Design is a form of power, clarity vs. fidelity, buy box contents

As I’m finishing up the first draft of Store Design’s manuscript, I’m curious: what topics around value-based store design do you want us to include?

This week, for paid members

• This fortnight’s teardown is for apparel brand Cuts. They do a lot right!
• And our weekly lesson is about the basic contents of a buy box. What goes in, and what stays out?
• Finally, our design of the week shows a rare hover state that we actually care about & endorse. (No hovers on mobile!)

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Links

• In these letters, and especially for members, I’ve written frequently about how design is a form of leveraged power. Calm technology proponent Amber Case writes about how design is governance, which is… basically the same thing.
• I recently talked with someone about a potential Studio Draft project where I would overhaul a product’s onboarding & existing flows. They asked for examples of this work, and I sent along a bare-bones wireframe document. That’s because clarity & fidelity are a tradeoff, and if you have to pick one, you should stick with a deliverable that communicates the function and intention of the product, rather than the front-end sheen.
• 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21…
• Two more to add to this list: convince the CEO of the outsize business value of a proper design process, or quit.