Ideas from the studio / 001
What we learn while designing independent software: layout engines, private-by-default tools, and the stubborn details between an idea and a useful product.
· Engineering · 8 min read
One Mac mini runs the tests for both of our desktop apps. MailVault got 1,604 test cases and 53 end-to-end specs. MeatPad got its first UI tests ever, at twelve seconds a click. The measurements, and the one structural reason for the gap.
· Engineering · 7 min read
MeatPad held 63 MB after nineteen hours open, and 108 MB with a 2,721-file project loaded. The measurements, the command to repeat them, the four design decisions behind the number, and the one file size where it all falls over.
· Engineering · 6 min read
Every MailVault feature ships only after a machine has opened the real app, clicked the real buttons, and read the result off the actual screen. How the end-to-end suite works, and why it runs on a Mac mini instead of the machine we work on.
· Email · 7 min read
Google caps IMAP downloads at 2,500 MB per user per day, and locks the account for up to 24 hours when you cross it. What that means for anyone archiving a large mailbox — and how a backup should behave when the server says stop.
· Studio · 4 min read
We sell no food and harm no animals. The name is graphical satire: meat stands for the substance of the work — the shipped result of coding you can actually chew on.
· Design systems · 8 min read
Browsers have flowed uneven content into balanced grids for years. Printed albums still ask people to drag every photograph into a box. The missing piece isn’t layout—it’s judgement.