Alex Cornell @alexcornell Twitter profile | Pikagi

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Alex Cornell

@alexcornell

24,167

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680

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1,060

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Interface designer at Meta (Gen AI). Prev: Linear / Substack / Cocoon / Facebook / Dialpad / ISO50

San Francisco

https://t.co/7GvyY3ApLq

Joined July 2008

Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

One of my first projects @linear was to make the launch video for Insights. It was a dream brief – everything @karrisaarinen asked for was exactly the kind of style that resonates with me. It was a challenge to try and live up to that. Here are some bits on the proces...

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Last Seen Profiles

@theFooL0900

@SeemaAlexander

@mahiro_n_k

@bokeplokalmalam

@Ladybug2010SSRS

@imcarolburnett

@263_tv

@wilohive

@pampkin1182

@gren_gr

@kabirhass

@this_is_N2

@IdiotsAreNearby

@qa_corey

@bokeplokalmalam

@asukaporn_

@RLS0669

@maxehrich

@meikoloco

@Robot_Etiope

@jokerwrld

@GudmundKim

@hello_gazette

@edu_mwita

@CannelSar

@derbetzebrennt

@central_dptes

@Celinda__B302

@cannon_brendon

@KhHossein64304

@sione_vaki

@Guitarist_DDG

@ThePolymath11

@Alexdelarisa

@ZanelePotelwa

@dormitory6S0

@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Surely the next iPhone will have this

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

I'm hearing that Twitter 2.0 is ready. Here's a demo.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

1/ It's been a year since @SachinMonga and I left Facebook. Since then, we've been working on a new app, Cocoon, which is launching today: Cocoon is a private space for the most important people in your life. You can see an overview here:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

6 years

Every morning, bleary-eyed me dreams of bigger tap targets for my iOS alarm.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

When my children ask me what I did for a living

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

1 year

Meet Andever: an interior design agency I created with Midjourney and GPT4. Everything in their portfolio was generated by AI.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

11 months

Here is a behind-the-scenes process of the loop I made for the @linear launch today. I wish it were more complicated than pouring canola oil on my daughters iPad, but that was essentially it. The attached video shows the final footage alongside the original, unaffected capture.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Wow. Free speech controls in the wild: - Free speech can be toggled on or off. - You can adjust the “degree of freedom” for different categories of speech. - Suppressed speech is visible, but pixelated. If you turn free speech OFF entirely, ~90% of your timeline gets removed.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

Growing up, we're told to look both way before crossing the street. These days, we only look one way: down (at our phones). I made a video about that:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

"Connect Wallet" is probably the scariest way to frame signing up imaginable.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

We recently shipped an updated podcast player in the Substack app. It’s fully-featured – an app within an app – and it was a delight to combine all of my favorite audio design patterns into one experience. Here’s a behind the scenes 🧵at my favorite aspects:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

When I started at Facebook, a chevron icon (v) was used to trigger the more menu on every post. I felt strongly that this should be a three-dot (...) icon instead. To generate support for the change, I would broadcast elaborate live videos with increasingly ridiculous premises.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

I’m told the verified badge will soon require proof-of-life, a sincere recitation of the “I am a human” pledge, and continuous monitoring of your vital signs. This will be in addition to the $8 fee.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

Excited and humbled to announce my $4 investment in espresso this morning. Proud to be a part of such an incredible journey 🙌

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Searching my soul for why we didn't end up using this animation for pull-to-refresh. Squandered slinky.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

I've designed countless "enable notifications" screens. Like every app, I've always used illustration (cue paper airplanes) to fill out the screen. In a recent update, I made this video instead; ideally it's clearer and more interesting.(mostly proud of the looping transition😅)

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

~News About This Person~ 🟣I start work at @linear on Monday! As a user since 2019, I've long admired their execution and deep appreciation of craft. I'm thrilled to join their small yet mighty team. I'll be designing for mobile 😉

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

1/ We just finished YCombinator. Surrounding Demo Day, we went to a lot of investor meetings. Such conversations are usually well-choreographed, methodical, and formulaic, but their physical conditions can be variable and random. Let me explain:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

When I worked at Facebook, I'd make elaborate videos to convey various concepts. Attached is my introduction to the FB Live Core Design Guidelines and Principles.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

One of the most fulfilling feelings in software design is working super hard on a thing, over a sustained period of time, and then sharing it with the world. Here be Substack Chat; I'm proud of this one. Especially now.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

1 year

I posted these Midjourney images on my IG Story. I got so many messages asking me where I was that I had to post a follow up explanation saying that actually no, I am at home. None of this is real.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

1 year

Here's some work in progress for @linear : experimenting with different moods and methods for conveying simple bits of information. Product tutorials as a half-remembered dream..

