Shankar’s Blog

My corner on the internet

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 00:00:00 GMT

It is 2024 and personal websites are hardly a thing anymore on the web. As a UI designer, it is both trendy and semi-required to have a portfolio. As such, I have always had a website of some sort. But over the years, I have realized that a website is much more than a portfolio for a hiring manager to look at. A personal website can tell stories. It is a canvas for me to share my stories, my work and perhaps more.

The internet, in my mind, is as diverse and culturally rich as the real world itself. For me, a personal website is a meditation on the question - What does it mean to have a home on the internet? Like a piece of land in the real world, a personal website is something I can point to and say, Hey, that is mine.

For a long time (almost 7 or 8 years?) I had a Squarespace website. It was there to fill the void of a portfolio all UI designers have and never really felt great to maintain or blog on. So finally, I have this - a personal website I have complete control over. A website designed and developed by me. I can easily add new posts on here and tweak the design with more freedom. It is my pet project and I love it!

And that is it. Like a little house on a street, this website is my little corner on this vast globe called the internet. It looks like many other homes but it is also uniquely mine. I hope to fill it with memories and tinker with details. Welcome to my corner on the internet.

How I feel about the holiday season

Sun, 17 Dec 2023 00:00:00 GMT

A few months ago, I learned about liminal spaces. The term helped me put a label on a familiar feeling that I could not describe earlier. Liminal spaces are a metaphor for a brief (or sometimes long) state of transition between the end of one event and the beginning of the next. Long flights, airport layovers, walking through hotel hallways, waiting for a date and many other situations in life represent a liminal space.

During the holiday season, a ball of anxiety rolls through my insides and mixes in with the joy of the festive moments. Stating my hopes and aspirations out loud makes me feel as naked and vulnerable as a person standing on a cliff above deep water. What if you fail?, my mind quips.

For many years, the holidays have evoked a melange of emotions. Feelings of fear, excitement, uncertainty and many others I do not understand fuel that ball of anxiety.

The holiday season, especially the last three weeks of the year, is a liminal space between the end of the year and the new year. The new year is daunting - like an empty canvas for an amateur artist. It is ready to be filled with goals, desires, aspirations and whatever else you want.

The beauty of it all? I walk through the liminal space into the new year anyway, hoping that the ball of anxiety becomes a catalyst for growth.

Here's a YouTube video about the concept of liminal spaces -

Five years at Google

Sun, 12 May 2024 00:00:00 GMT

This April, I completed 5 years at Google. I have been through plenty of good, bad and average moments at this company and I am thankful for all of it.

Shipping stuff

I have worked at companies big and small but I don’t think I have shipped products with a large team before Google. Small pieces in projects, yes, but not full-fledged product updates that touch millions. There is something about drawing a design in Figma and then seeing it actually being used by billions of people.

Culture

Google’s culture is closest to that of a University. At least for individual contributors. There is a lot of hype around everything, which is both good and bad, but it is something. In the last year or so, the culture is fading and feels like the company doesn’t really care about the culture. However, I’d like to keep an optimistic outlook about the future. The culture can still be fixed at Google and I hope they do so before it is too late. Side note – this goes for most tech companies in Silicon Valley right now.

Engineering first

In the product triad of Engineering, Product Management and UX Design, Google is unabashedly focused on Engineering. This leads to some industry leading innovation in Engineering. At the same time, the product culture is heavily engineering driven. It is not a good or bad thing, but it is an imbalance that shapes how UI design work is done at Google.

Loyal to the work, not the company

The mass layoffs in tech and a general indifference from tech executives changed my perspective on work. I see myself less as a “Googler” and more as a designer. I am loyal to the work and the people who use the products Google makes. I see Google as a canvas where I can contribute and use it as a platform to do good work and grow as a designer.

Thankful with awareness

I am thankful for what this opportunity has given me. I am thankful for shipping impactful work, working with talented individuals, the famous Google perks and more. I like and dislike a lot of things about Google. It is not all great or all bad, but what experience in life is perfect anyway?

Me vs Morning Anxiety

Sun, 13 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMT

Morning Anxiety has plagued me for a long time. My Anxiety is an Anxiety with a capital 'A'. I rarely wake up feeling peaceful. However, when I see threads like this one on reddit, I feel less alone about my condition.

I have tried a lot of things to deal with morning Anxiety. Two things that stuck for me and have helped a lot -

I make sure I have somewhere to show up every day.

On weekdays, that is to the cafeteria at my workplace. I get a coffee, savor that first sip and then dive into the chaos of the day. During weekends, I wake up and show up to the coffee shop down the street. I stretch, walk and show up to the coffee shop and then plan what I need to do. Thankfully, I am able to afford that fancy latte while I sit and journal or read. At the cost of sounding cheesy, I will say this is a form of privilege too and it is better to make the most of what I got.

