Top Stories

Adobe Beats Expectations but Another Top Executive Leaves, Putting Pressure on its Stock
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Adobe's stock dropped over 5% in late trading despite beating Q2 earnings and revenue expectations, as CFO Dan Durn announced his departure effective June 15 — just months after CEO Shantanu Narayen revealed his own plans to step down. The company raised its full-year revenue guidance to between $26.50 billion and $26.60 billion, with Q2 revenue reaching $6.62 billion, up 13% year-over-year. To capitalize on AI-driven demand, Adobe is shifting toward expanding freemium offerings to grow its user base — a move expected to pressure short-term ARR but aimed at building long-term growth.

Read More
New Universal Music logo strikes all the right chords
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Universal Music Publishing Group (UMPG) has introduced a bold new brand identity designed to highlight songwriters and the creative process behind music. Created by GrandArmy, the rebrand includes a new logo, refreshed visual system, and updated positioning centered on creativity, collaboration, and UMPG's global reach. The logo features four framing elements representing the four corners of the world and references Universal's globe icon, while a central circular motif symbolizes both a camera lens and artistic talent. Supported by a vibrant visual toolkit and the slogan "We Are A World Ahead," the rebrand aims to celebrate the lasting importance of songwriting and provide a modern, adaptable identity for UMPG's global community of songwriters and creators.

Read More
A customizable camera app is still on the table, but Apple could be saving it for the iPhone 18
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

A redesigned, fully customizable Camera app was rumored for iOS 27 but did not appear at WWDC 2026. Apple has reportedly already built the feature internally, allowing users to add, remove, and rearrange camera controls such as flash, timer, exposure, night mode, and resolution settings. The feature may have been intentionally held back for the expected launch of the iPhone 18 Pro, which is rumored to bring major camera hardware upgrades. Apple often pairs significant software features with new hardware releases, so the customizable Camera app could be part of a broader camera-focused marketing strategy. However, since the feature remains internal, there is no guarantee it will ever reach the public.

Read More
Context Architecture
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Context architecture applies information architecture (IA) principles to AI systems, moving beyond prompt engineering to design the entire information environment — structure, labeling, retrieval, and memory — in which agents think and act. Unlike deterministic digital products, AI systems are probabilistic, making well-organized context one of the primary levers for shaping model behavior and output quality. Information architects bring essential expertise to this work, aligning internal system structures with users' mental models to make agents more accurate, efficient, and trustworthy.

Read More
Unexpected Lessons from an AI-assisted Prototyping Experiment
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

A small, cross-functional pod at Adobe Firefly used AI-assisted prototyping to design directly inside a production codebase, shipping two features in eight business days. Working closer to the build process deepened — rather than reduced — collaboration with engineering and product, replacing sequential handoffs with a tighter, shared feedback loop. Core design fundamentals like empathy, judgment, and craft remained essential, only exercised at the moment decisions actually take effect.

Read More
The Core Skill of Design in the AI Era: Critique
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Designing AI-powered products is less about specifying exact behaviors and more about defining what a good outcome looks like. AI systems can produce different responses to the same input, so teams need clear quality criteria based on user needs rather than rigid specifications. A practical approach is to define objective success criteria, evaluate AI outputs against them, and continuously refine prompts, models, and evaluation methods. This shifts designers' role from prescribing exact interactions to setting quality standards and ensuring AI behavior consistently aligns with user expectations.

Read More
AI-powered Smart Canvases
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Stop losing your best work to disconnected chats and tabs. Run many AI chats, connect to many tools, and sources on smart canvases.

Read More
Independent Type Foundries and Designers
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Set up your foundry in minutes with simple drag-and-drop tools, smooth font management, and a flexible page builder that makes customisation easy-squeezy.

Read More
Falling in Love with the Build
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Designer-developers face a unique pitfall: building something enjoyable first, then reverse-engineering a justification to ship it — a trap that handoff-based workflows naturally prevent. The author experienced this firsthand, deleting polished animations for a Search Assist module after not affecting any metrics, despite being technically well-crafted. Writing the rationale in prose before writing code is the proposed solution, ensuring the build serves the decision rather than the other way around.

Read More
How PayPal Increased Conversions with Three Trust-Building UX Elements
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

PayPal's checkout conversion strength stems from three overlapping UX strategies: security indicators that address users' fears about sharing sensitive data, familiar interface patterns that reduce cognitive load, and brand recognition that functions as borrowed trust for unfamiliar merchants. Research points to trust and payment concerns as major drivers of cart abandonment, which exceeds 70% on average. Other brands can apply the same principles by placing specific trust signals near decision points, maintaining conventional checkout layouts, and framing security messaging in calm, plain language.

Read More
What is AX Design? Why do we need this new role
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

UX focuses on designing experiences for humans, while Agentic Experience (AX) focuses on helping businesses automate and optimize processes using AI agents. Rather than creating interfaces, AX is concerned with defining goals, rules, guardrails, and success criteria for autonomous systems. A proposed new role, the AX Designer, would investigate workflows, identify what should be automated, uncover hidden business rules, and ensure agents are solving the right problems before they're deployed. The key idea is that the biggest challenge in agentic systems isn't building the technology—it's understanding the process well enough to automate it safely and effectively.

Read More
Ivan Ehlers' Political Cartoons Feel More Important than Ever
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Driven by a self-described reluctance to ignore authoritarianism, climate, and immigration issues, freelance cartoonist Ivan Ehlers sees his cartoons as a tool to counter self-censorship and call out injustice in accessible, understandable ways.

Read More
SMLXL put ecstatic dogs with wind blowing in their fur on a cosmetics bottle
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

SMLXL created striking packaging for a collaboration between Midnight Cosmetics and HotDog by combining Midnight's minimalist black-and-white aesthetic with vibrant illustrations of dogs, turning two contrasting brand identities into a cohesive design.

Read More
Apply here
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Ralph Brinker

Read More
create your own role
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Ralph Brinker

Read More
Inc.'s Best Bootstrapped businesses
IMAP

June 16, 2026 08:05 AM

Ralph Brinker

Read More