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Dear @elonmusk , there is a new alternative to Twitter. It's called MEGALODON. Key features: • Zero (or less) ‘algos • Decentralized sanctums • Free speech Fridays Secured first commitments today. Waitlist will be up in the next 24 hours.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

Gmail whenever I copy and paste: "I see you've been using Sans Serif for the last 15 years, but have you considered using Garamond just for this sentence?"

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

When we launched Cocoon, it was only possible to use the app with a single group of people. You could only be in *one* Cocoon. Today we've added the ability to be in as many as you like. The new version includes a switcher in the header for venturing between Cocoons.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

the surprising truth about being an interface designer. hard to admit this.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Every once in a while it's worth asking yourself: what does an interface designers do all day?

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

We recently released a new way to talk in Cocoon, designed to avoid the disruptiveness and inflexibility of a phone call. Spontaneous audio/video, keyed off in-app presence. A unique feature like this offered me the opportunity to craft custom alert sounds. Here's a thread:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

@chan_k Would pay for a 1.6hr documentary on the making of the Island. Please advise where to send cash advance.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

Very excited to launch the @SubstackInc app today! It has always been a dream of mine to design a dedicated app for reading – I'm very proud to have designed and shipped this one. ☺️

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

I hid a secret message in the icon for the internal Substack app. Do you see (or hear) it? Apps often have different icons for production and testing. A 🧵on how we ended up with this one.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

We recently added customizable fonts to Substack’s article viewer. As a lifelong typehead, I was excited to include some of my favorite typefaces in the app. Here are some thoughts on the typefaces I picked…

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

My favorite icons are the simple shapes of playback: triangle-play, rectangle-pause, square-stop, and circle-record. Clean. Probably one of the most comprehensible sets of all time, despite being completely abstract. If I ever get a tattoo, these will be involved.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

ok @figma when the Mirror app was a child, some irreverance was expected. It was young. Even as it matured, the app's petulance was understandable. It was learning. But now, as an adult, Mirror really needs to get its sh*t together. It's too old to behave so poorly.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

I'm excited to share that our Cocoon team has been acquired by Substack! Our wee squad will join theirs, while the Cocoon app will remain independent and online. In many ways it is a perfect outcome 🙏

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

8 months

Today I am excited to join many (many!) old friends back at Meta, this time working on Generative AI. Getting the band back together was too tempting.. ..and alas, I had a wonderful time working at Linear; I'm excited for everyone to try the app soon! It's in very capable hands.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

Let's face it, getting to make the "incorrect usage" section of a design manual is the best part of being a designer.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

It's been 7mo since @SachinMonga and I left Facebook. After YC, we closed a $3M seed round and moved into a serene little office in the Mission. We've been working hard on our new thing. It's not ready yet, but we're ready for you to join us We're hiring:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

For my first interface debate at Facebook, I personified the 3-dot and chevron icons. Each of them conveyed why they should be the "more" icon on every FB post. Broadcast live internally, it was so *weird* that it was impossible to ignore. Particulary because it was live.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

6 years

1/ It's wise to constantly evaluate the opportunity cost of your job: What you do vs. What you could do In the tech industry, a comparison is often drawn between working at a startup vs. a big company. When I started working at Facebook, I thought about this a lot. (1/20)

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

I’m working on the @linear mobile app and we’re hiring more iOS engineers. If you’d like to work with me on this, apply here: Warning: the product has market-fit and the company is profitable. The team is super small and extremely high-caliber. Join us?

Senior - Staff Mobile Engineer (iOS)

At Linear, we are on a mission to bring magic back to software. To empower product teams to do their best work, we are building an issue tracking and project management tool that combines UI elegance...

jobs.ashbyhq.com

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

6 years

After three years, this Friday will be my last day at Facebook. Now back into the startup world! 👩‍🚀

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

We recently added a big new feature to Cocoon called the Daily Album. We included a "What's This?" button for the curious to learn more. Tapping the button calls me on FaceTime so I can explain the feature to you. Do things that don't scale?

