Welcome back. I'm 35,000 feet in the air right now, and I'm convinced I was built to thrive in a pod in space. But I can't do much reflecting on the year, because during our This Week in Design livestream, someone said "what you say is what you get" and I can't stop thinking about what it means for software interfaces. It's clear that our tools are changing. What's less clear is how. But I have some ideas. And thanks to thousands of you, we'll have more data points from this year's Design Tools Survey. Please take a sec to fill it out before it closes on Dec 31st. —Tommy (@DesignerTom) The Wireframe:
Software tools are dope.Don't you forget it. In just the last week, we got:
And through the whirlwind of these releases is an emerging pattern I'm paying attention to: an evolution of WYSIWYG. Note: If you geek out over interfaces, this one's for you. But as you read, ask yourself:
The Evolution of WYSIWYG InterfacesWYSIWYG: "What you see is what you get." In 1973, Xerox PARC’s Alto computer displayed something magical: text on a screen that mirrored what you’d see on paper. A familiar metaphor for unfamiliar territory. Then Xerox developed the BRAVO text editor, a tool for editing text with formatting that matched printed output. But it wasn't until the Apple Lisa was introduced that the WYSIWYG pattern went mainstream. Apple Lisa was the first PC to offer a comprehensive WYSIWYG environment. Users could create documents that looked on-screen almost exactly as they would in print. Made possible by:
These tools reflected a paradigm shift. But when Microsoft released Word for Windows, WYSIWYG went generational. And then something different happened: the WYSIWYG metaphor was used for publishing to the web instead of print. Cue the intros of Microsoft FrontPage and Macromedia Dreamweaver, visual editors for creating websites. And born again was a new iteration of WYSIWYG. This pattern has morphed and flexed to new protocols (Kit for email), visual mediums (Streamlabs for livestreams), and mental models for doing work (Notion for productivity). We've turned the page to a new chapter in interfaces: WYSIWYG 2.0 Together with FramerDesigning a Website 🤝🏻 Building a Website If you’re a designer tasked to create and publish visually stunning websites, there’s a tool for that. If you want to boost creativity while speeding up the overall web development process, you need Framer—no coding required. The next best no-code website builder for designers, Framer:
Plus, you can even import designs from Figma using our Figma-to-Framer plugin so you don’t have to start from scratch. Are you ready to learn how Framer can streamline your web development process? Learn more now. How We WYSIWYG TodayThere are two vectors to WYSIWYG patterns that have multiple variations:
But the golden rule remains unchanged: what goes in must translate the same when it comes out. Examples of InputDirect Manipulation WYSIWYGUsers edit content in-place, seeing the changes happen directly where they interact. Examples:
Key Traits:
Challenges:
Referential or Split-Pane WYSIWYGA dual-view setup where one side serves as the input area, and the other side previews the result. Examples:
Key Traits:
Challenges:
Form-Based WYSIWYGUsers fill out structured forms or fields, and the content updates dynamically in a preview area. Examples:
Key Traits:
Challenges:
Examples of OutputWhat started as direct translation for print has morphed into use cases for direct translation to the web and beyond: "How it should look in e-mail"
"How it looks in my head"
"How it should look on video"
And the list of output use-cases seemingly continues to grow:
The gap between idea to production is closing quickly, and every productivity tool from design to code to knowledge management is seemingly inching towards more and more WYSIWYG patterns. Just last week, Beehiiv's head of growth revealed their plans to get into web publishing and Grammarly acquired Coda. What's next? X launches it's e-mail client and gets into e-mail publishing? Stripe builds a Zapier for business operations? Android AR glasses allow us to build spatial UIs on the fly? How might the new world of WYSIWYG get us closer to creating our ideas than ever before? And what patterns might you use to build that world? See you next week, Tommy Thanks for reading! What's your favorite WYSIWYG pattern? Hit reply and let me know. Enjoying this newsletter? Let us know here. |
UX Tools is a weekly deep dive into the tools and trends shaping how we build products. Each week, Tommy (@DesignerTom) breaks down emerging tools, analyzes industry shifts, and shares practical insights drawn from 15+ years shipping products. Join 80k+ builders, makers and designers getting deep analysis and tool discoveries that help you build better products, faster.
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