As Andy Hertzfeld describes on folklore.org, early Apple employee Chris Espinoza drew a calculator for the Macintosh. He showed it to Steve Jobs.
Jobs’s response? “Well,” he said, “it’s a start, but basically it stinks. The background color is too dark, some lines are the wrong thickness, and the buttons are too big.”
Espinoza went back from the drawing board, giving Jobs a new version each of the next few days and incorporating his suggestions. But Jobs kept finding problems. So Espinoza took a new approach, creating “the Steve Jobs Roll Your Own Calculator Construction Set” to let Jobs change line thicknesses, button sizes, background patterns, etc. himself
Within minutes, Jobs had settled on a design he liked, one that remained the standard Macintosh calculator design for 17 years.
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Why did that approach work? For one thing, it allowed Jobs to make changes in real-time. That’s an approach Jobs clearly preferred; he wanted to touch, feel, and use potential products. That’s why iPhone screens are glass rather than plastic; one day of carrying a prototype in his pocket, and seeing the resulting scratches, was enough for Jobs to insist iPhone screens be made of gorilla glass.)
For another, it ensured Jobs was invested in the choices we made. We all tend to prefer our ideas, our creations… things we see as “ours.”
The same approach has worked for me. When I worked in manufacturing, one of our sayings was, “Engineers ask you what you need, then give you what they think you need.”
It happened all the time. We would ask for a specific equipment modification, and what we got back was something very different. What they gave us was usually “better” from a theoretical engineering perspective, but what really mattered was whether the modifications helped us increase throughput.
And they rarely did, until we changed our approach. We came up with an idea that would let us adjust multiple conveyor guides together instead of individually. We asked the engineer to draw it up, we took his specs and used brackets, clamps, etc. to mock it up on the machine where the finished product would eventually be installed.
And then we asked him to evaluate it: not on the drawing board, not in his office, but in the real world.
He played with it, and played with it, and couldn’t make it work. It was slower. Less accurate. Less stable. Less everything we needed it to be.
But instead of walking away in a huff, he grabbed a piece of paper and sketchd a quick diagram.
“Think this will work better?” he asked. “It looks great,” we said, since his diagram looked a lot like what we had originally asked for.
From then on, that’s what we did. We came up with ideas, the engineer drew them up, and we would create rough prototypes so he, and we, could try them out. Sometimes the result was him giving us what we asked for. Sometimes — a lot of times — he found an even better way.
The “fault” in the original approach wasn’t all his. We knew what we wanted but sometimes struggled to describe it. Creating a semi-working prototype helped us not only determine what we really needed, but just as importantly, to be able to describe it.
Try it. The next time you have an idea, let the people who will actually use it give it a try: not in a conference room, not as a discussion, but in as real-world a setting as you can create. If you have a new idea for a sales approach, let people test it first. If you have a new idea for a cost-cutting measure, let people test it in a limited fashion
Not only will you see whether it works, you’ll also give them the opportunity to suggest ways to make your idea work even better.
Because the people who actually do a job are the best people to decide how that job can be done well.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.
The real fun is staying home where the snacks are cheaper, the clothes are comfier, and the vibe is always right. No lineups. No parking stress. No small talk with strangers. A dinner with friends is great and all but you won’t catch me at a schmooz event.
This gallery celebrates the homebody lifestyle in all its cozy glory: warm lighting, freshly cooked meals, bingeable shows, comfy couches, bedroom fortress energy, and the satisfaction of staying exactly where you want to be. If you’re in an apartment, you most likely have some great views to go along with everything else.
Whether you are redesigning your place (building an underground batcave under the south wing) or just admiring what others have done, this is a reminder that home is not just where the heart is, it’s where the fun is too.
Salon Art + Design’s 14th edition runs through Monday, November 10, 2025. Miguel McSongwe/BFA.com
Beautifully curated and seamlessly uniting art and design, Salon Art + Design 2025 unfolded once again within the grand setting of the Park Avenue Armory, offering a natural elegance few fairs achieve. It’s an event that never feels forced or overly eclectic; here, 50 global exhibitors assembled a calibrated and elegant mix celebrating craftsmanship at the crossroads of tradition and innovation. The fair maintains the thrill of discovery, offering rare and exquisite objects that require no connoisseur’s credentials to appreciate—especially when the Upper East Side crowd begins shipping champagne. As former director now Chairwoman Jill Bokor told Observer “The atmosphere of the Park Avenue Armory is perfect for an event like Salon, because it, in itself, is a curated work of design.”
At opening night on November 6, that atmosphere—along with the fair’s hallmark elegance—was palpable in every corner, from the Art Deco treasures at Bernard Goldberg Fine Art radiating the charm of the Belle Époque across continents (several of which sold by the opening night) to the ancient South Arabian and Byzantine pieces at Ariadne, which extended the fair’s reach far beyond the 20th Century into the timeless spirituality of the ancient world.
Although design and furniture have been among the collectible categories most affected by Trump’s tariffs—some of which are set to rise to 50 percent in January 2026—dealers at Salon are still presenting an impressive array of modern and contemporary design from across geographies. Several gallerists admitted that their participation was possible only because their pieces had already been imported, noting that the U.S. market is likely to feel the full impact of the new duties in the coming months. Under the executive order signed by Trump on September 29, a 25 percent tariff applies to wood imports and derivative products—including upholstered furniture and kitchen cabinets—effective starting October 14. Imports of softwood timber and lumber face a 10 percent rate, while upholstered wooden products incur a 25 percent duty. Kitchen cabinets and their components are likewise taxed at 25 percent per order, with rates set to climb in January 2026 to 30 percent for upholstered furniture and 50 percent for cabinetry and related parts. This comes at a moment of remarkable strength for the market for collectible design and decorative arts: according to ArtTactic, the category grew 20.4 percent in 2025 to reach $172 million, up from $143 million the previous year.
Salon Art + Design showcases the pinnacle of design, presenting the world’s finest vintage, modern and contemporary pieces alongside blue-chip 20th-century artworks. Miguel McSongwe/BFA.com
In one of the first rows, Converso Modern’s booth paired Alexander Calder’s vibrant tapestries—crafted in Guatemala and Nicaragua—with a tribute to Pennsylvania’s New Hope Modern Craft Movement, the 1960s community that bridged traditional craftsmanship with modern design. Highlights included sculptural metal and carved wood pieces by Phillip Lloyd Powell and Paul Evans, shown alongside the elemental modernism of George Nakashima.
Awarded this year’s Best Booth, the London-based Crosta Smith Gallery presented a moody, cinematic homage to 1930s Art Deco—refined, atmospheric and irresistibly elegant. Marking the centenary of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes, the defining event of the Art Deco era, the gallery presented a selection of impeccably preserved works in wood, lacquer and galuchat celebrating a century of decorative mastery. Each piece reflected the sophistication of the 1920s and 1930s, including exquisite creations by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, Katsu Hamanaka and Clément Rousseau. Particularly striking was a pair of lacquer panels by Hamanaka depicting Adam and Eve dancing in nature with quintessential Deco elegance—the sinuous lines and subtle symbolism balanced by the sensual tension of intertwined snakes. Equally rare was Ruhlmann’s méridienne in amboyna burl wood, gilt bronze and silk bourrette upholstery—a unique variant of the Marozeau model commissioned by the Borderie family, epitomizing his sculptural refinement. Founded in 2018 by Marine Edith Crosta and Daniel Smith after collecting Art Deco while furnishing their home in the south of France, the gallery is now participating in all leading design fairs, including PAD London.
Crosta Smith Gallery at Salon Art + Design 2025. Crosta Smith Gallery
Nearby, Downtown-based Bossa Furniture continued to serve as a bridge between the U.S. and Brazil, showcasing the warmth of modernist Brazilian design through an intergenerational dialogue between Joaquim Tenreiro—one of the founders of modern Brazilian design—and contemporary designer Lucas Recchia, accented with a vintage stool by Lina Bo Bardi. Returning for their second year at the fair and fresh from Design Miami/Paris, Bossa sold a unique chaise by Joaquim Tenreiro during the preview, priced at $90,000, along with two pieces by Recchia.