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Rather than present as an overlay (Spotify, Sonos), our player initiates as a bottom dock like Apple Audio. The implication is that the player and the app are on the same plane – this spatial model is reinforced during the transition, when the player pushes the app offscreen.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Never have I ever been so excited about a rounded rectangle

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

I wish the @figma font picker worked like this: -- Preview selection on hover -- Render list items as their font -- Sections: Recent, Favorites, and All -- Search From previous keynotes, it looks like most of this has already been built. Please please release it! 🙏

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

When I worked at Facebook, my commute was 2 hours by bus. It was a double-decker and I sat on the top, in the back, in case we ever fell off an overpass. I sat away from the windows to avoid piercing branches or protestor rocks. Here is what I remember:

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Commuting to Facebook

Much ado has been made about the tech industry's private transit system. As a passenger, it probably isn't anything like you imagine.

verylong.substack.com

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

The entrepreneur of the future: 🧵Only speaks in threads 🧠Has a a decentralized brain ⚓️Sings a Sea Shanty

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

We launched a hoard of audio features today @SubstackInc for writers and readers. To celebrate, I recorded a voiceover – a dramatic personal reading just for you - of my most popular article:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

🖥️ Once upon a time, social networks were great for close friends and family. Until they weren't 📱So everyone retreated to generic messaging apps – interchangeable defaults meant for everyone 🏡Cocoon is an app optimized for your closest groups. Finally a place just for them

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

As designers, we joke that all we do is draw rectangles and circles all day. But now, my circles are just rectangles with heavy corner radiuses. So really all I do is draw one shape. All day.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

We are major fans of @NotionHQ at Cocoon – our entire company has run on it since day 1 and it's scaled gracefully even as our company has tripled in size. Their startup program launches today (check out our case study down the page):

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

This is such a weird part of installing an app on OSX. I'm used to it, but it's a pretty bizarre step when you think about it. Especially when you combine it with the need to delete the .dmg and alias icons from your desktop later. Clunky, when compared to app installs on iOS

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Instead of a timeline with NO bots, how about a simulated timeline with ALL bots? You might call it a “🤖 SafeSpace”. An AI-powered timeline is a great way to feel apart of a community without incurring the social cost of tweeting with real people.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

📢We're launching Cocoon 2.0 today!📢 It's a messaging app optimized for small, meaningful groups. It's not for everyone, but it's crazy that messaging apps were meant for everyone in the first place...

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Cocoon: Group messaging as it should be

Available now for iOS and Androidhttp://cocoon.comDownload for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/cocoon-a-space-for-family/id1439649269Download for Android:...

www.youtube.com

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

As a designer, I spend most of my time alternating text layouts between left and center aligned.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

Cocoon is the App of the Day today: 🧙This is extremely awesome 🧙‍♂️ It's also great timing, because we launched a bunch of new things today..

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

9 years

@thisisiceland This is for you lovely friend http://t.co/damovqe1IK

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

8 years

Visited FDR museum today. Pretty monumental edit here:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

6/ It's early days for us, and there is a lot of exciting work to be done. If the problem we're solving resonates with you, check out our hiring page and get in touch: Our team is small but mighty: @dyah10 @pixelmatrix @williwu @johnmalatras @SachinMonga

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

Given how much ridicule the dreaded 'green' message bubbles receive, it's surprising that the Messages icon itself is still that same green. Will it ever go blue like OSX?

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

I just want to share this photo

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

Design tools define the generational style of apps. • Photoshop gave us skeuomorphic design. • Sketch gave us flat design. • @figmadesign – there is still time to get weird and stir the pot. Just add a wild panel in there and see what happens...

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Would love to see a unique take on the font picker–anything but an alphabetical list of fonts I don't use. @figma is well-positioned to offer something new. Their existing solution is famously underpowered, but even "better" font picker plugins are still just alphabetical lists.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

To drive home a point, I once made it look like I had presented a new product at an All Hands – the product didn’t actually exist and there was no All Hands. Amazing how “conference-quality” video can make something seem legitimate. Will share full thing sometime..

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

We launched our @SubstackInc Android app!

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

2/ The purpose of Cocoon is to keep a small group close over time and distance. Specifically, an interconnected group who want to maintain and enhance their relationship together. The app is a collection of spaces intentionally designed to accomplish this goal.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

It's been an exciting day here at Cocoon! Excited to share more this week. We're on Product Hunt today – answering questions and discussing the product:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

12/ The I Thought The Meeting Was Today: At least you "got the time back", as we used to say at Facebook.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

Exciting day at @Cocoon_HQ today... We're turning on payments! Going forward, new Cocoons will require one member to pay to sponsor the group after a thirty-day free trial. A direct investment in your closest relationships!

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Crazy how this is still the fastest way to find a good movie to watch

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Oh my it's bittersweet, this was my last project for Substack – tomorrow is my last day! I'm planning to take some time off - for the first time in 15 years - and...YES work on my Substack:

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Very Long Press | Alex Cornell | Substack

Very Long Press is a newsletter about interface design and technology. Enjoy random recollections and offbeat observations about everything from corner radii to fundraising. Click to read Very Long...

verylong.substack.com

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

You built a new feature. It's intuitive, but unique enough to require some user education. However: • No one reads, so you can't use words. • No attention spans, so you can't use video. • A NUX of any kind will be ignored. Now what?

