Tentative

About the show

Tentative is a podcast about digital product design.
Hosted by thoughtbot's Chief Design Officer Kyle Fiedler & Boston Design Director Jaclyn Perrone.

Tentative on social media

Episodes

  • 18: It's Not Satisfying Unless You Blow Into the Cartridge

    January 8th, 2016  |  44 mins 56 secs

    In this episode Reda and Kyle talk about the homogenization in web design. How styles have evolved in the past and how they see style trends in graphic design evolving in the future. They discuss the issues and problems facing archiving application design. What they use Dribbble for and what kind of a tool it is now.

  • 17: Let's Talk About CSS Baby (Lets Talk About You and Me)

    December 24th, 2015  |  43 mins 9 secs

    During this episode, Reda and Kyle talk about their qualms with CSS. They talk about CSS naming conventions, how they tackle layout and the wonderful world of flexbox. Kyle tries to educate Reda on some early 90’s pop music and fails.

  • 16: Master of IE

    December 4th, 2015  |  45 mins

    In this episode Reda and Kyle talk about browser testing. They discuss how they approach testing each browser and operating system and devices. They talk about the differences in type rendering, browser user interface, and layout. Reda talks about how he approaches a simple fluid layout, Kyle talks about his most recent project and some layout challenges and they talk about using CSS for layout.

  • 15: X is bad for Y

    November 13th, 2015  |  42 mins 37 secs

    In this episode Reda and Kyle discuss iteration and design process. They talk about the differences between how a junior designer takes on a project and how a senior designer takes on a project. Kyle talks about how jobs to be done fits into his design process. They also go on a few tangents of tracking personal data and posting articles on medium.

  • 14: Photoskop and Other Tools

    October 23rd, 2015  |  45 mins 43 secs

    This week Reda and Kyle talk about the tools that they use during their design process. They touch on everything from graphical editors, color pickers and task list applications.

  • 13: Designing For Human Emotion

    September 18th, 2015  |  36 mins 43 secs

    This week Reda and Kyle talk about empathy in design and keeping in mind a users state of mind while designing. They give examples when when humor and playfulness are good to add into user experience and some cases when it isn't.

  • 12: How Many Questions Do You Ask?

    September 4th, 2015  |  42 mins 4 secs

    This episode Reda and Kyle talk about the thoughtbot hiring process for designers. They talk about what they look for in designers, what they look for in a portfolio, and details about each step in the hiring process.

  • 11: Your Favicon is Ugly

    August 28th, 2015  |  46 mins 49 secs

    Reda and Kyle follow up on SVGs, talk about differences between Chrome and new Safari's pinned tabs. They discuss some of the ways of allowing users control over design and themes of the app they are designing. Lastly they talk about how they design with real content or as close to as real as possible. BONUS: Kyle sings a line of Aerosmith.

  • 10: Doing Things the Hard Way (Brenda Storer)

    July 31st, 2015  |  43 mins 13 secs

    In this episode, Brenda Storer stands in for the vacationing Reda. Brenda and Kyle talk about Brenda's recent talk on SVG's. The in's and out's of her process of learning about them and talking about them. They also talk about giving talks.

    This episode of Tentative is sponsored by Code School. Entertaining online learning for existing and aspiring developers. Leave a review on our iTunes page to be entered to win a free month of Code School.

  • 9: Should Designers Code?

    July 17th, 2015  |  36 mins 3 secs

    In this episode, Kyle and Reda tackle the 'should designers code' debate. They talk about the differences between designing vs implementing, what to look for in a good designer and if developers should know how to design.

    This episode of Tentative is sponsored by Code School. Entertaining online learning for existing and aspiring developers. Leave a review on our iTunes page to be entered to win a free month of Code School.

  • 8: Padding Rocks & Kerning Waves

    July 3rd, 2015  |  40 mins 48 secs

    In this episode, Kyle and Reda talk about vacation as a designer, some of the signs that they are burning out and how they deal with burnout.

    This episode of Tentative is sponsored by Code School. Entertaining online learning for existing and aspiring developers. Leave a review on our iTunes page to be entered to win a free month of Code School.

  • 7: Hamburgers Are an Abomination

    June 19th, 2015  |  48 mins 51 secs

    In this episode, Kyle talks about his current project, Reda talks a lot about accessibility and how he designs for it, and Kyle trolls Reda into a rant about the Hamburger icon.

  • 6: Peeling Potatoes With Scissors

    June 11th, 2015  |  43 mins 47 secs

    In this episode, Kyle & Reda finally talk about design sprints, they discuss the process at thoughtbot, argue about prototyping and how they pick the right tool for the right job.

  • 5: It's Pronounced Al-u-minney-um

    May 22nd, 2015  |  40 mins 43 secs

    In this episode, Kyle & Reda follow up about product focus, then move on to talk about designer job titles and experimentation in UI design.

  • 4: Leggo' My Ego

    May 8th, 2015  |  46 mins 14 secs

    In this episode, Kyle & Reda talk about giving design feedback to peers, and receiving feedback from clients and users.

  • 3: A Fridge with Key Bindings

    April 27th, 2015  |  34 mins 54 secs

    In this episode, Kyle & Reda talks about text editors, Sassquatch, and Sass.