, a school in Weimar, and why the gap between design and engineering isn’t an accident.

https://matthiasott.com/articles/design-and-engineering-as-one

Design and Engineering, As One · Matthias Ott

We inherited our product processes from a 19th-century steel works. Frederick Winslow Taylor separated thinking from doing, managers from makers, designers from builders – and a hundred years later, most digital product teams are still running on that model. The gap between design and engineering isn’t an accident. It was designed in. And it can be designed out.

Matthias Ott – Web Design Engineer
Quick reminder, especially if you’re a freelancer or developer using Free/Pro/Pro+ plans for client work: Opt out of GitHub using your data for AI model training before April 24 (seriously, wtf that this isn’t opt-in!).
https://github.com/settings/copilot/features#copilot-telemetry-policy
It is much easier to make something complicated than to make it simple.
Modern responsive image sizing

Determining when to use alternate responsive images, with a simplified output using only the img tag

Blocks Edit
You don't necessarily need to say "image of" in your alt text for users to know it's an image. Screen readers will announce that it's an image. But it can help readers to specify if it's a hand-drawn image, Polaroid, infographic, screenshot, chart, map, diagram, or so on.