16 Design Case Studies: Lessons from Arc, Stripe, Linear & More
16 Design Case Studies
I’ve published a collection of design case studies examining how exceptional products solve design challenges. Each study breaks down specific patterns, includes implementation details, and extracts lessons you can apply to your own work.
These aren’t surface-level reviews—they’re deep dives into the design decisions that make these products stand out.
The Collection
Developer Tools
- Warp — Block-based terminal architecture, bridging CLI power with modern UX
- Vercel — Dark mode excellence, tab status indicators, skeleton loading states
- Linear — Optimistic UI that feels instant, keyboard-first everything
- Raycast — The 50ms rule, action panels, extension ecosystem design
- Stripe — Documentation as product, trust through transparency
- Figma — Multiplayer presence, context-aware panels, constraint systems
Creative Tools
- Framer — Visual responsive design, property controls, breakpoint systems
- Notion — Block architecture, slash commands, flexible databases
- Craft — Native-first cross-platform, nested document structure
- Bear — Typography-first design, inline tagging, information density
iOS Excellence
- Arc — Spaces architecture, split view, command bar patterns
- Things — Deferred scheduling, quick entry, natural language input
- Flighty — 15 smart states for flight status, Live Activities integration
- Halide — Intelligent UI activation, gesture-based controls
- Superhuman — The 100ms rule, command palette training, practice-based onboarding
AI-Native
- Perplexity — Citation-forward answers, streaming response phases
What Each Study Covers
Every case study follows a consistent structure:
- Why it matters — What makes this product worth studying
- Core philosophy — The design principles driving decisions
- Pattern library — Specific, reusable patterns with implementation details
- Visual design system — Colors, typography, spacing, animation
- Lessons to steal — Actionable takeaways for your work
Browse the Full Guide
These studies are part of the Design Principles Guide, which also covers foundational concepts like Gestalt principles, visual hierarchy, typography, and color theory.
The case studies put those principles into practice—showing how real products apply design fundamentals to solve specific problems.