G'day, I'm Brody MacLean, a multi-disciplinary design lead from Sydney, Australia. :-)
Currently, I am Design Lead at Atlassian, focusing on design quality & visual integration of our AI Design Kit.
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2024 book
Hardest Geezer: Mind over Miles
Russ Cook
Hardest Geezer, Russ Cook, is the first person to ever run the entire length of Africa. From his starting point in Cape Agulhas, South Africa, through sandstorms in the Sahara Desert, rainforests, mountain ranges and long empty roads stretched out for miles in front of him, Russ ran the equivalent of 386 marathons before finally crossing the finish line in Tunisia 50 weeks later.Through attempted kidnaps, an armed robbery where he was held at gunpoint, and the gut-wrenching moment when he was denied the right to cross Algeria and whole challenge was left hanging in the balance, Russ never once contemplated giving up. When he crossed the finish line in Ras Angela, he did so with the eyes of the world on him.Africa may have been his most physical challenge yet but it certainly wasn’t his first. For years, Russ hid from the realities of life by drinking too much and losing himself in the world of online gambling, and it wasn’t until he discovered running and sought out endurance challenges that life took a different turn. He soon learned that you don’t get to avoid the struggle, but you do get to choose it.Show more
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Posted 5d ago
The musings of Fabricio Teixeira on what he loves about design and what he’s learned along the way.
Lessons of Design
lessons.design
Lessons of Design
lessons.design
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2026 TV show
The Pitt, Season 2
A realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers in America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working in a modern-day hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
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Posted Jan 12
I have to admit, I have to agree with Jason Fried on this one — and admit that my house has a lot of these problems.
Neither my wife nor I could tell you what each of the buttons on our Philips Hue tap dial switches do. So much so that I’ve had to set a reminder to turn on all our lights and disable the auto-lock from the front door when the cleaners are coming.
Which reminds me…
Jason Fried writes on his blog:
The TV is the latest Samsung which has a baffling UI just to watch CNN. My parents aren’t idiots, but definitely feel like they’re missing something obvious. They aren’t — TVs have simply gotten worse. You don’t turn them on anymore, you boot them up.
Thermostats… Nest would have been an upgrade, but these other propriety ones from some other company trying to be nest-like are baffling.
And the lag. Lag everywhere. Everything feels a beat or two behind. Everything. Lag is the giveaway that the system is working too hard for too little. Real-time must be the hardest problem.
The big regression
world.hey.com
The big regression
world.hey.com
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Posted Jan 6
A very well crafted essay from Nikita Prokopov.
If you’ve looked at MacOS 26 Tahoe, you’re surely appalled by the new UI guideline that recommends putting icons next to every single menu item.
Prokopov argues — with copious screenshot illustrations every step of the way — that this is a terrible idea in the first place, and that Apple has implemented it poorly.
Sequoia → Tahoe 
It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons
tonsky.me
It’s hard to justify Tahoe icons
tonsky.me
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Posted Dec 29, 2025
The craft bar keeps rising. Good is no longer good enough, and taste becomes leverage. Designers, PMs & engineers with strong product taste will stand out.
Tom Scott writes on his blog:
- AI is making the best designers more productive
- Hands-on is the new default, regardless of level
- You need to be fluent in systems NOT just pixels
- The role of a ‘designer’ will shift to being a curator.
- Show actual work to find a new job
- Design/eng/product roles are merging QUICK
The future of product design
verifiedinsider.substack.com
The future of product design
verifiedinsider.substack.com