Sources
One focused chapter from the Thorbis interface research. 32 rules. Read the research index for every chapter and focused study.
Sources
- Linear. How they draw. The base. A design reset (opens in a new tab) · How we redesigned the Linear UI (opens in a new tab) · A Linear spin on Liquid Glass (opens in a new tab) · Karri’s ten rules (opens in a new tab). Karri Saarinen , Jori Lallo , Emil Kowalski . Grammar, not dress.
- Vercel Web Interface Guidelines. Interaction, animation, form, performance, and design rules follow vercel.com/design/guidelines (opens in a new tab) and the open-source list (opens in a new tab). We studied that document. We do not ship on Vercel, see Cloudflare in Built on. The craft around the guidelines is the Vercel design-engineering bench: Rauno Freiberg , Paco Coursey , shadcn , and Emil Kowalski .
- Emil Kowalski. Mobile-native. The Mobile section is Emil’s checklist, posted 11 August 2026 (opens in a new tab). Motion rules follow the same author: emilkowal.ski (opens in a new tab), animations.dev (opens in a new tab), the animation skills (opens in a new tab) (/find-animation-opportunities, /animate, /review), Sonner, and Vaul. Emil Kowalski . Formerly Vercel design; now Linear.
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Tab bars, navigation stacks, sheets, Dynamic Type, haptics, safe areas. We study the HIG (opens in a new tab). We do not ship Apple trade dress, and we do not pour Liquid Glass onto the job sheet. System chrome on iOS may use the platform material. Ours does not.
- Material 3. Navigation bars, predictive back, 48dp targets, edge to edge, rails on tablet. m3.material.io (opens in a new tab). We do not adopt Material You wallpaper color. Electric blue is Thorbis, not the tech’s lock screen.
- Fluent 2, and the Mac. Windows caption buttons, snap, density. macOS traffic lights, menu bar, and window chrome. Fluent 2 (opens in a new tab) · macOS HIG (opens in a new tab). Desktop follows the host. We do not paint one OS onto the other.
- Jakub Krehel. Interfaces. Small details that compound: wrapping, concentric radii, crispy type, tabular numbers, interruptible motion, stagger on enter, a quieter exit, optical alignment, shadows instead of boxes, a 10% outline on images. Public essay Details that make interfaces feel better (opens in a new tab). Magazine interfaces.dev (opens in a new tab). Jakub Krehel . The skill is jakubkrehel/make-interfaces-feel-better (opens in a new tab). We studied it. We did not copy the magazine.
- UI Skills playbook. A public list of craft: aspect-ratio, peek the next item, fade a scroller, concentric radii, tabular nums, 44px targets, outline then fill, overlay as a mix, menus that fade. We took what we did not already have. We did not take springs on a workbench, blur on a label, or ease-in on an exit. Playbook ui-skills.com/playbook (opens in a new tab). Skills we already studied: Jakub Krehel , Emil Kowalski .
- Apple.com. Sequencing. Observed 22 August 2026: homepage, Store, iPhone 17 Pro, MacBook Pro, Apple typography, motion, and reduced-motion guidance. The lesson is not sparse hardware pages. It is four modes (router, explore, film, store), one idea per scene, controlled disclosure, scroll as a timeline the visitor owns, establish then crop, motion optional. We take the sequence. We do not take SF Pro, a sterile catalog, or cinema on a board. apple.com (opens in a new tab) · Typography (opens in a new tab) · Motion (opens in a new tab) · Accessibility (opens in a new tab). Skill: Chapters.
- Linear product grammar. Shell, density, keyboard, and peek behavior follow Linear’s publicly documented redesign. How we redesigned the Linear UI (opens in a new tab) and Behind the latest design refresh (opens in a new tab). Karri Saarinen , Jori Lallo , Tuomas Artman . Company: .
- The Linear Method. Quality as north star, spec as baseline, no handoff, small teams, opinionated design, reduce scope, data as a crutch. Karri Saarinen , linear.app/method (opens in a new tab), 10 rules (opens in a new tab), Why is quality so rare? (opens in a new tab). Papercut culture and the seven-day bug clock. Tuomas Artman , Quality Wednesdays (opens in a new tab), zero-bugs policy (opens in a new tab).
- Mike Markkula, 1977. Empathy, focus, impute. The Apple Marketing Philosophy, January 3, 1977. We adopted the three words, not Apple trade dress. Artifact: stevejobsarchive.com (opens in a new tab).
- Cinematic Showcase. Marketing only. Apple product pages, object larger than type, studio void, scroll chapters, “Watch the film.” Framer, the canvas is the demo. Linear’s homepage, the real app in a dark void. We combine them: the Linear sheet is the cinematic object. Apple (opens in a new tab) · Framer (opens in a new tab) · linear.app (opens in a new tab). Skill: thorbis-cinematic.
