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Hey, I’m Brian.

I’m a product designer, podcaster, and writer, currently living in San Francisco. Right now I’m building native mobile apps at GitHub.

Writing

Thinking out loud about design, development, and building software.

Projects

Weekend hacks for fun and learning.

App Dissection

In-depth explorations of visual and interaction design in well-known apps.

Bookmarks

Internet things, saved for later.

AMA

Ask me anything.

Hacker News

A better Hacker News.

Security Checklist

Tools and resources for staying safe on the internet.

Waves Phone Wallpapers

A custom-made set of 10 phone wallpapers, each with a unique color palette and design.

Design Details Podcast

A weekly conversation about design process and culture.

464: AI Grab Bag

This week, we talk about Open AI's GPTs-as-apps strategy, FigJam's AI tools, and our dreams for a future Jarvis-like experience.

Released 1 year ago

463: Design Medley, Vol. 1

This week, we talk about the delicate art of using animation in interface design, how to use button sizes, and managing margins in type styles.

Released 1 year ago

462: Refactoring a Design System

This week, Marshall breaks down his process, tips, and tricks to redesign a design system in Figma.

Released 2 years ago

461: Config and WWDC 2023

This week, we supply some cold (but thoughtful!) takes on everything released during last month's WWDC and Config 2023.

Released 2 years ago

460: Arc Boosts ft. Gabriel Valdivia

This week, we dissect the recently-launched Arc Boosts to try and understand what they're for and where they're going.

Released 2 years ago

See all episodes →

Figma plugins

Making the design process less tedious.

Dominant Color Toolkit

Generate a palette from an image to magically populate your designs.

Responsify

Quickly test your designs across multiple device sizes.

iOS Export Settings

Applies the correct export settings for every required iOS App Icon size and density.

Export .zip

Easily export assets from Figma directly into a .zip file.

GitHub Data

Populate data from GitHub into Figma mocks

See my Figma profile →

Open source work

designdetails / designdetails

The code that powers Design Details.

brian-lovin-next

The code that powers this website you’re looking at.

withspectrum / spectrum

Simple, powerful online communities.

specfm / spec-next

A podcast network to help designers and developers level up.

Follow me on GitHub →

Speaking and interviews

Building for open source

Ryan Nystrom and I talk about designing and building the mobile apps at GitHub.

Extend what’s possible with Figma Plugins - Figma Config

An exploration into the plugins I built to automate the tedious parts of designing mobile apps at GitHub.

Designing with GraphQL - GraphQL Summit

Exploring the possibilities that open up when designers and developers can speak the same language.

Interface Lovers Interview

An interview about how I got into design, my process, and past work.

Charmander++ – Interviewing ourselves on Design Details

Bryn Jackson and I interviewed each other. Totally humble.

Avocode Interview

An interview where we dig into my work at Buffer, Facebook, Spectrum, and what’s in the works at GitHub.

Software Engineering Daily: GitHub Mobile

Ryan and I discuss how we designed and built the first version of GitHub’s mobile apps.

App Dissection

In-depth explorations of visual and interaction design in well-known apps.

See all posts →