Tolmachev · Blog
Field notes
Shorter, rougher, and more frequent than a case study — the thinking behind the work, as it happens. Browse by topic →
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Situation Awareness in High-Velocity Ops Environments
Turning weekly work lessons into academic wisdom.
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This is an exploration of why “good enough” UI is actually a tax on the human brain, and how we move toward a future where machines are no longer things we use, but parts of who we are.
A stitch is any friction that forces your brain to re-allocate resources from the work to the tool. The next generation of design isn't seamlessness — it's proprioception.
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Maturity
In a mature economy, freedom is not a threat; it’s a feature.
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Invoking creativity
A working guide to maximizing creative state: more entries into it, longer time spent in it, fewer inadvertent exits from it.
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Measuring creativity
A piece by Ivan Tolmachev, originally published on Medium — Measuring creativity
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“When there are no more screens, what will we design.”
An ad's question turns into a real one: when screens recede, what remains is perception, and design just keeps reducing the hardships of using things.
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I recently signed a deal with a client to design a brand for their continuous integration /…
A piece by Ivan Tolmachev, originally published on Medium — I recently signed a deal with a client to design a brand for their continuous integration /…
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S-peak
Speaking can be as passive as listening, if we're just mimicking thought. Do machines already know but just can't speak?
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Revisiting design principles for the age of AI
A decade-later, field-tested update to the design principles that still hold: use AI only where it earns its keep, right-size autonomy, and design recovery, not just success.
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By training, I find myself reflecting on the broader trajectory of technology and human interaction. A holistic view that considers not just what's here, but what's next.
Apps like Canary and Apple's notification summaries aren't just capitalizing on the AI gold-rush — they're precursors to remote understanding, and eventually, telepathy.
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How managers fail their designers and what to do about it
Three recurring leadership flaws that undermine designers — the Cheap Manager, the Clueless Manager, the Hands-Off Manager — and how to treat each.
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Snow Before Thanksgiving
Twelve interface-design principles, taught to students at HSE Moscow the day before Thanksgiving — and taught again, wordlessly, on the walk home.
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The Case for Humanity
A kitchen argument between two designers over where a customer journey actually starts: with the diagrams, or with the human.
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The UI Dive
A dive-bar design lesson between an old boss and employee turns into something else entirely — what freedom, autonomy, and being unhappy at home have to do with good interfaces.
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What do you mean. The next big thing
As a UX designer, I find myself reflecting on the broader trajectory of technology and human interaction.
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System becoming self-aware
My life’s purpose is upward integration into the supersystem.
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When Do Brand Characters Succeed?
Brand characters are designed to strengthen your marketing. Your product won't even notice their impact.
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О сочувствии
Зачем дизайнеру сочувствие и что это вообще такое
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Designer's Work Notes. Autism, writing systems, language as a social system of communication
Notes from designing Linggo, an AAC tool for people with speech disorders: language acquisition, bilingualism, and how autism shapes language processing.
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Your decision to quit your job is similar to a migrant's decision to emigrate
Or why I've decided to quit Blue Origin. The 21st century great tech-workforce migration: why leaving a company works like leaving a failing state.
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On the creative juices, passionarity art and sharing
How people at the top stay there and how you can try to imitate them: the unglamorous, anonymous work of building a community that rallies behind you.
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Value.
Life as a pursuit of value. A few people know how to extract it in a free market with high certainty — knowing is owning.
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О регулировании СМИ в сети
Синтетическое правительство. Вместо того чтобы заставлять иноагентов писать о том, что они иноагенты, правительство могло бы сделать базу данных, выложить в открытый доступ, и обязать любое СМИ интегрироваться. Разный UI для разных типов интеграции.
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Fear of the unknown,
More commonly understood as hesitation, is a feeling that prohibits users to proceed through their interaction flows in % of the time.
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Replacing fear with love in the international community
Impatience, pride and greed are all forms of fear. How do we design love into the systems that have relied on fear for so long?
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On the institution of citizenship
Why do the wealthy prohibit those from poorer states to enter their economies? A case that citizenship rights, not financial inequality, are the real driver.
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Couch
1 potato, 2 potatoes, 3 potatoes, 4. 5 potatoes, 6 potatoes, 7 potatoes, more.
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Hm?
Is it beneficial for google to treat their users‘ mental illness?
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Critique of US Space Force Doctrine
Raw thoughts on a document that will shape our system among stars. Is there any other way to secure peaceful use of space than to be the stick-carrying power deciding who's free?
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Crypto deregulation and eventual without rulerism
What are we missing and why isn't this a thing yet?
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On risk taking and experience as a commodity
People who take risks, however wrong and stupid, are generously rewarded in our society.
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Eminent domain
A thought experiment: when a business becomes efficient, profitable, and indispensable enough, does society have a moral right to intervene?
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On January 23, 2021 #freenavalny protests in Russia and across the world
No man can privatize truth. An open letter: no ruler has the right to absolute power without accountability to those ruled over.
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In 50 years,
Human designers will still be irreplaceable in non-linear problem solving. Digital asset creation will be highly commoditized.
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There are only two types of product design
First-to-market or optimization. That's it.
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Where do we go from here, San Francisco?
San Francisco's land deficit, tech money, and the eviction crisis it's driving — where does the city go from here?
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7 Design Commandments
Seven design commandments from Onfleet: rules for keeping Nina, our average user, informed, in charge, and never lost.
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Help your team define design goals
Teach your team to frame design goals correctly: start with what's the problem, not build me a bridge.
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notes
Short notes from Ivan Tolmachev's microblogs — Mastodon, Bluesky and Telegram, in English and Russian.
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