Many exhibitors adopted a curatorial approach that seamlessly integrated art and design, blurring distinctions between collectible furniture, fine art and historical masterpieces. At Incollect, a captivating juxtaposition paired modernist and contemporary design with an Anish Kapoor reflective sculpture and playful Picasso ceramics, creating a lively dialogue between modern icons.
Elsewhere, Galerie Gabriel skillfully paired modern design with works by Sam Falls, while several booths leaned fully into fine art. Opera Gallery, with its global presence, offered an interior-friendly selection of blue-chip names designed to appeal to Salon’s broad audience. Standouts included a striking George Condo drawing priced around $100,000, a sensuous Picasso work on paper and sculptures by Manolo Valdés—among them a wooden reinterpretation of his Menina series inspired by Velázquez. Another highlight was Carlos Cruz-Diez’s optically mesmerizing Physichromie Panam 112, shown alongside pieces by Juan Genovés, Thomas Dillon, Keith Haring, Cho Sung-Hee, Jae Ko and André Lanskoy.
The 60-year-old Galerie Gmurzynska, specializing in 20th-century modern and contemporary classics, impressed with a monumental Louise Nevelson work, City Series (1974), spanning an entire wall and exemplifying her mature phase of assemblage sculpture. The booth also included three mixed-media collages by Nevelson, a rare early wood panel by Robert Indiana from his Coenties Slip period and Yves Klein’s F 48 (1961), a luminous piece from his Monochrome und Feuer exhibition. A rare surviving box construction by Dan Basen from the 1960s New York avant-garde rounded out the presentation. “We love taking part in Salon Art + Design. The blend of art, design and jewelry is truly exceptional, a great experience. The opening was extremely well attended, and we have sold one work so far,” said gallery director Isabelle Bscher, who represents the third generation of the Swiss-born Gmurzynska family at Salon Art + Design 2025.
New York-based Onishi Gallery, known for championing contemporary Japanese art and design, presented “Clay, Iron, and Fire: The Bizen and Setouchi Heritage,” a striking tribute to Japan’s enduring craft traditions. The exhibition celebrated the intertwined legacies of Bizen ceramics—born 900 years ago from the region’s iron-rich clay and revered by tea masters for their organic textures—and Osafune swordmaking, famed for its refined curvature, subtle grain and balance. With works ranging from a $2,900 sword to ceramic masterpieces priced between $30,000 and $50,000, the booth embodied Japan’s devotion to transforming natural materials into lasting beauty, infused with the timeless aesthetics of wabi-sabi and ichi-go ichi-e.
Similarly devoted to the Japanese spirit of craftsmanship, the minimalist, clean booth of Ippodo Gallery explored the meeting point between Eastern sensibility and Western material practice, featuring Ymer & Malta’s pioneering resin light sculptures (Paris), Akira Hara’s intricate Murrine glass works (Venice) and Andoche Praudel’s tactile ceramics (Loubignac). Examining materiality as a universal language, their works dissolved the boundary between art and function, finding beauty in tactile intelligence. By the close of opening day at 9 p.m., the gallery had sold more than $60,000 worth of art. “The preview event drew a large number of enthusiastic visitors, and it’s clear that the fair has grown and evolved since last year,” Churou Wang, the gallery’s associate director, told Observer. “We’re looking forward to seeing how the coming days unfold.”
Ippodo Gallery. Courtesy Ippodo Gallery
On the contemporary design front, London’s Gallery FUMI stood out with a presentation celebrating its new representation of San Francisco-based artist and designer Jesse Schlesinger, coinciding with his first-ever design exhibition, Pacific, at the gallery’s London flagship. Ahead of a dedicated presentation at FOG Design + Art in San Francisco, FUMI showcased Schlesinger’s sculptural furniture—works merging nature, philosophy and material consciousness. A second-generation carpenter deeply rooted in the Bay Area, Schlesinger crafts with locally salvaged wood, blending ceramics, bronze, glass and wood into meditations on texture, surface and function.
London’s Charles Burnand Gallery, which specializes in collectible design and lighting, presented a captivating booth that reflected the growing shift in taste toward design rooted in organic sensitivity and material depth. Its curated presentation, “Liminal Monuments: The Edge of Becoming,” unfolded as an elegant choreography of designers across geographies, exploring form in a state of becoming—continuous growth, evolution and transformation. Every object in the booth felt interconnected and evocative of natural structures, from plant life to geology, offering a contemporary design language that draws inspiration from nature to rediscover the soul of materials and humanity’s relationship with them.
Particularly outstanding among the booth’s luminous creations was Midnight Tulip by Ian Milnes—a meditation on the transience of beauty, capturing a fleeting moment suspended between bloom and disintegration. Inspired by the 16th-century phenomenon of “broken tulips” and crafted from sycamore, walnut, cherry and resin, its marquetry petals appeared to drift outward in slow motion, their blackened, watercolor-like surfaces evoking both bloom and decay—embodying a space where fragility and radiance coexist. Equally striking were the organically graceful, cocoon-like wire-crochet lamps by Korean designer Kyeok Kim, floating in the corner like luminous cellular formations that connected the micro- and macrocosmos through shared patterns and order. Handcrafted from fine metal mesh, these sculptural lights existed in a liminal space—both soft and metallic, airy yet architectural—expressing fragility and endurance in perfect balance.
Alexander the Great as Apollo, 1st century B.C.-1st century A.D, presented by Phoenix Ancient Art. Gilded bronze, obsidian and gypsum alabaster eyes. Photo: Elisa Carollo
And as always, Salon Art + Design offered museum-quality treasures at the top tier of the market. A standout among them was Alexander the Great, presented by Phoenix Ancient Art—a gilded bronze Roman sculpture from the 1st Century with obsidian and alabaster eyes that radiated the aura of a rediscovered world. Believed to be one of only two known portraits of Alexander—the other housed in Herculaneum—the work was a rare masterpiece of ancient craftsmanship.
Todd Merrill Studio’s booth also bridged designers across geographies, uniting leading artists from North America, Europe and South Korea, reaffirming the gallery’s reputation for material innovation and sculptural form. Highlights included Amsterdam-based Maarten Vrolijk’s Sakura Pendant Lighting—a luminous evolution of his Sakura Vessels—and German artist Markus Haase’s new bronze and onyx works, including a monumental chandelier and reimagined Circlet series pieces that merged sculpture and illumination through exceptional craftsmanship.
While some of the biggest names in collectible design—Carpenters Workshop, Friedman Benda, Salon 94 and Nilufar—were absent this year, likely due to the proximity of the Paris and Miami fairs, their absence was hardly felt. Instead, Salon Art + Design 2025 unfolded with a rare sense of cohesion and restraint, offering a stage where eras and disciplines engaged in a fluid dialogue that held at its center a timeless sense of beauty born from the convergence of material awareness, craftsmanship and innovation—qualities that defined the fair’s most striking functional yet evocative objects.
Todd Merrill Studio at Salon Art + Design 2025. Miguel McSongwe/BFA.com
For decades, curriculum, pedagogy, and technology have evolved to meet the changing needs of students. But in many schools, the classroom environment itself hasn’t kept pace. Classic layouts that typically feature rows of desks, limited flexibility, and a single focal point can often make it harder for educators to support the dynamic ways students learn today.
Classrooms are more than places to sit–when curated intentionally, they can become powerful tools for learning. These spaces can either constrain or amplify great teaching. By reimagining how classrooms are designed and used, schools can create environments that foster engagement, reduce stress, and help both teachers and students thrive.
Designing a classroom for student learning outcomes and well-being
Many educators naturally draw on their own school experiences when shaping classroom environments, often carrying forward familiar setups that reflect how they once learned. Over time, these classic arrangements have become the norm, even as today’s students benefit from more flexible, adaptable spaces that align with modern teaching and learning needs.
