Field Notes · Catalog

Field Notes

Tactics from the best design teams and individuals working today, with notes on how the work got made.

113 entries in the catalog

MICROSOFT DESIGN

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Paper earns its geometry

Microsoft spent years replacing plastic with paper. Committing was easy; making every millimeter behave was the work.

APR 21, 2026

Paper, please: The box that did more with less

A variance of one to two millimeters risked scratching the device or allowing damage during transit.

Why it matters

— Foam absorbs impact by being soft. Paper does it by structure.

— Over 1,000 prototype boxes to get coatings, paper, and inks working.

— Smaller boxes per pallet linked sustainability and shipping cost.

— Measurement ran as a second project tracking progress across thousands.

Read on Microsoft Design →

RAUNO FREIBERG

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Minimap, jank, blur

Rauno tried to solve 'scroll back' with a minimap. The minimap caused jank, the jank needed a blur, and the blur almost worked.

Field Notes

The jank gets increasingly worse when you actually choose to scroll to another message.

Why it matters

— Each solution reveals the next constraint: scroll, minimap, jank, blur.

— AI summaries failed: you remember what you typed, not a summary.

— Blur-and-stack beats layout collapse because fewer objects move.

— Keeping the composer visible preserves task context in minimap mode.

Read on their blog →

Critique & decision-making Prototyping & exploration Craft & detail

LINEAR

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

No Miro board in Athens

Linear flew designers and engineers to Athens and shipped a working build by Friday. The part worth lifting is the trust.

BY KARRI SAARINEN / MAR 28, 2024

How we redesigned the Linear UI (part II)

It's always better to do a redesign quickly. Otherwise, you will block almost every project and create design debt.

Why it matters

— Mornings for design iteration, afternoons for engineering pairs.

— Working build behind a feature flag by Friday.

— Compressed loop only works when trust replaces handoff rituals.

— Specific technical calls: LCH over HSL, Electron cross-platform tax.

Read on Linear →

Craft & detail Cross-functional & process Prototyping & exploration

LINEAR

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Kept in their lane

A Linear engineer scopes agent tasks tight enough that they can’t wander, the same discipline as scoping for a junior.

BY RHEA PUROHIT / APR 10, 2026

How we use Linear Agent at Linear

Matthijs gets the best results from coding agents by breaking the work into small, targeted steps.

Why it matters

— Scoping for an agent is the same discipline as scoping for a junior.

— Three-team workflow shows where agents add real leverage.

— PM-ships-the-fix works because the change was small, not the agent.

— Marketing-shaped piece. The underlying tactics are still real.

Read on Linear →

Cross-functional & process Critique & decision-making

NUBANK DESIGN

LDLR DESIGN FIELD NOTES

Darlings, killed by data

Nubank A/B tested whether to scale or shut an internal HR product. The data was unambiguous; the team’s reaction wasn’t.

BY NUBANK EDITORIAL / AUG 27, 2025

A/B Testing for Decision of scaling or decommissioning an Human Resources product

Increased usage didn't always translate to feeling recognized — a critical insight missed without experimental

Why it matters

— A/B testing applied to decommissioning, not just feature launches.

— Internal tools deserve the same rigor as customer-facing products.

— Usage below threshold: kill it. Above: scale it.

— Hardest part isn't the data, it's letting the team accept it.

Read on Nubank Design →

Research & validation Cross-functional & process Critique & decision-making