Linear is the base
One focused chapter from the Thorbis interface research. 7 rules. Read the research index for every chapter and focused study.
Linear is the base
- Linear grammar. Not Linear dress. Inverted L. Dark greys. Inter. One accent, used as a pointer. Fast local actions. A board that stays a board. We do not ship Linear purple, Linear’s wordmark, or a clone of their issue row. If someone mistakes a screenshot for Linear, we went too far. How we redesigned the Linear UI (opens in a new tab).
- A page is a place. A modal is a transaction. Linear does not ban overlays. It bans an ambiguous surface. Search is a route. Create is a modal. Properties sit in a panel. Peek inspects without navigating. A right-side drawer is the middle that covers the work and confuses Back. We take the discipline. Jobs and invoices are routes. Collecting a payment is a modal. On a phone, a bottom sheet may hold the inspector. Desktop does not get a drawer instead of a page.
- A reset is a sweep. Karri : software evolves weekly and the chrome unbalances. Don’t redesign one view at a time and leave the product disjointed. Do it quickly or you block everything else. A design reset (opens in a new tab).
- The best design is opinionated. Karri again: you cannot build the optimal tool if it is endlessly customizable. There is a good way to dispatch a job. There is a good way to arrive. If a shop wants a different product, they should use a different product. Ten rules for craft (opens in a new tab).
- The simplest way to raise quality is to reduce scope. Quality is not perfection. It is fewer things, done so they feel inevitable. A second theme, a second density, a second word for job: each one is a papercut we now have to keep sharp.
- Chrome stays neutral. In the 2024 reset they limited how much accent sits in the chrome so the product would feel timeless. Same law here. The rail stays grey. Electric blue is selected, focus, the one live thing. A blue sidebar is a costume.
- Take the idea. Refuse the dress. Robb Böhnke, on Linear’s iOS bar: they wanted Liquid Glass’s depth, not its refraction. Refraction makes a dense professional UI harder to read. We do the same. System chrome on a phone may use the platform material. Our sheet does not. A Linear spin on Liquid Glass (opens in a new tab).
I built this for the dispatcher at 7 a.m., the tech in a crawlspace, and the owner closing the books. Quiet chrome. Precise work. I’m still learning. These are the notes.
Applied bookmark research
Reviewed 2026-09-06. These examples reinforce the existing owners; they do not introduce another visual style or claim the product behavior is implemented. Read the 26-source review and access limits.
Make the task easier, not the screen busier
A feature can look complete while the dispatcher still has to reconstruct context or wait for unrelated content.
Start from one person, interruption, and completed task. Keep the current job and its next action usable while optional evidence arrives. Treat the real constraint as part of the brief, not something polished away afterward.
Thorbis example. For assigning a tech, show the job, relevant availability, and the consequence of the assignment. Do not make the dispatcher traverse a marketing-style sequence or a new shell to finish a routine task.
Verify. Walk through the task with representative long and missing records. Check that the essential action remains understandable when optional content is slow or unavailable. Record the result rather than claiming a performance improvement without measurement.
Do not import. No additional shell, feature hero, framework migration, or new dependency. Keep the approved surface role.
Open the product skill · Evidence: Design Engineer Principles; How we think about design; Component Architecture for React Server Components
Preserve the place as the collection grows
Large customer, property, and inspiration collections become expensive to navigate when every inspection loses the current place.
Treat filters, selected records, scroll, and Back behavior as part of the task. Loading a child or optional panel should not reset the whole collection. A saved reference includes enough context to be useful when revisited.
Thorbis example. Open a property from a filtered customer list and return to the same filter and position. On the inspiration wall, reserve the media footprint and retain source credit even when the preview is unavailable.
Verify. Try refresh, Back and Forward, a direct record link, an empty result, a failed preview, and a long collection. Check that late data does not overwrite a draft or move the action under the pointer.
Do not import. No unbounded eager media, private information in shareable URLs, or a local-only storage promise borrowed from Copper.
Open the ecosystem skill · Evidence: 7 Principles of Rich Web Applications; Component Architecture for React Server Components; Philosophy; Copper