The challenge is that classic classroom setups don’t always align with the ways students learn and interact today. With technology woven into nearly every aspect of their lives, students are used to engaging in environments that are more dynamic, collaborative, and responsive. Classrooms designed with flexibility in mind can better mirror these experiences, supporting teaching and learning in meaningful ways, even without using technology.
To truly engage students, the classroom must become an active participant in the learning process. Educational psychologist Loris Malaguzzi famously described the classroom as the “third teacher,” claiming it has just as much influence in a child’s development as parents or educators. With that in mind, teachers should be able to lean on this “teacher” to help keep students engaged and attentive, rather than doing all the heavy lifting themselves.
For example, rows of desks often limit interaction and activity, forcing a singular, passive learning style. Flexible seating, on the other hand, encourages active participation and peer-to-peer learning, allowing students to easily move and reconfigure their learning spaces for group work or individual work time.
I saw this firsthand when I was a teacher. When I moved into one of my third-grade classrooms, I was met with tables that quickly proved insufficient for the needs of my students. I requested a change, integrating alternative seating options and giving students the freedom to choose where they felt most comfortable learning. The results exceeded my expectations. My students were noticeably more engaged, collaborative, and invested in class discussions and activities. That experience showed me that even the simplest changes to the physical learning environment can have a profound impact on student motivation and learning outcomes.
Allowing students to select their preferred spot for a given activity or day gives them agency over their learning experience. Students with this choice are more likely to engage in discussions, share ideas, and develop a sense of community. A comfortable and deliberately designed environment can also reduce anxiety and improve focus. This means teachers experience fewer disruptions and less need for intervention, directly alleviating a major source of stress by decreasing the disciplinary actions educators must make to resolve classroom misbehavior. With less disruption, teachers can focus on instruction.
Supporting teachers’ well-being
Just as classroom design can directly benefit student outcomes, it can also contribute to teacher well-being. Creating spaces that support collaboration among staff, provide opportunities to reset, and reduce the demands of the job is a tangible first step towards developing a more sustainable environment for educators and can be one factor in reducing turnover.
Intentional classroom design should balance consistency with teacher voice. Schools don’t need a one-size-fits-all model for every room, but they can establish adaptable design standards for each type of space, such as science labs, elementary classrooms, or collaboration areas. Within those frameworks, teachers should be active partners in shaping how the space works best for their instruction. This approach honors teacher expertise while ensuring that learning environments across the school are both flexible and cohesive.
Supporting teacher voice and expertise also encourages “early adopters” to try new things. While some teachers may jump at the opportunity to redesign their space, others might be more hesitant. For those teachers, school leaders can help ease these concerns by reinforcing that meaningful change doesn’t require a full-scale overhaul. Even small steps, like rearranging existing furniture or introducing one or two new pieces, can make a space feel refreshed and more responsive to both teaching and learning needs. To support this process, schools can also collaborate with learning environment specialists to help educators identify practical starting points and design solutions tailored to their goals.
Designing a brighter future for education
Investing in thoughtfully designed school environments that prioritize teacher well-being isn’t just about creating a more pleasant workplace; it’s a strategic move to build a stronger, more sustainable educational system. By providing teachers with flexible, adaptable, and future-ready classrooms, schools can address issues like stress, burnout, and student disengagement. When educators feel valued and empowered in their spaces, they create a better work environment for themselves and a better learning experience for their students. Ultimately, a supportive, well-designed classroom is an environment that sets both educators and students up for success.
Dr. Sue Ann Highland, School Specialty
Dr. Sue Ann Highland is the Lead National Education Strategist at School Specialty.
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They say necessity is the mother of invention, but the internet has taken that idea and run with it.
This gallery is dedicated to the sarcastic brilliance of “modern solutions”, from taping things together just to make them work, to choosing corded headphones because Bluetooth betrayed you one too many times.
It’s about survival in the age of over-convenience, creativity on crack, and finding humor in every ridiculous fix.
Whether it’s a life hack, a lazy workaround, or a spark of genius, these are the modern-day methods keeping us all afloat one questionable decision at a time.
One solution to this mess: Buy books from a local bookshop. Not a billionaire.
We all love a good life hack. But let’s be honest—half of them are pure genius and the other half are… questionable at best. From duct tape cup holders to improvised grocery store outfits, this gallery celebrates the creative, the chaotic, and the downright unnecessary ways people try to make life easier.
It’s proof that humans will go to extreme lengths to solve simple problems, often creating even bigger ones in the process.
Design software firm Canva just announced a host of new AI features aimed at streamlining the process of creating anything from video clips to marketing campaigns. The company is touting the product updates as nothing less than the dawn of a new era of creativity.
“For the last couple of decades, it’s been all about democratizing information and giving people access to as much information as possible,” Canva chief product officer Cameron Adams told Inc. in a video call ahead of a launch event in Sydney on Thursday.
Now that most people around the world have all the information they could ever want at their fingertips, the “information age” is giving way to the “imagination era,” says Adams, who co-founded Canva in 2013 with Melanie Perkins and Cliff Obrecht. “With the rise of AI, it’s not so much about the information, but what you do with it,” Adams says. “It’s about the vision that you set for yourself and for the team around you. How do we bring our imagination to life and put it into action, so it has a real impact on the planet?”
Sydney, Australia–based Canva is certainly not alone in introducing more AI features. Both TikTok and Instagram rolled out new AI editing features in recent weeks. But Canva, which has spent close to a decade building its AI team, is baking AI features into nearly every part of its interface.
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Canva reported $3.5 billion in annualized revenue in October and says it has more than 260 million monthly active users. While it first caught fire with social media managers and college students, it’s increasingly infiltrating the corporate world, with enterprise customers like LinkedIn, Stripe, and Snowflake.
Its flexible design tools can create anything from Instagram posts to spreadsheets in seconds, and its visual, drag-and-drop interface makes it a favorite of non-designers who want to create nice looking products in a hurry.
“We spend a lot of time talking to our real estate agents about how important it is to build personal brands,” says Wendy Forsythe, the chief marketing officer of eXp Realty, the largest residential real estate firm in North America and another enterprise customer. “It’s part of what helps them differentiate themselves on why a buyer or seller would choose to buy a home or sell a home.”
With Canva, eXp Reality’s more than 80,000 agents can create their own Instagram posts, open-house fliers, and marketing materials. They can also quickly erase things like cars in driveways from photos or translate materials into multiple languages with a few clicks. As of Thursday, they can also create branded emails using drag-and-drop design tools.
In its latest product update, the company is doubling down on artificial intelligence, upgrading many existing features and introducing Canva Design Model, which the company says is the first AI model that understands the elements of design.
“When you think about a design, it’s actually quite complicated. It brings together hundreds if not thousands of different elements and aspects into something that communicates a message effectively,” says Adams. The AI needs to understand the different elements like text and images that might go into a design, the intended audience, and the end use—and how all the pieces work together.
Alongside its free, pro, and enterprise tiers, Canva also just launched Canva Business, a plan created for solopreneurs and small teams, which costs $20 a month per user.
Here are a few of the new features that can help small business owners create everything from ads to websites more efficiently.
While existing AI models can generate lifelike images and videos, Adams says Canva Design Model is the first that allows users to easily edit and customize designs such as fliers, ads, or menus. Users can specify their own brand guidelines, and once a design is generated, they can manipulate individual elements through prompts or by using Canva’s design tools. They can also generate new designs or slides based on an existing file, or ask Canva’s chatbot for tips.
Marketing campaign help
A new feature called Canva Grow helps streamline the process of creating marketing materials. The tool helps generate ideas and break down the necessary steps for a campaign. Then it helps design the elements, which can be published directly to platforms like Instagram. Once those campaigns are live, Canva Grow helps track performance and allows users to update their campaigns based on those metrics.
