Could be a funny story, a book that they’ve read, a TV show, a movie, a record, a podcast, a website, or an app, whatever they wish.
It doesn’t have to be security related necessarily. Well, my Pick of the Week this week is not security related. My Pick of the Week this week is a website.
It is called Designspells.com. Now, Tanya, I know you know all about secure coding, but do you know about beautiful coding?
I don’t mean where you’ve used the right notation, all your variables are written in a consistent way, and it’s all got comments and indentation and things.
I’m talking about code which is beautiful in a pixel style way on the screen, because Designspells.com is a gallery celebrating those tiny little design details that make software feel a little bit magical.
And I remember this way back in the day, 30-odd years ago, I used to write antivirus software. I wrote the first Windows version of Dr.
Solomon’s Antivirus Toolkit, and I spent a lot of my time not only writing the code, but also I had to design the user interface.
And so when you press the button on an encyclopedia, the encyclopedia would open, or the exit button, a door would open, and all kinds of things.
And I’d show people, look, have you seen this?
There was even a hidden Easter egg screen where rather than a progress bar going across the screen, you’d see someone playing with a yo-yo instead.
I had to take that out because when the product manager found out about it, he said, oh, won’t people think it’s a virus or something? It’s, oh, come on, this is fun.
But anyway, I love those little things you can get in programs and designspells.com will show you lots of these.
So if you’ve ever, for instance, used the app TunnelBear, it’s a VPN, or gone to their website, when you type in your password, the TunnelBear mascot, which is a bear, it covers its eyes when you type in your password.
And you just think, oh, that’s utterly charming. You know, I like that. They’ve got into that little bit of detail.
Or if you’re in Discord and you click enough times on the home button, it turns into a little animated Godzilla, which sort of comes up and goes, “Rawr!” Or if you’re using Apple Books and you’re leafing through the pages, the pages actually turn very much a real paper book.
They’re little touches that nobody had to add at all, but someone did anyway. That is beautiful. I love it.
And that is why I think Designspells.com is a lovely oasis from the soul-crushing sameness of most software which is designed today. And that is why it is my Pick of the Week.