I do 5 pushups most mornings, right after I wake up.

I have tried to get myself to do 30-45 mins of exercise in the morning but it is too much for me and I get anxious trying to stick to it. But five pushups is doable. Heck, even a 10 second plank goes a long way on some days. I pull out my yoga mat that I place at the foot of the bed, and stretch a little bit. Feeling the ground below me grounds me literally and figuratively. It helps. I feel slightly stronger and my heart rate elevates in a good way before I get going.

I wish this killed the Anxiety altogether but no technique does. When the world is spinning crazy, the only thing I can do is to try to be a little less crazy for a moment.

Oversimplifying AI

Sun, 25 May 2025 00:00:00 GMT

This post is a thought exercise. I am not sure what you will get out of reading it but if you wish to see me think out loud, go ahead and read this. It will only waste 3 mins of your time.

TL;DR of what I blather on for the next 6 paragraphs: AI is a writing and coding tool. The agentic AI tools will help us automate workflows.

At the end of the day, isn’t AI just useful for generating text and code? Let me try again by dropping ‘just’ this time. AI is a powerful way to generate text and code. Hmm..maybe it is a powerful way to help with writing and coding. Now let me step back a little bit. If AI is a writing and coding tool, on a high level of course, then it shows how important words are for knowledge work. Words help us think, communicate and remix ideas. Then AI is a great leap forward for some knowledge work. So back to my oversimplified definition - AI is a writing and coding tool that helps with knowledge work. Now let me replace AI with LLM because not all AI is generative. LLMs are a tool for knowledge work that helps with writing and coding.

Why define AI in an over-simplistic way?

Tech companies claim that this is the most valuable thing that ever happened to humans. This is the biggest thing to happen in tech in a while, especially after a steady drip of iterative progress with technology over the last 5 to 7 years. But this time it is different from smartphones or the rise of the internet itself. This time, the latest technology is being shoved into our faces first while the tech is still baking. In other words, the train tracks are being laid as the train choo-choos forward.

An oversimplified definition can help create a product that is accessible to everyone using a computer. Today, AI is described in grand technical terms like tokens, models, modality and context windows. However, the average user should not have to care or train models by pressing thumbs (ew!). Computers are meant to be simple and abstract for everyday use. Somehow, we have made things more complicated with all the model talk.

If we look at an over-simplified definition - a writing and coding tool, the worries and what-ifs feel less plausible. People are smart. At the same time, greedy bajillionaires will mistake AI for humans in the short-term. Writers will write and coders will code. Artists will create art and Musicians will make music. What will change is how many people use AI tools to make something that only some talented people could. However, that will make some jobs less relevant. I have seen UX writing jobs vanish in the last two years. Mediocrity will probably be less tolerable in the future if AI is the denominator for good knowledge work. Who knows?!

Words are important, words from real people even more

LLMs become useful because of words uttered or written by real people. Everything is a remix and it can’t be more true than in the context of LLMs. AI needs tons of real and interesting information to serve content to the users who interface with it. I don’t know what impact this will have on the internet, but as I see it now, AI does not make sharing original written content or publishing videos obsolete. It makes it more remix-able and consumable if anything.

The slop!

There is a lot of slop out there right now. AI this, AI that. The slop that makes me cringe the most is image generation and video generation. I know there is some value to this but just because there is some value to an idea does not mean it is a good idea.

Agentic AI

If generating slop is not the innovation we should be excited for, then what should we be excited for? AI or any automatic machine needs to be able to do things. I am a big Shortcuts user on Apple Platforms. The new wave of conversational AI makes me hopeful that automation for workflows will become more accessible. Generally, the automation / agentic application of AI excites me more than the generative applications.

Is AI useful then?

Most of these questions are for me more than the half-a-dozen people who read this blog. Hello, if you are still reading this. I got distracted. Is AI useful then? - It is, but it is not the most profound thing ever like CEOs would make you believe. That was when we got washing machines and refrigerators and whatever else helps you live life easily. The AI we are all talking about right now is not that kind of doctor. AI is helpful in the context of knowledge work and we have a lot of simplification to do. AI is not everything and it is probably more helpful to go touch some grass or grab a drink with a friend.

–– Written using ChatGPT

HA! JUST KIDDING!!

Bye.

A small big update

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMT

I designed and built this website in early spring this year (March 2024) and one of the things I wanted from the beginning was a nice, modern font for the body text. At the time, I chose the excellent EB Garamond from Google Fonts because it was free and it is easy to read in longform content. However, it was boring and lacked the modern look that I was going for with this website.

