The Invisible Grid: How Spatial Design Shapes Your Scroll
This week I fell into a rabbit hole about spatial design — the invisible grids, gutters, and alignment systems that shape how you experience every screen you touch. Nobody notices them. That's the point.
The Return of Skeuomorphism (Sort Of)
I read a piece arguing that skeuomorphism is back, but not in the way you'd think. It's not leather textures and drop shadows — it's spatial metaphors. Apple's visionOS uses physical depth to create hierarchy. Windows is experimenting with "layered" UI that mimics paper stacking. The argument: flat design was a necessary reset, but humans still need spatial cues to orient themselves. We just needed better spatial cues than fake stitching.
The Thread That Rewired My Brain
@rafrenders posted a thread on spatial UI that I've now read three times. The core idea: every scroll direction is a design decision with cognitive cost. Vertical scrolling feels like reading. Horizontal scrolling feels like browsing. Diagonal scrolling feels like exploring. Most apps default to vertical because it's cheapest cognitively, but that's not always the right call. Made me rethink a component I shipped last month.
Dieter Rams in 2026
Watched a documentary about Dieter Rams's influence on modern UI. The bit that stuck: his principle "good design is as little design as possible" has been misinterpreted as minimalism for decades. What he actually meant was that every element should earn its place — not that there should be fewer elements. A dense, information-rich interface can be "less design" if everything is purposeful. Most of the "clean" UIs I see are actually just empty.
What I'm Thinking About
The gap between "simple" and "empty" in interface design. And whether the next wave of design tools will finally let us prototype spatial relationships as easily as we prototype color and typography.