An easier way to collect data
Vibe coding tools have soared in popularity in recent months. But while they’re helpful for creating apps and web features, there’s often no straightforward way to collect information from those widgets on the back end. Canva just introduced the capability to link forms and other interactive designs to Sheets, the company’s spreadsheet product. The data can be collected and sorted, and also incorporated into products such as slide decks, which are automatically updated as new data comes in.
Adobe’s Oriol Nieto loaded up a short video with a handful of scenes and a voice-over, but no sound effects. The AI model analyzed the video and broke it down into scenes, applying emotional tags and a description of each scene. Then, the sound effects came. The AI model picked up on a scene with an alarm clock, for instance, and automatically created a sound effect. It identified a scene where the main character (an octopus, in this case) was driving a car, and it added a sound effect of a door closing.
It wasn’t perfect. The alarm sound wasn’t realistic, and in a scene where two characters were hugging, the AI model added an unnatural rustling of clothes that didn’t work. Instead of manually editing, Adobe used a conversational interface (like ChatGPT) to describe changes. In the car scene, there was no ambient sound from the car. Rather than manually selecting the scene, Adobe used the conversational interface and asked the AI model to add a car sound effect to the scene. It successfully found the scene, generated the sound effect, and placed it perfectly.
These experimental features aren’t available, but they usually work their way into Adobe’s suite. For instance, Harmonize, a feature in Photoshop that automatically places assets with accurate color and lighting in a scene, was shown at Sneaks last year. Now, it’s in Photoshop. Expect them to pop up sometime in 2026.
Adobe’s announcement comes mere months after video game voice actors ended a nearly year-long strike to secure protections around AI—companies are required to get consent and provide disclosure agreements when game developers want to recreate a voice actor’s voice or likeness through AI. Voice actors have been bracing for the impact AI will have on the business for some time now, and Adobe’s new features, even if they’re not generating a voice-over from scratch, are yet another marker of the shift AI is forcing on the creative industry.
As you’re hunting through real estate listings for a new home in Franklin, Tennessee, you come across a vertical video showing off expansive rooms featuring a four-poster bed, a fully stocked wine cellar, and a soaking tub. In the corner of the video, a smiling real estate agent narrates the walk-through of your dream home in a soothing tone. It looks perfect—maybe a little too perfect.
The catch? Everything in the video is AI-generated. The real property is completely empty, and the luxury furniture is a product of virtual staging. The realtor’s voice-over and expressions were born from text prompts. Even the camera’s slow pan over each room is orchestrated by AI, because there was no actual video camera involved.
Any real estate agent can create “exactly that, at home, in minutes,” says Alok Gupta, a former product manager at Facebook and software engineer at Snapchat who cofounded AutoReel, an app that allows realtors to turn images from their property listings into videos. He said that between 500 and 1,000 new listing videos are being created with AutoReel every day, with realtors across the US and even in New Zealand and India using the technology to market thousands of properties.
This is one of many AI tools, including more familiar ones like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, that are quickly reshaping the real estate industry into something that isn’t necessarily, well, real.
“I’ve been at a few conferences over the past few weeks, and just anecdotally speaking, we’ll ask out of 100 people in the audience how many are using AI, and I’d say 80 to 90 percent of people raise their hand,” says Dan Weisman, the director of innovation strategy at the National Association of Realtors, the largest real estate trade association in the US. “We are seeing this huge uptick in people using it.”
Like most industries, the biggest names in this one are rushing to embrace a wave of generative AI products making big promises about increasing productivity, cutting costs, and revolutionizing every aspect of the consumer experience. But when it comes to renting or buying a home, which are typically the costliest parts of adult life, the use of AI-generated photos, videos, and listing descriptions can make the process feel even riskier.
Elizabeth, a homeowner in rural Michigan who did not want her last name used due to privacy concerns, keeps an eye on local real estate listings to stay abreast of her own home’s value.
Samsung has one of the biggest product line ups of any tech brand, yet when it comes to design, it’s consistently seen as an “also-ran.” While other companies have forged distinctive and instantly recognizable design languages, such as Nothing, Samsung has found itself behind in the style stakes. When you’ve got Apple as one of your biggest competitors, that’s not a great position to be in.
That’s not to say there haven’t been improvements in the last decade, and the occasional flashes of promise—most notable in its collaborations with external designers, like the Bouroullec brothers, who fashioned the Serif TV for the South Korean company. But that hasn’t stopped complaints of boring and unoriginal design, both internally and externally, and an inertia when it has led, leaving other companies to close the gap.
Being defined by performance over personality has hardly done Samsung’s bottom line any harm—it recently regained its lead from Apple in global smartphone market share and has been the global leader in TVs for almost two decades. But, in 2025, it looks there’s finally a clear desire from Samsung to bridge the gap between form and function, by giving design the focus it’s been lacking for far too long at the company.
Back in April, Samsung hired Mauro Porcini, its first ever chief design officer. Porcini has spent more than 20 years building award-winning design teams at 3M and PepsiCo, most recently leading a successful global rebrand for Pepsi—the company’s first in 14 years.
For a company as big as Samsung, this hire feels late. Apple created the same position for Jony Ive a decade ago, around the same time it was reported that innovation at Samsung was being stifled beneath layers of management. With those structural issues supposedly unpicked, Samsung now has work to do—something Porcini is keen to acknowledge.
Late to the Party
“We are in a moment of change, where the way people interact with any kind of machine or electronic device is going to be radically different in the coming years,” Porcini tells me. “These machines will change the way people live, work, and connect with each other—the way people fulfil their needs. For a company like Samsung, having design at the top, involved in the way you define the future of the portfolio based on those needs—it’s more important than ever.”
The march of AI is, of course, a helpful hook upon which to tie this long overdue move, but Yves Béhar, the founder and principal designer at Fuseproject who worked with Samsung on The Frame TV, tells me this has been years in the making, and something Samsung had initially looked externally to help put the wheels in motion.
“When we started working with Samsung on The Frame [released in January 2017], the CEO at the time, HS Kim, came to us and said—look, we want to transform ourselves from a consumer technology company, into an experience business,” says Béhar. “So we helped them set some principles around that, and worked on getting that message out into the business—of what it means to think about experience versus tech. This is exactly what we did with The Frame TV.”
ENGLEWOOD — Metro Denver budtender Quentin Ferguson needs Regional Transportation District bus and trains to reach work at an Arvada dispensary from his house, a trip that takes 90 minutes each way “on a good day.”
“It is pretty inconvenient,” Ferguson, 22, said on a recent rainy evening, waiting for a nearly empty train that was eight minutes late.
He’s not complaining, however, because his relatively low income and Medicaid status qualify him for a discounted RTD monthly pass. That lets him save money for a car or an electric bicycle, he said, either of them offering a faster commute.
Then he would no longer have to ride RTD.
His plight reflects a core problem of lagging ridership that RTD directors increasingly run up against as they try to position the transit agency as the smartest way to navigate Denver. Most other U.S. public transit agencies, too, are grappling with a version of this problem.
In Colorado, state-government-driven efforts to concentrate the growing population in high-density, transit-oriented development around bus and train stations — a priority for legislators and Gov. Jared Polis — hinge on having a swift public system that residents ride.
But transit ridership has failed to rebound a year after RTD’s havoc in 2024, when operators disrupted service downtown for a $152 million rail reconstruction followed by a systemwide emergency maintenance blitz to smooth deteriorating tracks that led to trains crawling through 10-mph “slow zones.”
The latest ridership numbers show an overall decline this year, by at least 3.9%, with 40 million fewer riders per year compared with six years ago. And RTD executives’ newly proposed, record $1.3 billion budget for 2026 doesn’t include funds for boosting bus and train frequency to win back riders.
Frustrations intensified last week.
“What is the point of transit-oriented development if it is just development?” said state Rep. Meg Froelich, a Democrat representing Englewood who chairs the House Transportation, Housing and Local Government Committee. “We need reliable transit to have transit-oriented development. We have cities that have invested significant resources into their transit-oriented communities. RTD is not holding up its end of the bargain.”
At a retreat this past summer, a majority of the RTD’s 15 elected board members agreed that boosting ridership is their top priority. Some who reviewed the proposed budget last week questioned the lack of spending on service improvements for riders.
“We’re not moving the needle. Ridership is not going up. It should be going up,” director Karen Benker said in an interview.
“Over the past few years, there’s been a tremendous amount of population growth. There are so many apartment complexes, so much new housing put up all over,” Benker said. “Transit has to be relied on. You just cannot keep building more roads. We’re going to have to find ways to get people to ride public transit.”
Commuting trends blamed
RTD Chief Executive and General Manager Debra Johnson, in emailed responses to questions from The Denver Post, emphasized that “RTD is not unique” among U.S. transit agencies struggling to regain ridership lost during the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson blamed societal shifts.
“Commuting trends have significantly changed over the last five years,” she said. “Return-to-work numbers in the Denver metro area, which accounted for a significant percentage of RTD’s ridership prior to March 2020, remain low as companies and businesses continue to provide flexible in-office schedules for their employees.”
In the future, RTD will be “changing its focus from primarily providing commuter services,” she said, toward “enhancing its bus and services and connections to high-volume events, activity centers, concerts and festivals.”
But agency directors are looking for a more aggressive approach to reversing the decline in ridership. And some are mulling a radical restructuring of routes.
Funded mostly by taxpayers across a 2,345 square-mile area spanning eight counties and 40 municipalities — one of the biggest in the nation — RTD operates 10 rail lines covering 114 miles with 84 stations and 102 bus routes with 9,720 stops.
“We should start from scratch,” said RTD director Chris Nicholson, advocating an overhaul of the “geometry” of all bus routes to align transit better with metro Denver residents’ current mobility patterns.
The key will be increasing frequency.
“We should design the routes how we think would best serve people today, and then we could take that and modify it where absolutely necessary to avoid disruptive differences with our current route map,” he said.
Then, in 2030, directors should appeal to voters for increased funding to improve service — funds that would be substantially controlled by municipalties “to pick where they want the service to go,” he said.
Reversing the RTD ridership decline may take a couple of years, Nicholson said, comparing the decreases this year to customers shunning a restaurant. “If you’re a restaurant and you poison some guests accidentally, you’re gonna lose customers even after you fix the problem.”
The RTD ridership numbers show an overall public transit ridership decrease by 5% when measured over the 12-month period from August 2024 through July 2025, the last month for which staffers have made numbers available, compared with the same period a year ago.
Bus ridership decreased by 2% and light rail by 18% over that period. In a typical month, RTD officials record around 5 million boardings — around 247,000 on weekdays.
The precautionary rail “slow zones” persisted for months as contractors worked on tracks, delaying and diverting trains, leaving transit-dependent workers in a lurch. RTD driver workforce shortages limited deployment of emergency bus shuttles.
This year, RTD ridership systemwide decreased by 3.9% when measured from January through July, compared with that period in 2024. The bus ridership this year has decreased by 2.4%.
On rail lines, the ridership on the relatively popular A Line that runs from Union Station downtown to Denver International Airport was down by 9.7%. The E Line light rail that runs from downtown to the southeastern edge of metro Denver was down by 24%. Rail ridership on the W Line decreased by 18% and on R Line by 15%, agency records show.
The annual RTD ridership has decreased by 38% since 2019, from 105.8 million to 65.2 million in 2024.
A Regional Transportation District light rail train moves through downtown Denver on Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Light rail ‘sickness’ spreading
“The sickness on RTD light rail is spreading to other parts of the RTD system,” said James Flattum, a co-founder of the Greater Denver Transit grassroots rider advocacy group, who also serves on the state’s RTD Accountability Committee. “We’re seeing permanent demand destruction as a consequence of having an unreliable system. This comes from a loss of trust in RTD to get you where you need to go.”
RTD officials have countered critics by pointing out that the light rail’s on-time performance recovered this year to 91% or better. Bus on-time performance still lagged at 83% in July, agency records show.
The officials also pointed to decreased security reports made using an RTD smartphone app after deploying more police officers on buses and trains. The number of reported assaults has decreased — to four in September, compared with 16 in September 2024, records show.
Greater Denver Transit members acknowledged that safety has improved, but question the agency’s assertions based on app usage. “It may be true that the number of security calls went down,” Flattum said, “but maybe the people who otherwise would have made more safety calls are no longer riding RTD.”
RTD staffers developing the 2026 budget have focused on managing debt and maintaining operations spending at current levels. They’ve received forecasts that revenues from taxpayers will increase slightly. It’s unclear whether state and federal funds will be available.
RTD directors and leaders of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project, an environmental group, are opposing the rollback of RTD’s planned shift to the cleaner, quieter electric hybrid buses and taking on new debt for that purpose.
Colorado lawmakers will “push on a bunch of different fronts” to prioritize better service to boost ridership, Froelich said.
The legislature in recent years directed funds to help RTD provide free transit for riders under age 20. Buses and trains running at least every 15 minutes would improve both ridership and safety, she said, because more riders would discourage bad behavior and riders wouldn’t have to wait alone at night on often-empty platforms for up to an hour.
“We’re trying to do what we can to get people back onto the transit system,” Froelich said. “They do it in other places, and people here do ride the Bustang (intercity bus system). RTD just seems to lack the nimbleness required to meet the moment.”
Denver Center for the Performing Arts stage hand Chris Grossman walks home after work in downtown Denver on Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)
Riders switch modes
Meanwhile, riders continue to abandon public transit when it doesn’t meet their needs.
For Denver Center for the Performing Arts theater technician Chris Grossman, 35, ditching RTD led to a better quality of life. He had to move from the Virginia Village neighborhood he loved.
Back in 2016, Grossman sold his ailing blue 2003 VW Golf when he moved there in the belief that “RTD light rail was more or less reliable.” He rode nearly every day between the Colorado Station and downtown.
But trains became erratic as maintenance of walls along tracks caused delays. “It just got so bad. I was burning so much money on rideshares that I probably could have bought a car.” Shortly before RTD announced the “slow zones” last summer, he moved to an apartment closer to downtown on Capitol Hill.
He walks or rides scooters to work, faster than taking the bus, he said.
Similarly, Honor Morgan, 25, who came to Denver from the rural Midwest, “grateful for any public transit,” said she had to move from her place east of downtown to be closer to her workplace due to RTD transit trouble.
Buses were late, and one blew by her as she waited. She had to adjust her attire when riding her Colfax Avenue route to Union Station to manage harassment. She faced regular dramas of riders with substance-use problems erupting.
Morgan moved to an apartment near Union Station in March, allowing her to walk to work.
She still hoped to rely on RTD for concerts and nightlife, and to reach DIA for work-related flights at least once a month. But RTD social media posts have alerted her to enough delays on the A Line that she no longer trusts it, she said. To reduce her “anxiety” and minimize the risk of missing her flights, she shells out for rides — even though these often get stuck in traffic.
She and her boyfriend recently tried RTD again, riding a train to the 38th and Blake Station near the Mission Ballroom. They attended “an amazing concert” there, she said, and felt happy as they walked to the station to catch the train home.
A man on the platform collapsed backward, hitting his head. He was bleeding. She called 911. Her boyfriend and other riders gathered. She ran across the street to an apartment building and grabbed paper towels. RTD isn’t really to blame, but “I just wish they had a station platform attendant, or someone. I do not know head-injury first aid,” Morgan said.
The train they’d been waiting for came and went. An ambulance arrived. They got home late, the evening ruined, she said.
“His head cracked open. He had skin flaps hanging off his head. This was stuck in my head, at least for the rest of the night.”
Apple has rolled out a new feature that makes it easier to customize Liquid Glass to your liking. Now, users will be able to set the appearance of Liquid Glass to either Clear or Tinted, with the help of a new setting included in the latest beta update of its mobile and desktop operating systems.
The addition indicates Apple is listening closely to user feedback in these early days of the iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS 26 public launches. Apples likes to push through more significant changes, but it will often offer a fallback option for those who have a hard time adjusting.
That was the case when Apple moved Safari’s address to the bottom of the screen in 2021. After some user backlash over the then controversial decision, the iPhone maker added an option to revert the bar to the top of the screen. (Apple, we’ll concede, was right to make the move; the bar’s location is better when it’s in easier reach of your thumbs.)
Now, Apple is taking a similar approach with Liquid Glass.
Some have said the Liquid Glass design makes various parts of the interface harder to read, including notifications or navigation controls in apps like Apple Music and others. Others have said they love Liquid Glass’s attention to detail and its new look, which felt like a more modern update to an interface that had grown stale over the years.
With another potential divisive response on its hands, Apple is now ceding some control over Liquid Glass’s appearance back to the users.
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The new feature, first spotted by 9to5Mac, arrived in iOS 26.1 beta 4 and the accompanying updates for tablets and desktop computers.
Reached for comment, Apple told TechCrunch that, during the beta period this summer, it heard from some users who wanted the option to set a more opaque look for Liquid Glass. This new setting that lets users personalize Liquid Glass is available in iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, and macOS 26.1.
To access the feature, beta users can visit the “Display & Brightness” menu under Settings to find the added Liquid Glass menu option. On Mac, it’s under “Appearance” in System Settings. The control lets you choose between two options, Clear and Tinted. The latter increases the opacity of interface elements, making them easier to see.
Though some users had been advocating for a slider that lets them control the opacity more precisely, Apple has opted for a toggle where it specifies the two levels of tint that users can choose from.
Apple told TechCrunch that any developers who have already implemented Liquid Glass in their apps will automatically have the user’s preference applied. Developers are able to test this now in the 26.1 developer beta.
After selecting their preferred option, users will see changes across user interface elements, like the Now Playing controls, Notifications on the Lock Screen, and in Apple’s apps and those from third-party developers.
While the beta feature arrives for developers today, the public beta should arrive over the next few days ahead of the wider public release.
The teeth were redesigned, the manufacturing process rewritten, and new machinery developed to attach the closure to garments. “The absence of the tape posed various production challenges,” Nishizaki says. “We had to develop new manufacturing equipment and a dedicated sewing machine for integration.” The result: a lighter, more flexible system that reduces material use and environmental impact compared with a standard Vislon zipper.
Early adopters are already experimenting. Descente Japan, known for technical sportswear, was among the first to prototype AiryString in 2022. The North Face has selected the system for use in its new Summit Series Advanced Mountain Kit. Smaller brands like Earthletica, an eco-conscious swim and performance label, have also tested it, describing the zipper as “soft, flexible, and almost silent.”
The effect is apparently tactile. Garments move more naturally, lie flatter against the body, and feel less mechanical. “We repeatedly conduct durability and strength tests by sewing AiryString and conventional zippers into various fabrics,” Nishizaki says. “In terms of usability, AiryString offers much smoother operability.” That translates to a softer, slicker glide—the satisfying pull that separates a well-made jacket from a cheap one.
Little Parts, Big Change
On the factory floor, the benefits add up, too. Traditional zippers consume extra fabric and dye and require multiple sewing passes. By removing the tape, YKK says it trims both material and labor. “It contributes to reducing work in customers’ sewing processes,” Nishizaki says. “It also reduces fiber use and water consumption in the dyeing process, lowering CO₂ emissions.”
The math adds up fast. YKK offers a 100 percent recycled-material version of AiryString and claims measurable cuts to greenhouse gas emissions and water usage. The impact is magnified by scale: The company operates in 71 countries and regions, and its trademark is registered in 177. When you make billions of zippers a year, these small efficiencies ripple globally.
The J.M. Smucker Co. is suing Trader Joe’s, alleging the grocery chain’s new frozen peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are too similar to Smucker’s Uncrustables in their design and packaging.
In the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in federal court in Ohio, Smucker said the round, crustless sandwiches Trader Joe’s sells have the same pie-like crimp markings on their edges that Uncrustables do. Smucker said the design violates its trademarks.
Smucker also asserted that the boxes Trader Joe’s PB&J sandwiches come in violate the Orrville, Ohio-based company’s trademarks because they are the same blue color it uses for the lettering on “Uncrustables” packages.
Trader Joe’s boxes also show a sandwich with a bite mark taken out of it, which is similar to the Uncrustables design, Smucker said.
“Smucker does not take issue with others in the marketplace selling prepackaged, frozen, thaw-and-eat crustless sandwiches. But it cannot allow others to use Smucker’s valuable intellectual property to make such sales,” the company said in its lawsuit.
Smucker is seeking restitution from Trader Joe’s. It also wants a judge to require Trader Joe’s to deliver all products and packaging to Smucker to be destroyed.
A message seeking comment was left Wednesday with Trader Joe’s, which is based in Monrovia, California.
Michael Kelber, chair of the intellectual property group at Neal Gerber Eisenberg, a Chicago law firm, said Smucker’s registered trademarks will help bolster its argument. But Trader Joe’s might argue that the crimping on its sandwiches is simply functional and not something that can be trademarked, Kelber said.
Trader Joe’s sandwiches also appear to be slightly more square than Uncrustables, so the company could argue that the shape isn’t the same, Kelber said.
Uncrustables were invented by two friends who began producing them in 1996 in Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Smucker bought their company in 1998 and secured patents for a “sealed, crustless sandwich” in 1999.
But it wasn’t easy to mass produce them. In the lawsuit, Smucker said it has spent more than $1 billion developing the Uncrustables brand over the last 20 years. Smucker spent years trying to perfect Uncrustables’ stretchy bread and developing new filling flavors like chocolate and hazelnut.
Kelber said one of the biggest issues companies debate in cases like this one is whether the copycat product deceives consumers.
Smucker claims that’s already happening with Trader Joe’s sandwiches. In the lawsuit, Smucker showed a social media photo of a person claiming that Trader Joe’s is contracting with Smucker to make the sandwiches under its own private label.
This isn’t the first time Smucker has taken legal action to protect its Uncrustables brand. In 2022, it sent a cease and desist letter to a Minnesota company called Gallant Tiger, which was making upscale versions of crustless peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with crimped edges. Smucker said Wednesday that it hasn’t taken further action but continues to monitor Gallant Tiger.
Smucker likely felt it had no choice but to sue this time around, Kelber said.
“For the brand owner, what is the point of having this brand if I’m not going to enforce it?” Kelber said. “If they ignore Trader Joe’s, they are feeding that, and then the next person who does it they won’t have an argument.”
Kelber said trademark cases often wind up being settled because neither company wants to go through an expensive trial.
Smucker’s lawsuit comes a few months after a similar lawsuit filed against the Aldi by Mondelez International, which claimed that Aldi’s store-brand cookies and crackers have packaging that is too similar to Mondelez brands like Chips Ahoy, Wheat Thins and Oreos.
As designers, we’re often allowed to track the evolution of a brand over time. We watch it shift, adapt, sometimes reinvent itself completely. I like to document those arcs—not just to reflect, but so others can learn from what worked, what changed, and what stayed true.
But today I want to share a different kind of story.
This isn’t about a brand I helped build in real time. It’s about one I came to understand years after its founder passed away. Her name was Candice B. Groot. I had known her name, perhaps seen her from a distance, but never had the chance to truly meet her. But through the work we were asked to do—researching, listening, and designing a story that had long lived outside the spotlight—I came to understand how deeply her legacy shapes the meaning of what I do.
Her background
Candice’s story begins with contrast. She grew up in a traditional, hard-working Dutch household where structure and restraint were non-negotiable. At the same time, her mother sparked a lifelong curiosity for art, museums, and creative exploration. That contrast perhaps shaped her lens—one that welcomed complexity and contradiction. It gave her a way of seeing that favored depth over surface and meaning over conformity.
She started out as a ceramic artist and then teacher and sculpture professor at Gustavus Adolphus College, eventually evolving into something much more layered. A collector. A patron. A quiet force who made space for other artists to take risks, to fail, and to be seen. Her journey moved from making art to building the conditions where art could thrive, not for profit or prestige, but because she believed in what it could do.
Her collection reflected that belief. It was anything but conventional. She gravitated toward narrative sculpture, architectural forms, and ceramic works that touched on humor, sexuality, suffering, and joy. She supported artists whose work didn’t fit inside typical boundaries. And she didn’t care if the subject matter made people uncomfortable. In fact, that was often the point. Candice wasn’t curating to please an audience. She was not there to sanitize art for comfort.
She was documenting emotion, energy, and the realities of being human. Her choices were deeply personal and unapologetically honest. In that honesty, she gave her collection its voice. And more importantly, she gave many artists their start.
What branding can mean when driven by passion
In 1988, she established the Virginia A. Groot Foundation, named in honor of her mother. It became the formal extension of what she had already been doing—supporting the work of sculptors and ceramicists through grants, not based on commercial viability but based on merit and vision. That foundation has gone on to shape hundreds of creative paths. It gave structure to her values and created a platform that continues to serve long after she’s gone.
When we were brought in to revisit her story and reimagine how it would be told today, we went deep. Not just into Smithsonian archives, but into conversations with those who knew her—family, friends, artists, and those whose careers were changed by a grant. That process didn’t just reveal her legacy. It reframed our own work. It reminded us what branding can mean when it’s not driven by commerce or clout, but by true passion.
Today, the foundation is led by her niece, Nina Latusek, who has kept that spirit intact. She supported her aunt’s vision from an early age and continues to honor it through the foundation’s ongoing work. The grants continue, the platform evolves, and the impact grows. For many artists, that early support acts as a parachute. It catches them at a moment when belief and resources are in short supply. It offers lift and direction when everything else feels uncertain.
And yet, there’s a sense that Candice knew exactly what she was building. She understood the long tail of support, the quiet power of investing in people before the world recognizes them. Her brand wasn’t loud, but it was lasting. Not engineered, but earned.
A decade has passed since Candice’s passing, yet the foundation continues her mission, and her influence is still felt in the creative work she made possible.
Powerful work can be invisible
As designers, as creators, we often focus on the visible and tenable things like the interface, or the headline, or campaign. But stories like this remind us that the most powerful work we do is sometimes invisible. It’s the system we build that supports someone else. It’s the platform that outlives the launch. It’s the choice to create something honest, even if it never trends.
Candice B. Groot’s legacy isn’t just in the art she collected. It’s in the lives she lifted. And for those of us designing experiences or building brands, her story is a reminder that real impact doesn’t always come from what we make. Sometimes it comes from what we make possible.
When I walked into my first classroom almost a decade ago, I had no idea how many “first days” I would experience–and how each one would teach me something new.
Growing up–first in the Virgin Islands and then later in Florida–I always felt pulled toward teaching. Tutoring was my introduction, and I realized early that I was a helper by nature. Still, my path into the classroom wasn’t straightforward–I changed majors in college, tried different things, and it wasn’t until six months after graduation that a friend pointed me toward Teach For America. That leap took me all the way to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, far from home and family, but I was fortunate to find a strong cohort of fellow teachers and mentors who grounded me.
Those early years weren’t easy. Being away from home, balancing the demands of teaching, and later, raising two kids of my own–it could feel overwhelming. My mentors kept me steady, reminding me that teaching is about community and connection. That lesson has never left me.
As I started this school year–my eighth first day of school at the front of the classroom–I’m reflecting on other lessons learned that help me help my students thrive.
Connection is the key to everything. If students know you believe in them, they’ll start believing in themselves. I think of one student in particular who was failing in my class repeatedly, and finally passed–not because I’m a miracle worker, but because we built trust. I bought into him, and eventually, he bought into himself. Those are the moments that make the long days and sacrifices worth it.
Make your classroom a safe space to learn. I teach 10th-grade biology and 11th-grade dual-enrollment engineering; these are subjects that can seem intimidating to young people. I tell my students that I want to hear each and every one of their ideas. No one’s brains are alike. My brain isn’t like yours, and yours isn’t like your neighbor’s. Listening to everyone’s thoughts, processes, and ideas helps us expand our own thinking and understanding. Especially with a subject matter like science, I want students to know that there is no shame in exploring different ideas together. In fact, that’s what makes this kind of work exciting.
Lean on your network. We preach the importance of continuous learning to our students, and rightfully so. There is always room to grow in every subject. I believe teachers need to model this for our students. I lean heavily on my support system: my mentors, my master teacher, and other educators and coaches. They are always there to bounce ideas off of, helping me continue to strengthen my lessons and outcomes. This also builds community; two of my mentors, Sabreen Thorne and Marie Mullen, are Teach For America Greater Baton Rouge alumnae who still work for the organization and still make the effort to keep in touch, invite me to community events, and offer me words of wisdom.
I’m proud that these approaches have been working. This past year, our school, Plaquemine High School, saw the most improved test scores in the Iberville Parish School District. It wasn’t magic–it was the collective effort of teachers and students who decided we could do better, together. I was also honored to receive the Shell Science Lab Regional Makeover grant, which provides us with resources to upgrade our science lab. We’ll be able to provide the equipment our students deserve. Science classrooms should be safe spaces where every idea matters, where students feel empowered to experiment, question, and create. This grant will help us bring that vision to life.
Eight years in, I’ve learned that teaching isn’t about perfection. It’s about showing up, reflecting, leaning on others, and never losing sight of why we’re here: to open doors for kids. Every year, every day, is another chance to do just that.
Gelisa Patin, Plaquemine High School
Gelisa Patin is a biology and dual-enrollment engineering teacher at Plaquemine High School in Louisiana and a Teach For America 2018 Greater Baton Rouge alum.
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By embracing Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles in purchasing decisions, school leaders can create learning spaces that not only accommodate students with disabilities but enhance the educational experience for all learners while delivering exceptional returns on investment (ROI).
Strangely enough, the concept of UDL all started with curb cuts. Disability activists in the 1960s were advocating for adding curb cuts at intersections so that users of wheelchairs could cross streets independently. Once curb cuts became commonplace, there was a surprising secondary effect: Curb cuts did not just benefit the lives of those in wheelchairs, they benefited parents with strollers, kids on bikes, older adults using canes, delivery workers with carts, and travelers using rolling suitcases. What had been designed for one specific group ended up accidentally benefiting many others.
UDL is founded on this idea of the “curb-cut effect.” UDL focuses on designing classrooms and schools to provide multiple ways for students to learn. While the original focus was making the curriculum accessible to multiple types of learners, UDL also informs the physical design of classrooms and schools. Procurement professionals are focusing on furniture and technology purchases that provide flexible, accessible, and supportive environments so that all learners can benefit. Today entire conferences, such as EDspaces, focus on classroom and school design to improve learning outcomes.
There is now a solid research base indicating that the design of learning spaces is a critical factor in educational success: Learning space design changes can significantly influence student engagement, well-being, and academic achievement. While we focus on obvious benefits for specific types of learners, we often find unexpected ways that all students benefit. Adjustable desks designed for wheelchair users can improve focus and reduce fatigue in many students, especially those with ADHD. Providing captions on videos, first made available for deaf students, benefit ELL and other students struggling to learn to read.
Applying UDL to school purchasing decisions
UDL represents a paradigm shift from retrofitting solutions for individual students to proactively designing inclusive environments from the ground up. Strategic purchasing focuses on choosing furniture and tech tools that provide multiple means of engagement that can motivate and support all types of learners.
