the site redesign, and what i got wrong the first time

devlog · Feb 11, 2026 · 1 min read

i rebuilt the front of this site and, for the first time in my life, started from the design system instead of from a screenshot.

google's material 3 expressive is the current reference. the research behind it claims a significant lift in how "expressive" a product feels, which is exactly the kind of thing i would have dismissed a year ago and would now defend unpleasantly.

what changed

• a real token layer for colour, shape and motion instead of hardcoded values everywhere
• every interactive element rebuilt on one component, so the focus ring and the press animation cannot drift apart
• typography with an actual scale instead of "big, bigger, biggest"
• light and dark built from the same source, not written twice

what i got wrong

i treated the expressive style as a look to apply. it is not. the motion is supposed to carry meaning, and the first version had springs everywhere and a flat hierarchy underneath. it looked expensive and communicated nothing.

second mistake: i designed desktop first. mobile is where the effort should start, and i still do not believe this instinctively.