- Dark greys. Our status colors. Neutrals are Linear’s dark greys and black, a cool mix, not a flat chip. Type is cream. Electric blue is the brand. Status is shadcn’s green, red, and info. Warning is Shopify’s amber. Olive, forest, pumpkin, burnt sit in the kit because I like Tacoma paint. They are extras.
- Shopify, for depth only. Short shadows, button bevels, pill chips. We studied Polaris elevation, we do not ship on Shopify. Shadow tokens (opens in a new tab).
- Cursor. AI appears where it reduces work. Agents obey the same constitution as humans. Generated UI is audited, not trusted by default. Designers ship, they do not hand mocks over a wall. Ryo Lu , Michael Truell , Aman Sanger . Product: .
- Rauno Freiberg. Interaction. Immediate response, interruptible overlays, metaphors over invented gestures, destructive swipes commit on release, motion names the source, context as input, Fitts’s edges, scroll stays on the pane, what’s under the finger, frequency & novelty (⌘K never animates). Essay: Invisible Details of Interaction Design (opens in a new tab) · Devouring Details (opens in a new tab). Rauno Freiberg , Vercel; previously Arc / The Browser Company. Acknowledgments in the essay: Paco, Emil.
- Paco Coursey. Craft. Prefer the platform. Command menus via cmdk (opens in a new tab). Sidebar reveal without reflow. paco.me/craft (opens in a new tab). Paco Coursey , Linear webmaster; formerly Vercel design system.
- Rasmus Andersson. Inter. Inter is a typeface crafted for computer screens. We use the variable file and the optical-size axis, not a static cut. Rasmus Andersson , rsms.me/inter (opens in a new tab).
- Thorbis Design Constitution. Electric blue, surface profiles, command law, and field-specific rules are owned by the Thorbis v2 Design System project and the Precision Workbench SDK.
- Vercel composition patterns. Compound components, lifted providers, and the
state / actions / metacontext contract follow Vercel’s React composition guidance. The kit we actually ship is shadcn , dressed in our tokens. Base UI when a primitive is missing. - Deep modules. Interface-as-test-surface, seam discipline, and the deletion test keep agent-authored code local. Depth is leverage, not line count. John Ousterhout , A Philosophy of Software Design (opens in a new tab).
- APCA contrast. Perceptual contrast thresholds come from Andrew Somers / Myndex and apcacontrast.com (opens in a new tab). We prefer APCA over WCAG 2 for body text on the dark canvas.
- Dieter Rams. Less but better, honesty, and as little design as possible. The ten principles remain the shortest design constitution we know.
- Don Norman. Affordances, feedback, mapping, and a visible conceptual model. The Design of Everyday Things (opens in a new tab).
- Edward Tufte. Data-ink, chartjunk, and common-scale comparison. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (opens in a new tab).
- Typography bench. Oliver Reichenstein / iA, Matthew Butterick’s Practical Typography (opens in a new tab), Erik Spiekermann, Massimo Vignelli, and Josef Müller-Brockmann’s grid.
- Jakob Nielsen. The 10 usability heuristics (opens in a new tab) and the larger NN/g research bench.
- Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Clarity, deference, depth, and reduced motion. Jony Ive’s product grammar, not Apple trade dress. HIG (opens in a new tab).
- Systems writers. Brad Frost’s Atomic Design (opens in a new tab), Dan Mall and Jina Anne on tokens, Steve Schoger and Adam Wathan on refinement, Luke Wroblewski on mobile first, Jen Simmons on intrinsic layout.
- Craft and taste. Paul Rand, John Maeda, Kenya Hara, Naoto Fukasawa, Susan Kare, Frank Chimero, Julie Zhuo, Jared Spool, Andy Clarke. Named in Do and don’t so the debt stays visible.
- byronwade/Design. The Precision Workbench constitution, Linear reference matrix, and agent protocol live in the public Design SDK and are adopted verbatim by Thorbis-TanStack.
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.
Close the loop with evidence, not the word polished
Vague design requests produce repeated subjective revisions and hide which parts of the result were actually checked.
A review records the person and task, the observed defect, the owning rule, the smallest correction, and its verification. Preserve source access limits. Turn repeated feedback into a better existing default rather than another detached instruction file.
Thorbis example. Instead of make the button premium, record that its pending state moves the label, identify the UI owner, compare the corrected state under the same content, and attach the relevant checks and remaining uncertainty.
Verify. Separate a source that was read from a demo that was exercised. Separate a passing content test from a browser check, and a committed branch from a deployed release. Report failed and skipped checks explicitly.
Do not import. No fabricated research, inferred paid lesson content, unmeasured uplift claim, or declaring work live because a commit exists.
Open the tracking skill · Evidence: Agents with Taste; Train Your Judgement; Developing Taste; How we think about design; Design Engineer Principles