LatestDesign
The Quiet Power of Constraints in Interface Design
Effortless interfaces are almost never the product of freedom. They are the product of a boundary drawn early and defended for months.
Elena Marsh6 min readEssays on design, engineering and craft
Considered writing for the people who build software.
Kerning is an independent journal about interface design, front-end engineering and the craft that separates a product people tolerate from one they genuinely trust. No hot takes, no roundups. One long read at a time.
- Pieces published
- 7
- Contributors
- 3
- Cadence
- Fortnightly
Elena Marsh6 min readRead by topic
Recent pieces
Published every other Wednesday, read in about eight minutes.
Why Your Design System Keeps Drifting
Systems do not fail at launch. They fail eighteen months later, one reasonable exception at a time.
Elena Marsh7 min read
Rendering on the Server Again, and Why It Matters
The industry spent a decade moving work into the browser. The walk back is not nostalgia, it is arithmetic.
Marcus Vale8 min read
Performance Budgets People Actually Keep
A budget nobody can see is a wish. Here is how to write one a team will still respect in six months.
Marcus Vale6 min read
A Field Guide to Better Typography on the Web
Ninety per cent of the improvement comes from five decisions, and none of them involve buying a new typeface.
Priya Raman9 min read
What Twelve Redesigns Taught Me About Restraint
Every redesign I regret shares one trait: we solved a problem of appearance when the problem was one of structure.
Priya Raman7 min read
Notes From a Studio That Ships Slowly
A conversation about four-day weeks, refusing work, and why their release notes are one paragraph long.
Elena Marsh10 min readWho writes here
A small masthead of practitioners. Everyone here still does the work they write about.
Elena Marsh
Editor in chief
Elena has spent fifteen years leading design teams inside product companies, most of them arguing gently in favour of doing less. She started Kerning to collect the conversations that usually happen after the meeting ends.
Marcus Vale
Engineering editor
Marcus builds front-end infrastructure for teams that outgrew their first architecture. He writes about the unglamorous decisions that decide whether a site still feels fast two years after launch.
Priya Raman
Contributing editor
Priya is a type designer turned interface designer. She is happiest when a paragraph of body copy has been argued over for longer than the logo.