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

3/ Before I continue, I should mention that I think about seating a lot. I spoke to NPR once about where to sit at dinner: Maybe I think about it too much.

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Where To Sit To Keep A Big Dinner Interesting

Host Rachel Martin talks to Alex Cornell, who has come up with a scheme for finding the optimal seat at a table with multiple guests. In other words, how to position yourself for the best chance of...

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

18/ As always, I hate tweet storms, but this is the world we live in now. Should you prefer an article on a personal website (as I do), you can find that here:

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Investor Meeting Seating - Alex Cornell

We just finished YCombinator. Surrounding Demo Day, we went to a lot of investor meetings. Such conversations are usually well-choreographed and methodical but their physical conditions can be...

www.alexcornell.com

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

There has to be a better icon for optional, right?

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

10/ The Tear Drop: Of the conditions I've seen so far, this was my favorite. The table's unexpected and natural shape puts all parties at ease and obliquely prevents confrontational angles. I'd never seen a tear drop table before, but it was the best.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

Winner of the Best UX Decision of the Decade award: Quadruple the size of the cursor when/if a user is spastically flailing their mouse around in an attempt to find it. Five stars.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

I enjoyed putting this talk together for the @AWWWARDS SF conference back in June: It required an unusually massive amount of prep. Hopefully is a fun watch, and good background about the making of the Lookout video.

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Alex Cornell | Choosing Idea Vessels For Your Creations | Awwwards...

Former Product Design Lead for Facebook, Alex Cornell, explains the importance of choosing the right vessels to get your design ideas noticed, and shares inn...

www.youtube.com

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

The best scrubber in history belongs to Castro. Ours is a tribute to theirs, with the addition of a tiny linear fade. What’s great about this chunky design is how obvious the hit area is – especially compared to line scrubbers. You can tap anywhere to interact with it.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

3 years

i have something to tell you

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

6 years

I’m a huge fan of @vsco , and have been using it for years, but for the life of me I have no idea what any of these icons mean until I click on them (every time I open the app 😨).

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Product design is a series of false peaks. The quicker you realize that, the happier and more effective you'll be.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

6 years

There is a lot of insanely cool stuff to work on here @facebook . (💡Just realized I’ve been here 3 years!) Designers, ping me if interested or if you want to chat more. DMs open:

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

9 years

My Iceland Travel Guide is here and waiting for you to read it, and run away to Iceland: http://t.co/damovqe1IK http://t.co/Z33hpEpbO8

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

Probably one of the hardest things about interface design, is that you can't rely on written language. You must assume people won't read descriptions, labels, instructions, warnings, words etc. "No one will read that" is frustrating, but usually accurate, feedback.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

11 months

This is the final version. One idea I just had while writing this, would have been to use the fluid as a mask and reveal the logo sort of like a linear wipe. I'll try that next time!

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

To moderate and debate myself live, I used 3 camera angles and a live switcher. The attached setup allowed me to switch between angles and make it look like there were 3 of me, each turning the correct direction toward one another as I cut between cameras.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Blurred artwork in the background is textbook at this point. But to give it a unique touch, we customized the transition when you select something new from the queue to occur over a leisurely 3 seconds. The slow fade has a really luxurious, honey-drip feel.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

The absolutely glorious alignment of our voiceover icon with the scrubber is the kind of minuscule detail that no one would ever notice, but makes me endlessly content.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

I do all of our @Cocoon_HQ prototyping in Origami Studio: @FacebookOrigami Of all the prototyping tools, I think it strikes the best balance of capability and complexity. Planning to do some tutorial videos for the 3 of you who would be interested 🤸‍♂️

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

4 years

Tis' the fool who draws the ellipse, and not the fully rounded rectangle. For we all, one day, will make our profile pictures square again.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

@chr1sa @SachinMonga I will let you know AS SOON as we have Android ready for you :D

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

This all was a tight collaboration with @pixelmatrix on iOS. As with the rest of the app, there was no limit to what we could do together. Between design and eng, it took under one month. If such pace and autonomy is appealing to u, come work with us:

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Substack - Jobs

Help build a better future for writing.

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

5 years

2/ I met espresso in 2012. Their long tail of user acquisition and growth monetization was unparalleled. Capitalization theory. Honored and proud and humbled and thrilled to have met them early and joined such a wild 🚀

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@alexcornell

Alex Cornell

2 years

Every audio player devotes too much space to the artwork, and punts the Up Next queue to another screen. Our player handles everything on one screen – the view transforms if you interact with the queue, and further depth is revealed when you scroll.

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