Notes on making things.

A good archive starts with a small promise: every item has a name, a source and a place. Keep the original alongside the version you publish. A date and a short description are often more useful than a complicated category tree.

When an archive grows, search becomes a part of the design. Use everyday words in titles. Make file types visible before download. Remove broken links when you find them.

A simple vector can stay sharp at any size and still travel as a small file. Use vectors for exact geometry, symbols and diagrams; use raster images for photographs and texture that cannot be described honestly as shapes.

Compression is only part of the work. Give the file clear dimensions, an accessible description and a predictable name. A small file should also be easy to understand.

Start with the task someone came to do. Put that task in the first screen. A toolbar, a clear label and a useful result can do more than a row of decorative summary cards.

Make changes visible. Explain an error next to the field that caused it. Let keyboard focus show where the next action will happen. A quiet interface still speaks when it needs to.

Choose a foreground and background before choosing an accent. Check the contrast of small text as well as headings. A colour that works on a large poster may disappear in a small table.

Use colour together with a word or shape. A status should remain understandable in a monochrome printout. Save the palette as plain values so it can move between tools.

Start with the units. A number without its unit, time range or source is easy to misread. Keep a table available beside a chart when the exact values matter.

Sample data should identify itself as sample data. Do not decorate an interface with invented customer counts or revenue. Useful demonstrations explain what they are demonstrating.

A published asset is easier to maintain when its editable source and license travel with it. Store the recipe for a generated image, not only the resulting file.

Prefer a small documented process to an undocumented shortcut. The next person should be able to rebuild the collection and tell which files have changed.