Since then, I have been keeping an eye out for modern, stylish and simple fonts that can replace EB Garamond. Earlier this week, my eye caught something that I really like after someone on Mastodon posted a link to the Atipo foundry. Their fonts seem very practical and reasonably priced.

Safiro replaces EB Garamond

I am still using REM for the headlines, page titles and post titles, but for everything else including this post you are reading, I am now using Safiro. A co-worker made me fall in love with grotesk fonts and this font instantly caught my eye. The feature I like the most is how the curves connect to the stem of the letters. This is apparent in the g, m and k among others. I also love the loop in the italicized z.

Safiro in use: card titles & description, blog text and nav elements

My first time

I have been a UX designer for a long time, but I have never purchased a font and put it to use in a project. So while this may be a small update, it is also a big first time type adventure for me. And as it always goes, type makes or breaks content.

For now, I am very satisfied with the results and until some other font wins me over, Safiro will be here to style this website.

Type Design Diary - entry#1

Fri, 08 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

My exposure to type thus far was limited to setting type for design systems and interfaces, along with some light lettering as a hobby. I love typography and I have been itching to dip my toes into the world of typeface design.

This February, I decided to take the plunge and signed up for a fundamentals course with Cooper Union to understand the principles of typeface design.

This course taught me what goes into designing a typeface—i.e., the A to Z of the process. I am not even done with my font yet, but I learned a lot about this unique and fun field of design.

Here are some notes on my learning experience as a newbie getting into typeface design:

Type design takes patience

Granted, you could say this about any craft, but typeface design requires a lot of patience when tweaking letters. What looks great when zoomed in looks like a runny egg when typed out at 24pt size. Drawing a letter (even a simple one) takes a lot of time to get right.

Calligraphy

My instructor told me that calligraphy is an important skill for typeface designers. Making a mark by hand influences the strokes quite a bit. Understanding things like interrupted and running letters goes a long way towards nailing the style when making the letters digital. That being said, I also learned that calligraphy is important, but not mandatory, to make great typefaces. I am going to practice calligraphy as I go deeper into my journey.

Expansion and translation

Expansion refers to the pressure of the nib, while translation refers to the angle at which you draw the letter. At this point, I vaguely understand the basics of calligraphy but have a long way to go.

Draw those control letters well

Control letters like H, O, n, and o help form the basic rules for a typeface. For example, drawing a lowercase “n” first made it easier to draw a lowercase two-storied “a”.

Mastering the pen tool is a must

The pen tool is a staple tool in most graphic design programs, but I don’t use it often in interface design. In typeface design, the pen tool is front and center—simple shapes take a backseat and are only there to help get started. You actually need a plugin to get a rectangle tool for RoboFont!

RoboFont

For someone who works out of Figma every day, RoboFont has a hell of a learning curve. Like, super steep. It is super minimal and super hard. But once I got into the rhythm, I started enjoying it. To focus on one letter at a time is so therapeutic!

Layers and components!

Layers exist for a totally different reason in RoboFont when compared to apps like Figma or Sketch. Once I understood that, I was able to bring in my control letters as a layer into other letters. For example, lowercase “o” was a background layer when drawing lowercase “c” and “e”. RoboFont also has components, which come in handy when making diacritics. Ooh, I sound so fancy.

What’s next?

I don’t know yet. I have a few online courses bookmarked that will help me practice further. For the next year, my goal is to practice and eventually publish a full typeface. Maybe I will publish my font on Google Fonts someday?

Type trips to NYC

Fri, 04 Jul 2025 00:00:00 GMT

When I was a kid, I used to visit my uncle’s place for the summer. Once I started working, the tradition of a summer trip disappeared completely. For many years, I had simply forgotten what it was like to go somewhere over the summer. Summer is a hopeful yet uncomfortable season. The sun is out, it feels hot and the world feels alive like no other time of the year.

Every summer for the last 3 years, I have been visiting New York to attend Typographics, a design festival about type in the middle of June. When talking to people outside the design industry, I simply refer to it as a font festival. It is always in Cooper Square in Manhattan, which makes for a consistent and comforting feeling.

There is something endearing and almost funny about hundreds of people gathering in Manhattan during a sultry June to obsess over fonts. I love New York and this festival is my biggest excuse to visit the east coast city.

There is also something joyful about obsessing over a beautiful craft. I am no type designer, but I love type. I enjoy looking at a cool typographic poster and flip through a type specimen put together by a small foundry. I feel a spring in my step as I make my way around Manhattan, taking in all that summer in a city like New York has to offer. Festivals like this evoke a sense of togetherness, a third place whose boundaries are defined by the shared interests of people. Post-covid, I have come to appreciate festivals like these and third places in general.

Typographics is fun. It is inspiring, silly and energetic. Until it goes on, I hope to keep up my yearly summer tradition.