Hey and welcome back to a new week!

In this issue:

• Learn More About Interactions: One of the most important things to get right in your designs explained.

• The Open Doors x Framer Student Challenge: Don’t forget to check this one out and pre-register here!

• Darren’s Portfolio: Unassuming at first but loaded with amazing attention to detail.

Thank you for reading!

🔴 FREE SESSION WITH ME - LEARN INTERACTION DESIGN IN FRAMER

Learn how to design and craft interactions in Framer

​As part of the Open Doors x Framer Student challenge I’m holding a free session showing how you can design and craft interactions in Framer with a couple of cool examples!

We’ll cover both crafting interactions with the help of regular components as well as vibe coding components with the help of Framer’s built-in Workshop feature.

Event is totally free and live but will not be recorded! So make sure to be there.

📅 Thursday, June 4 - 5:30 PM (CET) / 11:30 AM (EST) / 8:30 AM (PST)

The Guide to Position Yourself for the Right Roles in 2026 🧭

A few years ago, you could get away with thinking mostly in static screens. That’s much harder now. Interaction design has moved much closer to the center of what makes digital products feel polished, clear, and worth using.

As of June 1st, I’m also running the Open Doors × Framer Student Challenge in partnership with Framer. Students can participate by submitting one strong interaction done in Framer based on a theme revealed that day, and on June 4th I’ll run a free live session on how to build interactions in Framer.

But this guide is broader than Framer.

Because interaction design is not about one tool. And in 2026, it matters a lot more than it did a few years ago. Not because it was irrelevant before, but because hiring managers pay much more attention to it now, and because the tools have become dramatically better. AI obviously plays into that too. Code holds almost unlimited possibilities for interactions.

At the same time, interaction design is not rocket science. There are a few concepts you need to understand, and once you do, a lot of it starts to click.

What interaction design actually is

UI design is about the surface. What things look like.

Interaction design starts when someone does something to that surface.

Hovering. Clicking. Dragging. Swiping. Scrolling. Tapping. Revealing. Dismissing.

In other words, it is about how the interface reacts when a human interacts with it.

That is why it matters so much. Without interaction design, products would feel like static posters. Nothing would respond. Nothing would confirm itself. Nothing would reveal more. No hover states, no transitions, no small bits of feedback telling you that the system understood what you just did.

And this is also why it matters even more now. Interaction design is often the carrier of delight, clarity, and those small magic moments that make a product feel human instead of dead.

1. Start with the trigger

The first thing that matters is the trigger.

What action causes the interaction? And what kind of device are you designing for?

Because interaction design changes a lot depending on the input method and screen.

On desktop, you have a cursor. You can hover. The screen is wider than it is high. Point-and-click is the dominant feeling.

On mobile, you do not have hover. The screen is taller than it is wide. You interact directly with your thumb or finger.

That changes everything.

A simple example: imagine you want to reveal extra information.

In a B2B product that mostly lives on desktop, a hover interaction may be perfectly fine.

In a mobile-heavy consumer experience, that same pattern may completely fail because no one can hover. So now you need a different interaction, maybe tap to reveal, maybe a different structure entirely.

The point is: before you think about how cool an interaction could be, ask what the trigger is, what device the person is on, and what will feel natural there instead of forced.

2. Interactions are state-based

Most interactions are based on states.

You have a default state, then another state the interface moves into.

For example:

• state A: tooltip hidden

• state B: tooltip visible

That sounds simple, but the interesting part is what happens in between.

Because that transition is what people actually experience.

A tooltip could appear abruptly. It could fade in. It could slide in. It could be more stylized. The question is not what is possible. The question is what makes sense.

If the tooltip carries important information, that is probably not the time to be overly playful. You may still want it to feel polished, but not distracting.

Some interactions are also more complex than just A to B. They need intermediate states.

For example, I recently built a little Pokémon-style card pack for the Open Doors × Framer Student Challenge page. On hover, the cards unfold a bit so you can read the names. Then you can pull one card out further. That movement does not jump directly from “fanned out” to “fully pulled out.” There is an in-between state that makes it feel smoother. When you tuck it back in, it passes through that state again.

So even if users only notice three moments, the interaction may actually rely on more states underneath.

That is important to understand: interactions are state-based, even when they feel fluid.

3. Learn easing

If you want to get better at interaction design, learn easing.

Easing is basically how something moves from one state to another. Not just that it moves, but how it moves.

This is often shown as a curve. You do not need to calculate anything. Most tools already give you predefined options.

The most common ones are:

• ease in

• ease out

• ease in out

Those already cover a lot.

The deeper point is that the exact same state change can feel completely different depending on the easing.

