The Aeropress

Taste of Quality #2

Aug 03, 2022

Good morning designers!

It’s Wednesday and you know what that means. It’s time for some weekly design gratitude and cool 💩 you should check out.

Design gratitude 🙏

This week I’m grateful for the Aeropress.

If you’re a designer and you like coffee, you’re probably well acquainted with this quirky little device. It has an interesting history, being the work of a prolific inventor who created, among other things, the Aerobie flying disc. YouTuber James Hoffman has a video series going into everything Aeropress (episode 1 is linked above) which is perfect if you’re thinking “yes, Pat, I did need a multipart series breaking down every aspect of a portable coffee maker” 😅.

In any case, the Aeropress nails three of Dieter Rams’ principles of good design:

Principle #1: It’s innovative → It blends together immersion and pour over coffee techniques in one small package, meaning you get the richness of a french press, but without the grit. A delightful combination.

Principle #2: It makes a product useful → It’s lightweight, durable, travels easily and just flat out works. If the original isn’t portable enough for you they even make the ‘AeroPress Go’ which packs neatly down into a carry container that doubles as a cup! Just clever design all the way through.

Principle #4: It makes a product understandable → It’s easy to get good results from this thing. Almost everyone I know who’s brewed a cup with an Aeropress has enjoyed it from the get-go.

So despite the device not being that aesthetically pleasing, its combination of high satisfaction and ease of use more than make up for it. On top of that, the Aeropress is also affordable (~$40 at the time of writing). So if you couldn’t tell, I’m a big fan of this thing and would recommend. Give one a shot!

Do you have an Aeropress? What do you think of it?

Let me know in the comments or over on Twitter.

Coffee break links ☕

A person to follow 😄

Jon Yablonski - UX designer and technologist at Mixpanel

I first came across Jon’s work a couple years ago when he released his Laws of UX project, a great resource for quick info on design heuristics and principles. He has a variety of interesting articles and projects on his website that are worth checking out and even a book for your design shelf!

An article to read 📖

The art of diplomacy: 7 soft skills toward a successful design system by Linzi Berry - Senior Product Design Manager at Lyft

A lot of good thoughts from Linzi on how to go about your business working on design systems. “Diplomacy” is a great way to phrase the kind of work systems designers and engineers do every day to facilitate the work of the broader technology team.

A resource to try 🛠

Leonardo - A tool for building color systems, by Adobe and Nate Baldwin

Spend a couple minutes poking around Leonardo and you’ll think “wow, there’s really a lot that goes into crafting great color systems”. And you’d be right. As a startup designer, it’s never been practical for me to dive deep into crafting a mega color system from scratch so instead I just try to stand on the shoulders of the giants, trust their work and apply it.

Until next time ✌️,

Pat