In Norton Commander, as well as in Windows Explorer it’s always been the norm that folders go first, then files. On Mac, it used to be different: files and folders were always mixed together based on the selected sort order.

A few years ago, Apple finally gave in and added a proper sorting option to Finder: folders now appear first, files below.

In Norton Commander, as well as in Windows Explorer, and even in Finder, you’ve always been able to select a file in a list just by typing its name. I’m always surprised when people scroll through giant file lists looking with their eyes, instead of just typing a couple of letters.

So imagine you open a folder in Finder, and in it you have:
images/
index.php

You press the “i” key. Obviously, the highlight should jump to the images/ folder. But in reality, it jumps to index.php. Because even though Finder visually sorts folders to the top, deep down it still believes that index.php comes before images.

Vibe coding had not been invented then, but the implementation quality of Apple software was already at that same level.

Check out the Superpedestrian fleet management interface:

I like designing interfaces of this kind where you need to figure out an obscure process.

Check out the new Samara metro map:

Designed by Nikolay Romanov, directed by myself. Special thanks to Sergey Chikin and Leonid Motovskih.

New email apps keep coming out, trying to organize your inbox. Folders in email were invented nearly fifty years ago, and since then we’ve had filters, rules, and now AI — all aiming to automate sorting.

Some apps don’t even call them “folders” anymore, but “categories” or something else that only adds to the confusion. Every new app tries to outsmart the others at sorting: “inbox”, “important”, “newsletters”, “social”, “purchases”.

Even Apple Mail recently jumped in with its own version: “primary”, “promotions”, and so on. Surely, I have no idea how it decides where things go. To avoid missing an email, I have to check all the categories, so the workload goes up, not down. “Didn’t get our message? Check your spam, secondary, non-urgent, and low-priority folders!” I turned that off immediately, of course.

For some reason, email designers don’t get that folders only work when you create them yourself and sort things manually. If the system exists in your head and you stick to it, you can trust it. But someone else’s system makes you second-guess everything.

Instead of sorting emails into folders, computers should be mining the actual information from them.

Yes, finding booking references and boarding pass QR codes in your inbox is a pain. But even finding them inside an email you’ve already opened is a pain! I don’t want just a folder with those emails — ideally, I’d see the info without even opening a message. If I do need more context, let there be a shortcut to the original message. And I don’t care what folder it’s in.

If an email invites me to a conference and asks me to respond by the 25th, I want that deadline clearly flagged next to the message. And show me, in my inbox, the three emails I should respond to today — based on what they say. Leave folders for people who actually like manual sorting.

The Mac’s built-in noise cancellation suppresses keyboard clicks. It makes perfect sense, but there’s an annoying side effect. When you’re taking notes during a client call, it looks like you’re just reacting slowly or constantly zoning out. It’s hard to convince anyone you’re actually typing because they can’t hear a thing!

Another project, wayfinding elements for “Parus” station:

Check out a new large project: wayfinding for suppliers of Wildberries, the largest Russian online retailer.

Wayfinding is not about drawing signs, but about streamlining the whole scenario of how people find something, and even how they understand what they need to look for. The project included signage, maps, printed instructions, a mobile website, an LED board, and a banner. And that’s all systematized for multiple warehouses.

Here’s a video of my February talk at the Transit Mapping Symposium in Abu Dhabi: