Issue 61, and the end of an eventful year. In this issue, we have a bundle of good wishes for you - for a happy, fulfilling 2018 🖖

And we have 2 of the much awaited talks from DesignUp Conference—from former MagicLeap Design Director Alysha Naples (talking design beyond screens and consequences that live on) and CEO/Founder of Meta, Justin Bolognino on the charming art of being there.

Plus a personal favourite - Ben Evans on S-curves, invisible innovation, 10 year Futures + more—books, articles, lists. ⏳ And time to revisit DesignUp, in Tweets.

🙌 Looking back, we have come a long way - from a point where every article in this newsletter was from far away lands (and contexts), to the last few issues where a lot of content is sourced locally and many from our own events and archives.

We are beginning to see many of you respond to the DesignUp Survey of Design-in-Tech - please keep them coming, it needs your voice, your experiences to help find definitive patterns...

The 12 Most-read WIRED Stories of 2017 — www.wired.com

12 most-read magazine stories across 12 months, as measured by total time spent reading and arranged chronologically. Many of these deal "with big questions like that too: what does truth mean online? What does it mean to build a robotic copy of yourself, or even of someone you don’t know?"

11 eye-popping web design trends you can expect to see in 2018 — thenextweb.com

Is it time for Serifs to shine again? Rounded corners or sharp wedges? Here's a round up of likely web-design trends for 2018

Mental Models I Find Repeatedly Useful — medium.com

This ranks amongst the most clicked articles from the newsletter's earlier editions. And a list worth revisiting, esp. at the start of the year: There are tens of thousands of mental models, and every discipline has their own set. This is a much smaller set of concepts... As Charlie Munger says, “80 or 90 important models will carry about 90% of the freight in making you a worldly‑wise person.”

Talks

Algorithm-Driven Design: How AI is Changing Design

Wired claims that 2017 was the year we fell out of love with algorithms - and yet there it is: Algo driven design on the rise. Watch Ben's talk before browsing this, for better context setting. Russian designer Yuri Vetrov has compiled a comprehensive list of examples, articles and more in this site. From Nutella to Netflix - they're all there. And answers to will Robots/AI take my job?

Books

Top Books from 2017

Brad (himself a writer) has put together a thoughtful shortlist, arranged alphabetically and contains his own recent publication. It includes some of my read and a to-read book—Stranger In The Woods: documenting a "stranger than fiction story—about human nature, solitude, what it means to be happy, and the many paradoxes in what we consider “normal” versus “abnormal” ways of living."

Holiday Book List: For the Inspiration-seeker and the Composed Creative

Across December, The Design Observer has putting together an interesting Book List, curated by two designers—often from different parts of a spectrum. From those sets, this is a personal favourite.

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Lastly, since Harari's Sapiens and Homo Deus are amongst the most mentioned book influences in the DesignUp RoundUp Survey (and also on the conference stage, and in conversations), it may be a good idea to hear the man himself...

DesignUp 2017, in tweets

And in 2017, we enjoyed having many of you over for the conference. Here's a look back at some of the most popular, funny, crazy tweets and those that sum up the conference, and many events leading upto it.

Plus here's a wish for you for 2018...

See you in 2018 🖖

@Jdallcaps