Furniture that works for everyone
Modern classroom furniture has evolved far beyond the traditional one-size-fits-all model. Flexible seating options such as stability balls, wobble cushions, and standing desks can transform classroom dynamics. While these options support students with ADHD or sensory processing needs, they also provide choice and movement opportunities that enhance engagement for neurotypical students. Research consistently shows that physical comfort directly correlates with cognitive performance and attention span.
Modular furniture systems offer exceptional value by adapting to changing needs throughout the school year. Tables and desks that can be easily reconfigured support collaborative learning, individual work, and various teaching methodologies. Storage solutions with clear labeling systems and accessible heights benefit students with visual impairments and executive functioning challenges while helping all students maintain organization and independence.
Technology that opens doors for all learners
Assistive technology has evolved from specialized, expensive solutions to mainstream tools that benefit diverse learners. Screen readers like NVDA and JAWS remain essential for students with visual impairments, but their availability also supports students with dyslexia who benefit from auditory reinforcement of text. When procuring software licenses, prioritize platforms with built-in accessibility features rather than purchasing separate assistive tools.
Voice-to-text technology exemplifies the UDL principle perfectly. While crucial for students with fine motor challenges or dysgraphia, these tools also benefit students who process information verbally, ELL learners practicing pronunciation, and any student working through complex ideas more efficiently through speech than typing.
Adaptive keyboards and alternative input devices address various physical needs while offering all students options for comfortable, efficient interaction with technology. Consider keyboards with larger keys, customizable layouts, or touchscreen interfaces that can serve multiple purposes across your student population.
Interactive displays and tablets with built-in accessibility features provide multiple means of engagement and expression. Touch interfaces support students with motor difficulties while offering kinesthetic learning opportunities for all students. When evaluating these technologies, prioritize devices with robust accessibility settings including font size adjustment, color contrast options, and alternative navigation methods.
Maximizing your procurement impact
Strategic procurement for UDL requires thinking beyond individual products to consider system-wide compatibility and scalability. Prioritize vendors who demonstrate commitment to accessibility standards and provide comprehensive training on using accessibility features. The most advanced assistive technology becomes worthless without proper implementation and support.
Conduct needs assessments that go beyond compliance requirements to understand your learning community’s diverse needs. Engage with special education teams, occupational therapists, and technology specialists during the procurement process. Their insights can prevent costly mistakes and identify opportunities for solutions that serve multiple populations.
Consider total cost of ownership when evaluating options. Adjustable-height desks may cost more initially but can eliminate the need for specialized furniture for individual students. Similarly, mainstream technology with robust accessibility features often costs less than specialized assistive devices while serving broader populations.
Pilot programs prove invaluable for testing solutions before large-scale implementation. Start with small purchases to evaluate effectiveness, durability, and user satisfaction across diverse learners. Document outcomes to build compelling cases for broader adoption.
The business case for UDL
Procurement decisions guided by UDL principles deliver measurable returns on investment. Reduced need for individualized accommodations decreases administrative overhead while improving response times for student needs. Universal solutions eliminate the stigma associated with specialized equipment, promoting inclusive classroom cultures that benefit all learners.
Leslie Stebbins, Research4Ed
Leslie Stebbins is the director of Research4Ed. She has more than twenty-five years of experience in higher education and K-12 learning and design. She has an M.Ed. from the Technology Innovation & Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Master’s in Library and Information Science from Simmons College.
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Publishing a website is still more complicated than it has any right to be, but the best website builders streamline the process. Instead of juggling a bunch of files on a server and learning the ins and outs of networking, website builders do exactly what’s written on the tin. Piece by piece, using a drag-and-drop interface, you can design your website the way you want with immediate feedback, rather than spending time buried in code and hoping it comes out on the other end.
There are dozens of website builders, and most of them range from decent to straight-up bad. Any web host with a bit of ambition has a website builder floating around, even if it’s slow, clunky, and lacking features. I focused on finding the best tools for building your website that go beyond just an add-on, and these are my favorites. If you’re after something simpler than a full-blown website, check out our list of the Best Portfolio Websites.
Table of Contents
Best Website Builder for Most
Squarespace via Jacob Roach
You’ve heard of Squarespace over and over again, I’m sure, and that’s not an accident. It’s an inviting website builder that made a name for itself with bold, striking templates. Beneath the veneer of attractive, but seemingly simple, websites, you’ll find one of the most capable website builders on the market. That balance of power and usability is what sets Squarespace apart.
It feels like a creative tool. Where other website builders lag and stutter to get a new element on your page, Squarespace feels fluid. Your dashboard gives you quick access to edit your site, and around every corner, Squarespace feels designed so you never have to look up a tutorial. I started a simple photography website, and within an hour, I had a custom course page set up, an appointment schedule with automated confirmation emails, and services (with pricing and the ability to accept payments) configured.
Squarespace isn’t cheap, but it also doesn’t meddle in restrictive, low-cost plans. Even on the Basic plan, you have access to ecommerce tools and space for multiple contributors.
Squarespace Pricing and Plans
Best Cheap Website Builder
Hostinger via Jacob Roach
Hostinger is better known as a web hosting provider, but it has a surprisingly robust website builder that you can use on its own or for free as part of a hosting package. You don’t get the same world-class template design and dense feature-set of a more expensive builder like Squarespace, but that’s OK. Hostinger’s website builder will run you just a few bucks a month, and based on my testing, it feels heavily angled toward newcomers.
You sacrifice some power for convenience, but there’s an awful lot you can accomplish with Hostinger. Integrations with PayPal, Stripe, and Square allow you to quickly set up e-commerce. Add-ons with WhatsApp give you live chat capabilities, and Printful support means you can sell print-on-demand merchandise. And, if you outgrow the website builder, Hostinger allows you to export your website’s content to WordPress.
Where Hostinger wins for me is through its AI tools. Just about every website builder these days has AI integrated in some way, but it’s around every corner at Hostinger. You need to pay extra for some of these AI features—the logo generator, for example, requires credits—but they give you a great starting point for mocking up the look, feel, and tone of your website.
Hostinger Pricing and Plans
Best for Small Businesses
Wix via Jacob Roach
Wix is undoubtedly the biggest competitor to Squarespace, and I had a hard time putting one above the other. Ultimately, Wix ended up in the backseat due to higher prices and a slightly less intuitive interface. That’s partly because of how powerful Wix is. Rather than corral you in an elegant (if restrictive) website-building workflow, Wix gives you a ton of options.
First, templates. You get a few hundred elsewhere, but Wix offers over 2,000 templates. At the time of writing, there are 223 pages of them on Wix’s website. They aren’t all winners, but I was able to mock up a quick photography portfolio website within a few minutes by browsing the templates and uploading a few photos.
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From recipes to etiquette, Martha Stewart’s brilliance knows no bounds — and that goes for her decor, too. Every little detail in Martha’s kitchen is carefully crafted, and of course that includes the color of her kitchen cabinets (which is nothing short of stunning).
At first glance, you might take note of how fresh, bright, and modern the warm gray hue makes her kitchen feel. But in reality, her kitchen hasn’t been painted or renovated in quite some time — 20 years, to be exact. So what is this magical mystery color that has kept her decades-old kitchen looking brand-new and totally timeless?
Naturally, Martha didn’t just find a paint shade she liked for her cabinets — she took it one step further and created her own. It’s called Bedford Gray, and it’s Martha’s self-proclaimed signature color. In 2013 she wrote on her personal blog about her beloved Bedford Gray, which was sold through her Martha Stewart Living paint collection at The Home Depot.
“As you may know from reading this blog, there is a definite gray theme here at the farm,” Martha wrote. “I chose to paint all of the buildings the same pleasing color that I call Bedford Gray. Lay down a thick blanket of fog and the entire farm becomes Bedford Gray.”
But if you want to steal this gorgeous warm neutral hue for your own space, it’s not quite as simple as heading to your local hardware store. The color, along with the rest of the collection, was discontinued some years ago — but not all hope is lost. Martha’s new paint line, Martha by Martha Stewart, sells the same Bedford Gray you can purchase here.
