425: Overengineering Variants

Design Details

This week, we share tips for crafting component variants to avoid the dreaded variant-explosion problem. In the Sidebar, we talk about Tesla’s latest UI refresh, where we see auto interfaces going in the future, and share some of our favorite car dashboard design details.

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Main Topic:

This week, we share tips for crafting component variants to avoid the dreaded variant-explosion problem.

• Bryan Maniotakis asks about Figma variants on GitHub: Based on your experience, is this method sustainable? Is forcing the user to hide/show layers a better option to reduce complexity? Should I break out the component into more subcomponents to create fewer variants, but which causes more clicking around?

Cool Things:

• Brian shared the August Wi-Fi Smart Lock as a nice upgrade to your home’s deadbolts. Auto-locking and unlocking are great features, and the ability to share access with a partner or friends is awesome, too.
• Marshall shared Lian-Li UNI Fans, a modular, daisy-chainable fan module for your custom PC build.

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Byeee!