Something can feel abrupt.

Something can feel slick.

Something can feel sluggish.

Something can feel natural.

That difference often comes down to easing.

Broadly, there are two useful buckets to know:

• cubic easing, which is the more common and accessible one

• spring easing, which is more physics-based and often feels more lifelike

Most of the time, cubic easing is enough. But whatever you choose, the key thing to understand is that states alone do not make an interaction feel good. The transition matters just as much.

A very useful tool for understanding this is easing.dev. It lets you compare curves visually and makes the whole thing much easier to grasp.

4. Less is more

This is the part people forget.

Interactions need curation just like typography, colors, imagery, and everything else.

If everything moves all the time, the product starts to feel cheap. It feels overloaded, exhausting, and tasteless very quickly.

Just because you can do something does not mean you should.

This is also why context matters.

In a portfolio, you can be more playful. That is part of the point. In an actual product, especially a serious one, the tolerance for play changes a lot.

I work in legal tech. I cannot suddenly turn a button into some bouncy cartoon moment for no reason. But I absolutely can make a tooltip appear with subtle easing instead of abruptly. That improves the feel of the product without hurting its function.

That distinction matters.

In a marketing site, maybe you want someone to be amazed a little bit. In a productivity tool, people usually want to get a job done. In a flight app, when someone is trying to show their boarding pass, that is not the time for a cute elaborate reveal, no matter how nice it looks on Dribbble.

So ask what role the interaction is playing.

Sometimes the job is delight.

Sometimes it is feedback.

Sometimes it is simply making the interface feel less abrupt.

And often the best interaction is the one people barely notice consciously because it just makes the whole experience feel better.

That also touches accessibility. Motion should never get in the way of comprehension. It should not block access to information, and it should not overwhelm people just because the designer wanted to show off.

How I’d think about this in a portfolio

Since many of you will practice this in your portfolio, it helps to think in layers.

In the hero, you might have one key interaction, ideally something that supports how you introduce yourself.

In the work section, the strongest place for interaction is usually the presentation of the work itself. A hover reveal, a static image switching to motion, a bit more information appearing.

In the about section, you can usually be more playful again.

And in a playground section, if you have one, that is a great place to surface more experimental interactions.

The important thing is that each section has a reason for the interaction. It should support what the section is doing, not just prove that you can make things move.

How to actually improve

A lot of this comes down to studying more closely.

Look at interactions in real products, not only showcases. Screen-record them. Slow them down. Rebuild them. Compare how the same action feels across different tools and surfaces.

You’ll start noticing:

• which interactions feel instant

• which feel too slow

• which are feedback

• which are delight

• which feel native

• which feel pasted in

Once you start seeing those differences, your own work changes quickly.

Take one simple thing like a button or tooltip in Framer or elsewhere and start obsessing over the interactions around that. And I don’t even mean making it fancy. Just make it feel subtle and good.

The bar is higher now, but the tools are better too

Yes, interaction design matters more now. Yes, people notice it more. Yes, it can absolutely help you stand out.

But the good news is that the tools are better than ever too.

You can prototype faster.

You can test more.

You can build things that used to be out of reach.

You can even ask AI to help you learn and refine as you go.

So if this still feels intimidating, that’s okay.

Start with one interaction.

Look at the trigger.

Define the states.

Pick an easing.

Decide whether it needs delight, feedback, or both.

Then cut back until it feels right.

That is already more interaction design than most people are doing consciously.

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👀 Portfolio Showcase

Today: Darren Millar

Darren Millar’s portfolio is one of those portfolios that slowly reveals how much thought went into it.

At first glance, it actually feels fairly restrained. The visual language is clean, minimal, and somewhat familiar. But once you start interacting with it, you realize Darren is experimenting with navigation, structure, and interaction patterns in ways that most portfolios simply don’t.

And more importantly, he’s doing it well.

Darren is currently studying design and business at Waterloo and is looking for opportunities for Fall 2026. Based on the quality of this portfolio and the thinking behind it, I’d honestly be surprised if he struggles to find them.

What stands out most is that he clearly understands something many designers early in their career don’t yet fully grasp: novelty by itself is useless. What matters is whether something new still feels intuitive.

And that’s exactly where this portfolio succeeds.

That’s it for this week—thanks so much for the support! ♥️

Do you want your own portfolio reviewed in-depth with a 30-minute advice-packed video review? Or do you require mentoring to figure out a proper strategy for your job search?

I got you!

• Book an in-depth portfolio or resume review with me

• Book a mentoring session with me

• Book a quick 15 min chat to ask a question and see if we vibe

Keep kicking doors open and see you next week!
- Florian