mitchellwatts.com - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

I sometimes imagine that a digital screen is like a petri dish of pond water. It's composition of interface elements sort of like microorganisms: reacting to energy & stimulus, being poked and prodded by other elements/users in the system, & adapting to when the shape of their environment changes.

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

I, like many, have grown exhausted by the Japandi interior design aesthetic.* I, like many, am too invested in the Japandi lifestyle to stop.* I, like many, weep.* *first world problem(s)

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments

Today I'm available for new full-time opportunities and will consider contract roles. If you know of Sr. Product Designer or UX Designer roles, then I would love to hear from you. My website → www.mitchellwatts.com Context: a private equity acquisition impacted most of the jobs in our digital org

submitted 72 days ago • 0 comments

Found myself today reminiscing on the days of sharing design on Forrst and later, Dribbble. While the design industry felt less mature, it also felt more intimate, engaging, and helpful. But all I can do is reminisce, because communities that recapture that spirit seem fleeting.

submitted 81 days ago • 0 comments

The Sigma BF is very neat. A bit of an indictment against Leica that they keep making things more fussy and complicated rather than this: a reduction to the essence of what makes a camera. It’s truly a case study in minimalism. Wonderful stuff.

submitted 81 days ago • 12 comments

Pro-tip for professionals who need to have a portfolio: keep a work journal! Organize it by project/feature/product with screenshots, artifacts, key conversations, and metrics. ✔ Record of your work ✔ Easy case study material ✔ Tracks accomplishments over time ✔ Receipts for performance reviews

submitted 87 days ago • 0 comments

Spinning up a new case study for my website. 😌

submitted 87 days ago • 0 comments

p much client I've ever worked with, the root of most inefficiencies in projects is the fact they're always in goddamn meetings. They don't even have time to do their own job, let alone the extra needed to make us as useful as possible.

submitted 87 days ago • 3 comments

Man, I don’t think any band has been as good a representative of their genre as Metallica. What an awesome entry point into metal. And I’ve been a metalhead since I was a teenager. Their first four albums still crush.

submitted 89 days ago • 0 comments

Happy to report that Titanfall 2 more than holds up. It still holds the title of best first person shooter video game.

submitted 92 days ago • 0 comments

I wrote a blog post on how to build a macOS menu bar utility in #SwiftUI using MenuBarExtra, customize its icon, hide it from the Dock, and add a quit option: nilcoalescing.com/blog/BuildAM...

submitted 92 days ago • 6 comments

Not to brag, but my son slept for an 8 hour stretch last night. Which is the longest undisturbed period of sleep we’ve had in 7 months. 😮‍💨

submitted 94 days ago • 0 comments

Ever stand in the shower & try to ELI5 something? An eloquent, simple way to describe a hobby, or your job? Really makes you self-reflect when answering, “how well practiced and knowledgeable am I in this topic?” So for me, all of the above. But for the plot of HALO, Combat Evolved.

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

If you’re in line to sack Patrick Mahomes, STAY IN LINE

submitted 95 days ago • 69 comments

Watching Mahomes get sacked, then sacked again. Then intercepted? Absolutely cathartic.

submitted 95 days ago • 0 comments

Designing my website live, unrefined, and available for anyone to see its unfinished state felt counter intuitive at first. I’m vulnerable; fearful that displaying a rough & subpar experience (albeit temporarily) will leave a lasting negative first impression. Yet it’s my best portfolio site yet.

submitted 96 days ago • 1 comment

the urge to drive this little vacuum truck

submitted 98 days ago • 19 comments

Since discovering the “Wristwatch Revival” YouTube channel I’m now slowly falling in love with analog watches. Which is a shame, because I bought an Apple Watch Ultra 2 not long ago. Curious… how difficult it might be to learn the hobby? 👀

submitted 97 days ago • 0 comments

For the kids growing up today, using web search for most things is going to feel like using an abacus in the age of calculators…

submitted 99 days ago • 4 comments

Developer successfully runs ‘Doom’ on Apple’s Lightning to HDMI adapter

submitted 99 days ago • 1 comment

Stunners being dropped by Apple Guy, per usual. Half of my wallpapers are powered by this guy.

submitted 102 days ago • 0 comments

Increasingly wonder if it’s worth my time to learn additional UI and prototyping apps for mocking up experiences, or if in the same amount of time I could just learn to code. Answer seems obvious after typing that out.

submitted 102 days ago • 0 comments

Launch Day The Art of Fauna is now available on the App Store! 🥳 It's a puzzle game based on historical animal drawings, with a strong focus on accessibility. 20% of proceeds are donated to nature conservation organisations. Download: apps.apple.com/app/apple-st... Learn more 🧵 #TheArtOfFauna

submitted 102 days ago • 24 comments

In this day and age, do employers read cover letters from job applicants? I have many friends and some family who are searching for a new job, and some have questioned how essential it truly is to provide a cover letter.

submitted 105 days ago • 1 comment

One of the best things a designer can do is to surface "system status" to end users. Its clearly resonating to users of DeepSeek to see how it reasons to answer a prompt.

submitted 106 days ago • 0 comments

🧑‍💻 Rare opportunity alert: Panic is looking for a Web Services Engineer to maintain and expand our growing flock of Flask + Django web applications, and more. The job is here in Portland, OR. (We can also cover USA relocation.) Is this you? Or someone you know? Apply! (Or share!) 🙏 panic.com/jobs/

submitted 107 days ago • 2 comments

Simplifying and enhancing the experience of reading my case studies, starting with my "Designing the involveMINT app" page on my website. I love breathing life into static elements through animation.

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

I prompted my local installation of Deepseek R1: "What happened at Tiananmen Square in 1989?" It answered with censorship and used the term "we" in its response. So, I asked what it meant by "we"... and it became stuck in "thinking" mode, falling into an unending stream of reasoning. Wild.

submitted 107 days ago • 0 comments

Could one theoretically install DeepSeek onto a home server, thereby having a completely private LLM for themselves? Oh the possibilities (if so). Future seems interesting from those who’ve invested in having a smart home.

submitted 108 days ago • 2 comments

It is Deepseek time, my dudes.

submitted 108 days ago • 0 comments

While doing joke research, I stumbled upon the strangest Internet mystery. Looking for the origin of the phrase "a rising tide lifts all boats," Apple's search suggestion was… "a scrambled egg makes all happy"??? This odd phrase can't be found anywhere on the web…

submitted 108 days ago • 6 comments

Is there a way to write an iOS shortcut to submit a post to Bluesky and/or Threads? I often want to share a thought, idea, or piece of media I’ve created without being pulled into the timeline vortex. I would love the ability to pop off a post without launching into an app.

submitted 108 days ago • 1 comment

It's happening!! We managed to convince Google to open source PebbleOS. Took a while, but they just did it today! github.com/google/pebble With that, we're bringing Pebble back! I blogged about it - ericmigi.com/blog/why-wer...

submitted 108 days ago • 112 comments

I really just want a simple menubar app for macOS that lets me post to Bluesky. Emphasis on "simple". No frills, or loading in content to view. Let me just pop off a thought I have, maybe attach an image or video, then continue on with my day.

submitted 109 days ago • 0 comments

Well Philly, its up to you. Go Birds.

submitted 109 days ago • 0 comments

i bet this feels so good if you're a deck of cards

submitted 112 days ago • 24 comments

A little bit late in Shari g this, but I love the explainer for a less technical audience to grasp how this place works.

submitted 111 days ago • 0 comments